Today we have stayed put. This morning I did drive to Colmenar (5 miles away) to get the last few essential food items to see us through to Friday morning when we leave for Toledo. Now that we have a far better local supermarket the food and cooking aspect of our holiday has improved greatly. There used to be the most rubbishy supermarket called Dia in Colmenar. They always lacked what you hoped they would have. Their supermarkets were below the standard of the original Kwik Save establishments at home. They have now gone and Eroski is in the building they used. Eroski City is the brand over the door. Think of Tesco Express and you have the idea.
You can now be sure to get everything you need until after the first weekend when a visit to the Eroski Hypermarket near Velez-Malaga is needed to get absolutely all your requirements. Strangely enough, the white wine they don't have is Rioja Blanco which is a perfect fish accompaniment. We get this from the big store. There is a good selection of goods and now we know the Spanish for key items like sugar we are sorted.
So, today we lounged by the pool and kept going in to cool off. It was superb! Both of us are passing the time reading in between swimming. Pauline has to be helped into the pool but can get out without assistance. In the late afternoon when the sun was over the yard arm I did the usual Pimm's and that went down a treat! Once it was time to start food preparation I poured two Manzanillas for us. Manzanilla is a pale dry sherry that can only be produced at San Luca de Barameda to be given this name. It is our favourite aperitif and we have it at home. There are a lot of bottles ready to sail back home with us. This applies to other wines too!
Tomorrow is our last day at Finca Manolo and we shall miss it till next year. We have decided that this is where we shall be coming till we cannot travel any longer. The locality is one where, whichever way we look, there is a hill or mountain and a valley below. This is the story all over Axarquia. It is a wonderful scenic place wherever you go. Every journey winds round mountains and hills. We know of nowhere to compare it to. This time I have kept an eye out for the police speed cameras but there have been none. It would not have mattered if there was one because I kept to the speed limits.
After tomorrow when we shall, once again, be by the pool, we shall be driving to Toledo where we have reserved a room for two nights at the Parador. This means that on Saturday we shall be looking at the various Toledo sights. I have located our favourite spot for lunch and we shall be visiting a medieval synagogue and a monastery that has been on our list for some time. In the evenings we shall be sampling the lovely Parador food! On Sunday we shall start the second leg of our journey to Santander when we shall meet up again with Marisa and Manuel at Hotel Chateau La Roca. On the Monday we board the Pont-Aven for our cruise back to Portsmouth. On Tuesday we break our drive to stay with my cousin in Sutton Coldfield. He and his wife use the same ferry to spend 3 months in Spain and Portugal each winter/spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment