Rain,Wine & Quizzes

Fri.5th March

The Gf was very poorly in the end and had to spend the day in bed being sick after consuming a glass of wine from a bottle she had opened 10 days previously.....that's the only explanation as we both had eaten the identical food. And anyway, who keeps a bottle of wine for 10 days? She felt better by saturday but a bit fragile so we all trooped off to Medina Sidonia for sightseeing and a spot of tapas for lunch (except the Gf who refused to touch anything).Pates's back is still giving him agony and affecting his driving as he now tends to drift to the right and fall off the road....if you've driven on spanish side roads yuo'll know what I mean.....and on dual carriageways he hits the rumblestrip with unnerving monotony, even when being tailed by police cars who have definitely got him on their radar.
Anyway back in time for Italy beating Scotland and England giving another dire performance against Ireland and dinner at the camp restaurant which was v.pleasant. Sunday was a long day of leisure as we had a table booked for lunch at 3pm at La Patrie in La Muela about 10 miles inland on a hillside overlooking the coast with stunning views.This place was highly recommended, only opens Sat/Sun and is run by a danish couple...fusion cooking denmark meets andalucia.. the format is a running buffet (16€ a head) with lots of dishes that you just return to as many times as you wish until you are satiated. It was extraordinarily good, the roast beef was to die for,and we discovered an extraordinarily drinkable wine from Cadiz called Regantio at 9€ a bottle which I shall search for in bulk before I leave.
Monday was Andalucia Day and we went to Arcos which is a charming hilltop white town with very narrow,steep streets and not pedestrianised. You could tell the local cars by the old scrapes down the sides and tourist cars by the new ones. Whoever has the local concession for wing mirrors must be worth a fortune.Very pleasant 3 course lunch for a mere 6€ in a pleasant courtyard and cross country drive back with Pates running off the road every so often ( I shall monitor the comments box very carefully ). As it was their last night we ate in the camp restaurant and then retired to their chalet to finish off the contents of his temporary wine cellar. The weather since they arrived has not been too bad but they took it with them when they departed 8am Tuesday morning as it then rained for 48 hours with very high winds.Local TV is full of pictures of floods and devastation in Southern Spain and it is a real problem for the local population but everywhere is the same. Portugal is no better and the south of france just as bad.
Quiz night on Wednesday.......came 3rd. (12€) 44/50. Would have been 2nd if I had not been shouted down over the first national park (peak district) by the Gf who was convinced it was snowdonia.However, over 4 weeks we have been 1,2,3,& 4th out of about 20 teams so feel quite smug. Thursday was a good day so we rode to Fuente del Gallo and walked along the beach and Friday started well so we rode off to discover the beaches at La Barrossa which turned out to be quite magnificent. There appeared to be a storm brewing out at sea so we didn't linger after our picnic but we shall return soon to explore the area more fully. People around us are getting anal about the weather with hourly forecasts being bandied about but it all depends on which website you read. It must settle down and when the sun is out it is very,very warm.
Number 2 son has added a link gadget to the site and I trust you will all visit his worthy blog and Julian's F1 predict-a-thon which is very amusing.