We had both had a very good night’s sleep and awoke at 7:30am, refreshed and ready to commence Day 2 of our mini-adventure in Granada. On our way down to the restaurant, for our Buffet breakfast, we stopped at the reception desk, as after checking the reviews for the different Flamenco trips the previous evening, we opted to book for the one that departed our hotel at 9:15pm later that evening. Shazza and I had agreed a sort of loose plan for our second day, so after breakfast we would spend the rest of the morning visiting the grounds of the Alhambra, that was of course if we could have a little more success than the previous afternoon in finding the right gate to get in to it 😂 After that we would take the forest path, a different one to the one we took the previous day, down to the City where we aimed to cover some of the ‘Albaicin’ and ‘Centro’ districts of the city, but with our record of getting lost it would be interesting to see how that turns out 🤔

As we stepped outside of the air-conditioned hotel entrance the sun was already high in the sky, it was pleasantly warm but not yet stifling hot, it seemed strange to be looking over the nearby snow capped Sierra Nevada peaks whilst dressed in shorts, short-sleeved tops and our comfortable walking shoes. Although it was still relatively early, the tourist groups were already amassing at the Alhambra main entry ticket gates, we weaved our way through them and headed for the Information Centre, more in hope than actual expectation, to see if we could purchase any ‘Day Tickets’, unfortunately there were still none available. We walked a little way past part of the outer walls and started to follow a path towards the forest, although this time not taking the first path that we came to, as we had done the previous day, and a short couple of minutes walk later we came to a large stone tower with an archway, we went through the arch and then a small door, set in a much larger set of wooden doors, a walk uphill and finally there we were, in the extensive inner grounds of the Alhambra, this was where we saw, with our own eyes and not from photographs, just how large this inner sanctum area really was, I guess it had to be, to accommodate not only three separate Palaces but so many more buildings of quite epic proportions, it was more like the size of a small town.

The name ‘Alhambra’ has its origins in an Arabic word meaning “red castle or vermilion”, perhaps due to the colour tone of the towers and walls that completely surround the hill of La Sabica, which under the light of the stars is said to be of a silver colour, but in the light of the sun it acquires a golden tone. Created originally for military purposes, the Alhambra was initially a fortress, a palace and a small medina, all at the same time. Over the years, with many different conquerors and rulers, more palaces and gardens were constructed. However, if you need to know more on the quite extensive history of the Alhambra I will just respectfully request that you check out ‘Mr Google’ for yourselves as it has quite an interesting, but lengthy, history, and yes, I did actually just use the words, ‘Interesting’ and ‘History’ in the same sentence 😉 Alternatively you could just search out either, or both, of the TV programmes I previously mentioned, ‘Michael Portillo’s Andalusia’ and ‘Anton and Giovani’s Spanish Road Trip’ 👍

We had already witnessed the large number of tourists waiting to enter the Alhambra grounds, but inside there were already quite a few tourist groups doing the rounds, encircled around their tour group leaders who were reeling off their obvious well versed rhetoric’s on the history of the place, in numerous languages, it would have been easy enough I guess to have found an English speaking guide group and just tagged on to the back of the group, I don’t think that anybody would have noticed 🤔 However, being the history heathens that we are, we would have soon got bored and our eye lids would have started to glaze over, so we preferred the freedom of just wandering around under our own steam. Of course, this being a major tourist attraction, modern day capitalism and the historical aspects now sat side by side, so their were Cafe’s and Gift Shops spread around the different areas in order to entice the visiting hoards to relinquish even more of their tourist Euro’s, their was also a very plush ‘Parador’ Hotel within the walls, with a Cafe/Bar that the general public were permitted to use, separate to the hotel residents area of course. They were definitely on to a loser with Shazza and I though, as we had already eaten a hearty breakfast, and we don’t do ‘Tourist Tat’. As former Motorhome full timers we already know how to seek out the more authentic value for money establishments when we need them, so we decided to wait until we got into the back streets of the city.

We were now mixed amongst ‘all’ the visitor’s to the Alhambra, those who had parted with money to obtain tickets, and freeloaders like ourselves, the only difference being that their were locations around the grounds that had boundary markers to enter the ‘Ticket Only’ areas, much like the one’s you find at Airports to shepherd people into the correct check-in lanes, or through the security control x-ray machines, some entrances even had manned ticket booths where you had to physically show your entry tickets, so certainly not accessible to the likes of us. In reality, it isn’t that expensive to purchase tickets, when they are available that is. Now we may sometimes be considered ‘thrifty’ with our money but we would have been more than willing to purchase tickets for ‘unguided’ access, to do all the areas, for a cost of €35 each, although the prices do vary and are dependent on wether you want to do a guided or unguided tour, or wether you want to do a private guided tour during the day, or one at night, there are actually lots of options and the costs vary, from access to only one Palace area at €19, up to €150 for the ‘Full Monty’. However, at least we did get to go inside the walled grounds and had the opportunity to wander around many of the areas at our own leisure.

There were lots of huge buildings inside the grounds, and one that we could enter, and have a wander around, was one that also housed the Art Museum. It was a deceptive building because from the outside it looked like a square building, but once inside we found ourselves inside a large circular courtyard with an upper level, so we just wandered around both levels looking at the impressive decorative stonework and large ornately carved doors, although, unfortunately many of them were locked ☹️

There were lots of differing levels to wander around, from the upper inner walls down to lower outer walls, some with garden areas, some with archaeological remains still being uncovered, we spent a good couple of hours just leisurely exploring every nook and cranny that we could, and trying to imagine what it must have been like to live in such a place.

When we had exhausted all the parts of the Alhambra that we were permitted to, it was time to head down towards the city. The temperature had risen enormously since we had left the hotel earlier that morning, so we were glad to get into the shade of the forest, which also had lots of other paths to explore, but not for us on this day. the question we asked ourselves was wether it would be worth us coming back to Granada, at some point in the future, to visit the actual Palaces and Gardens and do a few more of the forest trails 🤔 However, we both agreed that we probably wouldn’t, a case of seen it, done it, but didn’t bother buying the Tee-shirt, but for those who have never been here before, then it is certainly worth the visit, just make sure you purchase your tickets for the Palaces and Gardens well in advance 😉

The twisting walk down the hill was no less strenuous on the calf muscles and knee joints as it had been the previous day, but there was lots to look at on the way down and so it was quite pleasant. As we walked down we could see the other forest paths, winding their way up to other areas, the map also reflected that there were other attractions, statues, fountains, flower gardens etc. but going back up to explore them was certainly not going to be an option that we were going to choose, at least not today.

We were attempting to take the mandatory ‘selfie’ when another couple asked if we would like them to take the photo for us, they didn’t look the type to run off with my camera so we thanked them, and of course returned the same gesture for them, as you do. We actually didn’t have much of a clue as to where we were at that point, the street map wasn’t that detailed, so we just walked in what we thought was generally the correct direction then, as is our way, we would stray off the natural track to explore pretty alleyways, climbing up narrow steps between residential buildings, it gave us a different aspect of the city, the everyday life, and as we did so we discovered, tucked away in one of the quiet streets what, from the outside, just looked like one of the many other houses on the street, but looking closer, on a sign attached to the wall next to the door we discovered that inside was actually where they hand made guitars.

We just continued to wander aimlessly, some streets were maze like so we lost our orientation, but nevertheless we continued to just keep wandering, we were in no hurry to be anywhere in particular and eventually we knew that we would come across a main thoroughfare, provided of course that we didn’t start walking uphill again, as we knew that the centre was in a downwards direction.

Suddenly, without any sort of warning, we emerged into a back street that was as if we had been transported to another Country, it reminded us of places such as Egypt, Tunisia or Morroco and it was like walking through a ‘Bazaar’, there were little shops on either side of the long narrow cobbled alleyway selling trinkets, leather goods, clothes and brightly woven jumpers and coats, and the smell of aromatic spices filled our nostrils, mixed in were the usual Arabic type restaurants, not one Chinese restaurant did we see but there were a couple of Indian one’s, several Syrian along with Kebab and Halal retailers, yes we had wandered into the Arabic quarter. However, and unlike when we were on holiday in those other destinations, we were not hassled, nobody standing outside the entrances trying to usher us inside with phrases like “Good price, ASDA price”, it was all a rather pleasant experience, the people we did see sat inside the different shops just smiled, some must have guessed that we looked Northern European and said “Hello”, other’s the usual “Buenas Tardes”, as it was now afternoon and not morning.

Purely by coincidence, rather than by our navigation technique, we managed to find ourselves out of the back street and on to quite a busy main road, although there was no handy street sign so that we could check the street map to establish exactly where we were. We turned Right, for no good reason, but rather fortuitously, or perhaps by some divine intervention, after only a few paces, Shazza saw a Religious looking building across the other side of the road, which turned out to be the Monasterio de San Jerónimo, one which she had read about when she had been researching Granada.

Shazza likes Religious type buildings, Churches, Cathedrals, Convents, Monasteries etc. so we went to take a look. Now as I may have previously said, other than the Cathedral there are also absolutely loads of Churches, Convents and Monasteries within the city, let alone those outside of it, but she had been drawn to this particular one for no reason that she could explain. As with a lot of these places these days, there is an admission fee, but it was only €3 each, and she said that she would like to go inside and take a look so, inside we went. Now I do not mind visiting Religious buildings, they are not at the top of my particular ‘must see’ visit locations, but some of them can be quite interesting and Convents and Monasteries in particular do tend to have nice external grounds and inner courtyards. Once inside we wandered first around the lower square quadrant that had an Orange and Lemon orchard in the middle, there were several rooms off to the side, some housing religious Artefact’s or Paintings, others were different prayer rooms and then we arrived at the main church. I let Shazza have her moment alone just wandering around, she lit a candle and then continued to wander. I sat myself on a Pew at the front, just really so that I could rest my walk weary legs until she had finished her reflective period. As I sat there in the calm and tranquil surroundings I started to let my eyes wander, as you do, and what became evident to me was the lack of the amount of Gold that I have seen in other churches, but the architecture in here was truly magnificent, in the stonework around the sides, in the central knave and in the ceiling, were small hand carved, and painted, figurines which must have taken year’s to complete. I don’t tend to ‘gush’ over most religious buildings, ‘Seville’ and ‘Burgos’ Cathedrals were the only two that actually stand out in my mind, but I do have to confess that this Monastery church was actually quite beautiful and more than worth the small entrance fee.

Now that we had a reference point, once we left the Monastery we were able to start to navigate our way back towards the main area, we still decided to do the back streets and alleyways and eventually we came across a nice corner Cafe, overlooking a Convent, although when I asked Shazza if she wanted to go and take a look at that, after our Coffee stop, she said that she was having ‘Nun’ of that 🤭

It wasn’t long and we found ourselves in the centre, amongst numerous Plazas, some tucked away in little corners, other’s in grand floral squares, but they were all pretty close to each other. We wandered through a couple of them, occasionally just sitting down on a bench, soaking up the sunshine and doing a spot of people watching, until our stomachs began to remind us that it was gone 2pm and a long time since we had eaten breakfast, so off we went in search of somewhere in which to enjoy a leisurely lunch.

It had been a long walking day, we had certainly seen a lot, what with the Alhambra in the morning and then the streets of Granada in the afternoon, but we were aware that even when we returned to the hotel, at around 4pm, that our day was not over, time for perhaps a short ‘Siesta’, showered, change of clothing and then a 9:15pm appointment with a coach, a walking trip and a Flamenco show 😳

Our coach party consisted of twenty-two people, five of which needed picking up at a different downtown hotel. However, that actually worked out pretty well for us, as our final area to visit the following day was going to be the ‘Realejo’ district, located in the South East of the city and exactly where the other hotel was located. So we had an unexpected familiarisation bus tour of the area beforehand, funny though how things just work out sometimes because, in addition to that, and although earlier in the day we had walked through the lower parts of the ‘Albaicin’ district, we had not walked through the uphill part of that area, but once again, and very conveniently, our coach route would take us up and through that area, and also to the only other area that we had not visited, the ‘Sacromonte’ district, where we would have a ‘guided’ walking trip and where our Flamenco venue was located.

A very brief history of the Sacromonte District of Granada

The Sacromonte district is located on the Valparaiso hill of Granada and borders the north-east side of the Arab El Albaícin district. In the 15th century, a large group of Roma, or the Spanish gypsies (the Gitanos) situated themselves here. They created houses by making cave homes in the hills; the Sacromonte district owes its fame to these houses. In the 15th century, the Valparaiso hill received the status of holy mountain, because people believed the caves in the hill contained the remnants of the city’s patron saint, San Cecilio. The literal meaning of Sacromonte is therefore holy mountain. The Gitanos have a long-standing tradition with the flamenco, the typical Spanish dance and music. They mixed the traditional Spanish flamenco with Arab belly dancing. During the day, the Sacromonte district is often deserted, but at night, the quarter comes to life.

Now here is another coincidence 🤔 If any of you reading this ramble have watched either the ‘Portillo’ or the ‘Anton & Giovani’ programmes, the episodes where they visited Granada, the Alhambra, and the Flamenco District, you may have noticed that they both actually visited the same Flamenco Cave House and took part in the same show. But this is not the only Flamenco show in town, however, we too arrived at this very same cave house, with the very same group members of Flamenco dancers 😲

Now I have to be perfectly honest with you, ‘Flamenco’ ? I just don’t get it, I really don’t 🤷‍♂️ To me it is just a lot of really loud banging noise, wailing in a language that doesn’t even sound Spanish, not that you can actually understand any words anyway, then the clapping of hands and stamping of feet to such a crescendo it gives you a headache. Now even though we went to a show in Seville, that was in a large room, we were sat at a nice table with comfy seats and had a three-course meal before it started, the performers sat on an elevated platform so that the whole audience could see them and the most important part, the feet movements, but even then, I still didn’t get it 🤷‍♂️ Nobody explained a story line, it was more like the ‘walking dead’ performing at Eurovision and even then they would have scored more points than the UK 😂 But here, we were not in a large room, there must have been at least fifty of us packed in like sardines in to a relatively small cave house that didn’t have any air-conditioning, we were sat on very uncomfortable wooden stool like chairs, it was hot, loud and uncomfortable and the performers were not on a raised platform in order that you could see their feet. When the first group of performers had finished, after around half an hour later, I was relieved, until that was that they announced that their would be a short break and then another different younger group would begin their half hour performance 😳😖 However, at the end of the day, which in reality it actually was, this was not about me, Shazza had wanted to see a proper traditional Flamenco, performed by authentic ‘Gitanos’ and so now she has, and she said that she had enjoyed it, so that is all that really matters.

We returned back to the hotel at around half past midnight, it had truly been a very long day, the question was, would our legs be up to another walk on our final full day in Granada 🤔 Neither of us mentioned it, we both just collapsed into bed and were asleep before our heads even touched the pillows 😴

Until the next, and final part, of our mini-adventure to Granada…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

The city of Granada is a little under a three hour drive away from us, located in the North Eastern Andalusia Region within a part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We already knew in advance that our three day trip would not enable us to visit certain areas of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the ‘Alhambra’, as all the tickets had been sold out and there were none available for several weeks, but there were other areas inside this massive hilltop enclave that we could have a wander around, and which did not require us to pay an entrance fee, so that suited my wallet very nicely thank you very much. As it was, I didn’t feel particularly disappointed at not getting tickets to see the three main Palaces or Gardens, as I already felt that we had seen these on numerous occasions anyway, after already watching several ‘Netflix’, ‘You Tube’ and television travel related programmes about visits to the Alhambra, the two most very recent ones being ‘Michael Portillo’s Andalucía’ and ‘Anton & Giovani’s Spanish Trip’ and, to be completely honest, after now having actually been there and witnessing the hoards of organised tourist groups that visit on a daily basis, literally crowds of them occupying every bit of space on the internal pavements and roads with even more alighting from tourist coaches every couple of minutes, just serving to expand this already gigantic mass of bodies, backpacks, walking poles and camera bags, no I was not particularly disappointed at all, although I think Shazza would have liked the opportunity to have said that she had actually been inside at least one of the Palaces. To be completely honest, we had probably already had a much better view of these Palaces and Gardens from watching the television programmes anyway although I guess it cannot replicate actually being there yourself and viewing it with your own eyes 🤷‍♂️ Even before the Covid Pandemic, neither Shazza or myself particularly enjoyed being in over crowded environments, but probably now even more so since that Pandemic.

As you may imagine, the Alhambra attracts visitor’s from all over the world and from what we saw, and the crescendo from the multitude of loud voices, they were predominantly Asian and American, although their was a reasonably sized presence too from European countries. In our hotel we discovered people from Turkey, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland as well as the more usual French, German, Dutch and of course British and Irish contingents, it was more like a United Nations gathering for some sort of Global Conference, if only Putin had known, he could have taken a large chunk of the Western Population out with just one strike, although I was rather hoping that he wouldn’t, well not until after breakfast on Thursday morning when we would have departed the City.

We had a simple travel plan, although we hadn’t told my OCD buddy as we would be attempting to leave him behind on this trip and just trying to go with the flow, rather than having a pre-prepared and timed itinerary. We we would depart home at around 9:30am and, as we were in no particular hurry to arrive in Granada, as we could not check-in to our pre-booked hotel until 2pm, so on this outward leg of the journey we would take the AP7 (Toll Road) to Malaga, then North up the A46, where we knew of a decent stop to get our usual late breakfast of ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’. From there we would then head East, along the A92 which would take us through the spectacular and very scenic mountain ranges before finally dropping into Granada from the North down along the A44, arriving at our hotel at somewhere close to 13:30pm, didn’t I just say that we didn’t have a timed plan 🤭 This is actually another one of those routes that is very familiar to us, having driven along it on numerous occasions over the last nine years or so, in both the Motorhome and the car, when driving North, via Madrid, to get to the ferry port in Bilbao, by way of a change from the Seville route. But we should of course know by now never to make plans, it was just a matter of complete luck, and good fortune, that for some reason before departing home that morning, I had decided to check the route on ‘Google Maps’ on my iPhone, where I discovered that a part of the A92, heading East, was completely closed due to motorway improvements, so we went to Plan B, which we quickly hatched and was to just stay on the A7, the Coastal route, all the way to ‘Motril’, where we would then turn off on to the A44 and head North into Granada, although that now meant that our mid-morning breakfast stop, between Malaga and Granada, would now have to be a ‘Pot Luck’ sort of affair, as we were not as familiar with the service stops along this particular coastal route.

I am not sure wether the ‘Works of Fiction’ for our part of the Costa del Sol was trying to tell us how sad it was that we were once again leaving it behind, but once again, after days and days of the more usual awakening to Sunshine and Blue sky, the morning of our departure was rather overcast, the same as it had been when we departed on our day trip to the Faro de Trafalgar just a week or so ago 🤔 However, it was still warm, a very pleasant 20 degrees(c), Granada, albeit in the mountains, was forecast to hit 28 degrees(c) by mid-afternoon 😎 I had elected to do the first stint at the wheel, although for you my reader’s that may not have been the best decision as Shazza, as you already know by now, does not have a very pro-active camera clicker finger and, as it happened, there also ended up being no breakfast stop either, resulting in no change of driver, so unfortunately there are no photographs of our outbound trip through the snow capped mountains ☹️ But as you will discover, I more than adequately make up for that 😉

Having no stops and with pretty much clear roads all the way, we made good time and arrived at our hotel at 12:15pm, so we were not sure wether we would be able to check-in early to our room. As it was, it turned out that our timing was perfect, not only was our room available but we also managed to obtain the last available secure parking space at the hotel, otherwise it would have been a case of parking across the road in the extensive, but insecure, Alhambra car parking area. In the hotel we were greeted by two very friendly and personable ladies at the reception desk, Susana and Ines, now wether it was because we spoke to them in our bestest Espanol and produced our Spanish Residency permits, instead of British Passports, I do not know, but they seemed to go out of their way to provide us with lots of information such as the best entry gate to use to get into the ‘Free’ areas of the Alhambra grounds, the location of the bus stop, with relevant bus numbers (30 or 32) to get us in and out of the City, they also highlighted the walking routes through the well paved, and lit, forest paths in case we preferred to walk in and out of the city, also some ‘personal’ advice on Cafes/Bars & Restaurants to steer clear of in and around the Alhambra, and also within the central parts of the City, which they told us were expensive, not good quality or not particularly tourist friendly, although in truth, as far as we knew, it could just have been a case that the establishments they were recommending were actually owned by family members, or friends, or is that just a case of the more cynical side of my nature 🤷‍♂️ Although they marked some of their ‘Recommended’ establishments on the street plan that they had provided us with, we would just leave it to chance to discover the good, or the bad, for ourselves once we went on our explorations, what is it they say about ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’, well I for one certainly hope we don’t come across the latter 😲 it won’t matter to Shazza as she doesn’t eat meat. They also asked if we were intending visiting any ‘Flamenco’ venues, although we have already been to a Flamenco show in Seville, we had done some research on the different venues that there were in Granada as I knew Shazza would quite like to go to one, there were numerous venues all around the city which came with some very mixed reviews, some where you paid over the odds for a one hour show, inclusive of one drink, for upwards of €50 each, I would expect Shazza to get a dance lesson thrown in for that price 😲 We told them that we were considering it, they then told us that they could book us a trip if we wanted them too, or we could just do it ourselves. The cheapest and most basic that they offered being €28, which meant finding your own way to and from the venue, alternatively, one that included transport which didn’t depart the hotel until 9:15pm and combined a short walking tour of the ‘Sacramento’ area, which is the traditional historic area of the city where the Flamenco originated, the tour also included a visit to a ‘Mirador’ that had the best views of the Alhambra at night (See photo at beginning of this Ramble), then we would be taken to a traditional Cave House where we would see a Flamenco show, which included a drink of our choice, and then the transport back to the hotel, this would cost €35 (each) which actually sounded like good value, or a final choice of a 7:15pm departure by bus to a Restaurant, where we would have a 3 course Dinner, followed by a walking tour, the Flamenco show and then transport back to the hotel, at a cost of €65 (each). We said that we would let them know, which would give us time to check out the individual tours, and all important reviews, online 😉

Shazza had pre-booked us a Standard Double Room with a Terrace and had requested a ‘Quiet’ area of the hotel, we were given a room on the 5th floor right at the end of a corridor, away from the three lifts, and positioned on a corner of the five-storey building. When we entered the large room we saw that there was one massive double bed and a single bed (I allocated the single to Shazza 🤭), there were the usual en-suite facilities, a fridge, tea and coffee making facilities a flat screen TV and free WiFi, generally all the usual stuff provided by a four star hotel and the room was immaculately clean and, as we were to discover during the period of our stay, our room was serviced every morning whilst we were enjoying the very nice self-service buffet breakfast, which catered for all dietary requirements. I went to look at what view we had and to see what size of terrace we had, expecting one of those small Juliet style balcony affairs, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a large very sunny balcony, with a table and chairs with views over part of the pool area with far reaching views overlooking the snow capped mountains and on the other side, a view over an extensive orchard sweeping down over the valley, very nice, very nice indeed.

By the time we had parked the car, checked-in and settled in to our room we were beginning to feel a little hungry, having not found a convenient stop en-route in which to partake of our usual late breakfast. As the hotel was only a short walk to the Alhambra, no more than five minutes, we decided that for the remainder of the afternoon we would first find a place for a coffee and a snack and then we would explore the areas of the Alhambra that we were permitted to, leaving us two full days to then concentrate on exploring the City itself, from the map we were issued with, the layout of the City looked like most other’s we have visited, being divided into separate quarters, but it looked vast so how much of it we would get to explore we didn’t know. We discovered a nice Cafe opposite the Alhambra main entrance so that was our first stop. Now we are both usually pretty much accomplished at deciphering tourist street maps and finding our way around, I say ‘usually’ because on this occasion we got it totally wrong and so, instead of finding our way to one of the two ‘Free Entrance’ gates that led into the Alhambra grounds, we ended up on one of the many forest paths that lead in a steep downward direction towards the City, the clue of course should have been that the Alhambra is located at the top of the hill and we were definitely going in a downwards direction. We would need to do a little more detailed familiarisation of the map I think 🙄

However, it was quite a pleasant scenic walk, once we reached the bottom where our calf muscles and knees could be heard sighing in relief. The very narrow streets were crowded, with both people and traffic, the narrow cobbled roads did not have enough space for more than one car width, so when a car, or a shuttle bus came along, pedestrians had to stand with their backs to building walls, taking in a deep intake of breath, some more than other’s 😂 or dart into doorways, it was a bit of a battle to make much headway at first until we got closer to the city centre and to the much more spacious pedestrianised areas and Plaza’s.

Now I have to just say that this visit to ‘Granada’ was one that was on Shazza’s ‘To Do’ List and not mine. Don’t ask me why, but it is one place that has never actually appealed to me, probably because I had seen it on so many television programmes and apart from the Alhambra, wasn’t that impressed and whenever we had looked down on it, from the Motorhome or car as we passed it on the A92 when we were travelling towards Madrid, it didn’t shout out at me ‘That looks a nice place to visit’. BUT, Shazza and I have always agreed that if one of us wanted to do something, or go somewhere, and there was no good reason for the other person not to do it, then we would do these things together. Let’s face it, how many Castles, or Lighthouses, have I dragged Shazza around over the last twenty-years 🤔 So, she had wanted to do this visit and there was no good reason why I couldn’t or shouldn’t, so here we are.

Now our usual method of exploring large Towns or Cities is to just not have a method and to just wander aimlessly up and down streets, getting lost, several times, finding somewhere to have a drink or getting something to eat, whilst perusing the street map in order to find our way back in the general direction of where we wanted, or needed, to be. And so it was that after wandering through numerous maze like, narrow cobbled streets and alleyways, that tended to all look very much the same, although they all had some amazing building architecture, apartments built in stone that still looked much like they would have done when they were first built, very ornate stone, small balconies, wooden window shutters, iron railings garnished with colourful plants and shrubs. They certainly have lots of Monastries, Convents and Churches in this City, on almost every street, and it was whilst we were wandering along one of these narrow cobbled streets that we came across the very small but pretty ‘Plaza Trinidad’. There was a small ‘Kiosko’, which sold a variety of soft drinks and snacks, however, in one corner of the Plaza there was a little pavement Cafe nestled under some Orange trees which shaded it from the heat of the sun and, as luck would have it, there was one unoccupied table, that very quickly became occupied, by us !! We were appreciative of the shade as we sat with our cold beers, from the local brewery of course, ‘Alhambra Especial’, what else ? Although we discovered this particular brand in a Promenade Cafe down in our own local town on the Costa del Sol and I have to say that we prefer it to some of the other’s on offer. We spent some time just enjoying the calmness of what was now fast becoming the late afternoon, with a spot of people watching thrown in for good measure, well it would have been rude not to 🤭 There were lots of Backpackers scurrying around with their heavy loads on their backs, maps in hand, probably attempting to seek out cheap overnight hostel accommodations, and they were of all age groups and not just youngster’s, there were men and women in suits dashing to and fro, probably on their way back to their work locations after their 2 hour ‘Siesta’ lunch periods and of course lots of tourists, like us, clearly obvious with their tourist street maps in hand and stopping briefly to check and orientate themselves as to where they were, even here their were the ‘Lookie, Lookie Traders’ going from table to table, or park bench to park bench, attempting to sell their ‘Tourist Tat’ and then, just as prolific, were the street buskers, some not so good as other’s, but it all added to the ambience.

We orientated ourselves with where we were on the map and then made our way back towards the main central area of the City, to where all the main food Plaza’s were located with their vast array of Restaurants, many offering very good ‘Menu del Dia’ options, at, I have to say, very good value prices, a drink (Wine, Beer, Sangria or Soft Drink) with a small tapas, followed by three courses, each of which had multiple options ranged in price between no more than €15-€18 which was not bad for a major tourist city. We were now hungry again and needed something a little more substantial than a snack, but also somewhere that would also fulfil Shazza’s ‘Plant Based’ dietary requirements, although, with her palate now accommodating a wider variety of fish and cheese products, even she had quite a wide choice of available options. She has always said that whilst at home she will stick to her more disciplined ‘Plant Based’ regime, and when at home we do ‘both’ tend to eat the same ‘meat free’ meals, however she is more flexible when we are away from home on our ‘mini-adventures’, and as for me, as you well know by now, I just eat whatever I fancy, I felt as if I had already done my healthy bit by devouring several bowls of ‘Plant Based’ Olives with my Anti-Covid Vaccines 😋

After a delicious meal we were both beginning to wilt, a combination of having full stomach’s, several Anti-Covid Vaccines throughout the day and the searing heat, so we made our way towards where we would hopefully catch our bus back to the hotel. When I say bus it was more a mini-bus that could accommodate twenty passengers, a larger vehicle would not have been able to wind its way through the narrow twisting cobbled roads and up the steep hills, so as you may imagine there were lots of these public mini-buses racing around the city. We found our bus stop, there was quite a queue, but the buses ran every 10-15 minutes so if we were unable to get on one we would not have long to wait for another. Fortunately though we managed to put our Covid fears aside and ‘squeezed’ ourselves, standing room only, on to the first one that arrived and so, after a short fifteen minute journey, we were back outside the main entrance to the Alhambra and a very short walk away from our hotel.

Although we had very good Air-Conditioning in the room, we preferred to just keep the balcony doors open, and a large side window, so there was enough cross breeze to keep us cool, it seemed a shame to lock all the doors and windows on such a beautifully warm evening, and with sunset now not happening until well after 9pm, it was nice to be able to wander out on to the balcony into the cooling air and listen to the chitter chattering of the birds whilst still being able to look out upon the mountains and the valley. Of course, not being at home with access to all of the English speaking TV Channel’s, or ‘Netflix’, we only had the BBC World News channel on the TV, so we found ourselves watching the Spanish ‘Andalusian’ TV Channel, which had news from around all of our Provinces, including our own, but there were also some quite interesting programmes, some similar to the ‘U.K. Countryfile’ nature programme, some on regional travel locations which provided us with some new local travel ideas, their was coverage of the drought situation, which is still quite bad in some Provinces of Andalusia, unlike our own where we now have 75% capacity in our Embalse (Reservoir) which has enabled us to now have an increased ‘daily’ allowance of 200 Litres each for domestic usage, and with the news that the opening of our communal Swimming Pool is likely to be permitted from June 22nd, so things are beginning to look good for the Summer months when the temperatures will be nearer the 40 degree(c) mark 🥵 The best bit though was that we were now both able to sit, watch, listen and understand much more of the Spanish speaking TV channels, not every word mind you, but we are getting there ‘Poco Poco’ as they say in Spanish (Little by Little).

So in the end our first day, although not going strictly to plan, had actually been quite productive and given us an idea of the layout of the City, but we were able to be quite flexible on what we decided to do over the next couple of days as it appears that my OCD buddy had not managed to stow himself away in the boot of the car before we left home 👍

As I still have two more days activities to ramble about, and photo’s to include, I have decided to divide these rambles into separate parts, so until I get around to writing Part 2………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

It is funny when you sometimes look back on your life at just how much not only life changes, but how your personal ambitions and goals in life sometimes change too. I remember thinking, probably when I was around my late thirties or very early forties, that my own personal success in life, when I finally reached retirement age, would primarily be measured by how much money I had managed to save in the bank in which to comfortably enjoy those retirement year’s, with the goal of being able to retire mortgage and completely debt free, owning my own house, bungalow or cottage outright, located somewhere where I actually ‘wanted’ to live, not just where I could only afford to live, with of course the metaphoric roses around the door, the nice conservatory and sun drenched patio, for lazing away the warm sunny days looking upon the perfectly mowed and manicured green and weed free lawn, with perhaps a small greenhouse and potting shed tucked away at the bottom of the garden, full of ripening red tomatoes. Naturally there would be the nice brightly polished car on the driveway, for taking us out on day trips, or to a country pub for Sunday lunches or to use to go and visit the children and grandchildren and perhaps even great grandchildren. That was how I was brought up, believing that this end goal was the ‘only’ purpose for working the best part of fifty years of my life.

Now you may be thinking ‘What’s wrong with that ?’, that actually sounds pretty much perfect, and yes, I cannot deny that it does, and I would probably have been perfectly happy if that was how my life had ended up. But life often has the habit of kicking you in the ‘crown jewels’, putting numerous obstacles in your way in an attempt to prevent you from attaining that retirement bliss. I certainly could never have imagined that only one year after celebrating my Silver Wedding Anniversary, that I would quite suddenly find myself divorced, there were no obvious warning signs that my then wife would have an affair with a man ten years my junior, I mean I was still only 47 years old at the time, but there I was, suddenly faced with looking after two daughter’s, a 12 year old, and an 18 year old who had only just left home to commence her University life, but who still needed both emotional and financial support, I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the marital home, but had to get into more debt to pay my ex-wife her half share of it’s value, half of the contents of the Bank balance and half of our meagre savings, my life, my ambitions, my dreams and my long term financial plan had suddenly just crumbled before my very eyes. I was never one to believe in ‘Fate’ or ‘Serendipity’, however, three years later, and then over the next twenty-years, I was to come to believe that both those things did actually exist, and that ‘things do sometimes happen for a reason’ and to discover what real happiness looked and felt like.

During the period, living full time in the Motorhome, Shazza and I both had big plans to travel, although on a very limited, but doable, budget, initially we would travel throughout Europe, but then wider afield, perhaps shipping the van to the USA or Canada and perhaps even to Australia and New Zealand, travelling until such time as we had either done it all, got fed up, or until we were forced to stop due to other reasons. Now circumstances, some of which were totally beyond ‘our’ own control, and other’s through decisions we ourselves were to make, or through family medical issues, prevented those initial much wider travel dreams from coming to fruition, but we had by then both developed ‘Itchy Feet’ syndrome and so the ‘Wanderlust’ remained. Although we had a rough direction of travel, I was more than happy for Shazza to come up with the destinations where we would stop, wether overnight, or for a few days or sometimes even longer, she was always very eager to plan a sort of loose itinerary for the places that we would visit and would spend hours looking at maps and researching guide books for the areas that we were in. But yet again fate was to intervene, although at the time we didn’t know just how big an impact that particular piece of fate, purchasing a ‘Lock and Leave’ property in Spain, was to have on our future lives. Anyway, I have already documented that part of our our lives in my numerous previously published blogs.

However, back to the here and now. It would be fair to say that the processes and procedures of obtaining our Retirement Visas (NLV) to come and live here in Spain on a more permanent basis, was a little more protracted than we had envisaged, although in truth, part of that additional time was the process and procedures for importing our car from the UK, but basically our ‘Itchy Feet’ for some wider travels had to be put on hold, although we have still managed, in our first ten months of living here, to conduct some shorter more localised trips, which you will already be familiar with from the associated rambles I published about them, but I was now beginning to look forward to being able to start to think about planning, and fulfilling, some of our ‘Bucket List’ travels. I have said many times previously in these rambles at just how lucky we feel to have, through ‘Fate’, managed to find ourselves living in a perfect property, in this perfect coastal location in Southern Spain, with everything we need within an easy walking distance, or only a very short drive away, a swimming pool, several beaches, chiringuito’s, shops etc. all quite literally on our doorstep, and it is a location which is very similar to many of the holiday destinations that, in our past conventional lives, we had payed a lot of money to fly out to for a short two-week holiday.

What I had not anticipated was that Shazza would become so content with our location and lifestyle here, that she would not feel the need, or desire, to want to be or go anywhere else, even for a holiday, she feels that living here is just like being on one permanent holiday. Now I fully understand how she feels, to a degree, as I too thoroughly enjoy where we now live, but for me, well what is that saying about ‘Familiarity Can Breed Contempt’, routines can bring ‘boredom’ for me, and so, whilst I do really enjoy this lifestyle and location, I do however still get ‘Itchy Feet Syndrome’, so I still want to travel to see new places, both here in Spain and also much wider afield, not necessarily typically tourist towns, cities or attractions, as I much prefer landscapes and nature, but there will certainly come a time when, for whatever the reason, wether it be age, health, mobility or even just financial constraints, we will not be able to do the sort of travelling that we are still currently able to do 🤷‍♂️ I am also very conscious that I am nearly nine years older than my beloved, and whilst I am still currently very healthy and relatively fit, that age difference ‘may’ start to become more apparent as our future years together progress, a topic that we have discussed between ourselves quite openly several times. However, currently being equally as fit and healthy as Shazza and very much motivated and excited for new travel adventures doesn’t currently help my argument in respect of my potential future geriatric state or for my desire to do things sooner, rather than later 🤔

So, as mentioned in my last ramble, It appeared that I would now have to take over the initiative for getting us ‘both’ out of our ‘Comfort Zones’, planning either day trips locally, like the last one I wrote about, just being within a couple of hour’s drive, but very enjoyable, but also for some wider more extended duration travel trips, to take at some point in the future. Now, wether it be because she is concerned that such trips will be to locations that are completely of my choosing, or because she fears that it may re-ignite the more organised side of my OCD, which she believed she now had under some sort of control, but anyway, whatever the reason, thankfully, and to my complete and utter surprise, the old Shazza suddenly re-ignited.

We were sat on the balcony, it was Wednesday afternoon, just a week after returning from our recent day trip to the ‘Faro de Trafalgar’, when she suddenly blurts out without any kind of pre-warning, “How do you fancy going to Granada ?”, now this has always been a location on our travel ‘To Do List’, “That sounds good, when do you want to go ?” I respond, “On Monday, and we can stay until the Thursday as the Hotel prices are reduced doing the week” she says very excitedly, she had obviously already planned this and looked at the hotels in advance of her sudden announcement to me, as is her more usual modus operandi As soon as I had agreed she was straight on to the on-line accommodation booking site and job done, Yes ! That’s the Shazza I know and love, welcome back, I thought to myself. The rest of that afternoon we both spent looking at ‘Google’ maps, on our own respective iPads, checking out the hotel and its proximity to some of the other places that we had both identified that we wanted to visit in and around the city. Unfortunately, there are parts of the ‘Alhambra’ that require the purchase of tickets to get into, but these are booked up months in advance, however, we discovered that you can still possibly visit various other areas of the extensive grounds without the need to purchase tickets and, with the added bonus of our selected, and now pre-booked hotel, being only a few minutes walk away, so it would be one of the first places that we would visit 👍 Shazza also then got on to one of her ‘You Tube’ foodie channels and has loosely planned a ‘Tapas Route’ in and around the city, listing some of the recommended establishments, and she also identified the area of the city most associated to the origins of the ‘Flamenco’ culture, with some of the renovated traditional cave houses providing hourly shows. So mi amigos, you now you know in advance of what my next ramble after this will be all about 😉

The following morning we just conducted our normal daily routine, a leisurely morning for me on the balcony with my coffee, Shazza in bed with her’s, as usual, but unusually that morning, we were both washed and dressed and out on our daily walk slightly earlier than normal. It has to be said that it was a beautiful morning once again, but with the added bonus that the recent strong winds had subsided, so it was now more of just a very gentle breeze. Whilst in our local town, and after partaking of the now obligatory ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’ at our usual Spanish cafe on the seafront promenade, I went to get my haircut, an event that takes place every six weeks or so, I cannot wait to go bald, that will save a few sheckles 😂 Shazza went to the ‘Fruiterias’ to get a few bits for our salad dinner later that evening, our timings were impeccable as just as I had paid for my haircut, Shazza arrived at the door having finished her mini-shop. We never have a plan for how long our walks will take, we can be out for just a couple of hours, other times it can be sometimes four or five, it depends a lot on the weather and our mood. On this particular morning we were both quite excited with the thought of our upcoming adventure to Granada, and that was the subject that monopolised our conversation, so we stopped for another coffee in the town at another one of our now favourite Spanish Cafe’s, a couple of streets back from the seafront promenade, before heading back towards the Marina. Sometimes, if we are just enjoying being out, we will stop at the Marina and have a lunchtime drink and Tapas and, on other occasions we just walk straight through to the village, where we usually park the car, and then we return home. On this particular day neither of us was ready to return home, we were enjoying the sunshine too much, but we were not hungry, so we just stopped and whilst Shazza enjoyed a small cold beer I sat and enjoyed a rather pleasant ‘copa de vino tinto’ (glass of red wine), we practiced our Spanish together by conducting short general conversations with each other, we were both quite pleased with how we have progressed, but we also enjoyed listening in to other people’s conversations at the tables around us, which was easy to do on this occasion as the majority of the customer’s in this particular Marina Cafe were also British, so between that and the usual spot of conducting our ‘Fashion Police’ duties on what people who were passing by were wearing, with just some general people and boat watching thrown in for good measure, which of course would have been so rude not to 🤭 so we easily passed another hour of our not so busy day before returning home. On another day we would have conducted very similar activities, but perhaps in the nearby town of Estepona, just by way of a change of scenery.

So I guess that looking back on our lives, our ambitions, our dreams, there was an acceptance by the both of us, that it is now no longer a case of us continually searching for something, although neither of us really knowing at the time what that something really was, but now we have both found a certain contentment in discovering that, what we once thought that we ‘wanted’, has actually turned into an appreciation of realising what we both already now ‘have’. There is actually no need to rush around from place to place, or even country to country, as contrary to my sometimes unnecessary age anxieties, we do still have plenty of time to conduct many of our travel adventures, or is that just her excuse for keeping me on a healthy plant based diet 🤔 In reality, the truth of the matter is that Shazza prefers her travel adventures to be conducted on a more spontaneous basis, whilst me and my OCD buddy just sometimes need a little more time to formulate a plan 😉 It reminds me of the Nursery Rhyme….. Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean, so between the both of them, they licked the platter clean…….

Until the next ramble……….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

After days and days of awakening to the usual clear blue skies and warm sunshine, it was a more overcast start to our morning, on the day that we decided to head out on a short mini-adventure. Now this trip had not been one of those spontaneous decisions, pre-empted with a morning conference call on the balcony with Shazza, no starting gambit by her of “What do you want to do today”, we hadn’t actually had any of those for some time now, what with Shazza these days more than content with her new life here, and of course with us no longer being on a strict ninety-day time schedule. So although there was no formal handing over of the baton ceremony, it would appear that the responsibility to take over the mantle of planning any ‘Adventures’ has been put onto my shoulders. Of course, there was no way that my OCD buddy would ever permit me to make spontaneous decisions, not that any of Shazza’s previous adventures were really that spontaneous, she had always planned them in advance and kept them to herself, the only short notice notification was when she decided to inform me of them. So, although over the last couple of months I have been actively researching and planning some future, more extended, travel itineraries, this particular ‘mini-adventure’ had also actually been on the cards for a good couple of weeks, only the weather, and ‘other’ domestic type priority commitments, had delayed this particular departure.

We have already travelled a lot of the Atlantic coast over the last nine years or so, both in Portugal and here in Spain, most of it during the course of our more nomadic Motor homing days, but we had also visited some parts of the Cadiz Province coastline on day trips, when we had come across to stay at our ‘Bolt Hole’ from the UK with our car. Much like the Mediterranean side of the coast, the Western Atlantic side, although more rugged, also has its own spectacular landscapes, with fantastic long golden stretches of sandy beaches along with the usual historic Villages, Towns and Cities and also several National Parks. However, the Atlantic coast is notorious for experiencing very much more wilder weather, battered frequently by storms originating many thousand of miles away and carried across on the Gulf Stream from the Eastern seaboards of America, so that meant that some consideration to the weather conditions along that coastline was an essential part of any trip planning. So, provided that the ‘Works of Fiction’ was to get its ‘forecast’ at least somewhere near correct, my fingers were crossed that I had selected the right day for our particular trip, with shorts and short sleeve shirts being the dress code for the day, and no picnic lunch required, as I had planed to find somewhere nice to have lunch.

Although we have already driven along the majority of this particular stretch of the Atlantic coastline, from Huelva in the North, right down to Tarifa in the South, we hadn’t stopped and visited every single location along that stretch of coastline and, as I particularly like coastline locations, there were still a number of places that I wanted to visit. I guess the same could be said of our own Mediterranean side, from Gibraltar right up to Malaga, however, the majority of locations along that stretch are primarily full of tourist hotels, private beach clubs, Villas, Private apartment complexes, numerous golf courses and of course campsites. But it is still possible to find the secluded bays, if you are adventurous enough, and prepared to traverse rough and uneven stone tracks, which are only really generally suitable for four-wheeled vehicles, although it has to be said that all types and sizes of Motorhomes, and Camper Vans, appear to always manage to find such hidden gems, if only they would learn to stop sharing such idyllic secret hideaways, then they may remain idyllic and secluded 😉

I have actually wanted, for some time now, to go across to look at the ‘Faro D Trafalgar’, a lighthouse, and you may well ask ‘Why’ ? Knowing by now that we are both self-confessed history heathens, but Lighthouses and Castles just hold a certain fascination for me, although perhaps not so much for Shazza, but if their is a chance of a lunch thrown in, that she has not had to prepare and cook, then she is generally up for a ride out in the car. This particular lighthouse was located almost directly on a beach, surrounded by sand dunes, as opposed to being hundreds of metres up above the sea and sat precariously on a cliff edge. Apart from the history of such places, I actually enjoy the romanticism of them, I find myself imagining what it must have been like to have lived in one, making sure that the lenses of the massive lamp were always clean and that the lights remained serviceable and of course lit, then sitting inside the thick brick walls listening to the raging storm outside, the storm force winds whistling and the raging waves banging on the doors and windows. Unfortunately these days, not many lighthouses are actually permanently manned. Most being automated and managed remotely, with only the occasional routine visits for maintenance purposes. So, for those of you that may be interested in the more historical related facts, I have once again enlisted the help of ‘Mr Google’ to supply a little bit of background for you, yes I know, you don’t have to say it, I am good like that 😁

During Roman times, it was the site of a temple dedicated to the god Juno. Many divers claim to have seen its remains and, in particular, its sacrificial altar, beneath the surface at Cape Trafalgar. Later on, in the ninth century, the Muslims built a settlement whose remains lie next to the lighthouse. In 1805, one of the most famous and bloody battles in history took place. French and Spanish ships clashed against the British fleet of Admiral Nelson, (he led them to victory in some six hours, although he died from a gunshot wound that same afternoon). During the battle, 60 ships bombarded and collided with one another, with some sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor on the Cádiz coast. With over 5,000 dead and 4,000 injured, the splendour of the Spanish navy was finally finished with.

In 1860, little over half a century after the famous battle, Trafalgar Lighthouse was erected in this place but long before the battle of Trafalgar, pirates of Berber origin used to attack the area, and, in order to defend against them, Philip II built a watchtower (whose archaeological remains can still be found). Nevertheless, they were not the first, as the Romans had already established a fish nursery and salting factory long before. 

So, as you all well know, road trips are not always about the final destination but more about the journey getting there. There were three potential routes to our destination, although there was only a difference of twelve minutes between the three of them and, as I would be doing the driving on the outbound portion of the trip, I chose the shortest, as far as Kilometres were concerned, although, contrary to what the map below may show, it wasn’t necessarily the quickest, but quite conveniently this route would take us through the central part of the ‘Parque Natural Los Alcornocales’. Unlike the two alternative routes, it would entail driving on more quieter rural roads, side by side with nature, which is far more enjoyable to drive than the often boring dual-carriage ways.

We had to initially take the A7 South towards Los Barrios before joining the dual carriage way along the A381, which is a very familiar stretch of road to us and one that, on another day, would have taken us as far as Jerez de la Frontera, before turning on to the A4 Motorway Northwards to Seville, then on up to the ferry ports at either Santander or Bilbao. However, this time we would only be going a short way along the A381 before turning off to go cross country. Although it had been 18 degrees(c) and a little overcast when we departed home that morning at 10:00am, by the time we reached the turn off on the A381 ‘the sun had got his hat on and was coming out to play’, the country road was ghostly quiet, very winding and undulating with no safety edges or barriers along the road, so their was no room for lack of concentration, misjudging a curve in the road could be disastrous, but it was an exciting route to drive and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Shazza on the other hand is actually quite a nervous passenger at the best of times, even on much wider and straighter roads, more to do with her not being in control than my actual driving abilities, and I had to smile to myself when I saw her leg keep pushing down on an imaginary brake pedal when we approached bends in the road 😂

Now I know that I may possibly be showing my ignorance here, but I have always associated Spain with traditional home grown produce such as, Olives, Oranges, Lemons, Apples, Grapes, Pomegranates, Almonds, Tomatoes, Peppers, well basically all of the fresh produce that you see growing around the normal Spanish countryside and which is all readily available on the supermarket shelves, the only exception to that being that in some parts of Spain they even grow the type of rice that is used for making the traditional Paella dishes. So what I am attempting to say is that I am more used to driving and seeing hectares of Olive groves, as far as the eye can see, or orchards laden with their numerous different fruits, from the brightly coloured Oranges that stand out amongst their surrounding deep vivid green leaves, or the citrus yellow of the Lemons, the green Apples and Pears. Additionally, driving through the more elevated areas and rockier outcrops we were pretty used to seeing Goats, seemingly just wandering unsupervised along the roadside or climbing up trees to feast amongst the leaves, buds and berries, although we knew that somewhere, not too far behind them, more usually following them under the shade of the trees, would be the shepherd with his canine companion who, upon command, would herd the seemingly disorganised rabble of animals and force them into the direction they needed to go. So as I sat driving along narrow winding roads, through the lush greenery of the undulating Natural Park, along roads lined with forests of tall Pines, all of which bore the most picturesque wide green canopied hats, providing us with shade from the heat of the now bright sunshine, I was surprised to see so much lush green landscape, especially when this part of Andalusia has been in drought conditions for well over a year. Now I don’t know if it is just me, but I do not usually associate Spain with Beef, or Milk, as most Beef you see advertised in Restaurants generally originates from outside the Country, Argentina and even Scotland, and the Spanish only usually consume ‘Long Life Milk’, the fresh cow’s milk is only generally available in the more tourist areas. Yes, you are right in thinking that the Spanish do make their own Cheese, but this is more often produced from Sheep or Goat’s milk, so, you can imagine my surprise to suddenly come across fields and fields of herds of Cows, from herds of pure white breeds, to the more usual tan brown colour, all of which, I hasten to add, had large threatening horns emanating from their heads, and yes, in case you think I am getting confused, they were cows and not Spanish Bulls, the gender difference is easy to spot, even with my bad eye 🤭 But that wasn’t the only surprise, I know that in the North of Spain, it is mainly Agricultural and so when we have been travelling to the Ferry Ports we have seen the fields of Wheat, and Corn, and other associated field grown vegetables, but I have never seen that sort of produce being grown this far South in Andalusia, well at least not until this particular day. Some of the wheat fields had already been harvested whilst other’s waited patiently, wafting their heads of fruit in the light breeze, just waiting their turn to be plucked from their stems. Seeing fields of square shaped straw bales made me smile, as it took me back to when I was a young lad and worked on a farm in the school holidays, loading these heavy bales on to a trailer, these days I am more used to seeing large round shaped bales, wrapped in metres and metres of different coloured plastic, just stood in fields waiting for a tractor to come, with a fork type mechanism on the front which would lift them onto the trailer, so not many Summer farm jobs for schoolboys these days I imagine. My god 😲 I can actually hear myself sounding old as I reminisce about those days, surely I cannot be at that time of life when everything was of course much better in ‘our day’ !!

Then, and to be totally honest, I saw something that ordinarily I would not normally get too excited about, in fact in the UK it was always the cause of much frustration and irritation when driving, on an almost daily basis. That frustration and irritation being caused by getting stuck behind tractor’s and trailers, or big combine harvesters, but I can confidently say that in ten years of driving here on Spanish roads this has never happened to us. However, on this day I saw three tractors, and all within less than ten minutes of each other, fortunately, they were all going in the opposite direction to us.

I was really enjoying my drive through this piece of rural countryside, driving for miles, rarely seeing another vehicle, let alone another human being, it seemed strange, because you would drive past the Olive groves, the Orchards, or even fields full of grazing animals, cows, horses, goats, but rarely did you catch sight of a farmhouse, although sometimes you could see them way off in the distance, but even though you couldn’t see them, you knew they were there, because at various points along this quiet country road you would come across tracks, which had two large ornate metal gates at the entrance, or a brick or stone entrance, and somewhere along that track you knew that eventually you would arrive at the farm and outbuildings. Because of the narrow winding roads I barely got above a speed of 40mph, but this enabled me to enjoy the scenery around me, this is the sort of driving that I enjoy the most, not the breakneck speeds that are travelled on the boring Motorways or Dual-Carriageway roads and, to be honest, it is what I enjoyed about driving in different countries in our Motorhomes, having of course the added advantage of having a more elevated driving and passenger position.

Speaking of Motorhomes, appearing out of nowhere, we had turned a corner and started to climb a hill, to discover in front of us a small German registered motorhome and, in front of that, a UK registered Campervan, with no room or long straight stretches for us to overtake them, not that we were in any hurry anyway, although my forward view was now somewhat limited, so we just sat behind them and remembered the not so distant days when that would have been us holding up traffic.

Eventually, we entered the lively town of ‘Benalup-Casas-Viejas’, to give it its Sunday name, any other time it is simply referred to as ‘Benalup’. There were lots of Yellow ‘tourist’ street signs, these can be seen in most tourist towns, advertising mainly the direction of Hotels and other local sightseeing Attractions, so this was evidence of it being a popular tourist location, albeit well off the beaten track. There were plenty of pedestrians, and vehicles, in the town, although it wasn’t crowded and the roads themselves were quite wide, enough space for vehicles like buses and lorries to pass each other comfortably. Our route was well signposted, well it was the only main road along this route so it wasn’t difficult and we soon found ourselves at the far end of the town, where the road quietened down again, although I still had my two escorts for company.

At the next slightly smaller town of ‘Vejer-de-la-Frontera’, which in this instance the main road actually by-passed, we came to a roundabout, here we would turn right and be on the road that would take us to our ultimate destination, you could almost smell the sea air. Just across the roundabout there was a nice looking Cafe with an external patio, we both needed a ‘Comfort Break’ and so decided that as we had not eaten breakfast before departing, it was just about the right time for our customary ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’ and by way of a bonus it would also enable us to allow our travel escorts to head off, with us no longer in their rear view cab side mirrors.

The friendliness of the Spanish still amazes me, you would think that we would be used to it by now, but even though we are strangers, whenever you walk in to Cafe’s, or small shops, anyone else who happens to be in there at the time all look and say ‘Buenas Dias’, promoting the same cordial response back. The same when people leave, they say ‘Adios’ or ‘Hasta Luego’ to the whole room as they leave and so of course, we returned the polite gestures, although using ‘Adios’ when we left, rather than ‘Hasta Luego’, as it was very unlikely that we would see any of them again soon. The elderly waiter arrived and greeted us with a smile, with the same friendly welcome, we ordered, in our bestest Spanish of course, with these particular Spanish words being very familiar to us by now, at least we will never go hungry or thirsty wherever we are in Spain 😉 Once we finished our later than usual breakfast, I went inside to pay the bill, this time a different elderly gentleman was stood behind the bar area, it was his duty to make the drinks, plate up the food and issue the bills. Anyway, he started to converse with me, in Spanish, this was going to be my first real test, and I have to confess that I only managed to get the gist of his conversation from some of the key words that I recognised when he spoke. I knew that he was enquiring wether I was a tourist and what Country I came from, so I was able to explain that I was English, that I now live in Spain and also explained whereabouts we live. He then asked where we were going and it became immediately obvious to me, from his facial expression, that he was familiar with the words ‘Faro de Trafalgar’, he then said that the town, ‘Vejer’, where this Cafe was located, was the bridge between the two coastlines of Malaga Province and Cadiz Province, I realised that he was speaking metaphorically as there wasn’t actually a bridge and we had entered the Province of Cadiz almost an hour earlier, as we actually live on the edge of the Malaga Province, just a couple of Kilometres from the border with our neighbouring province of Cadiz. This whole conversation had been spoken in Spanish and so I came away with a smile of self-satisfaction on my face, generally I am used to speaking smatterings of small conversations with some of the locals in our home town, but they also understand and speak English, so when I come across words that I forget, or do not know in Spanish, I can say them in English and so it still makes sense to them, but this was the first time that I had held a conversation, albeit still only a relatively short one, in Spanish, with a complete stranger, my day just kept getting better and better and we hadn’t even arrived at our destination yet.

Having checked Google maps beforehand, I knew exactly where the car park that we needed was located, it was behind a chain link fence and all the bays were clearly marked, although it was pretty much empty other than a couple of other vehicles. It cost us €3 to park there, but this was for ‘all day’ parking, which I thought was pretty good value for money, although had we have known, we could have easily have found a place on the side of the road which would have cost us nothing, but come on, in the UK, parking a few minutes walk from an expansive sandy beach, sand dunes and a Tourist Attraction, you would have been lucky to have seen any change from £10 !!

Around the perimeter fence a boardwalk had been erected so we had a stroll, admiring the views and the vast expanse of the surrounding sand dunes, it is quite amazing at the variety of grasses, flowers and shrubs that will grow in sand. There were of course 360 degree views and with the bay, beach and small village of Los Canos de Meca on one side (where we had parked the car), the town and beach of Zahora on the other, and with the for once quite calm Atlantic Ocean stretching out before us, what an idyllic location. Facing West, out to sea, many people come here in the evenings to watch the sunset, we wouldn’t be here that long though. Although there was a tarmac road up to the lighthouse, which was closed off to traffic of the general public, even so, the majority of it was covered in thick but soft golden sand and, with the lighthouse of course being erected on higher ground, walking uphill, barefoot in thick soft sand, it started to tell on the calf muscles, so it was a nice relief when we got to the top. We walked around the lighthouse building, although from outside the tall fence there was not a lot to see and then we decided to descend to the rocky shoreline below, initially via some wooden steps, and then using the crags and rock pools down to the shoreline where we had to zig zag a way around to the sheltered beach area in the bay. Of course we had to dip our toes and have a paddle, it would have been rude not to, but we soon discovered that the Atlantic certainly wasn’t yet at a comfortable swimming temperature 🥶

Now when I had initially planned this trip, this had been the ultimate destination, I had not scheduled anything else in to the itinerary, thinking that perhaps we may have found a ‘Chiringuito’ in which to enjoy a casual lunch, we had the sun chairs in the boot of the car, so we could have spent the remainder of the afternoon just doing a spot of sunbathing, before returning home later that afternoon, I really had not made any other plans. There were several hostelries available near the beach, however, neither had we scheduled a late breakfast stop into the proceedings so neither of us were now hungry, albeit it was now a little after 1pm. So, with my OCD buddy feeling quite relaxed we decided to risk conducting some further spontaneous travels, namely making our way 11 Kilometres further down the coastal road, to the seaside town of Barbate.

Barbate is located at the mouth of the River Barbate, along the coast east of Cape Trafalgar and within the La Brenda y Marissa’s del Barbate Natural park. Barbate has a long history of fishing stretching back to Roman times when fish salting was at its peak. Along with several other coastal towns along this coastal region of Cadiz Province, it is now renowned for its sustainable Tuna fishing heritage and unique technique of catching them. The town also has an interactive Tuna Industry Museum, but as is usual with us, it was closed at the time that we chose to visit it 🙄

We managed to find a small car park at the entrance to the town, it was ‘Free’ with the added bonus of it having a sun shelter over each bay. A quick look on Google Maps showed that the town had a long seafront promenade, so we just followed our noses and within a few minutes we were there. The beach was vast, the water a beautiful turquoise colour and the sand was once again of the soft and golden variety, but it was very very quiet, everywhere 🤔 Their were rows and rows of Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, and although open, most were empty, or at best, had a couple of people sat at just one table. Fortunately we were still not hungry, but we were beginning to get quite thirsty, so we made our way to the first available Cafe/Bar and with our two small ‘ice-cold’ Cruzcampo beers, we just sat, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the tranquility of the place.

Now at this stage we had to decide what to do next as there was still more than enough daylight left ? Did we make our way back and have a late afternoon lunch back at our own Marina ? or perhaps we may find somewhere en route and stop there ? Shazza had volunteered to do the drive back and she opted to just return the same way we had come, we could even stop at the same Cafe where we had our late breakfast as they also served lunches, so decision made. However, just a few miles outside of Barbate, we (Shazza 🤭) had a slight misunderstanding with our Sat Nav and so instead of making our way back along the route we had come, we ended up taking the coastal road South towards Tarifa, although it was a much faster and better surfaced road and to be honest it wasn’t a massive deviation. As it turned out, and as we have often discovered during many of our previous nomadic Adventures, a ‘Swerve In The Road’ can sometimes turn out to be a blessing in disguise, we have always said that things happen for a reason ?

Just a little way out from Tarifa I saw a sign for ‘Bolonia’, now this dislodged a memory that had been stored somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain. Our Spanish neighbour, ‘Miguel’, had once asked, back in the days when we still had our Motorhome, whether we had ever wild-camped at Bolonia Beach, which as it turned out we hadn’t. He had told us how beautiful it was, the glorious beach, the turquoise coloured sea and a big sand dune that you can climb up. So, having reminded Shazza of that conversation she said, “Shall we go and take a look ?”, “Why not” I replied, and so that is how we not only discovered an exquisite tropical looking paradise (See Photo at top of this Page), but where we ended up having a lovely late afternoon fish lunch, washed down with a rather pleasant glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 at a wonderful Chiringuito overlooking yet another gorgeous beach.

Well I guess that fate is till working its magic for us from time to time, for had we have not taken the ‘alternative’ route home, then to this day we still would never have visited Bolonia Beach, or found such an idyllic place to enjoy what was to be either a very late lunch, or an early dinner 🤔

We continued to follow the coast road, past Tarifa, where we could still see all the kite sails out on the water, then we turned East towards Algeciras and Gibraltar, this road now very familiar to us from several previous journeys along it, our journey ‘From The Med To The Atlantic’ was almost over, we returned home at just a little after 5:30pm having experienced a most wonderful day, even my OCD buddy had not been perturbed at conducting a number of unplanned deviations, perhaps he too is beginning to learn how to relax into this kind of lifestyle 😉

Until the next ramble……………………….

Hasta Luego Mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

According to the local media, the Airport at Malaga is getting much busier now, not that it ever seemed to be not busy whenever we go there, our local campsite just five minutes down the road already has its ‘Site Full’ sign out at the front entrance 😲 Shazza and I have also observed that there are a lot more Motorhomes on our local roads up and down the Costa del Sol coastline, as well as the nearby AP7 motorway, which gives a fast link for the ferries for those going to, or returning from, Morocco. The car park spaces in our village and town are certainly much fuller than they were just a few short weeks ago and the prices in the Chiringuito’s, Cafe’s, Bars and Restaurants have all suddenly increased, so I guess that you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise that the 2024 holiday season has once again commenced. However, the seafront promenades, at least the one in our town and the one in Estepona, both still appear to be a little quieter than we had anticipated, but I am sure that that will change, as the temperatures begin to improve, from the chilly Winter 18-20 degrees(c) 🤭 climbing gradually towards the much warmer and hotter Summer 30-40 degrees(c) 🥵 Fortunately for us, as it would not have impacted on the tourists staying in Hotels or ‘Officially Certified’ holiday accommodations, both the storms we have had recently, the four day one swiftly followed by the seven day one, with the subsequent assistance of the ‘run offs’ from the mountains, has meant that the reservoir suppling our area has now reached just a little over 70% capacity, resulting in the Andalusian Government raising our personal domestic water usage allowance by 25%, from 160 Litres each, per day, to 200 Litres each, at least that will now mean we can save some money on not having to purchase as many wet wipes and deodorant sprays 😂 I did think about continuing to utilise my prayer mat to try and get a few more drops of the wet stuff to try and raise the reservoir capacity to 100%, but to be honest, I didn’t want to push my luck too far with the big man upstairs who had already generously answered my previous requests, BUT, just in case he is my ‘Anonymous’ subscriber to these rambles, a little bit more before the end of April would be very much appreciated 🙄

The decision, on whether our communal swimming pool will be allowed to be opened again, has now been delegated down to the local Mayors in each Municipality, so the jungle drums on our local social media forums are already reporting optimistic news for our locality. However, even if it were to be a favourable decision, it is still too early in the year to use unheated pools like our’s, as whilst the ‘air’ temperature may be reasonably warm, the ‘water’ temperatures are still pretty cold, which also includes the sea temperature. So, unless you come from Scandinavia, or other similar locations, and enjoy wild swimming in icy lakes and rivers, then for Shazza and myself it will probably be nearer the end of May before we dare to risk putting any of our lower bodily extremities into it 😲

We have however had yet another visit from the ‘Clima’, that orange coloured sand blown in from the Sahara, but this time the authorities issued a warning stating that the air quality was ‘Very Unhealthy’, last time it was only categorised as ‘Unhealthy’, so, and probably very much like ourselves, you may also be very well asking, “What makes the difference between the two categories ?” The answer to that is………………………..🤷‍♂️ However, that latest ‘Clima’ event only lasted for a couple of days before ‘Normal Service Was Resumed’ 😎

We have now submitted all of our documentation to our Solicitor’s so that they can now submit our residency permit renewal applications to the Spanish Immigration Authorities, for as we know, we are classed as ‘Immigrants’ in the eyes of the Spanish, and not ‘Expats’, as some of our fellow countrymen, and women, prefer to refer to themselves. Now whilst we continue to fulfill all of the criteria required, you cannot take it as a given that the renewed residency permit will be granted, for which some have already discovered when their renewal applications were refused, although they were subsequently successfully issued upon appeal 🤷‍♂️ So, until our solicitor’s come back to us stating that our applications have been approved, we are not taking anything for granted, so to quote the proverbial operatic themed saying, it is not over ‘Until The Fat Lady Sings’. At least if we are successful with our applications, then we will not have to go through this procedure again for a further two years 👍

Now you may also have to get used to a change in the title of our travel adventures, only by way of them becoming ‘Eric’s Adventures’ as opposed to what you previously knew as ‘Shazza Adventures’. I have recently planned what could be one extended road trip, within Spain, or what could probably become four or five shorter road trips of four or five day durations, which I think would be much more enjoyable and which would allow us to conduct them at a more leisurely pace with time to see a lot more things in each of the areas we intend to visit. Additionally I have a few single day trips planned, just to give us a bit of a change from our current more regular and routine daily schedules. However, these will have to be slotted in, between ‘other’ necessary personal upcoming commitments, and visitor’s that have already been scheduled into our diaries, but at least now the opportunity for us to travel a bit more is now beginning to open up and, once we get our residency permits renewed, we can then at least plan a lot further ahead and to then perhaps widen our travel horizons further afield 👍

Now you will know how I often complain about all the ‘Doom and Gloom’ in the news media publications, in all their forms, televised, printed publications or indeed, much more these days, on Social Media platforms. Interestingly enough I cannot remember when we last watched the U.K. News broadcasts on the television and even on my iPad I now only speed read through the headlines, ignoring the Political, Celebrity and even Environmentally focused ones and concentrate a bit more on any Financial one’s that may impact on us personally, Bank Interest Rates, Pensions etc. However, it isn’t just the U.K. press that are full of ‘Doom and Gloom’, Spanish media is just as bad and so what I try to do now is to seek out the more humorous, lighthearted or totally outrageous headlines, which tends to brighten my mornings. By way of example I have selected a few to share with you from the Spanish newspapers:

Now in our own little village where we park our car, in the mornings, we often see an elderly lady, probably in her 80’s, stood on the corner of the street in her dressing gown, just watching the world go by and waving at passing pedestrians and people passing by in their car’s, and yes, we often wave back, it would be rude not to. In the U.K. in Shazza’s mums village we have also seen women, not necessarily in their senior years, go to the Newsagent/Tobacconist in their ‘Onesies’. However I have to confess that I have never seen anyone go into a town hall on business in their nightwear, I suppose we should be thankful that they elect to put on some sort of clothing, as many people these days don’t wear any form of nightwear 🫣

I guess that if he had stuck to just wearing his Angel wings and guitar the worst he would have suffered from would have been candle wax burns. Thank goodness it wasn’t a female priest reading the sermon about the ‘burning bush’ 🤭

Now I am sure that we have all done it at some point whilst on holiday, purchased from the battalions of ‘Looky Looky’ traders, a cheap carton or two of cigarettes, some sort of headwear to shade ourselves from the scorching Spanish sun, perhaps even a handbag or purse etc. etc. and of course all at ‘ASDA’ or Walmart’ price no less. But now, and currently only in Benalmádena, although if successful could stretch right along the Spanish coastline, you could be fined for contributing to aiding and abetting illegal street crime 😲 It will be interesting to see how they manage to find the resources to police this latest initiative 🤔

And finally, I have saved the best till last as this my friends is no April Fool joke……………

Yes, public tax payers money has been spent on conducting a study on this 😲 Now if that isn’t reason enough to ask the question as to why tax payers money has been spent on this study, the other obvious question should be, who thought that it would be a good idea to publish this information, especially the map and named location of the safe locations because, from the limited zombie apocolypse movies that I, ‘for some inexplicable reason’ I hasten to add, have watched, the zombies always seem to be able to seek out the hiding places of the unaffected, but now someone has gone to the trouble of provided them with a map and names of the ‘safe’ hiding locations 🤷‍♂️ So my friends, an obvious piece of advice I know, but do not come to Spain if their is a Zombie Apocolypse, as they will already know where to find you, unless of course they are already waiting at the Airport when you land and they are dressed as Immigration officials, who all have that humourless look and brain dead appearance anyway 😂 The study did reflect that those who own Motorhomes, Campervans or Caravans, would actually have a higher life expectancy rate because they can be both mobile and self-sufficient, able to move quickly between locations seeking out food and water supplies and even other safe haven communities, damn it, I knew importing the car and selling our Motorhome was the wrong choice 🤬

Anyway, Shazza and I decided to get out before the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, when I say ‘get out’ I don’t actually mean leave Spain, I mean get outdoors and enjoy the current safe environment whilst it lasts, although, in all honesty it may also have had something to do with their being a ‘Classic Motor Scooter Rally’ being held in our local town 🤭 It was beautiful warm and sunny day, and yes the sky was blue and cloudless, the sea was a glistening shade of turquoise and blue, but you didn’t need me to tell you that really did you ? We wandered into the town mid-afternoon, although when we got there it looked and sounded a little too quiet, the music stage had been erected, the loudspeakers and amplifiers were in position, but there was a serious lack of presence of any people and no tell tale smells of two-stroke fuel or the noise of any hairdryers, sorry I mean Scooter motors 😂 Perhaps the Zombie Apocolypse had already commenced 😲But I was wearing my ‘Indiana Jones’ hat, purchased of course many years previously from one of those illegal ‘Looky Looky’ criminals, Shazza was dressed nin her leather cat suit outfit with whip, but I digress, that’s a story for another day 😂 so we both felt brave enough to continue walking along the promenade. We saw several people, who we adjudged not to be looking brain dead, although it was a close call with some of them, and we risked stopping at a convenient beach side hostelry to partake of a cold Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍺 to quench our raging thirsts. We continued to just wander along the full length of the promenade before then turning back via one of the back streets, to shade from the heat of the sun. We could hear music, live music, as opposed to the usual stuff emanating from the numerous bars, but it was too far away from where the Scooter Rally was gathering, so we just followed the noise and discovered a couple of back street bars in the ‘Plaza de Naranja’, an Irish Bar and a Spanish bar. The Spanish bar was pretty much full, although we found one table, in a corner of the small Plaza their was a stage and an elderly gentleman crooner singing, mainly Spanish songs, but with a few English ones thrown in. He was actually quite good and so we sat and enjoyed a couple more Anti-Covid Vaccines, as you do, and just enjoyed ourselves amongst our Spanish brethren. The Irish bar wasn’t anywhere near as busy but the handful of customer’s seemed to also be enjoying the late afternoon entertainment.

The afternoon turned to early evening and we both began to feel hungry, we had only eaten a light lunch at home, deciding to eat dinner out for a change, as it was the weekend. As we got back to the Motor Scooter Rally point the small square was crowded, this was where another one of our Spanish Cafe/Bars is located, and where we sometimes come to enjoy our morning Cafe con Leche’s and Tostado’s, there are actually four small Cafe/Bars in this square but they were all crowded, the music stage opposite was still empty, there was no music so we assumed it was going to be more of a late night event, but at least now their was a decent number of Motor Scooters parked up in one long line.

A brief look along the lines, just to remind me of my youth, although in those days I only ever had a 50cc moped which certainly didn’t warrant me worthy of being a member of such an elite club. We strolled back along the sun-drenched seafront promenade, even now at 6pm it was still hot in the sun, which would not set for another three hours, we headed back towards the Marina with it’s numerous eateries, although we had already decided that it would be ‘Pizza Night’, not something we eat on a regular basis, and we knew exactly what we would each be ordering, Shazza her ‘Veggie’ favourite and me my usual ‘Meat Feast’ washed down of course with another couple of Anti-Covid Vaccines, well you have to look after your own health these days and as always, it would have been rude not to 😉

We returned home an hour before sunset and sat for a while on the balcony just enjoying the view out to sea. It had been a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon, the sort of days we both enjoy, although we had no expectations beforehand of how that afternoon was to turn out, we certainly hadn’t anticipated the live music in the Plaza and being sat amongst the Spanish enjoying it, so it was nice to find something a bit different to do during one of our normal walks into the town. The Fiesta season hasn’t started proper yet, with the parades, the music, the fairground stalls and of course the crowds, but these will happen on an almost weekly basis very very soon, we both like the atmosphere of the Fiesta’s but not so much the crowds, I think it’s an age thing these days.

So there has not been very much going on, or exciting, to perhaps tell you about in this particular ramble, although as you know that never actually stops me, but for us, these are just our normal days now, and we like the freedom of it, some days, even if the sun is shining, we may choose to have a day indoors, sometimes out of necessity, cleaning, washing etc. but always confident in the knowledge that more often than not, the sun will be out the next day, and the day after that. It wasn’t that long ago when we would pay good money just to enjoy a couple of weeks of this, even our year’s of living full time in our motorhome, there was always the constant moving on, the time restrictions, but now we don’t have to worry about any of that. You may think that it is just a throw away line when I say that we both think ourselves very fortunate to now be living this lifestyle, but it is actually true and both Shazza and I do remind ourselves of our good fortune quite frequently in our conversations wether that be whilst sat on our balcony just enjoying the views, or sat at one of the seafront Cafe/Bars enjoying a morning Coffee and Toast, or an afternoon weekend lunch at our favourite seafront seafood restaurant, or dinner in the Marina overlooking the boats on their moorings or just walking along the Estepona seafront promenade, we didn’t need to win the Lottery to be able to come here and enjoy this lifestyle and you do not need to be rich to live here, in fact it is a lot cheaper when you compare it with the cost of living in the UK and you don’t even need to speak the language, although it has obvious advantages if you can at least converse a little in the local lingo. The truth is, you just need to want to give it a go, I will be honest, at first I did not want to but it was a combination of the impact of ‘Brexit’ and the ‘Covid’ Pandemic that was instrumental in me wanting to give it a go, Shazza has always wanted to live here. I realised that living here wasn’t actually a prison sentence, that we can choose to leave whenever we want to, but for now, we will stay for a little bit longer and, who knows, maybe we will never leave 🤷‍♂️

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, (La Vida Es Buena)

I have to start this particular ramble with an apology, specifically to the people of ‘Athens’. Why ? You may well ask 🤔 Well you may recall that in my last ramble I suggested, that due to the rain, but more particularly, the thick dusty orange sand that we had been experiencing here in Spain for several days (The ‘Clima’), that the presenter’s of a certain UK TV Holiday Property Programme (That I just happen to keep mentioning), should perhaps seek out a different Country to focus their attentions upon, either Italy, Greece or Turkey, all of which were, at that time, experiencing a much more ‘Healthier Mediterranean Lifestyle’ than we were here in Spain.

So how was I to know that my particular nemesis, which as you well know by now, are those pesky ‘Dark Forces’, had surreptitiously signed up and ‘Subscribed’ to my Blog posts, then used my words as ammunition for them to then target other’s. Why do I suspect this, well less than a week after publishing that last ramble, I was conducting my usual morning review of the media headlines and I came across this………………… 😲🫣

Now I know that my ‘Rambles’ may not be one of the most popular Blogs on the global social media circuit (Understatement), but that does not mean that I welcome all, or even any, ‘Undesirables’ to ‘Follow’ my literary masterpieces just to make up the numbers. So, I checked my list of ‘Subscribers’ on my Admin Pages, a task that didn’t actually take very long 😂 but there was no evidence of any ‘Subscriber’ going by the name or title of ‘darkforces@******.com’, or any other similar prefix, although, funny old thing, I discovered that I do actually have one follower, subscribed as ‘Anonymous’ 🤔 So, as a consequence, Shazza and I may just have to take that trip to Rome, which is on our ‘Bucket List’, sooner rather than later, calling in to ‘Vatican City’, where I will request an audience with the Pope and ask him to conduct an ‘Exorcism’ on my Blog Account 😲

I do have some good news though 🤗 We have enjoyed a change of fortune, for it has rained continuously for several days now and as a consequence it has cleared away all remnants of the ‘Clima’, well we know where that went don’t we 🫣 and so the air is once again clear, people can now get out again from behind their locked doors and windows and enjoy the much healthier fresh air, although if they do they may very well catch ‘Pneumonia’ as a result of doing so, as they are likely to get soaked to the skin, as it is still raining rather heavily and this is expected to continue over the Easter weekend. But that in itself is good news, no, I do not mean about people contracting ‘Pneumonia’, but because all of our ‘Embalces’ are now beginning to fill up, more importantly for us, the one that directly supplies our area, ‘Embalce La Concepcion’, has increased its water level, from what was a dangerously low 25% just a couple of weeks ago, to now being very nearly 48% and, with these heavy downpours, over the next few days, and weeks, the ‘Run Off’s’ from the Mountain rivers, streams and storm drains our fingers are crossed that this figure will increase to, hopefully, somewhere nearer the 60% level 🤞 So even though the sky has been unusually sunless for this time of year the black and stormy clouds may themselves possess a Silver lining, as this should result in our current domestic water usage restrictions being eased, albeit they may not be totally lifted, as we do not anticipate our communal swimming pool ban being lifted just yet.

Before we came to live permanently in Spain, during the previous eight year’s that we have been coming here on our frequent ‘Schengen Shuffle’ trips, which sometimes happened to coincide with the Easter period, Shazza and I had joined outdoor religious Easter Mass services amongst the crowds in the square outside our local town church, although I didn’t go forward to participate in ‘Holy Communion’, and then afterwards, we joined the entourage of people following the ‘Holy Statuette’ and musical band that then paraded through the streets of the town, we had also participated in other similar processions and events during these Easter periods in some of our other local municipalities. These religious gatherings are an important part of the Spanish cultural heritage and lifestyle, as they are of course in many other countries too, and the planning and preparation for each event takes place months in advance. However, and almost as if by some divine intervention, generally the weather during this Holy Week had always remained dry and sunny. Unfortunately though it was not to be on this occasion, it was as if the numerous prayer’s for essential rainfall were actually stronger and far outweighed those who were praying for the better weather over this particular period. Due to the atrocious weather, and yes it was probably very close to being of biblical proportions, numerous events right around the country were either cancelled, or were held indoors in a much more confined space, where the numbers of those able to attend were severely limited. So I suppose we could say that this Easter period has brought us some ‘Mixed Blessings’.

Now, I am sure that a lot of people, like myself, have heard of the Actor, Antonio Banderas, but it is only over the last couple of years that I became aware that he actually originates from Malaga. Following the local Spanish Media, I have also discovered that he is quite heavily involved in lots of local issues and events, from the obvious areas of, Film, Theatre, Music, Arts, but also many other cultural and social events and he is truly loved here by the normal everyday people, not just the more privileged members of Spanish Society, not just within the province of Malaga, but also within the whole of the Andalusian Region. So it came as no surprise to me to see him appear in the local media during this ‘Semana Santa’ (Saint’s Week) period.

As you do know, I often criticise the media, in all of its forms, and usually for very good reason, not least for its habitual doom and gloom contents, but I do also have to confess that, at times, mind you it is only ‘At Times’, it can also reveal some quite interesting facts, although perhaps to some it may be considered as ‘Trivia’, as opposed to earth shattering revelations. By way of an example, whilst I did of course know that Antonio Banderas was Spanish, I did not know that he originated from just up the road from where we live in Spain, neither did I know that Michael Portillo (Journalist, Broadcaster and former UK Conservative Politician), or Anthony Paul Beke, better known as ‘Anton Du Beke’ (British Ballroom dancer, author and television presenter, probably best known for being a professional dancer and a judge on the British celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing), both originate from Spain and have family still living here. Okay, I did say that these were not earth shattering revelations 🤷‍♂️ However, it raised my curiosity and so I decided to research on which other famous British people originated from Spain. However, did you know that ‘Mr. Google’ has a sense of humour, because when I typed into the ‘search’ bar, “Were any famous British Men or Women born in Spain ?”, the answer came back, “No, only babies” 😂 Okay, that it is an old joke I know, but I hope it raised a smile on your face. However, I did do a check and there was a very long list of people, dating way back in the annals of History to more modern times, the majority of names which meant nothing to me personally, which will not come as any surprise to you, me being a self-confessed History heathen, but, in addition to the two names that I have already mentioned (Portillo and Du Beke), there were four other names that stood out to me, Helena Bonham Carter  (English actress), Paloma Faith (English singer and songwriter), Gerry Halliwell (English singer, member of the pop group the Spice Girls) and Michelle Keegan (English actress). Sometimes, only sometimes mind you, just like the media, sometimes even my rambles can contain less than earth shattering pieces of trivia 🤭 Seeing that I am on the subject of historical events, or should that be ‘hysterical’ 🤔 Shazza and I have been together now for a little over 19 year’s, but today, Easter Sunday 2024, we celebrate our 17th Wedding Anniversary and quite honestly, and we do both agree on this, but it really doesn’t feel that long, the years have just sped by, which I suppose is good in one way, but in another, well it is quite scary at how fast time is ticking away 😲

So all that is left to say on this latest ramble is that both Shazza and I wish all our reader’s a very, Happy Easter, wherever you may be in the world.

Until the next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida Es Buena”

So you will have already gathered from reading my recent rambles, if you were not already aware that is, that down here on the Southern Eastern tip of Spain, that it is not wall to wall sunshine every day of the year here, but generally speaking, well it does tend to be pretty decent here when all is said and done. However, very recently in these rambles, if I am not talking about being hit with one adverse sort of weather condition, then I am talking about another, but it appears that it has just been one of those year’s when you could hardly call things ‘Normal’ and, for those of you, who like myself, watch a lot of the nature programmes on TV and Netflix, you will know that it is much the same for large parts of our world, so it isn’t as if we are special or anything.

For several days now, we have been experiencing a phenomenon known as the ‘Clima’, a term used here to describe the orange coloured sand that is blown in on the wind, across the sea from the Sahara Desert. This fine orange dusty sand quite literally covers everything in its path which isn’t under cover, buildings, pavements, roads, vehicles, outdoor furniture, everything, absolutely everything and as large swathes of Spain are known for their numerous white-washed villages and towns, well lets just say that it tends to make the ‘Clima’ a lot more noticeable, as you may imagine. But even this ‘Clima’ is not an unusual occurrence here, it just tends to vary year on year in its degree of intensity and this year it is by no means the worst that Shazza and I have ever experienced.

A couple of years ago when we were here, on one of our temporary ‘Schengen Shuffle’ visits, it had arrived in great quantities, but accompanied with heavy rain, so it rapidly turned into quite a thick sticky orange mud, which ended up taking several weeks to get rid of it from all the nooks and crannies it had secreted itself into within our car. This time, fortunately, there was no rain with it and so it arrived on the wind just as a thick layer of Orange dust, so for days we had been living in a continuous thick ‘smog’ like condition, throughout both the day’s and night’s, the air was thick with it and it reminded me of scenes that I had seen of London streets, in some of those old ‘Dickins’ Victorian era movies. My car was once again covered ‘head to toe’ in the stuff, or should that be ‘roof to tyres’ 🤔 It was pointless putting it through a car wash because, had I have done so, well it would have been just as bad again within minutes of driving away, so for now I will just have to wait until this ‘Clima’ has passed over, although it is still forecast to last for several more days and now, before it goes, another long spell of rain is also due, so who knows, that rainfall may just do the job for me and save a trip to the car wash 🤷‍♂️

The National ‘Works of Fiction’ have now also issued a colour coded map of the country, which shows the ‘Air Quality’ during this ‘Clima’ period, they are currently strongly advising anyone who resides in the ‘Red’ areas marked on the map, particularly those who suffer with ‘Bronchial’, or other serious ‘Breathing’ difficulties, to remain indoors with all windows and doors closed 😲

I hope you will forgive me, for as I sit here looking out upon the grey ‘orange tinged’ mist, and witness the first large raindrops fall on the pavement below, accompanied by the rolls of thunder and the flashes of lightning, I afford myself a smile as I think about programmes like ‘A Place In The Sun’ (I seem to be plugging that programme a lot lately, perhaps they will pay me some promotional commission 🤔), but they always make such a big deal about the amount of annual days of sunshine that this part of Spain gets, and they regularly promote ‘A Healthy Mediterranean Lifestyle’, although it conveniently neglects to mention the numerous annual Wildfires, Floods, Sandstorms and Droughts 🤭 So where are they right now I wonder, if they have any sense they will probably be filming in more sunnier Mediterranean coastal resorts like Italy, Greece or Turkey, which are not currently suffering with either this ‘Clima’ or the ‘Rain’ and where you may currently be able to enjoy a much healthier Mediterranean lifestyle.

As you may also well imagine, Shazza and I have not let this ‘Clima’ weather condition prevent us from getting out for our usual daily walks, for very fortunately we do not suffer with any breathing issues, although, now that I come to think about it, that is not strictly true, for sometimes my beloved, especially during the night, can be heard doing a particular farmyard animal impression 🐷 However, when she wakes up in the morning’s and complains to me that she had woken up in the middle of the night and could not breathe, I don’t own up to the fact that it may just have had something to do with me putting my hand over her face 🤭

So back to the humdrum of normal everyday life and there I was, one morning very recently, sat alone at the beach cafe next to the car park on our favourite stretch of beach, Shazza had gone for her appointment at her regular hairdresser’s in the village. There was quite a strong Easterly wind blowing in off the sea, whilst not only serving to dump even more sand on our location, it was also driving the orange sand even further inland, share and share alike, that’s what I was always taught as a child. The turbulent waves with their white frothy crests were crashing noisily up on to the shoreline, just a few metres away from where I was sat, there were no other customer’s, just me, sat with my mug of hot strong coffee, I got lost in my thoughts, mesmerised just watching and listening to the boisterous waves.

When Shazza was finished at the hairdresser’s we continued along the promenade and walked into the town where we stopped for a coffee, before returning to the Marina to enjoy a leisurely lunch, but under cover from both the wind and the sand. I think that we do tend to live a relatively simple, and certainly a much more relaxing lifestyle these days, apart from the rare occasions when we may have to deal with Spanish Bureaucracy that is, although, to be honest, it is not that often that we stop for leisurely lunches during the week, but we do enjoy the walks and, some days just a stop for a coffee will suffice 😉 I think that we both could enjoy taking leisurely lunches out every day of the week, as we currently rarely spend even half of our allocated monthly ‘personal expenditure’ budget. However, our decision not to, is more about wanting to maintain our healthier ‘Plant Based’ diets, at least during weekdays, as their are not a lot of ‘Plant Based’ options readily available in the majority of the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants in our neck of the woods, so it would get pretty boring if we had to just stick to using the establishments that do. Now the truth is that there is actually a lot of variety of food establishments here, both in the Marina and the local town, however, the majority of them serve more of the traditional type menu options, basically meat and more meat, deep fried or grilled but, to be fair, they will usually list a ‘Vegetarian’ option on the menu, but, more often than not, that generally just means salad 🤷‍♂️ We are also beginning to identify some dedicated ‘Vegan’ establishments in the wider area, but as yet, in this part of Spain at least, they are still pretty sparse and Shazza is not actually a ‘Vegan’, but those type of establishments, by their very nature, do of course offer a wider variety of ‘Plant Based’ options. Because of the limitations on ‘Plant Based’ options in our immediate local area, Shazza has compromised and she will now eat ‘some’ varieties of fish when we go out, and/or Goat’s Cheese. As for myself, well I am pretty easily catered for, as I do still eat all varieties of Fish, and even Meat. So we do tend to stick to eating out primarily at weekends, when it then becomes more of a treat for the both of us, but for me, the real advantage has nothing to do with menu options, more a case of weekends having much more people out and about, so the ambience is much better, as of course are the people watching opportunities 😉

The windy conditions were set to get stronger over the next few days, reaching 40-50mph which prompted the ‘Works of Fiction’ to issue yet another weather warning, this time for what they described as a ‘Coastal Event’, stretching right along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca coastlines, with wave heights expected of between 3-5 metres. Now personally, I really do enjoy these sort of weather conditions, being able to see at close quarter’s, although not too close you understand, the raw power of the sea as it stampedes in and batters the rocks, watching as the tumultuous waves climb, and breach with ease, the outer harbour wall of the Marina, watching as the waves race along the beachfront and getting ever closer up the sand, even threatening at some points to breach the low promenade wall. Then there is the accompanying noise it brings with it, just one long continuous loud repetitive drone, much like the sound of the engines of aircraft getting ever closer, as they race down the runway, gaining speed before they lift into the air. I have also experienced these same conditions in the UK very many times in the past, at many different coastal locations in England, Scotland and Wales, although more commonly during the Autumn and Winter periods, the only significant difference being that back then, I would have been huddled in a thick warm outer coat, braced against the icy wind and cold weather nipping at my exposed skin, but here, it is very warm and humid, my thin outer jacket being more of a protection from the wind than the temperature which remains in the low twenty somethings. To think that in probably no more than a fortnight’s time, it will all change again and I will very probably be mentioning, in these rambles, all about the bright cloudless blue sky, the flat mill pond like sea conditions, and the crystal clear water, I certainly think that nature is truly awesome, it provides us with so much variety although, at times, it can perhaps also be a little scary.

Over the few days that followed, we continued to go out in these conditions, in the knowledge that, if the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast was accurate, we could very possibly be confined to barracks for over a week 😲 We were not alone on our daily walks, the advance party of Easter holiday makers had arrived and although the beaches may have been pretty much deserted, the Cafe’s, Restaurants and Chiringuito’s were benefiting from this recent influx of tourist cash combined with these current adverse weather conditions, for whilst the tourists may not have been able to sunbathe on the beach, or swim safely in the sea, at least they could sit and watch it from behind the windows, or protection of the zipped up weather canopies, whilst they enjoyed their breakfast’s and lunches.

Shazza and I really can empathise with those tourists, who have probably been looking forward to coming here for many moths away from some of the much cooler northerly climates, having parted with their hard earned money which they may have been saving for months, and then spent it both getting here and also on their holiday accommodations, expectant of a sunny beach holiday for a week or two. Generally speaking, even Shazza and I much prefer the warmer sunnier weather, however, for us, now living here permanently, it is currently a double edged sword, for we also desperately need the extended periods of rain 🙄 It reminds me of that saying, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people, all of the time”.

My feet are also now beginning to feel a little itchy, and no it isn’t a medical condition, before any of you ask 🙄 “I am beginning to feel the need to get back ‘On The Road’, to do some more travelling again“ so I say to Shazza one morning over coffee, “I am not getting any younger you know, so each hour, of each day, of each week is time that I am never going to get back so we need to start thinking about our travel agenda”. Shazza, is a little more circumspect about it and just says,“We still have plenty of time, there is no hurry”. I give her my indignant look, “That’s fine for you to say, but you’re almost a decade younger than me”. She just laughs, “But you are still a fit and healthy ‘old man’, and I am sure that you have a good few year’s left in you yet”, then she laughs again, more mischievously this time, and then gives me a wink of her eye. The cheeky bugger, I think to myself.

Talking about future travel, and I may already have mentioned this once or twice before in these rambles, we have a large family re-union event in Austria in August, many of our wider family members, who reside in many parts of the world, will all be gathering, from as far afield as Australia, to those a little closer who live in Germany, France and the UK, and which will also now include two very recent ‘new borns’, one in Germany and the other in France, meaning that Shazza and I have also gained new titles, ‘Great Aunt and Uncle’, as if ‘Nana Shazza and Grandad Eric’ didn’t already make us feel older than we would actually like 🙄 But in respect of that particular event, we have now pre-booked, and pre-paid, for everything necessary for that trip, Return Flights, Airport Car Parking, Hotel Accommodations in Munich (Our Daughter and Son-in-Law have paid for our three night Hotel accommodation in Austria) and we have also booked our Return Rail Tickets from Munich to the event location in Austria. I love it when a plan comes together, although special thanks must go to my ‘Carer’ who organised it all on-line in no more than fifteen minutes, there are some really good things about modern technology these days, so me, and my OCD buddy are well happy 🤭

We have also just had our Water Bill for the last three months usage, a little earlier than I had anticipated, but the good news is that we used no more water, during this billing period, than we did in the preceding three months, even though in this current billing period we had some family visitor’s for nearly a week and of course the recent Contractor’s and, I discovered that both of our last two bills were even less than the one that preceded both of them, which was a period when we were not on water usage restrictions, so we are at least getting it right and so when I receive the actual paper invoice, which always arrives a couple of weeks after we have paid our Direct Debit, I will be able to confirm our actual water consumption, so who knows, perhaps we will be able to have our family come stay with us in August as originally planned, instead of them having to stay in a hotel 🤗 So, for the time being, as far as we are concerned, “The Rain In Spain” can fall as much as it likes at the moment as long as it keeps filling those Embalces.

And just as a footnote to bring this latest ramble to an end, seeing as I started on the subject of the weather, I may as well end on the same note. Just this morning we awoke to the news that whilst we continue to have the Rain, just up the road from us, perhaps no more than an hour away, and all over the rest of the Andalusian Region, even up into the Alicante area, “It Is Snowing” 😲 Eventually when it melts, some of it may also find its way into the Embalces, so the good news just keeps on coming, well okay, perhaps just for some of us 🙄

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego Mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (Life Is Good)