Monday 4 March 2013

The Rain In Spain ........

The rain in Spain is raining mainly on us this afternoon, so time for another update.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece Lily came to stay last week and it was great to see them all. We hadn't seen Darren since we left the UK and hadn't seen Helen and Lily since they came to Paris by bus to visit back last September. (By bus! With a five year old! How brave/stupid (delete as appropriate) is my sister!)

A fine time was had by all with Emma making the most of having someone "proper" to play with (Stephen and I don't count, I think she is pretty bored with us now). Lily had been counting down since the flights were booked and had even made her own boarding card weeks in advance.

The weather was, well, changeable. We had a couple of days when we could sit outside in the sun and then some rain. However, Lily and Emma don't let a thing like rain stop them, and decided that an outdoor mud bath was the order of the day.

 
Oh yes, you can take these two anywhere. So long as you go back and apologise afterwards.

Thankfully, the weather improved, the washing machine did its stuff and the day after we were off the Puerto Banus to look at the super-yachts.

Wow! is all I can say. Pershilla (our boat) would not have felt at home in this marina. She's a lovely boat and fairly long (12 metres / 40 feet) but would have looked like a scruffy midget amongst this lot:


It was like Bond Street-on-Sea, but with more ice-cream parlours.


Yes, those tee-shirts did wash up well. Top marks to Lidl own-brand washing liquid!


Saturday 2 March 2013

Out and About

We haven't really been doing a huge amount here is Spain, as it's nice just to laze around at home on sunny days or go and walk on the beach (we have an impressive and ever-growing collection of shells, stone and sea-glass), hence, not much blogging.

There's just something wonderful about sea-glass, IMHO
But, we have been out and about, our biggest trips so far being to Gibraltar, Mijas and Ronda.

The Rock of Gibraltar

Gibraltar - well, that was a little strange. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got!

I thought Gibraltar, being a tax-free/tax-exile sort of place would be shiny, tidy, wealthy - Bond Street-on-Sea sort of place. Errrrr, no. It's like most English seaside towns, but without the charity shops. Tatty, but not quite quaint. And it's shut on Saturdays. I have no idea why.

It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but one afternoon visiting was enough.

Emma thought it was great, but this was mainly because she got to go on two buses. We had been advised not to drive into Gibraltar, since there was no telling how arsey thorough the Spainish Border Control staff will be on any given day. Also, when driving you have to follow the signs to the next-door Spanish town (La Linea) as Gibraltar isn't on the majority of the roadsigns in Spain, as they don't accept its existance.

The queue into Gibraltar
So, we parked in La Linea, right by the boarder, walked across, and got on a bus to the town centre. The town is quite interesting in parts, being so hilly, but not great for walking around with a grumpy four-year old.

One of the many sets of steps in Gibraltar
However, she cheered up considerably when presented with a chocolate covered waffle in a cafe.



Ronda was another "must do" on our list, and, unlike Gibraltar, did not disappoint. An amazing white-painted hill-top town (and not closed at the weekend) with wonderful buildings, doorways (we love a good doorway) and views.

A side street in Ronda
 

A Good Doorway
Some of the views are not for the faint hearted, to take the picture below I had to step out onto an overhanging ledge (with a nice high rail up, thank goodness) which was suspended over this crevass in the rocks.

 
And, even better, we had some visitors staying, Chris and Sarah, who were escaping the wet, cold and snow in the UK.