All in all

Well, we have returned to Anglesey and life has reverted to normal.   We were welcomed back by wind and rain!

We left Finca Manolo, having met Sue, the co owner with her husband Trevor who we have got to know very well over the last few years.   I got so excited that I dropped and broke a cup!   Sue said it would come out of my wages!

The drive north to Toledo was uneventful but relaxing.   The Spanish motorways are great but carry about 10 per cent of the traffic we get in the UK in the rural areas.   We arrived at the Parador and took over our room for the night.   It was Room 415 as expected.   It is their disabled access room.   It being a week later than last year's stay we dined inside.    However, we were given a table by the window so we saw Toledo by night.   It is a wonderful view at any time of day.   As we looked out we felt the Alcazar (old fortress, renovated after being badly damaged in the civil war) looked as if it was ready for take off into space.

The food and wine were excellent as usual.   Our night's sleep was very restful and we went down to breakfast to be welcomed by a character of a young waitress in charge.   We enjoyed our breakfast and set off for Santander.

Again, we had a relaxing drive all through.   Mind you, our approach to Santander saw the temperature drop to 13 degrees in the mountains!   This was half the temperature as we left Toledo!   Eventually the temperature rose to a normal level as we arrived at Hotel Chateau La Roca.   We were welcomed there by Marisa, the receptionist who speaks no English.   Her body language is hilarious.   We quickly realised she was asking if we had a good holiday.   We gave her the thumbs up!   I took the room key and we took the lift to the next floor where we let ourselves in.   Horror of horrors!   The bathroom was locked.   Back I went to Marisa and managed to tell her we had a problem with the bathroom door.   She came back with me and immediately she knew what to do - "no problem."   Two minutes later she returned with an allen key and opened the door.

That evening, after devouring some of the fruit left for us in the bedroom, we went down to the restaurant, Aida, for dinner.   Our friend, Manuel the waiter, offered us a table in a quieter room and we order a Land and Sea board between us.   This is the Spanish version of Surf and Turf.   It went down well, as did our two large beers.   Yes, we had another great night's sleep!   After breakfast we checked out and Reyes, the manager, came to say goodbye.   She always does this.

We had some time to kill so we drove 30 miles to Comillas and watched the waves rolling in.   I had my binoculars and spotted the Pont Aven approaching Santander.   Soon we drove to Santander ferry terminal and got ready to board the ferry for our 24 hours cruise home.   I queued to book our dinner table and then at 7.30pm we sat down to an excellent meal, as expected.   Next day saw us breakfasting in the restaurant and then reading, reading, reading as the ship slowly brought us to Portsmouth.

Having left the ship, we waited about an hour to get through passport control.   Our next journey was to the Premier Inn in Sutton Coldfield which was close to half way home.   We checked in with the friendly reception staff, one of whom was on a sponsored silence for Macmillan Cancer Support.   The building did not thrill us but the room lived up to the advertised promise of a good night's sleep.   However, the loo in the en suite bathroom threatened to malfunction with a very loose flushing lever!   the meal that evening was describable as adequate but the width of choice was poor.   It was a Flaming Grille so we had to opt for that style of cooking.   There were no table cloths which lowered the standard.   Next day the usual breakfast was very acceptable but I would not recommend this Premier Inn.

Following satnav we left the M6 at Junction 16 and drove through Cheshire to join the A55.   It was a pleasant drive and probably avoided heavy traffic jams farther up the motorway.   We arrived home at 1.15pm.

Looking back, it was a wonderful holiday that did us a power of good.   Later I went over to Bangor to our Circuit meeting.   I was tired after all that!   Tomorrow we celebrate our Golden Wedding so we are off to Rochdale to dine with the family.   We are looking forward to this!

Unforgettable

Today sees our stay in Andalucia come to a close.   Tomorrow we drive to our favourite Spanish city, Toledo.

This morning we bought a massive consignment of wine to bring home.   The car will be full!   On our return we had a pleasant lunch and the we read and swam all afternoon.   The sun was keeping us warm and the sky was cloudless.   Absolutely perfect as an ending!   Our holiday this year has truly been unforgettable.   We have found a level of relaxation we have never known before.

We have learned quite a lot about Spanish cuisine this time with staying at different Paradores where the chefs have based their work on local tradition and produce.   This will show itself in cooking later in the year.   We have enjoyed the wine and the beer.   The coffee we drank here we brought with us.   We are looking forward to a cup of tea!

The Toledo Parador we visited last year so we know what to expect , and it has the most stunning views of the medieval city of Toledo.   We shall be dining on the terrace and when darkness falls the city lights will wow us again.   They floodlight the cathedral and the Alcazar.

Probably this will be the last blog written in Spain but I shall bring you up to date about our journey home in a few days time.

On 1st October we travel to Rochdale to celebrate our Golden Wedding with the family so we have that to look forward to.   Our granddaughter Ellie will be able to tell us all about her first two weeks at university!

Penultimate day

Thursday was a lovely day with total sunshine and warm temperatures.   Unfortunately, Pauline had a stomach upset during the night and stayed in bed till lunchtime.   By then she was feeling much better and we set off to Colmenar for a final visit to our local supermarket.   After lunch we rested and then spent more time swimming in the pool.   It was exhilarating as usual.

Throughout the holiday here we have had the company of the two resident cats.   They are not house trained so are not allowed in the house.   Their day is spent snoozing!   Early in the morning I went outside to retrieve some washing that had dried overnight and found Tiddy asleep on a window sill that was guarded with heavy bars.   She was able to squeeze through the bars and then lie on the sill.   It was rather a clever arrangement because the security bars prevented her from falling off the sill.

The other cat, Marmy, has decided I am a good friend and comes to me for regular stroking.   Both of them are on duty by the outside dining table  when we are eating.   They watch with great interest, hoping for titbits.   They are experts at cleaning fish.   When they have finished you get a perfect picture of a fish skeleton - absolutely clean.   Tiddy can be a nuisance when she comes for affection because she tries to get on my lap.   When you are wearing shorts you can get a nasty surprise when the claw pierces your bare thigh!

Friday will see us setting off to the hypermarket for a supply of wine to bring home!

Gorgeous weather

It has been hot today and we have swum and swum and swum.   I was awakened by my phone ringing today.   I checked and it was Sue, our daughter, reporting that Ellie, our granddaughter, had gone off to university for the first time this morning.   Tonight we had a report of the day from Ellie.   It was all a happy experience.   Mobile phones (cell phones for you Americans!) are very useful when you are away.   I have been surprised at how cheap our calls and texts have been.

This morning I happened to walk into the kitchen literally at day break and through the kitchen window I saw a rosy glow at the rear of Mount Maroma in the east.   It was a lovely sight.   Today's end saw Comares at the top of the mountain across the valley with a lovely evening sun glow.   There has been not a single cloud in the sky.

We did not move from the poolside today and it was magical in terms of peaceful rest.   We choose to come here for three reason: 1)   Pauline can manage the few steps and where there used to be a high step there is now just a small rise as I made a special step and brought it here last year. 2)  The location wit it beautiful views and quietness 3)   The pool is accessible and gives great hydrotherapy for Pauline.   The house is a quirky old farmhouse called Finca Manolo and it has sometimes a mind of its own!   This year has seen no problems at all.   Last year we were moving furniture to avoid water ingress during heavy rainfall as the holiday began.

Tuesday 20 September

Not a lot to report today.   I drove into Colmenar and got some groceries to see us through the week.   We had a light lunch and then swam in the pool.   We talked a lot about the calming effect this holiday has had upon us.   We agreed we should make it continue once home.

It is so easy to think of this place as an ideal home but it would become just like our home in Anglesey.   The everyday problems that we face in Anglesey would happen here too.   So the answer is that it would not be an idyll.   Since being here Pauline has not needed her anti-inflammatories and has cut back on pain killers.   It is wonderful to see her so relaxed.   But the fact is that we can't stay here and need to be with family and friends in the UK.

It is a wonderful feeling to have the warmth of the sun on us.   There is a down side, of course.   Yesterday I was walking in bare feet in the bedroom and stood on a wasp which promptly stung me!   It did not survive!!!

Tonight we ate under the bamboo veranda and it was Sea Bream (Dorada in Spanish) with green beans.   It tasted great.   We finished off with lemon sorbet which we love.   It was all washed down with a lovely white wine.   We have resident cats here so I let them have the fish heads once we had finished our food.   They loved it.   They are called Marmy (Marmalade cat) and Tiddy (Tabby).   Poor old Marmy gets into fights and last year we saw she had lost part of her left ear.   This  year she had a bare patch over her right eye.

On Thursday we shall be having Lubina for dinner (Sea Bass to you).   We get some wonderful fish at the hypermarket down in Velez-Malaga.   I have eventually got to grips with BBQ cooking and using a calor gas stove.   The house is very quirky and we would not like it for our own but the pool and the location are first class.

Still having our very best holiday ever.

Periana

Never trust a map!   I didn't but could see how easy it would be to get the wrong impression of a journey by consulting a map.   We decided that, as today was forecast to be cloudy, we would see what this village was like.   Stunning views were promised and the promise was kept.   However, I set the satnav to direct me to Periana and it performed as expected.   Had I trusted the map I later read I would have thought I was on the wrong road.   The map showed the route to a short straight line followed by a right turn onto a long straight line.   The road we travelled was incredibly winding!   In this part of the world you can draw a straight line between two points and measure the distance which will be about a quarter of the road travelled.   The whole area is covered in winding roads circumventing hills and mountains.   The locals must clock up quite a fuel bill in relation to their driving about the area.

I filled the tank and we set off via the nearest village, Riogordo.   The roads twisted and turned and there were a great many signs telling me the road surface was poor.   As we got nearer to Periana we saw mountains close up which were stunning in their majestic features.   Sadly there was nowhere to pull off the road and get some photos.   Periana itself turned out to be a very well kept village with views of Lake Vinuela in the south.   Outside the "town hall" there was a lovely viewing terrace.   We were impressed.

The clouds that had been forecasted were not as bad as we expected so we got some sunshine too.   We returned to Finca Manolo to have lunch and then we got total cloud cover.   Tomorrow should start the same but eventually we should have wall to wall sun and blue sky.   The rest of the week is expected to be hot.

This, so far, has been the most relaxing holiday we have ever had.   Not bad say I!

Food

Well, friends, we had such a lazy day yesterday and never left the house.   Actually, I did.   I took the rubbish to the collection point just up the road.   We have done a great deal of reading since we came and yesterday we read even more!   This was, of course, in between swimming in the pool.

The views here are so good.   In one direction we look across a valley to the village of Comares perched high up at the top of a mountain.   We have visited it once on a previous holiday.   It is an ancient site where originally a fortress was built.   Its position is impregnable because the only way to it is up a very steep slope.   In fact you can see it all over the countryside.   As we drive down to the hypermarket we keep seeing it from the road.   Last year we could even see it from the other side from miles away when we visited Moclinejo.   The view of Comares from here changes as the sun changes position throughout the day.   The best view is in the late afternoon.

Looking in another direction we see Mount Maroma, a huge mountain often hidden in mist in a morning.   It is very paintable and I have done some photos for Pauline to paint it sometime.   Going farther round we get stupendous views of amazing high solid rock faces which look at their best when the shadows etch out their contours.

Then there is the silence, broken only by dogs barking in the log farm below, a donkey braying on another farm or a vehicle passing us in the lane.   Peace, perfect peace!

Now to report on the food we had last night.   Pauline had wanted each night this last week to have Mediterranean Chicken, a recipe from some years ago.   We found it in an old M & S recipe book many years ago.   It is meant to be done as a grille but the oven doesn't have one.   I roasted some chicken drumsticks and then added cooked rice, onions and mushrooms and bacon strips.   As a grille the time is about 45 minutes.   In the oven it took 2 hours!   Mind you, it tasted wonderful!!!

Having watched Nadiya on her travels in Bangladesh, I knew that you could still cook food in very different circumstances and with different equipment.   It worked!

Tomorrow we are going to visit the village of Perdiana, half way between us and Velez-Malaga.

The last few days have been difficult as my Internet went dead slow so that no real use of it could be made.   I think Orange went slow because our tablets worked normally.   The result was no blog.

However, I can report that we did have rain - one hour of it on Tuesday around 5.00pm.   Other than this we have had cartloads of sun!   We have made even more use of the swimming pool and it has helped Pauline's back pain enormously.   About 25 miles along a winding mountain road is the Eroski Hypermarket.   There we stocked up with loads of food earlier in the week and topped up our petrol.   My cooking has been much appreciated so far.   Tonight we are having chicken drumsticks in a mixture of rice and veg.   Last night entailed sausages which tasted good.   These were done on the BBQ so got a good flavour in them.

The other day we decided to drive over to the mountain village of Competa a few miles east of Velez-Malaga.   The approach road is a littler over 8 miles long and is the most winding road we have ever travelled.   We found the central square where we parked and found a table for lunch.   For 8 euros each we had a starter and a main course plus beer & coffee!   We chose soup - Pauline opted for fish soup which she thought exceptional and I chose gazpacho.   Full of taste!!   We chose hake for main course and this tasted good too.   Naturally we got fries as well.   The beer was good, served in chilled glasses, and so was the coffee.

After lunch we rediscovered a pottery shop and Pauline chose a vase to bring home.   They also sold belts so I bought two in the hope they fitted better than my others which were bought before I lost 4 stones in weight.   We drove back to base via Eroski where we got a few essentials.   Once back the pool was calling!

Each evening we have sat watching the mountains all around and sipping G & Ts.   It is a beautiful place.   Eventually the local water supply is back up to pressure so today will be washing day.   Unfortunately we are at the end of the Colmenar water system so we are at risk of drying up sometimes.   Although we have a reserve supply it does not feed the washing machine.   The Comares supply starts next door but one where there is always loads of water.   Just our luck.

The road between us and Colmenar is a wonderful one to drive along with views to so many majestic mountains and rocks.   I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the village yesterday when I did some shopping.

This holiday is doing us both an amazing amount of good and I hope we continue feeling like this for some time to come.

Having spent the night at Parador La Granja where we enjoyed an excellent meal of local fare, we breakfasted and drove to El Escorial.   A former royal palace and monastery, it wowed us.   With Pauline's disability we were only able to see the ground floor but it was splendid in every way.   Her disability gained Pauline free admission as well as myself as carer.   The staff showed us where to go and chatted about the place.   It was a place I had wanted to visit for some time, having remembered once seeing it on TV.   The route there was itself spectacular.   We climbed a mountain and descended the other side.   This mountain was covered in trees and there was a ski centre too.

Suddenly realising that our next Parador was several hours drive away we set off with haste.   The journey involved a section of the M50, Madrid's equivalent of the M25.   We arrived at Almagro, which is in the middle of one of the famous plains in Spain, shortly after six.   Our room was smaller and more Spartan than the previous night but it was, after all, a former convent.   The food was again based on local fare and was excellent.   Then yesterday we did the final leg of our journey to our farmhouse in Axarquia, Andalucia.   Unpacking was hard going after the long drive but we swam in the pool to cool off.   We visited Eroski City in Colmenar which is very much like Tesco Express.   We got food to last till tomorrow when we shall do a weekly shop at the Eroski hypermarket near Velez-Malaga.   Today was relaxing with a pleasant lunch, swimming and G & Ts before dinner.

We really feel well and happy!   Watch for the next instalment.

Travelling to La Granja

We set off from Penysarn, at 8.00am on Tuesday morning and Pauline drove south down the M6 as far as the service area on the M6 Toll road.   There we had a bite to eat and read our Kindles before setting off for Portsmouth with me driving.   The whole journey to Portsmouth was a breeze with just the 12.5 mile 50mph limit on the latest upgrade to Smart Motorway to slow us down.   As Pauline is disabled we were loaded on the ship very quickly and a five minute wait saw us in our wheelchair accessible cabin.

We took up position at was to be the head of a queue to book tables in La Flora restaurant.   Later that evening we had the usual first class meal.   Before that the ship was delayed over an hour getting away from Portsmouth and we did not find out why.   Next day saw us sun bathing on deck and we already have a tan!   We arrived late into Santander but got away to our hotel and received a warm welcome from Reyes Linares-Alvarez the manager.   She said "Welcome home!"   Later we had an excellent seafood risotto and turned in for the night.   I had my best night's sleep for a couple of weeks!

Today we had breakfast where we met Manuel, the waiter,   He is part of the fabric there.   Later we checked out and Reyes emerged from her office to kiss us on our way followed by Marisa the receptionist that speaks no English!   Her body language is hilarious!   We filled up the tank at the filling station next door to the hotel and set off south.   It was raining and whilst in the mountains behind Santander the temperature dropped to 15 Celsius.   Eventually the rain stopped and the sky broke up.   We stopped in the middle of nowhere at a service area for a pleasant lunch and then set off to find the temperature was 30 Celsius.   It stayed like that till we arrived here in La Granja at the Parador.

Our room is huge with a lovely bathroom, a mini bar and the usual refinements.   We have an Amigos card to use when we book a Parador and we get a good deal.   There is a discounted meal deal whereby we get room, breakfast and evening meal.   On arrival we discovered that Amigos card holders get a free glass of wine or soft drink as a welcome.   We enjoyed our wine outside in the garden.   The staff are extremely helpful and friendly as always and we are already enjoying the holiday.

Tomorrow we hope to visit El Escorial, a former monastery and royal palace near our next Parador.   then Saturday sees us motoring the last section to Finca Manolo, our rented farmhouse in the mountains 40 minutes from Malaga.   It is in the middle of nowhere and has 360 degree views.   There we shall laze and swim, laze and swim and then laze and swim.   There will be occasional visits out to local villages in the district of Axarquia.