Villamartin with the fab 4

 When I introduced you to Jamie and Justin, I explained they had been friends with Ian for many years, but were newer friends for me. This time it’s me that has known Vickki for many years and us both getting to know Darren more, following our previous visit two years ago.

Vickki and I went to school together, I don’t think either of us would say we were close friends, but in a small school with only about 20 of us in each class of course we knew each other well and have lots of shared memories.

Last time we were travelling in Spain Vickki messaged me to say she lives not far away, and that we should come and stay. So we did! We had such a great time, and of course we went back this time!

It turns out Vickki and Darren moved to Spain about the same time we moved to the Island and like us, renovated their new home, which incidentally is a very similar size to our home, but with beautiful parakeets nesting in the nearby trees, rather than starlings, blue tits and robins.

Villamartin is apparently well known to many UK golfers, and from our experience it is certainly popular. The plaza is full of golfers and when we popped up the golf course for a coffee at Vickki’s suggestion, there was a fair queue waiting to Tee off! If you play golf (which we don’t) I’d suggest it is the place to be in the winter months - Vickki and Darren even have a fab apartment available to rent while you stay!

https://www.inthesunholidays.com/villamartin-plaza/listing-1739?fbclid=IwAR2EfA0ocQcDbafpEej0-2YX2uPbyNmOL4TxRg0uM6FkqrVbw8MAQZBsTXs

However as non golfers, we didn’t partake in the golfing scene, but we did enjoy everything else the local area has to offer. Fabulous restaurants, fun lively bars with great live music, a brilliant shopping centre very close by and of course great company.

Now, Vickki hates having her photo taken, so we don’t have many photos, but I can tell you we had a wonderful time getting to know them both better and spending time together. It’s not often you find people that are so easy to be with, where you just click, realise you have more in common than you thought and are always sad to leave. Thank you Vickki and Darren for making our time so relaxing and welcoming despite the recent challenges you have faced.

Now although Ian was very keen to see Vickki and Darren again, in fact he was pestering me to get in touch as soon as we decided to head back to the area. I know that there was another reason Ian was so keen to visit, and that reason is Pip.

Pip is a beautiful working cocker and Ian fell in love last time we visited, so before we arrived we had to go shopping for a gift for Pip, spending a while working out what he might like best, thinking back to what he liked last time.. So a new toy was purchased, we think he liked it!

As we arrived we quickly realised we’d let someone else down! Pip was no longer the sole doggie resident. His sister Joy now lives with him, Darren and Vickki having made the trip from the UK when it was agreed she too would prefer living in Spain. Joy is well named. She is an absolute Joy to be with and clearly she and Pip are very happy together, but it did require another shopping trip to find a suitable ball for Joy! 

I can guarantee Ian will be talking about Pip and Joy for many months to come, so please Vickki, Darren send us updates so we know how they are doing.

The end of Benidorm and site top tips

Before I became unwell (in fact possibly where it happened) we had another wonderful day out with Justin and Jamie in Altea. Altea is just to the north of Benidorm, and we had a lovely day, wandering about, eating, drinking and generally putting the world to rights. Ian’s back still wasn’t good at this stage so we couldn’t walk too far, but we saw enough to know we will be back during a future trip and we managed to take a few photos!

As our time in Benidorm comes to an end I thought I’d tell you a bit about the campsite we’ve been staying on. I know some of you have vans, but even if you don’t it has cabins you can hire, and I'd highly recommend it for a low cost winter break.

We have been staying at Camping Villasol. It's about 15 mins walk to the main tourist areas of Benidorm and the Lavante beach area (or a taxi is about 6 Euro). This provides easy access to UK focussed restaurants if that’s what you want, but it's also far enough out of town to be quiet, and near to Spanish orientated bars etc.

It’s a really well kept site with several of the shower/amenity blocks having been very recently revamped. The showers are amazing. Hot, powerful and none of those pesky buttons you need to press every few moments to keep the water running. There’s plenty of space for your clothes to keep them dry and everything is spotlessly clean.

While we were there we ate in the site restaurant a couple of times. We had some fab meals with welcoming and friendly staff.

The outdoor pool was being refurbished while we stayed and it looks like it’s going to be great for the summer season. The heated indoor pool was open and generally only had one or two people in, so plenty of space to swim and splash about.  

As you know, I love finding a bank of washing machines and there are plenty here. You do need to have a strategy to get a free machine though! Here are my top tips (suitable for all sites!) visit the launderette with your phone in hand. Make a note of how long is left on all the machines running, and set an alarm for about 15 mins before the one you want to use will finish. When your alarm goes off, head to the launderette with your bag of washing and a token to operate it (usually purchased at reception - here it was 3.50 Euro), mobile phone and a book to read. Pop your full bag in front of the chosen machine (presuming nobody got there first!) and have a read or chat.

When you spot the machine finishing, hope and pray the owner of the contents appears quickly, otherwise it's time for that awkward moment where you end up removing someone else's undies from the machine, in order for you to deposit your own! Once you have nabbed your machine, worked out how to pick your programme and start it, make a note of the timing left for your wash, set another alarm for 5 mins before it finishes and head back to your van for a quick breather! 

As soon as your alarm goes off for a second time, head back to collect your washing before others empty it and see the state of your smalls. Pray for a sunny, windy day and pop it on the line you have erected on your pitch…

 

All in all Camping Villasol is a great place to stay, full of friendly staff; every facility you could need and spotlessly clean. We’ll certainly be back at some point, if anyone fancies joining us, just shout!

Disaster!

 

Ok, well maybe not a disaster, but to be honest it’s been a shitty few weeks, pun very much intended. For the last 12 days (as I write this) we have been effectively stuck on the campsite. 

Having recovered from the infection I had, and with Ian’s sore back much improved, we were looking forward to getting out and about. The usual stuff, visiting local villages, walking in the hills, nothing too wild. Sadly that was not to be. Following a lovely day out that I’ll share another time, I got food poisoning. High temperature, upset tum and aching joints. At one point mid fever, the pain in my joints was so bad, I convinced myself I had Reactive Arthritis. My time at Versus Arthritis taught me lots https://versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/reactive-arthritis/       

The good news is, I can now confirm I don’t have that, but I have spent much of the last 2 weeks alternating between the bed and the (thankfully close) toilet block.

Ian managed to amuse himself by writing a computer game in a language he’s not familiar with, that included lots of binary maths and conversions from signed to unsigned numbers and back again (if you know me, even in a totally brain functioning state I wouldn’t understand this, never mind in a brain fog fever state). Together we sat it out. 

Lexi came in very handy as Ian headed back and forth to the pharmacy and local shop so he could have some food, even if I couldn’t, and somehow, I have just about come out the other side, albeit tired, eating very small portions.

Thankfully Justin and Jamie rescued Ian one day and took him out to prevent total cabin fever, no photo’s obviously - I wasn’t there to take them! and we did manage a night out before the dreaded lurgy struck, so at least I have something to tell you about!

As you will know by now, we are fans of the TV series Benidorm and in the show the key to a good night out is very much focussed on Neptunes Bar…If you’ve spotted the title picture, you will have guessed our night out! Now although Neptunes is fictional, the external view is real and is called The Morgan Tavern; now also known as Neptunes (obviously!)

The Morgan Tavernis a show bar that has different acts on each hour during the evening, it’s always busy and it’s a real party atmosphere! As you open the door the noise hits you. It’s a wall of sound that throbs through you, you can’t help but be impacted by it. Some would run a mile, I love it!

It’s dark, full of people enjoying themselves, and fairy lights galore!

Fairy lights on the ceiling, round the walls, on people’s heads and for sale for those who want to join the light show literally.

We managed to nap a table as the first act came on. I think Maria is basically the warm up act, but she is brilliant. Big hits, belted out with a great voice. The party has started! The dancing is somewhat wild and the energy level high.

We began to realise that in our old age the padded seats at the side looked much more comfy than the hard high stools, so we toddled off to the padded seats as they became available.

The range of people were incredible, from hen parties in their 20’s dressed as grannies, those in their early thirties who are on a boys trip to Benidorm, groups of pensioners waiting out the winter here (most of Yorkshire and Humberside must be here) to the formally dressed, stereotypical retired Latin school mistress, or winklepicker wearing snazzily dressed widower. Everyone is here! There was nothing holding anyone back, the school mistress danced with the wild abandon of a festival goer and the youngsters showed no sign of the shy, lockdown, slightly anxious around people generation we hear about. Brilliant!

The acts were mixed to say the least! 

Elton John was horrific, I mean painful! He’d changed the key of the classics, but still missed the notes. His showmanship was in the gutter and he quickly emptied the dancefloor and had the audience heading to the bar (maybe that was the plan!). 

The Reggae singer was fabulous.

Next was a Take That tribute. Strangely there were only two of them! Their backing tracks did most of the heavy lifting for them, but they were still fun to  listen to and dance along to.      

 The acts go on till about 3am (but we don’t!) so we left the late night party goers to it and headed back to Agy.

Thank goodness we had a fun night out before disaster struck!

Days out

Being away for so long on a trip that’s not a  ‘road trip’ means life settles into a day to day routine. Every day isn’t a ‘we need to pack it in’ day like most holidays are. As I said last time, it’s more about being in your ‘home away from home’. More days are spent mooching around rather than doing anything particularly exciting, but what is exciting about being here is being able to spend time with friends - long term ones for Ian and new for me.

Justin and Jamie (as I mentioned previously) live locally and as they work many evenings are often free in the day, which makes a perfect time to catch up!

We’ve managed to have a few days out with them (Ian more than me, but more on that later!) which meant we got to explore a bit more of the local area.

Our first trip out was to Calpe (or possibly Calp - it goes by both names in a very Spanish “we can’t agree on this, so we’ll use both” sort of way). Calpe is about a 30 min drive north up the coast from our campsite, so after a few coffees,  we took off the insulated silver screen across the windscreen, rolled off the chocks, packed Agy up and prepared to leave.

Just then, I noticed that someone had recently posted this picture on one of the motorhome Facebook groups, asking if anyone was in Benidorm. This got me very excited, as if you look very carefully and zoom in, you can see the rear of a tiny grey silver Agy right at the top of the picture in the campsite. She’s nestled in between all the big motorhomes! (picture shared with permission).

Having looked at the picture we left our pitch for the day, and headed out.

Until this point we had experienced wall to wall sunshine during the day, so it came as a bit of a shock as we drove north to see a cloud over the nearby mountain and slightly dull skies developing over the Calpe mountains. In fact as we arrived and parked up we decided we needed a jacket and long trousers. This was not the January weather we had come to expect! 

Now, Caple has a quite impressive rock that dominates the view as you drive towards it, in fact the whole drive was fairly spectacular. Benidorm is surrounded by mountains, but as you leave the highway to follow the coastal road you weave through short tunnels, and glimpse signs of the original road to Calpe as you whizz by (in as much as Agy whizzes anywhere). The views really are stunning.

Arriving in Calpe we met up with Justin and Jamie and headed off walking toward the famous rock. We had no idea it was famous, but Justin filled us in on its cultural connections with the Rock of Gibraltar. We decided against walking up the rock (it’s not for the faint hearted we understand). Instead we enjoyed looking up at it, the views toward the town and the sea, and perhaps most importantly making friends with the local cats!   

All in all a fabulous day with fabulous people.