03.03.2015
Its been a long time since I added anything here for some strange, inexplicable reason and quite a lot has passed.
We'll be home tomorrow unfortunately (as its cold here in Calais and cold in the UK and I ought to still be in the Spanish sunshine but that's another story) so I ought to roundup events.
We stayed at Conil until 20th Feb, highlights being a lovely lunch that Jaqueline et Laurent put on for 6 of us that lasted very decently from 1 to 6 pm and apart from being very convivial was extremely tasty and must have involved a great deals of work; a cracking day out with Jim & Carol we ho took us to an equestrian centre close by which is the winter training ground for professional riders and has stabling for 1000 horses and 12 jumping rings as well as cross country and carriage driving courses. It holds competitions which last for months and prize money for the current events was 900,000€ . And there is no charge to watch for spectators. Weird or what.
We had another 3rd in the quiz by 1 point which was down to the GF overriding a perfectly correct answer which would have put us into a 3 way tie break which we would have won.
Leaving was a wrench this year as we seem to have made a new clutch of friends and another month would have been most enjoyable.
Anyway on saturday we headed north to Desperados which has not improved since our last visit 5 years ago although the road through the mountains has, and then a nice run to Benicassim on Sunday. Bonterra park filled to overflowing and had to settle for difficult pitch which required much manoeuvring but managed to move on Monday to a decent one....with much hissing and sighing from the management ( unlike Rosaleda who couldn't be more customer oriented and are putting a hard standing onto a new pitch for us next year). Bonterra park has superb facilities, everything about it is excellent and I hate it.
However we had a great week with Ken,Jacky,Malc & Chris with much laughter and copious amounts of alcohol. Highlights include the Day of the Chicken meal for €3 each and a trip to Grau with a party of 12 on the bus to the weekly market and a 3 course lunch for 11€ in an amazing restaurant on the waterfront that must have served 200 covers and kept refilling the wine carafes. The local coffee/brandy concoction was to die for and even with the ubiquitous limoncello the cost was still 11€ each. Saturday was rugby day and steak night and we had a great week.
Left on Sunday for a campsite just north of Figueres and Monday to a site just north of Uzerches that was OK but waterlogged with cold showers. Tuesday to a site near Chartres that was also waterlogged with warm showers. Everywhere is waterlogged and cold and just short of snowing. We don't usually travel home at this time of year so this is a new experience which I have previously managed to avoid for obvious reasons. To add insult to injury, our favourite restaurant in Calais, Au Cote d'Argent is closed tonight so an excellent meal was swapped for an indifferent one as it was too cold ton walk further into town.
And now the alarm is going off for no apparent reason and we have to be up at 6 am to get the shuttle.
