WINE IN PLASTIC BOTTLES......

I swore I never would. For 4 years I have avoided it here in Spain and anywhere else for that matter. But friday night's lets-get-pissed-at -the sports-bar event was cancelled due to a day of inclement weather which briefly cleared around 5pm but returned at 7pm and a decision was made to seek alternative entertainment. Paul & Marianne drew the short straw and we piled round there for an evening of drinking which included home-made Sloe Vodka and Cherry Brandy.During the course of this debauchery I refused the wine out of the 2 litre plastic bottle and was then forced into a blind tasting, the no-brainer outcome of which was that I chose the said wine from plastic bottle as the best of the bunch and continued drinking it for the rest of the evening.

Unable to believe this the following day, I went and bought a 2 litre bottle for the princely sum of

€2.19, a picture of which can be seen on the right. Far from consigning it to the kitchen I have found it very palatable at 13.5%. It is labelled as Dominio de Borgia which may conjure visions of Lucretia who I believe was Italian and poisoned people but it does slip down remarkably easily. I am prepared for the storm of derision which will descend but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I'm sitting in my shorts drinking wine from a plastic bottle with my friends........what are you doing ?

...AND THE TIE BREAK QUESTION IS.....

.......IN WHICH YEAR DID BLONDIN CROSS THE NIAGRA FALLS ON A TIGHTROPE ?

This was to decide who came 1st/2nd in the quiz last night. The Good Fairy plumped for 1878 and our opponents went for 1864.

So did we win the €50 or the €32 ? Our record in tie-breaks to date has been dismal..........you'll have to look the answer up yourselves

FUN IN THE SUN

January 20th 2010.

How time flies when you're having fun.The sun is shining and Conil looks better than ever, prosperous even and a buzz about the place with more new shops opened than shops closed and at least one big new hotel that has gone up within the year.....and although it means a slight detour on the walk to beach, they have also landscaped the cliffs in front of it with boardwalks through gardens and some great viewing platforms. Conil remains essentially a spanish holiday resort, refusing any high rise blocks, Irish pubs or all-day english-breakfast emporiums and all new developments blend in very nicely with the andalusian 'white town' concept. I can recommmend it.

The local festival of San Sebastien was set for Sunday and the site management put on a very nice free lunch on Wednesday which was very well attended and at which an extraordinary number of jugs of Sangria were sunk...which may have accounted for a dismal showing in that night's quiz - our first - when we only managed 5th place by a whisker, should have been second and could have been first. Honour was somewhat restored on Thursday night when the Good Fairy took the Whist Drive by storm, winning a €1.46 bottle of wine for coming first ( as opposed to €50 for winning the quiz).

Friday night was lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar night where all the drinks are a €1, things got out of hand and getting home by torchlight is hazardous.

On Saturday we cycled up to the fruit farm for oranges and veg and ran foul of the Polizia Traffico who pulled me over at a roundabout, where they were stopping motorists,because I wasn't wearing a cycling helmet.... I couldn't believe there was a law making helmets compulsory but I was let off with a caution. Subsequent investigation revealed that you don't have to wear one a)in town b) in hot weather or c) going up hills and that there is a nice shop in Conil seeling helmets from €40 upwards. I later counted 15 people not wearing helmets on the same stretch of road but when I went to buy one later in the week and spoke to the cycle-shop owner he said that they fined 3 people on Sunday at €100 a pop so you have been warned..

This disruption to my equilibrium may account for what followed. When we arrived back at the site and I was recounting this tale to much hilarity from the usual suspects I discovered that I had inadvertently left my rucksack full of veg and oranges at the cafe we had stopped at for coffee and had to make an another 11 mile round trip to retrieve it.

Most afternoons are spent playing Boules (in the sunshine), the ladies have yet to win a session.

The festival of San Sebastien on Sunday was much bigger,noisier and more colourful than previous years, the popular reason being that the warm winter has made everyone very happy and the population of Conil were all up for a 5 mile walk in the sun drinking sherry and sweet wine and sharing it liberally with bystanders-which seems to be part of the tradition. The very large carpark at the entrance to the site is the traditional first picnic stop out of a town and was soon covered with rugs,food,drink and horse droppings in equal quantity. And they were all very happy as they then departed for El Colorado and a massive BBQ under the pines..

On Monday we walked with Paul & Marianne along the cliffs to the port of Conil, about a 10 mile round trip relieved by a couple of glasses of beer in the cantina and a huge plate of fried anchovies (before they are salted variety) which are called Boquerones and highly reminiscent of whitebait and which were very tasty.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN......

January 18th 2012

Now well and truly embedded at Conil after a fairly straightforward and uneventful trip. Left home on Sunday 8th for CC site overnight at Folkestone and Eurotunnel on Monday morning. Booked on the 07.50 but arriving at 07.00 caught the virtually empty 07.20 and therefore on the A16 in Calais by 08.00 or 09.00 as it is in Central European Time. Pleasant run down to Lemans and the aire at Suze s/Sarthe and by arriving mid-afternoon managed to get one of the 3 hook-ups thus saving gas on heating and running the fridge. Outside temp chilly overnight and fairly foggy in the morning.

Tuesday to Bordeaux in mostly sunshine and Acsi campsite on the lakes north of the city and just off the ring road. Site looking definitely sad and evidence of itinerants and migrant workers especially in the chalets.....lot of coming and going at 6pm and 8am. Still, the site is very handily placed.

Wednesday, a shortish run down to San Sebastian and aire on the university campus. Topping up with fuel at a Shell station in Bordeaux there was a problem with the card at the cash desk-not a card-only pump- when the machines appeared to have a problem. The terminal said "paiment accepte" then blanked out and repeated this message another twice..the managment was summoned and put the card through another machine much to my annoyance as I subsequently discovered that although I was only charged once for €59.80 a further 2 requests were left pending on the card (Caxtonfx prepaid card) and the 'available balance' is €119.60 lower than the actual balance. I specifcally avoid autopayment pumps for this very reason as advised by Caxton and did not expect to encounter a problem in a manned station. Phone calls to Caxton revealed that they could see the transactions but could only say that they should drop off the transactions pending radar within 16 days and the balance would be restored.....lucky that the card is loaded with sufficient funds to make this an irritation rather than crisis.

Arrived San Sebastian early afternoon, met a charming Spanish couple who gave us chapter and verse on buses into town etc and spent a great afternoon exploring a very nice & classy resort. Very similar to Biaritz and St.Jean de Luz with a very striking town overlooking a wonderful horseshoe-shaped bay with great beach.

Off early on Thursday down to Salamanca. Very easy run on nearly toll-free motorways (€21 to just south of Burgos then toll free). Mixed weather but foggy at first then sunshine after mid-day. Arrived Acsi campsite in Salamanca and plan was to spend 2 days and explore city. Temp -3 overnight and awoke to very thick fog. Waited till 10.30 but no sign of fog lifting or temp rising above freezing so decided to give sightseeing a miss as it would not be much fun even if we could see anything.....Salamanca is quite high...and head on to Caceres. Fog disappeared as we dropped down and blue skies and sunshine were order of the day as we arrived Caceres early afternoon. We stopped off at the aire here last year when the old town centre was having a makeover and we said we would like to return to see the town in its full glory . And very pleasant it is too. Aire again was overflowing.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the last leg to Conil, arriving at 3pm. Site very busy this year (there is a CC&C rally here for 2 months) but our pitch awaited us, next to Roy and Joy who have been out since November and Paul & Marianne who arrived the day before us having used the Santander ferry for the first time...still can't justify the cost personally. So many old faces here that it was like going back to school after the hols and getting settled took for ages as we kept stopping to chat. First stop was the van wash shed to hose the dirt and grime of 1500 miles in lots of fog

off the van. Then a few beers as we caught up on the news. It has been a good winter here with hardly a drop of rain and everybody looks tanned already.

Ate in the restauarant on Saturday night. On Sunday we got really settled and put the sun-lounge up which is just about on its last legs. Good job we did because then it rained for 24 hours and naturally everybody blamed us.

Monday night we ate in the reastaurant again with P&M as they had a Flamenco evening which was excellent and lots of alcohol was imbibed.

By Tuesday the weather was back to 'normal' with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Cycled down to the beach which looks better than ever and walked on the sand for miles........