24 January 2012 SYDNEY Tuesday

Home Sweet Home.

Welcome to sunny Sydney - or not!  It's raining bucket loads and will be for the whole week.  So much for having better weather at home than in England.

Our flight was pleasantly uneventful again, except for several seriously coughing babies, otherwise all good.  We had to stop by Matt's work to be "given the Key to the front door" by our 21 year old son!  Tee hee, role reversal.

Longing for a coffee, we looked in the fridge to find - NOTHING!  Checked the pantry - NOTHING!  Off to the grocery store at 11PM!!

Wonderful to be home.
I won't be updating the blog on a daily basis while we're at home.  We will be here for a month before we leave again for the second leg of our trip, so I will update once a week, just to keep it active.

23 January 2012 HOMEWARD BOUND Monday

The big fly home.

We left Heathrow in the morning after a relaxing brekky in the Qantas lounge and flew, uneventfully, into Singapore.
Between leaving the plane and re-boarding, we had all of half an hour at Singapore airport.  It was just enough time to stretch our legs and freshen up before leaving for Sydney.

22 January 2012 LONDON Sunday

Back to London, but what a pleasant surprise - no snow!  After our 3 hour flight from Faro and 2 buses later we arrived at our hotel to be greeted just minutes later by Kit and Dal - YAY!

Off we all went for lunch, in style, in Dal's new car, my favourite, Volvo. Some minor shopping later and this and that, then we went off for dinner to the Wheatsheaf for a good meal and a good laugh.



Home in the morning - yippee.

21 January 2012 FARO Saturday

A short 2 hour drive got us back to Faro airport today to hand back the hire car and check-in to our overnight hotel, the Frangaria.  We heard from several independant sources that the Frangaria Restaurant is well-known for it's Portuguese Chicken and, really, who goes to Portugal and doesn't have Portuguese chicken! However, first was lunch and then I was sidelined for the rest of the afternoon with a debilitating headache - NOT alcohol induced.  I tried to hydrate it away, that didn't work over a couple hours, so I tried to sleep it away and that didn't work either.  By 5pm my head was visibly pulsating so I walked slowly to the the nearest Farmacia, which was closed and eventually became so desparate that Al and I got a cab to an open Farmacia to get headache tablets.  I was then knocked for a 6 on the bed for 2 hours, hence the lack of sightseeing in Faro.
Once I felt relatively normal again, we went to sample the famous Portuguese chicken.

20 January 2012 ISLA VALDECANAS Friday

Now there's a wake-up call I can respond to.

After a short sojourn to El Gordo, population - 5, where we found the Ibis Tower

...we made our way down to Seville.  The streets of Seville are all lined with mandarin/naartjie trees which look so cheerful, also, every block of buildings has at least one beautiful intricately built building.  An easy-on-the-eye city indeed. 

I know it looks awful with the street lights, but I only took photo's from the car because we were in transit and only had a quick overnight stay.

As well as Seville's sidewalk's lined with mandarin trees, the motorways are lined with citrus trees for miles and miles.

We decided to have lunch at the hotel for convenience and ordered Ham Croquettes of Typical Stew with the waiters exact translation like this "like soup but with meat".  What we had was four breaded croquettes of mashed potato on lettuce! Lost in translation is an understatement. Like "stir most seriously" when Greg made cheese fondue.

The receptionist recommended a Spanish restaurant to us for dinner, called Rencon de Menolo, where we did have a most delicious oxtail dinner.  As some of you may know, I've been wanting to pick my own fruit from a farm for months, so on our walk back to the hotel, Al very kindly picked mandarins off the sidewalk trees for our brekky because I couldn't reach them!  They were a bit sour with many pips but I still felt so country-like.



19 January 2012 ISLA VALDECANAS Thursday

So this morning was no better with having to take Greg to the airport to fly home too.
Soon after, Al and I left Madrid for our overnight stop near Navalmoral de la Mata via Berrocalejo where only one man and his dog reside and whom we had the good fortune to meet so that he could point us in broken English to the Husa Hotel on Isla Valdecanas.
The Hotel is part of a golf estate occupying the entire privately owned island.  Being an island, each golf tee has en entirely different view, sometimes mountain, then beach, lake, trees, just incredible.  We took a joy ride around the estate on a golf buggy taking in the sights.

Spectacular sundowner drinks on our balcony and a superb dinner finished off our day just so!

18 January 2012 MADRID Wednesday

The local shopping mall beckoned today and after lunch, sadly, we had to take Matt to the airport to fly back home to Sydney.  It was absolutely wonderful having my family together, but 1 more night and Greg goes home too, then Al and I follow a few days later to be home altogether again.

Here are a few more pics from yesterday's tour.

Dinner at the Compostelo Apartemento Cafeteria tonight and a quiet evening at home. 



17 January 2012 MADRID Tuesday

With the temperature predicted at -3 degrees, we only left the apartment at midday to make our way via autobus and metro to the city centre.  Despite the continued difficulties of the language barrier, we have found Madrid people do try hard to help and managed to order 3 capuccino's and a green tea to take away!  We hopped on the hop-on hop-off bus and enjoyed the magnificent sights of the old buildings. We stopped at the Sabatini Gardens and Palace yesterday and had a walk around the pristine formal garden maze, lunched on paella and sangria and continued on the tour.  I can't tell you any of the history - go to wikipedia for that, it was all too fast, too foreign and too much, but here are one or two of my favourite pics.

City Gate

Miraculously we managed to find our way home, after realising we had not taken any landmarks of our bus stop. A little later we made our way back to the city centre for dinner and a Flamenco show, organised by friends.  Excellent Spanish food and intimate atmosphere and great company at Corral de la Panchero made for a memorable night out.

Danced with so much passion - it was moving to watch.

Now that we knew our landmarks for the bus ride home, we were confident of finding our way - except our bus driver didn't know our stop!  Nevertheless, when we recognised our surroundings I stood up in a split second and announced so the whole bus load could hear "There's our stop" - apparently a few people chuckled but I was too stressed to notice.

16 January 2012 THE RAIN IN SPAIN - (MADRID) Monday

We didn't enjoy our early start with The Rain in Spain today, but we did enjoy this you tube clip from My Fair Lady....I hope you do too.

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Safely in Madrid with freezing temperatures of 1 C.

15 January 2012 CHEERS VILLAMARTIN Sunday

Our last day in Villamartin today so we bade farewell with a final bbq on the rooftop patio and just chilled the rest of the day at home.  Preparing for the long drive tomorrow, packing etc. Its been an interesting stay for us all.

14 January 2012 LA ZENIA Saturday

Today's run was along the beachfront, much like the walkway from Bondi to Bronte in Sydney, with uninterrupted seaviews for the entire run.  We went back to the villa, woke the boys and drove back to the beach with them as soon as they'd appeased the hungry monster and all enjoyed a thoroughly soothing sun-soaking Saturday on the sands of La Zenia beach.

Lunch was equally picturesquely perfect on the beachfront with more zzz's on La Zenia afterwards.

We decided to try the highly recommended Celtic Drop tonight, but quite clearly, whomever reviewed The Celtic Drop online, has not been to Paddy's Point.  This is not to say Celtic Drop was bad at all, mellow music, nice pub but no atmosphere.  We made straight for Paddy's Point as soon as our glasses were empty and what a vibe there was there.  Great barman too, he parted with two huge beer glasses for the boys and two Irish Flag shots for them on our way out.  Al and I came home, but Greg and Matt went to the Australian Bushwacka Club and had a blast until 4am.



13 January 2012 TORREVIEJA Friday

Go kart racing for Greg and Matt today.  They had 2 rounds each, with 2 other guys joining them in their second round.  They had so much fun, but I think Al and I had more adrenalin pumping through our veins from watching them, than they did from racing.
They both improved their time by about 2 minutes in the second round, much to our horror.

12 January 2012 LAS RAMBLAS Thursday

Another peaceful run on Las Ramblas golf course (only short slow runs mind you) and the obligatory lunchtime bbq with a sangria or two to match the ambience.

Back to Las Ramblas golf course for Al, Greg and Matt to hit a couple of buckets of balls on the driving range.  It's very pretty, lined on both sides with massive fan palm type trees and they had fun competing with each other and trying the odd run-up or two.

11 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Wednesday

Late sleep in and cold day chilling at home.

Various photo's from Cartegena yesterday.

10 January 2012 FELIZ CUMPLEANOS GREG Tuesday

Happy Birthday to Greg. 

Al and I started our day with a peaceful run on the golf course, then home to a big fry up for Greg's birthday brekky.

After that, we took a drive to Cartegena, got a strange cinnamon capuccino at some strange cafe and walked to Castille Consepcion.  It was fascinating in that it has been taken over by various leaders over time and displays relics of Islam, Christian and Roman rule.  We saw an ancient delapidated bull ring in the distance from the castle walls, amongst other interesting architecture.

Bull ring.

We walked through quaint cobbled stone alleys, past many typical Spanish apartments to a cafe square and lunched with our table resting on a big wooden barrel.  So good to be amongst the locals, we drove home satisfied.

Later, we got a taxi to Alejandro's Italian Restaurant for a scrumptiously superb dinner and crossed the road to Paddys Point for after dinner drinks and live music.  The atmosphere was heaps festive with someone's 18th birthday taking place and rambunctious dancing happening.  Soon enough Greg and Matt were dancing with local Irish lasses until the wee hours.





9 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Monday

Greg and Matt have a new best friend at the local shops.  He is an accordian playing, Spanish singing man with a total repetoire of one line repeated with much enthusiasm when passers by say something long the lines of, moie bien to him.  A real character.

Souvenier shopping in the afternoon and Matt and I cooked chicken stirfy for dinner.

This is how Al and I beat the boys at card games....

8 January 2012 CABO DEL PASO Sunday

Long drive down to Cabo del Paso this morning.  Walked up to the lighthouse and saw a bride arrive for her wedding in a Ferrarri.  The wedding finished with police escorting a huge motorbike cavalcade. 
We drove on to La Manga, a narrow strip of land separating the Meditarranean from a lagoon.  Had an incredibly tasty Spanish paella right on the lagoon, for lunch and walked far into the lagoon, Mar Menor, which never got deeper than our knees.

7 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Saturday

Drove around to several of the nearby beaches and walked along the promenade.  Matt and Greg took time out to admire the local talent.

Rooftop bbq for lunch.



Back to our local pub, Ginger's, in the village and taxi to Gogarty's Irish Pub in the next village for the next round of drinks. 
Next door at Paddy's Pointer for Irish potato skins and relaxing, mellow live music.

6 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Friday

Phew it's been a worrying few days - I was blocked from internet access because I signed in from a foreign location and couldn't remember my security question's answer - until today.  Yay, I'm ready to catch up, but will keep it brief for easy reading.

Public holiday in Spain - gifting day, so everything closed during the day.  In the evening we walked to the local village accommpanied by natures own art.

A few quiet drinks at the local pub and home again.

5 January 2012 TORREVIEJA Thursday

A very late morning sleep in - probably the latest we've slept in many years and and entire day 'jus chillin'.

Drove down to the beach in the afternoon for a sundowner on the beachfront, watching the sunset and taking in the pretty deep blue Mediterranean.

The dreaded GPS - Samantha is her name - actually tried to make us drive home ON the Esplanade - she's a real psycho!

My choice of movie tonight - Cold Mountain.  Turns out it wasn't much better than the war driven movie last night.

4 January 2012 GRANADA TO TORREVIEJA Wednesday

We have borrowed wifi on our patio - but with the neighbours permission (apparently).

Before we left Granada this morning, we had a quick look around Ahlambra which is a fortress from Moorish times, but we didn't get too close because the queue was 2 miles long and we were in a hurry to leave.

The view from the hill that Ahlambra is built on is so yesteryear with all the authentic old buildings.



Another long drive today, but this time I managed to convince Al to stop at a "restaurant" on the roadside.  He previously insisted on looking for a Maccas/Burger King etc - such a westerner.  Anyhow, the so-called restaurant did leave much to be desired, admittedly.

The Spanish holiday home (first photo) is in an estate with onsite pub and pool and a 5 minute drive to the beach.  We did the obligatory grocery shopping and got down to the business of relaxing and movie watching - don't know what - some gory male avenging war story.

Settled in quite comfortably already!

3 January 2012 GRANADA Tuesday

After an early start and a lengthy drive, we finally made it to Granada in Spain without crossing any semblance of border from Portugal.

A sunset walk around the city centre whetted our appetite for the tapas that Granada is renowned for.  The pub in our hotel, Saray, was first port of call,

 where we met a Melbourne couple who recommended tapas in the city's square, pretty much the social gathering area for friends and family, we soon discovered.  We found a cafe called Matador, but were advised by the waiter that they had to "burn the kitchen" as they had been closed.  We then bumbled our way through the Spanish menu, only to be informed that you order drinks and get free tapas - no problem there.  Good tapas with pork and cheese in a toasted bun.  We realised we were on to a good deal here, so decided to do a tapas crawl through the city. 

As good as our intentions were, we found our second restaurant in the bespoke square, Bebidos, ordered our drinks and recieved said tapas.  These were not as good as the Matador, and so ended our tapas crawl.  However, we left the Bebidos with good bounty in hand, consisting of cappuccino's, hot dipping chocolate and a fist full of churros - doughnut like sugar coated sticks........mmmmmm.

We found Greg's namesake.

After the hustle and bustle in the square between 8pm - 9.30pm, there was no-one about on our walk back to the hotel.  It's like everyone comes out for dinner in that hour and half and then they all just disappear in an instant.  Such a culture shock, but so interesting to be part of it.