Why Wasn’t I Told??

Why didn’t anyone think to tell me that Joe Cocker died? I only found out a couple of days ago, by a casual remark from a neighbour, that he died just before Christmas. I'm still reeling from the shock. My teenage hero – RIP. Really though, it's amazing he lasted this long.

Anyway despite this news we managed to have a fabulous birthday celebration. Turning 59 didn’t seem so bad in my favourite city with the sun shining. Yes, my birthday treat was 2 nights in an apartment in Sevilla and lunch in my favourite restaurant.

 

Lunch Day 1

Birthday Lunch - Day 2

Birthday lunch

Lunch Day 3

We did all our favourite haunts again, and even found a new bar – a very Spanish bar, that hadn’t been redecorated since 1932, approximately. The food was outstanding.

 

Sevilla Alcazar - just to prove we didn't just eat and drink

We really thought this would be our last visit to this gorgeous city, however as fate would have it we are destined to return, not once, but twice! Friends from Texas announced they’d be in the vicinity 2^nd week of Feb, and then friends from Glasgow emailed to say they’d be around for the first few days of Feb. Who are we to say no?

The weather in El P continues to be sunny and warm, but a storm is forecast for the next few days. We’ll just hunker down and wait for the sun to return. It is a really social campsite this year and we have made more new chums, and with friends from previous years about to arrive, it’s going to be a fun last 2 weeks.

 

Nearby Cadiz

Enough of me raving about our lifestyle in sunny Spain. The pics say it all.

PS: Lawrence bought me a new vegetable peeler for my birthday – last of the big spenders. But check it out! This little shop in Sevilla is a treasure trove. They now have an online option - could be dangerous. After all, how could you resist a gadget that will produce square boiled eggs!

Vegetable peeler that slots onto you finger...

Ferreteria/Kitchen Shop
www.bazarvictoria.es

And a Happy New Year ...

Our Christmas lunch was fabulous and we felt so very smug when we learnt that Sydney had the wettest December 25 since 1942. We were in 23 degrees and sunshine.

 

Christmas Lunch in El Rocio

Back in El P we settled into our pitch and prepared for New Year. The campsite this year seems to be mainly Poms, Germans and French. We met a really fun bunch of Brits and decided to celebrate NYE together, starting with a fabulous late lunch in a nearby restaurant.

The speciality of the house is steak and you can choose your meat from the fridge. Lawrence and I both decided to try fighting bull meat. Now, before you rush off to ring PETA, let me explain the philosophy behind this. The bulls are raised in ideal conditions, free range, grass fed and well cared for. OK they do meet a grisly end, and I’m in no way defending the ‘sport’ of bull fighting, but all cattle meet a grisly end and these have had a good life – better than most. Do you really want the meat to be thrown away or put into dog food? It was good, and we took the leftovers home to make a steak sandwich.

 

NYE lunch with the Brits

The aim was to have a very late siesta and head into to town for midnight and see the Spanish New Year in. We arrived about 11.15pm, and were surprised to find that all the bars were closed. The place was deserted, you could have shot a gun off and not hit anything moving. A ghost town. We found a couple of policemen and they said the bars won’t open until 1.00 am. 

 

Deserted El P at 11.30pm on NYE

So, we walked backed to the campsite and partied with the Germans. They were all wandering around with bottles of Cava and having a grand time. We did lots of “Gutes Neue Yahre” and joined in the fun.

The French slept through it all.

We entertained an Australian couple of new year’s day and had prawns on the Barbie for lunch.

 

Prawns on the Barbie

Our weather continues to be amazing and we'll stay here as long we have sunshine.

Celebrating our new windbreak - for when the chilly breeze arrives.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas ...

Merry Christmas to all our readers.

We are back in El Rocio and loving it. It's such a laugh and the entertainment is free.

Lunch is booked for 2pm and we have a date with some friends for pre-lunch bubbles. So don't expect any sense from us after lunch. The sun is shining and we are very happy about that!

Hope Santa brings you lovely goodies and you have a wonderful day.

Here's some pics to keep you entertained.

Favourite eatery in El P

Camping in El Rocio

Nit-picking

The nit-pickers (I ain't naming names) have pointed out that Mulhacen is NOT the highest mountain in Spain. That's in the Canaries. Our mountain is the highest mountain in mainland Spain. 

Details, details. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story I say.

Bar Hopping and Photo-Shopping

Since we last met, we’ve been gallivanting around some of our favourite parts of Spain.

We met Darren and Clare in Sevilla as planned along with another Bimobil couple, Ginny and Al. We took our pals on a bar crawl of our favourite watering holes in Sevilla – an easy and fun task. No shortage of fabulous bars in Sevilla. We've tried most of them over the years.

 

Best bar in Sevilla

Next day, we set off for Ronda, parked in a lovely campsite and lazily spent the afternoon sitting in the sun drinking wine and playing Scrabble. We then set off for the Sierra Nevada with the others joining us later.

We led our mates astray again by walking into the local village and – you guessed it – found a great bar. It was an hilarious afternoon. Much wine, fabulous free tapas, and a group of Spanish walkers singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.

Then we got serious, after all we had 3 off-road campers that needed testing and some filming and publicity shots to take. We took a brilliant road up to the base of Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Spain (3,200m). The road was very narrow, steep and bendy. Some of the hairpins took 3 point turns to manoeuvre (Boris having the turning circle of a barge), but the trickiest part was getting through the village. We caused some heads to turn. You can imagine the narrow, winding streets of a Spanish hill town.

 

3 x Bimobil

Hill Town

In the Snow - near Mulhacen

From the high Sierra we went south to the Alpujarra (low sierra) and camped near the hippy-ish town of Orgiva. We did another great road and got loads of good footage and photos.

After saying farewell to Al and Ginny, the 4 of us headed to the Med for some R&R (you may laugh). Happily we found a beach spot with no karaoke, no line dancing and no bingo.  3 days of sun, seafood and cheap wine and we felt ready to tackle anything. Clare and Darren had to return to the UK and we headed back to Sevilla (our all-time favourite city).

 

Pretty Part of the Med

The forecast for the weekend was so dire that we decided to hole-up in a cheapo apartment to weather the storm – a good decision, as storm it did. In a city that boasts some of the best bars going, we got stuck during a rainstorm in what is probably the crummiest bar in town – oh well, it was only for an hour.

We then did an overnighter in our favourite Pueblo Blanco, Grazalema, and did a brilliant walk in the mountains accompanied some of the way by a herd of Ibex. This is my favourite region in Spain – beautiful, rugged and untouched. We’ll get back there next year for a few days walking, having sussed out a great place to ‘wild camp’ in Boris.

Grazalema - OK you've seen photos of this place before - but ain't it lovely?

There's Ibex in them thar Hills

Next stop Conil, on the Atlantic coast to catch up with Sophie, the Golden Retriever. Her Mum and Dad (Tony and Kelveen) kindly cooked us dinner and plied us with wine - thanks!

So now we are back in El Puerto de Santa Maria (not sure why we had to choose a place with such a long winded name – will be known as El P from here on in). Weather has been mixed but yesterday was glorious - sunny, warm, wonderful. Forecast is good and we’ll head to El Rocio for Xmas (the horsey town). We’ll come back here for hopefully a month. Our mates who live in Brittany should be here early in the new year, and will be fun catching up.

I’m planning another shopping trip to Jerez with Jan, so much more fun to do a girls’ day without impatient men standing outside looking at their watches.