The Rain in Spain....

....happened mostly while we were on the plane.

Here's part one of the story of our recent trip to Spain and France (calling at Bristol, Geneva and London)

Wednesday 28 March 2007
After a smooth ride up to Bristol on a train carriage apparently designed by some Porsche bloke (it didn't make the train faster) we arrived at Bristol Airport. Now provincial airports in the UK are always a bit hit and miss and this was no exception - especially on the land side. Airside in the departure lounge there was one saving grace - a Starbucks.

Here we were able to sample the new Cinnamon Dolce Frappucino. Now I'm a big Frappo fan but this was Vero's first time and she loved it. I must say it certainly tasted good all the way down although there were the inevitable instances of 'Brain freeze' as I gulped too much of the icy mix too fast. Ouch!

Also airport shop prices are inflated but I never expected the crisps to be the same.

So one Easyjet flight later we arrived in a cool and cloudy Alicante - we didn't see much from the plane but I did get some snaps away of some clouds once we were up. Apparently they had two or three days of very wet weather just before we arrived....everything was crossed for an improvement!

The ride home was dark, the shadows and silhouettes giving hints of what we would see in our stay there. We did see the salt factory and its 40 foot high salt mountains on the salinas at Santa Pola and approached Quesada, we saw thousands of lemon trees being lit up on either side of the road. Vero was gobsmacked...
Once at the house in Spain I didn't waste time finding the San Miguel and a bonus bag of big pretzels. Oh and I think we opened some Rioja too. The standards had been set.

Thursday 29 March 2007
We awoke to cloudy and cool weather, with a hint of rain. This led to a lazy morning with a ride out to Carrefour. yes, the Frogs had invaded Spain too. In fact there were quite a few 'French' shops/outlets/businesses I recognised from several trips to V's homeland.
After a potter around Carrefour we headed to Guardamar, a small resort town near Quesada. It was quiet however the sand sculptors were still hard at work.

We had lunch in one of the beachfront restaurants - it was nothing special (summing up most Spanish food really) and then went fro a stroll towards the Dunes.

On the way we were accosted by some Spanish teenagers who were on a field trip and loaded with a questionnaire to ask to tourists like us. They asked Vero in French and one of the questions was 'what symbolises Spain to you?'. Her response...Tortilla. The kids left obviously put out by this slur on all things Spain is famous for.

The rest of the day was spent in yet more supermarkets before returning to the house. I think Mr S. Miguel and Mr Rioja joined us yet again.

Friday 30 March 2007

Today the sun came out and we went on a proper trip, due south towards the Mar Menor. This is a lagoon near San Javier, and is where you can find the famous La Manga resort. The first stop was the coastal village of Lo Pagan, a typical combination of old (windmill) and new (tack shops, cranes and cafes!).

There was a long causeway leading up to more windmills which was endless so we stopped halfway - I'm sure it would have been nice but our hosts were waiting back on dry land. Plus the view was somewhat spoiled by more Spanish landmarks in the distance.

On the ocean side there were some decent sized salinas and yet again more mountains of salt. The salt lakes here are apparently used for mud bathing but the only creatures bathing was a about 4 dozen little grebes.

After this we headed in the general direction of la casa (home) stopping for a 2 lunch/sunbathing stop at a beach near El Mojon. Now a lot can be said about our packed lunches. Fresh baguette bought at the bakery the same morning filled with about four different types of meat (chorizo, salami, serrano and good old ham) with lovely Spanish cheese which had a soft but yet smoky flavour. Wonderful. We then stopped for Ice Cream in La Zenia where we were joined by some gatecrashers (see left!)