Sunday, March 23, 2008

From Granada to Santa Pola and back home for Easter

Hi again,

From Granada, we made our way to our seaside home in Santa Pola last Monday to enjoy a few days by the beach. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and we were treated to a few blustery and rather cold days. That, however, did not deter us from taking walks on the beach at our usual hour, as you can see from the photos.


On Tuesday evening we went out with Alicia, a former boss of Eladio’s, who has just bought a flat in Alicante thanks to winning El Gordo, the Christmas lottery!! We had booked a table at the famous Hotel Montíboli, belonging to the Relaix Chateaux chain, once again. It is located in Villajoyosa, that lovely jewel of a town in between Alicante and Benidorm. However, it is not well sign posted and the address could not be found on our sat nav. When we finally arrived at 11 o’clock at night, the restaurant kitchens were shutting and we were turned away. That was rather disappointing. So we went on to the port in Villajoyosa for dinner and were joined for drinks by Olga and Alberto and the evening turned out to be a really pleasant reunion.

The next day turned out to be “black Wednesday” for me as I had a terrible migraine, probably one of the worst in my life. Eladio had to take me to the clinic where they injected me with something which sent me straight to sleep but which at least took away some of the pain!

That same night Susi and her boyfriend Gaby arrived and their friends, Carolina and Copi and her boyfriend were coming the next day and we, of course, were going home. It was lovely to see them and we took them out for lunch as we were having natural gas installed in the flat and we could not cook. That was a great excuse for having an “arroz abanda” (sort of paella) at Vistabella.


From there and after a quick stop at the flat to clean up after the gas man, we drove back to Madrid. The whole trip had been great, but really, one of the best things about travelling is coming home. There is nothing better than your own home comforts!

It was lovely to see Olivia again. Oli had stayed behind to study and enjoy her free time with her friends. It was pleasing to hear that she had missed my cooking! The first day at home was Good Friday for which I had bought the traditional English hot cross buns at an English supermarket in Santa Pola. And for lunch, I made fish, which, for me, for no real religious reason, is somehow a must on Good Friday.

And since we have been home, we seem to have done nothing more than washing clothes, sheets and towels. There are mountains of them to iron now which is a task neither of us is looking forward to! Our only jolly was dinner last night at La Vaca Argentina.

And today is Easter day and there will be a traditional roast meal and chocolate Easter eggs afterwards. Susi will be returning today and will have to face enormous traffic queues to do so.

Tomorrow will be back to work and back to normal, but with many new and good memories in our heads.

Next week, Amanda, Andy, Simon and Gill will be visiting us and I just know we are going to have a great Anglo Spanish weekend. But more about that in next week’s post.

Meanwhile, cheers

Masha.

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