Monday 23rd March 2015
What a grotty day, it rained much of the night and was still raining this morning, we could almost be in UK except, of course that here rain is warmer
Wednesday 25th March 2015
Dirkje came to visit today. After collecting her we went to Carrefour supermarket in Benidorm to get some shopping and then came back the “pretty” route through Polop the village of two hundred water spouts, but sadly we could find no-where to park and managed to take a wrong turn, how we managed that with a navigator I don’t know, but we finished up in roads that got progressively narrower until we were faced with one that was simply too narrow to continue, so had to reverse back up hill and round corners until we could turn and retrace our route - sort of!
Dirkje came to ours for dinner, a very tasty chicken salad, and stayed over.
Thursday 26th March 2015
In honour of our guest we had a continental, well Dutch, breakfast this morning with hagelslag and afterwards took Dirkje to the windmills (Dirkje - Dutch - windmills - get it) high above Jávea. There are 11 windmills, built between the 14th and 18th centuries which lay within the borders of the Parque Natural de Montgó. Cylindrical in shape and about seven metres in height, they have been standing dormant since the 19th century when the sails and machinery were removed. However, they had been a valuable asset to the local economy, taking advantage of the wind to grind corn and provide flour which for centuries was the staple food for the people of the region.
Friday 27th March 2015
Off to Moraira market this morning, it’s not as big and bustely as I remember it being when the “Old Chap” lived in the town but it has been for many years easy to park and the stalls have so much space that it is a joy to go there. We think it is by far the best market in the area.
Saturday 28th March 2015
We went to dinner in the site restaurant tonight. After the not bad dinner there was a live band, an acoustic guitar duo. Well that was what was advertised. When the entertainment started as well as the two guitarists pictured on all the posters there was a girl whose voice was, shall we say, interesting, after she had murdered sung a few songs she left the stage along with one of the guitarists and another chap went on stage to sing for the remainder of the evening. A bit too much rock and roll for me but a good evening nevertheless.
Sunday 29th March 2015
Another Dutch breakfast this morning then off to a Medieval Market being held in a town called Lliber. It should have taken place Saturday and Sunday last week but the weather forecast was poor so at the last minute it was postponed for seven days - it could only happen in Spain!! The town of Lliber was small, very small with narrow roads all of which were closed to traffic and lined with stalls selling all manner of goods. Nothing seemed to have any medieval connection other than the costumes all the stall holders were wearing, it was however a pleasant cheerful event worth the visit.
Monday 30th Wednesday March - Thursday 2nd April 2015
Been very lazy this week so far, been shopping with Dirkje a couple of times once in Calpe, which was preceded by a visit to Calpe Medieval Market (not exciting enough to report in detail) and a second time in Moraira followed by a long walk around the beach and town.
Dirkje has taken a liking to the bread sold in the Pepe la Sal supermarket on the Moraira/ Calpe road while we like going there for the fresh cream and fruit cakes and tarts they make - to die for!!
Oh yes, on Wednesday after weeks of researching prices in UK, Spain and Portugal, I had four new tyres put on the car. I finished up going for Continental’s and saved €26 per tyre over the cheapest UK price I found on t’interweb. €104 on the set is around £80, a very worthwhile saving, lets hope they last 49,000 miles as the old ones did.
For the last week the site has been emptying of “snowbirds” rushing back to their country of origin to spend the Easter weekend with grandchildren, the site is now poised to receive the rush of Spaniards for the holiday weekend.
We proved ourselves to be standard sad old Brits today. As B & D will be visiting us the week after next and David does like a “Full English” every morning we went to the local English butcher to get some UK type sausages. As I have said before many of the continental sausages are great - but not for breakfast. While there getting our 72 sausages (well they are here for twelve days) we got seduced by a whole leg of lamb boned out and marinaded with garlic, herbs, spices and other wonderful things and while the butcher was sorting that got further seduced by a lovely two bone piece of fore rib of beef. It’s no wonder he was smiling widely as we left.
Good Friday 3rd April 2015
The site that yesterday was almost empty is full again with Spanish families all ready to party.
We cooked the lamb on the BBQ, ten minutes on the skin side, turn over and fifteen minutes the other side and ten minutes resting and it was fabulous.
Saturday 4th April 2015
Another medieval market today, this one in Jávea and the only one so far worthy of the name. It took over virtually the whole centro historico (historic town centre) dozens if not hundreds of stalls selling a very wide range of goods, music, fireworks, the lot. A worthwhile visit.
The Spanish can certainly party, I’m told they went on well into the early hours (told because I heard nothing) a number of people apparently complained to the security (virtually every site in Spain and Portugal have an all night security guard patrolling the grounds). The moaning is still going on but as I said to one angry camper they are Spanish on a Spanish site in Spain and therefore, surely, entitled to act in what is a standard Spanish way and if we don’t like it perhaps we should go home. That was received well - not!!
We cooked the beef for dinner tonight, because it was a two bone piece we cooked it on the BBQ for just one hour, a little more rare than when we last cooked rib of beef but delicious. I think we will be eating cold lamb and beef for around a week.