Up, up and away!

As the weather improves we’ve had the chance to head up into the mountains. Most people who visit Benidorm probably don’t even notice the stunning mountains that surround us, never mind visit them, but we have been very fortunate to do so.

When a message appeared on my phone from Jamie that read ‘we will pick you up at 12.30 and head to the mountain’, I was intrigued.    

Justin and Jamie work most nights until very late so any time we get to spend with them is precious, but this was a really special day. As we headed off the mist was still hanging around so we weren't sure if we would get to see much if anything in the hills.

We wound our way up through villages, along twisting and turning on roads - that we really wouldn’t fancy taking Agy up. Their little car sped up them with no problem at all. Every so often we got a glimpse of what was to come, but most of the time we were just climbing between buildings or netting.

Almost all of the hillsides as we headed uphill were terraced. The netting covered orange trees were thankfully not as ugly as the landscape of vast plastic greenhouses we saw a few years ago further south in Almeria.

Although I have talked about the recent rain here, the reality is Spain has been suffering with severe dry weather and droughts for many years, so most of the hillsides are barren, dusty cream coloured wasteland. Where there are orange or olive groves, they are often terraced and fed by ancient, community-managed irrigation systems called acequias.

These often date back to the 8 - 10 century and are used to manage the water supply fairly across a community's farm land. They are built into the hillside and are a system of narrow channels  that have little gates that can be opened and closed to divert water to different branches. They are usually self managed by the farming community who agree the timings for each gate to be opened and closed and rely on everyone playing their part so the sparse water is fairly distributed and the whole community benefits. Such a simple system that works beautifully. They aren’t always easy to spot as they can be well hidden, but you can see a small part of one here.

After a short drive we popped out of the end of a village called La Nucia and found ourselves looking over the hillside into several hilltop villages. It was stunning! It wasn’t easy to get photos as the mist still hung in the distance, but here is a taste of what we saw.

After a delicious lunch at a local restaurant recommended by Justin and Jamie we headed back downhill, stopping for a drink on the way down and before we knew it, we were  back on a familiar road and our campsite came into view. A perfect day out!

The votes are in, and we're out!

 

During a couple of days of rain, we couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm to go out. We preferred being in Agy, she’s our home from home, and so very comfy and warm, when it's windy or wet.

However, as St Patrick's day approached, the crowds began to build, the place started to buzz and the vibrant shade of green began to be seen about the place. Some local shops literally removed almost all their other tat (sorry souvenirs/ clothing) and embraced the Irish ancestry apparently the whole of Benidorm professes to have. Of course Ian really can claim his Irish heritage having researched his family history.

We made the decision to go for it. Put on our green clothing and go out. But then Monday 17th March arrived. As we lay in bed that morning the rain was deafening. Agy is metal, and she knows how to announce a rainstorm! There are times we have to pause the smaller of our two  TVs as we have no chance of hearing it, and although generally we love the sound, at 2am, it can be less appealing.

As the day wore on I had to wash up, we’d used every bit of crockery and cutlery and so I dashed out during a brief respite and made it to the washing up area. There, a Dutch lady I often meet while doing the dishes - where we usually say hi and get on with the task in hand - was keen to ask me if I was English. And having established I was, she looked at me with an expression of total bewilderment and asked, “What is St Patrick’s day?” She and her husband had been into town and it was crazy there. She’d asked some of the people she met, but was none the wiser. I suspect they had had a few drinks by the time she was asking, so I quickly filled her in, explaining he was the Irish Patron Saint, and although you wouldn’t think it from the people celebrating in Benidorm, was actually the person who brought Christianity to Ireland and March 17th celebrates his death. I don’t think she could quite understand how the Catholic Saint related to the revellers she met.. 

Sprinting back to Agy; so my freshly washed dishes weren't swimming in a full bowl of rainwater, we decided the shop on site definitely a little too far to get fresh bread, so we raided the fridge for lunch, and made the decision it wasn’t going to be our night to go out. However, as a bit of motivation I thought I’d ask our friends on Facebook what we should do. These people are clearly a party animal bunch… or like to live vicariously through others, or maybe are just glad we too were having a bit of poor weather; as they (all bar one who made a most wonderful suggestion to stay in and listen to Val Doonican) voted for us to ‘put our big coats on and embrace the madness’. So we did. 

Thankfully, by the time we were ready to go out the rain had stopped and the wind had dried most of the puddles. We took a quick snap of us leaving Agy in the dark and ventured out.

As you walk from the campsite into town you pass the local dog park (a fab little area, all fenced in where doggie friends meet daily for a good sniff and bit of agility course competitiveness. It was ominously empty. The streets nearby were quiet.. Perhaps everyone else had decided to stay in.

How wrong can you be?

The welcome banner (and loud thumping music) as we made our way towards ‘The Strip’ gave us some indication of the fun and mayhem to follow. Within moments we were surrounded by revellers in green and orange, in sparkly skirts, incredible hats and everyone very much adopting the Irish Saint as their own.  

Some of our favourite spots were just too full, even for us, when it’s 10 deep in the road as the bar is full, it was a bit too much! We found a spot in a busy, but  not overfull bar called “The Brit Stop” (a London Underground Station themed bar), and settled in. The Guiness went down well and the party was in full swing.

I think the night can best be described by an encounter at the bar. There I was waiting my turn next to a lady celebrating her 50th birthday dressed as a Granny in a fab wig with rollers - a highly attractive outfit. She had the barman and I crying with laughter as she tried to negotiate paying with her bill with pound coins rather than Euros and couldn’t grasp why the barman wanted to return her money. It was goodhearted, funny, involved a fabulous costume, friends looking out for each other and totally bonkers conversations. 

There were numerous costumes, and we definitely felt underdressed, but the hats totally stole the night. We did at one point spot a man in a fab hat. I said to Ian, “Look at his hat! Do you think I could borrow it for a photo?” so off I popped to ask  - after all why wouldn’t you ask a stranger if you could have a selfie with their hat? He was more than happy to oblige, and before we knew it, Ian had one on too and here is the result!

They had purchased them from the “Carroll’s” department store in Dublin in anticipation of Paddys day.  We clearly hadn’t planned ahead enough!

The whole night was very good natured, there were plenty of very drunk people, in fact we spent a fair bit of time dodging wobbly legged groups of friends singing loudly, but we loved it!

As happens with all good night’s out it ended with a curry. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the worst curry we have ever had (we took this before starting!), but overall, a great night was had and we can tick off St Patrick’s day in Benidorm, one of the places it is apparently famous for being celebrated.  

      

The middle aisle

 We’ve had a few days of rain since we’ve been here, so haven’t been out and about as much as we’d planned… We’re not complaining; it’s warm and we have had several sunny days, but since it is ridiculously busy in town (apparently it’s the busiest week of the year), we have stayed local and pottered about.

However, we have been doing the odd ‘compare and contrast’ review of the local supermarkets. If you are of a similar age to us, those words may  take you straight back to O and A Levels, so I hope you aren’t too traumatised to continue reading.

We’ve an Aldi, Lidl and Masymas all within about 10 mins walk of our campsite as well as several of  the fabulous Chino shops.

What is a Chino shop? (and is she being exceptionally rude?) I hear you cry! 

No, I am absolutely not, as you can see they are self named and fabulous! A sort of mixture of a pound shop, B and M, and The Range, and we love them! The window gives a glimpse of the more bizarre items available, but inside is a treasure trove.

From sliders to screws.    

Small electrical  to plastic tablecloths.

Sewing and craft supplies (I may have over purchased ribbon - but all of this was similar to the price of a few meters at home), to Paella pans.

And the most random item that made me chuckle most - a bedpan!!

These are fabulous shops where you will find whatever it is you need, and plenty of others that you don’t! The quality is generally acceptable, and it is possible to spend hours wandering around. We’ve been to a few, but this one up the road from our winter abode has managed to meet all our needs to date, only surpassed by the one we visited last year with Jamie and Justin - that was on a whole other scale!

Of course, when we have exhausted the Chino shop, there is always Aldi and Lidl to explore. I can categorically say for us, here, Lidl is far superior to Aldi.

Aldi has super cute little trolleys, and their middle aisle is densely populated with very different produce to those at home - has anyone seen a whole leg of cured ham in a UK Aldi? That said, we left empty handed. Just not feeling the food we found was for us. Interestingly, and somewhat worryingly for me given my allergies, we discovered crustaceans and molluscs in many products you just wouldn’t expect them. Fresh breaded chicken, spaghetti carbonara packets, yes I know we can make it ourselves and at home we would, but it’s convenient in a packet when we’re in the van (unless it tries to kill you - that’s slightly inconvenient to be honest!). Thankfully Jamie had warned us, so we carefully check every ingredient list when we shop for food in Spain.

However, Lidl is a dream (although not open on a Sunday!). I’m loving wandering the aisles. The choice of breadsticks alone could captivate me for hours - I’m working my way through the different versions and will try to remember to provide feedback once my research is complete.

The fruit and veg are plentiful, tasty and delicious. They actually  taste like veg used to…

The shelves full of beans, bottled veg, olives etc. are colourful, very different to the occasional jar of pulses we get at home and there are a great variety of choices. I love things like this, Ian not so much, so I have resisted to date as storage is minimal and we are eating out a fair bit, but some might make the journey home!

There are however other significant differences, and I don’t think you find these in UK Lidl, but maybe I am just more observant here. Pigs trotters are definitely not something I have seen anywhere other than a butcher at home.

The frozen section has all the usual things, but (and as you will realise from my allergy comment, not something I generally look at when shopping) the selection of sea based frozen creatures was mind boggling to me. There were enormous whole fish, bags of sardines, small worm like substances even with google translate I was baffled by (any ideas??) and even what appeared to be a pick and mix seafood style. 

One reassuringly familiar section though was Lidl Middle aisle.. You can’t beat a Parkside selection of random tools and such to fill up your already bulging garage.

The only other ‘proper’ supermarket we have visited thus far  is Masymas, sadly no internal photos, but I can say they have fabulous fruit and veg, but are a little pricier than Lidl.

In summary Lidl is our favourite for a mix of local and recognisable produce at great quality and price. Masymas provides quality produce but is so not cost effective and carries a smaller range of products. Aldi was certainly cheap, but it just didn’t have food we wanted to eat.

However, if there was a shop that sums up rainy day Benidorm based shopping for us, it is the Chino shop, a veritable feast of the useful, tacky and quite frankly bizarre.