Home from home

Excitement built as we caught glimpses of The Rock, appearing and disappearing behind hills. A great white craggy blur, off in the distance. We have been to Gibraltar many times and we love it. On cruises, long weekends and to do our RYA sailing exams.

We have arrived by air and by sea, but never by road, and although all are dramatic, the drive showed us a very different perspective, when all at once  we saw the ‘other side’, the lush green slopes rising up to  the rocky point. This time we were discovering how Gibraltar sits in the Spanish landscape and then before you know it our journey was complete, and there it was in all its majestic glory  before us.

As we crossed the border from Spain into Gib in the van, the border control guards took away our passports and Agy’s V5, vanishing into an office as we nervously waited, back he came, checking who knows what, and then we moved forward on to the next officer who  took our passports once more. She was not happy with us. These dodgy British people had not been stamped into Spain, yet here they were now leaving Spain and entering Gibraltar. Fortunately her fellow officer pointed out we probably drove from France (where we were stamped in) and grudgingly she let us were through, Next the British border police asked if we were intending to stay the night, quickly telling us it was forbidden, but that was Ok, we were driving in to fill up with diesel (£1.24 L) and pop to Morrisons (as you do!).

As you leave the border posts you immediately hit the runway for the airport, in fact you drive straight across the middle of it. A very strange experience the first time you cross it, but we knew what to expect, and where to go, so off we went, past the old walls, round the marina where we have spent many a happy hour, and did a bit of shopping.

On our way back to Spain an hour or so later the Spanish guard wasn’t interested in seeing any documents - waving us through with a nod. So now we're back in Spain without a stamp in our passports!!

We planned to stay in the Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea as we knew from our sailing stay this was possible, and it is a fab place to watch the sky darken and The Rock light up.

We did walk back into Gib for a meal that evening, and once again a bemused officer stamped us out having noted we hadn’t been stamped in! And another stamped us back in later when we returned with full tummies. All most bizarre! In Spain chaos is frequently standard operating procedure.

From here we started wending our way north leaving the coastal resorts, heading to more historic parts of Spain that are new to us.

What price are we paying?

The rain in Spain.....Oh my word, did it rain, as we left Vickki and Darren we had a plan. We were heading along the coast for a few days by the beach near Almeria. As we travelled the clouds looked spectacular over the mountains but as the roads turned to rivers and visibility dropped, the clouds began to look angry and foreboding. It went from bad to worse rather quickly.

We have been thinking of possibly heading to Spain for a few months over winter and so decided to have a look at one of the possible sites - thankfully we arrived there before the rain was too awful to see how bad it was. The campsite in question had the appearance of a shanty town combined with the smell of something rather unpleasant. Unsurprisingly rather than staying, we quickly searched for somewhere else to stay and find respite. During the drive the motorway turned into a river, such is Spanish drainage!  Thankfully Agy's new tyres hardly noticed, throwing water out and gripping like mad.

The next morning you’d never known the biblical rain had even happened at Camping Los Gallardos. The sun shone brightly and we could head south again.

I have very mixed feelings about the drive from there along the Autovía del Mediterráneo. Some parts were stunning, others totally covered in poly tunnels and rubbish. Miles and miles, as far as the eye can see of plastic and junk, all so we can have cheaper tomatoes, salad leaves and worst of all (in my opinion) cut flowers. 

The damage this must cause to the environment is huge, when the plastic starts to fail and  break up, it just gets dumped, or blows away, presumably into the sea, or buried for future generations to unearth, and wonder what on earth we were thinking. 

Nothing is worth that, I’d much rather pay a bit more and have a bit less salad. I love cut flowers (although Ian is allergic to many), but a pretty house, is it worth the price? I’d heard all about this, and was expecting to see them, but I was shocked when I saw the shear scale of it.

After a few days at the beach on a site close to Estepona to do the household tasks like washing and cleaning - They stay with you even in the van, we set off for another favourite location of ours. A little home from home and our furthest point south on this trip.  

 

An Unplanned diversion!

We knew we were heading south from Benidorm, but didn’t know exactly where, turns out we were heading to VillaMartin. Not somewhere we had ever heard of or ever expected to visit, but we are so glad we did.

As I shared my story about my cocktail in Benidorm, one of my school friends messaged me to say she lived only an hour away and  would we like to visit? How would I say no to that! We could stay in their street - in fact they offered us their spare bedroom, but we always stay in Agy when she’s with us, so the street it was. 

Vickki and I knew each from school, and a little bit of frantic mental arithmetic( possible due to the most wonderful teacher....) we worked out it was at least 35 years since we last saw each other, so (we both confessed later) we were a bit nervous about how it would go, and of course Darren and Ian had never met!

Well, we needn’t have worried! What a blast we had. They have the most beautiful home they have also recently renovated, and live in a place that is a real mixture of Spanish and British cultures. The pace is Spanish, the people mainly British. We talked about anything and everything, had far too many drinks and delicious meals in the local Plaza and stayed longer than planned.

Ian made a new friend (well we both did, but you know how much Ian loves dogs). Remarkably he wasn’t very allergic to Pip (a working cocker) either, so if Vickki hadn’t come back from work when she did, there might have been a new family member joining our tour. Mind you Vickki was keen on Agy, so we had to keep a close eye on her too!

If you are looking for a holiday place and you have access to a  hire car, I’d recommend stopping here, you could eat out in a different restaurant every evening for a week or more, there’s a huge (and I mean huge) shopping centre just 5 minutes away (we were a little later than planned arriving, as we diverted  to check it out!) and you aren’t far from several airports with cheap flights - oh and Vickki and Darren (who is just delightful) have a lovely holiday apartment you could rent too.

(extra photo of Pip, because somehow he stole our hearts and camera attention more than anything else!)

There aren’t too many photos as we were too busy talking till the early hours, so as we headed off we knew we needed to find somewhere we could stop and catch up on sleep!   Little did we know what Espana had in store for us!

Benidorm beckons

As we left Pineda and Calella we wound our way through the most amazing scenery. You never see the real Spain when you fly, and I can tell you it’s beautiful. We may be heading to one of the largest holiday resorts in Spain, but the mountains are stunning. As we had a fair way to go we stuck to the toll roads, although in Catalonia these are now all free since all tolls have been removed. We travelled past olive groves and orange trees, hill forts, steep cliffs and deep gorges. We loved it.

Arriving in Benidorm was interesting! We took a slightly wrong turn (although a perfectly reasonable route) just before we arrived at the campsite down a tiny narrow country lane. In front of us was a  huge motorhome towing a big  box trailer. Lets say his decision to reverse directly at us at speed brought out the Spanish heat in us, we were able to shout, beep and gesticulate just as passionately as he could. Fortunately Agy was unscathed after some quick thinking and manoeuvring by Ian and we arrived at the campsite well ahead of Mr Angry and got the pick of the pitches looking out over Benidorm one way and toward the dramatic mountains the other.

You may be wondering why on earth we would head to Benidorm, we aren’t from Yorkshire (well, I do have Yorkshire heritage, but I am not a Yorkshire resident) nor are we on a Hen or Stag weekend; the population that seems to take over this Spanish town each year.  

No we aren’t, but Benidorm is part of our story together. In November 1988 Ian took me on our first holiday there together, just before I started my training as a nurse. Mum and dad did not approve, but we did! So off we went. Over our holiday there we fell in love with the totally crazy holiday life there. I used to drink Tequila Sunrises, and had my first waffles drenched in hot chocolate sauce, we just didn’t have that sort of thing at home. Oh they were delicious, and after a little searching  we found the very waffle shop we frequented all those years ago, and later the same day  I sipped my cocktail as we talked about our memories and adventures since.

Another reason for visiting was to drop in and see Ian’s friends Jamie and Justin that he used to share a stage with many years ago. They have lived locally for many years and perform regularly under their professional name “The Timewarp Duo”. They are fabulous! Both as performers and people. It is funny how you can go 20 or more years between seeing people, and it feels as if you have never been apart.

We had the most amazing time, we sat in the shade and watched the world go by, and we found little bars near the site that the locals frequented, we ventured into town in the daytime, and for just one evening of madness and mayhem, and Ian tasted his very first Tapas, despite having visited Spain numerous times, and I tried my first Tinto Verano (a fizzy drink similar to Sangria). We highly recommend both!

We also lay in bed all warm and cosy as a huge thunderstorm rolled overhead one morning, banging and crashing around us. Spain in spring brings a myriad of weather and we experienced it all (well we thought we did - more of that in another blog!)

On our first evening in the main hubbub of the tourist hotspot we received free vodka shots with our beer (we think because we tried out our fledgling Spanish to order when nobody else did), later in the local bar each beer was paired with tapas.  To be honest, the Tapas was better for us, but we downed the vodka (Icelandic, not Russian the barman carefully pointed out) with somewhat more gusto than the Tapas….

We did of course also spot the scooters made so famous by Mel’s scooter shop in the TV series set here. There was no way we could miss them!. They are everywhere, mainly ridden by people perfectly capable of walking, often shouting beep beep as they try to pass you at high speed, when they have a perfectly good horn on board!

I don’t know what it is, but there is something about Benidorm we both still love, even though this time we seemed to gravitate towards the little bar the local police stopped at for their coffee breaks over the dodgy night time entertainment at full volume till 4am, but Camping Villa Sol served us well. I suspect we may return and if you have never been, you should, just once.