Category: France Spain 2023

Whilst we had been at Kevin’s the day before, a Spanish official (not The Policia) knocked at Paul & Sue’s & said we had to move The Van within 24 hours as it couldn’t stay parked outside their apartment (even though they explained who we were and even said we were staying in their place).

Dave (being Dave) has simply written a note & put it in the windscreen stating that we are staying at Paul & Sue’s and to ring his mobile if any issues…

Nobody has rung – YET 🤞

For the first time since we’d been in Spain, it rained ☔️ so we had a lazy morning updating the blog and answering guest queries then got ready and the sun was breaking through again as we wandered down the hill into Nerja centre in the afternoon. On the way, Dave made an appointment for Thursday at 4:30pm to have his hair cut (the salon is run by an English girl from Louth and apparently all the ex-Pats use her…)

So I’m in the market for a leather jacket and tried on a plethora yesterday – some cheap & nasty and some obviously better quality. I reckon I’m going to settle on a black one trimmed with a little bit of red and with a red lining – currently “50% off” so €149 rather than €295 – watch this space…

Then we went for a late lunch at Mena Garden (which sounds like a Chinese) but where I has an excellent chicken, bacon & cheese club sandwich with a few fries, Dave had chicken curry & we washed it down with a Tinto De Verano and a beer…

The “flowery” picture is taken outside but then the wind got up again & it looked a bit “black over Bill’s mother’s” so we went INSIDE and took another snap when the drinkies came but before the food…

Bobbed in the Mercadona (supermarket) on the way back then arranged to meet later and went for a little rest in The Van. Now although Dave had bought the unlimited Spanish SIM, when I went on ITVX to try and watch Coro, it told me I was outside of the UK and wouldn’t let me 😡

Luckily My Dave is such a ⭐️ that we downloaded some VPN-thingy to trick it into thinking we are in London so caught up with last Friday’s episode 🥳

We then all met at the bar which is on-site at Capistrano Villages – La Cueva (The Cave Bar) and again chatted to a few of the ex-Pats whilst enjoying the real fire 🔥 then (as we were still full from the late lunch) we came back & I munched on a few squares of Milka with a cup of tea & watched Monday’s episode before nodding off 😴

As Mick & Debs had arrived on a Sunday (when the shops are all closed) we arrived the following morning bearing gifts of croissants, jam, hotdogs, mustard & OJ and had brekky in the sunshine 😎 then bid them farewell and bobbed off to the massive shopping complex up the road called Gran Plaza to sort out the lack of mobile WiFi…

They still have “Orange” over there so we brought the device with us (to test it) and Dave settled on a Pay-As-You-Go 150GB SIM for €30 BUT he DID need his passport to buy the SIM and there seemed to an AWFUL lot of paperwork & fuss for one little SIM but anyway…

We then put Nerja in the SatNav and headed on our way but the closer we got, the more the wind got up and GOSH it was a bit of an unnerving journey as we were ascending up into the hills and there were huge bridges (with NOTHING underneath) and The Van was being swayed hither & thither 😳 (so I tried not to look and busied myself with answering guest queries and booking ferries for them…)

We arrived outside Paul & Sue’s apartment at Capistrano Villages (where Dave & I had flown & stayed at in January 2019 & 2020) and where Kevin was also waiting to greet us – and all went in and had tea and cake out on the balcony on a fabulous sunny afternoon overlooking Nerja (but sadly in all the excitement I forgot to take a photo 😔)…

Kevin then drove us about 15 minutes out of town (up & down bumpy, gravelly dirt-tracks and AGAIN unnervingly close to the edge of a cliff 😳) to show us where he lived – and which could have been another potential spot to park The Van… He and his wife Helen live in a great spot with fabulous views and they think the 15 minute journey into town is nothing but I don’t think I could drive it (even in a normal sized car) even once…

They have a huge outdoor living space (a lot of which is under cover) and I sat down out there and fussed Tigi (the brown one) & Romeo (the black one) – their 2 cute little dachshunds…

Kevin then drove us a teeny bit down the hill to an equestrian place where we caught up with Helen who had been out riding for the afternoon and was then at the stables with her beautiful 5 year old horse (and do you know horses live to 30 years old ? !!!).

Kevin then dropped us back at Paul’s, we had a little drink of sparkly 🥂 & a chat then went to get ready to meet the ex-Pat lot at one of the local hotels – Los Arcos. They meet up for Happy Hour at various local hotels & bars in the area every night between about 7pm & 9pm – very much a “drop-in” session if you fancy it – and we caught up with some of their friends that we’d met on previous visits.

We then went back to Paul & Sue’s who kindly knocked up dinner for us whilst chatting about the old days – then retired to The Van – and a good time was had by all 😊

After a quiet night (!!!) we woke & trundled back down the beach spaces and I did us a lovely brekky of Spanish oranges, (tinned !) pineapple and banana with peach yoghurt, some OJ and some croissants & Bonne Maman raspberry jam (I know, I know – lots of sugar… but it was yummy 😋)

We have mobile WiFi in the The Van and although it’s unlimited data in the UK, it is apparently capped at 19GB when roaming and when trying to update the blog and book guest ferries, I realised that we were out 😔

It was Sunday so nowhere was open to sort it (for those techies out there who are saying “Why didn’t Dave just top it up ?”, he didn’t know the phone number associated with the SIM (which you apparently need to know) and when I said “Why don’t you just give them a ring ?”, he announced he would end up speaking to “some muppet in India” 😂 and it would be too difficult so his plan was to purchase an unlimited Spanish SIM the following day…)

So I read my Psychologies magazine to “enrich my emotional lift” (!!!) for a bit then we trundled off on the bikes to do a reccy as we were due to go out for dinner with Mick & Debs so wanted to see what places were close to their apartment.

Excellent cycling paths along the promenade / coast road again and passed lots of families eating out in the sunshine 😎

Came back, popped the bikes back in the garage (see Dave’s “Helping Hand” from Benidorm market that he attached to the garage door which he is VERY happy with – and it hasn’t fallen off yet as I predicted it would !!!).

BUT what he ISN’T happy with is his 15 metre “Magic Hose” that he said was “about 3 metre” and thus not long enough when he last filled The Van up with water – ah well – you win some, you lose some !!! 

We then parked back up again at Mick’s place just as they arrived.

We then had a cup of tea ☕️ followed by drinkies in their apartment overlooking the sun-drenched golf course – on an empty tummy – all I’d had was my fruit salad & croissants !!! 

Dave had a lie down in The Van whilst the rest of us got ready and then not too far away we found a lovely little place (where they spoke no English at all – just how we like it) and I had a really nice chicken schnitzel with mushroom sauce – and LOTS more glasses of Vino Rosado and eventually wandered back to the apartment & Van 😴

So we trundled off in The Van but when we looked up Mick’s actual addres whilst en-route, we saw the it was actually 23kn PAST Almeria and in a place called Roquetas de Mar so that’s where we went…

On the outskirts of town, we saw a massive shopping complex so pulled off as we needed a few bits & popped into the Lidl’s next door.  Came back to The Van, Dave turned the key and…

Click but NOTHING…

Like a flat battery in the old days…

Dave mutters things like “This isn’t good…” and “The immobiliser is f@cked !”…

I have learned in situations like this to say nothing…

Then he picks up his phone & goes into some app (our entire LIFE is controlled by one app or another on Dave’s phone 😐)

Now it’s Saturday evening and Dave has dumped The Van sideways across 3 or 4 parking spaces and all I can think is, “I’ll have to go in with my Google Translate (APP !!!) on my phone and try to explain what’s happened and NOT to give us a ticket which Dave will refuse to pay and which will follow us around for the next 10 years before eventually getting us both thrown into a Spanish prison – as it will be MONDAY at least before we’ll be able to get hold of anyone to sort this”…

The suddenly after about 5 minutes or maybe a bit more (it FELT like more !!!) suddenly The Van kicks back into life 🥳 !!!

He said he’d immobilised it earlier in the day (so nobody could steal it whilst we were site-seeing in Cartagena) and it had set off from THERE OK, but then clearly got a little confused later in the day !!!  Anyway he sent some command via some app on his phone and sorted it 😅

There was only ONE official “Camping Park” in the area and I’d given them a ring on the way but they were full.  `On the Park4Night (APP !) there were apparently also 15 designated motorhome spaces in a beach-side carpark with a vibrant cafe on-site but… that was also full.

It was getting quite late by then so – although Mick & Debs were not due to arrive until the Sunday afternoon – we ended up parking on the road outside their apartment, had some dinner and all was well…

The Catholic (obviously) church “Iglesia de Santa María de Gracia” was mentioned a fair bit in the museum in Castillo de la Concepcion and was already on my list to visit.  Google said it closed between 2pm and 5pm so we headed there after the castle about 1pm…

… and it was closed 😞

And there were no signs saying WHEN it was open and no signs even saying the name of the church – it was just closed…

But – as we were there – the first photo below is of the outside…

So we then decided to go for cake & coffee.  We were right in the bustling centre & saw a lovely cakey place so I bagged a table in the sunshine and told Dave to go in & choose a cake and take a piccie to show me – which he did.  He wanted the massive creamy thing with like a toffee topping then said he felt sick 🤢 after eating it !!! I was a bit more moderate & chose a small sweet pastry filled with confectioners cream (which I haven’t had since the 1970’s !!!) and – as Goldilocks said –  it was just right 😋

The OTHER church that was on my list was Iglesia de Santo Domingo – also in the centre a few minutes walk away – so we visited there and I got my fix… ☦️

After here we TRIED (really hard) to visit the “Roman Theatre” (not the old amphi-theatre next to the lift that we’d taken photos of up at the top earlier) – this was a different place.  Google Ma[s took us to it but we couldn’t – for love nor money – find the ticket office & entrance – even though we SEE other visitors inside. 

Cartagena is quite hilly and Dave was SURE that if we went HIS way, we would come to the entrance – but even though we walked all the way around (including a steep hill) – we ended back where we’d started….

The last piccie below IS of the place from the OUTSIDE looking down 😂 (but sadly not any taken on the inside…)

Dave was hacked off by then so we headed back to The Van and bid Cartegena farewell (as we didn’t fancy another disturbed night) and headed for Almeria (pronounce “Al-Maria’ – not as I was saying it “Al-Mair-ee-a” !!!) where we were due to meet Dave’s childhood best friend – Michael Vincent Taylor (AKA “Mick”) and his partner Debs for more fun & frolicks…

So (after a slightly groggy start after the disturbed night) we got ready & started out on our Day of Culture…

First stop the was the panoramic lift (€4.25 which included entry into a castle up at the top). Check out the chins on the photo we took as we waited for the lift to arrive 😂.

The lift with the bridge was very reminiscent of Shanklin Cliff Lift (which we live next door to) so I’ve included a piccie of that too !.

The lift takes you to the highest point I the city where the 13th and 14th century fortress of the Castillo de la Concepcion stands offering fabulous views over the city & port.  

See piccies of the Roman amphitheater & the panoramic lift (behind me & the palm tree 🏝) and also Dave standing on some ruins in a Usain Bolt stance !!!

Then we wandered into the castle – a lot of which has been added to & modernised to form a museum now devoted to the history of Cartagena.  See spiral staircase (which we DIDN’T go up or down as Dave has an aversion !!!) and also everyone in the Middle Ages must have been short as we had to crouch to get from room to room – see Dave in action below… 😂

We watched a couple of info films (with English subtitles) and discovered Cartagena has Islamic roots but the good old Crusaders came along and put their Christian stamp on the place.   So they all had to convert to Christianity or leave.  Apparently they converted but still practised their own religion until King Alfonso X (“Alfonso The Wise”) got into power and deported them in the 13th century…

We came out then had a wander round El Parque Torres (Torres Park) where there was a lovely (very tame) peacock that some Spaniards were feeding then we came back down…

• Location: 37° 36′ 6.75″ N 0° 58′ 54.05″ W

Got up, showered, packed up & left the site, got a phone call from the site about 60 seconds later saying we’d left without paying the ‘leccy bill 😂 (ACSI – “inexpensive out of season camping” my @rse – I would have dried my hair in THEIR bathroom instead of mine if I would have known I was paying for it 😂). No – we went back and it was only €7 something for 3 nights which was fine…

Typed in “Cartagena” (which Jacky & Dolan advised us was pronounced “CartaHena”) which was about 2 hours away and trundled off…

We needed a few bits so when we saw a Carrefour in a shopping complex off the motorway, we pulled off and it was a MASSIVE shopping outlet. We had a lovely lunch at a Grill place (we did “halvsies” with a chicken club sandwich & fries and a pulled pork burrito – clearly not YET on the diet !!!) got some bits from Carrefour and then went to PRIMANI’s (I kid you not 😂 – see piccie below !!!)

I was a bit all-over-the-place when I was packing for this trip as some of my clothes were in our apartment, some in the wardrobes in the guesthouse & some in the 3-bed apartment and we’d had Holly & Marcus staying for Christmas & we were rushing to get back to the mainland for New Year and I was cold so packed a lot of jumpers – and not a lot for the sunshine… 😎

So I said I’d get some stuff from Primani’s (and Dave said he could do with another pair of shorts so bibbed off to the Men’s Department) but quickly re-appeared and said there weren’t any as they only had winter stuff in (and he was right 😔) – it was the same in the Women’s Department too… So I ended up with a new €2.50 navy camisole (as I couldn’t find mine when I was packing)…

Not too fussed as I know the shops in Nerja – and they will have anything we may need – and we’ll be there in a few days…

And if you are wondering why there is a photo of my backside – well – as we have been travelling through France and Spain – they tend to have a lot of toll roads – so the piccie below demonstrates me reaching out to get a ticket or pay…

And I am now drinking a glass of pink fizz writing this as we are parked up in the Cartagena University car park (found it on Park4Night) which is free – and with it being the weekend – is a perfect base to explore the port, the Roman Theatre & other cultural bits tomorrow so TTFN xxx

So we just chilled on Thursday. Had (another !) lay-in, and whilst I updated the blog & got dressed, My Dave prepared a veritable feast with all the leftovers in the fridge and we had lunch – with wine – sitting outside The Van (see piccie below). Then had a lazy afternoon…

When I’d previously Googled “Things to do in Benidorm” top of the list was a show called “Terra” described as “A tribute to mother nature and planet Earth, our home” featuring “dinner with live music, visual attractions, humour, and magic, Illuminated with 250 square meters of innovative, high-definition LED screens”.

And for me – that’s what gave it the edge – these massive LED screens with magical, ever-changing backdrops at the back of the widest stage I have ever seen (and Dave and I HAVE seen a few shows – including Shanklin Theatre (!), Sydney Opera House, Las Vegas, Sun City in South Africa to name but a few – and this was up there with the best of them…)

So we arrived just after 8pm (& it was only a 7 minute walk from the campsite) and had an “official” photo taken (plus more “official” photos at the dinner table later but we didn’t purchase any as we BOTH looked MASSIVE (my sister would say “we look well” !!!) – too much “good living” so we are BOTH DEFS on a diet when we get back…)

We ordered a bottle of fizz 🥂 and then the food appeared consisting of:-

… and it was all bloddy lovely 😋

A band rose up out of floor as we ate playing Jazz – so Dave was happy (listening to a sax 🎷 TWO nights on the trot !!!). When they finished a band with a singer appeared and sang “crowd pleasers” and the peeps who weren’t eating got up to dance !!!

Then the main show started at 10pm and you weren’t allowed to take photos or video any of it but I’ve grabbed a few photos from t’internet of the bits that we saw – and it WAS tremendous…

… and we were safely home & tucked up in bed by 1am 😴

Another fun-filled evening 😊

(BUT at the best part of £200 for the evening, we’re on rice & beans for the next few days 😂)

P.S. From the previous post – first piccie below is of a “double” mobility scooter – as we sat on “the front” yesterday, we literally must have seen about 30 “single” mobility scooters (oooh forgot to say – one of which rammed somebody in the market earlier in the day & there was a RIGHT hoo-ha !!!) and a dozen of these new “double” ones (that neither of us had seen before) !!! It is BIG business over here 💰 !!!

Anyway, so after we’d polished off the second litre of sangria, we bibbed back to the Old Town as Dave had spotted a place the previous night that looked like it did a good steak. However – for Spain – even in January – 6pm is a little early & the place wasn’t yet open so we ended up at the place next door and My Dave had a sirloin – rare (and it was nearly moo-ing – he said it was cooked well) and I was a bit let down – I felt a bit rushed (as the guy had come to us twice) so ended up with a Spanish version of ham, egg & potatoes 🙁

When asked what we’d like to drink, Dave suggested more sangria and I declared I was “Sangria’d-Out” but then ordered a Tinto De Verano (“summer red wine” – red wine, soft drink & ice – mine came pre-made in a bottle and was 4.5% alcohol like an alco-pop – and was essentially the same as Sangria without the marinated fruit !!!) whilst Dave managed to down 2 more beers 🍻

In the Old Town where we ate they had lovely heaters & we were toasty but it gets chilly after about 5pm so I wasn’t looking forward to the cycle back (Dave asked me if I’d like to go on somewhere but I said I’d like a cup of tea back at base… 👵)

We’d got about halfway back when Dave veered off down a side street announcing he could hear singing (and thought it was a karaoke bar) however when we got there there was the most fantastic SAXOPHONIST playing “crowd pleasers” in this English Bar…

We locked up the bikes & went in around 7:30pm. My Dave bought the guy a drink afterwards he apparently does an hour and we caught the second half of his act & he was PHENOMENAL !!! See little video below…

THEN at 8pm this Scottish (or “Scotch” as my sister & I like to call them) guitarist came on – and he was OK – but nothing LIKE as entertaining as the sax guy…

He played until 9:30pm and then “Francesco Jackson” came on – basically he was an MJ dance tribute – he didn’t sing but he had the videos playing in the background and literally was totally in sync with the moves – he was also brilliant !!! See little vid also below…

2 vino blanco’s and 3 cerveza’s later, we cycled back around 10:30pm and I (finally) had my cup of tea and a brioche bun & Nutella – and Dave had a port – and said this morning that he can’t remember coming to bed 😂

But a good time was had by all !!!

P.S. Note to my brother-in-law, Paulie – I am a complete “flat-head” (not “fizz-bomb” or “smart-cut” 😂) on the photos below as I’d been wearing my Ozzie leather cowgirl hat to shield me from the sun all day and had “hat hair” (and I cut my own fringe AGAIN the other day… 🙁 )