Jules & H did the journey down to our rental house in Spain together – thank you Jules – so I could just fly down and appear at Seville Airport as if by magic. Saves me 3.5 days of travel getting the car, the dog, our bikes and lots of our stuff down here via Portsmouth, 2 nights on Brittany Ferries, a night in Salamanca (which would have been lovely to be fair) and the last drive south to the house we are renting again in Chiclana de la Frontera. And the boys had 3 days cycling and revisiting a few places before I got here, so that was nice for them.
Had a few hours crossover with Jules before we dropped him back to the airport – a cheeky lunch (hello Spanish food, I've missed you!) and a wander around some of central Seville's sights altogether with Mads too. Would have been good to have some more time together, maybe next year..
Then it was on to the house – Lola – which is just as lovely as it was last year. It even has a new BBQ much to H's delight. Maddie was DELIGHTED to be out of the car and ecstatic to be back by 'her' pool (ditto 'her' beach etc). Lots of leaping in to get her ball, only countered by hours of her sitting and giving us the Paddington 'hard stare' to entice us to throw it just one (hundred) more times.. Getting any peace on my sunbed is basically impossible with those eyes boring into me and the silent 'Mummy…Mummy… MUMMY!!!" emanating from little Miss ThrowitNOW…
We decided to try something new and booked a one nighter away in one of the white hill towns, as a dinner place there had been recommended (and you don't drive in those tiny streets with even one small beer inside you!). So we went to Vejer de la Frontera (there are a lot of Fronteras round here), which was small, ancient, friendly (apart from the policeman when we were looking for the hotel reception in the car on a tiny dead end roundabout), with fabulous views across the valley and which also gave us our best dinner out so far.
Apart from that, it's been a case of revisiting some previous haunts – SO nice to get a massive hug from Jope, the tattooed chap at the local bar, Che – perhaps we spent too much time there these past 2 years?! Also to book into one of the clifftop restaurants and to get a hug from the sweet waitress who recognised us from last year. And ditto Antonia, the lady who runs the 3 properties in a row here – she even brought us her induction paella pan so we can knock out one of those while we're here. The locals genuinely seem to like us /Brits, who knows but it's waaaaaaay nicer than the French who just don't!
And we are being very good with exercise – to offset a month of over-enjoying being here – which ranges from several different 1 hour speed walks into the 'swamp', along the beach and out to Bongos (bar on a beach by the small local fishing port), to bike rides. Behind us here is a little new beach that we found on ride 1, with a man gently swimming his horse in the sea. Today's bike ride was a bit of an epic for this old boot, went to a beach town called Conil (yup, de la Frontera) over the cliffs, a 39km trek. Sadly I got my handlebars snagged in a bit of netting on a pathway on the way back and came off the bike – luckily landing in a fairly soft bush – but still I've got a huge bruise where the handlebars dug into my thigh and a load of scraping down my leg. Arse. Even the delicious lunch of burrata, pine nuts and pesto salad plus aubergine hummus, roasted cherry toms and pita bread didn't quite make up for that one. Owwwwww…
And of course we have been to the local beach in front of the the house which Maddie can run on (dogs not allowed on the 'big beach'). And yesterday – hurrah – was our first trip to the big beach itself. Massive, quiet, empty and just the sound of the sea to enjoy. So, so, SO lovely. Though the mystery persists of where on earth our windbreak has gone – we couldn't find it before we left. How can we lose something that's 3 metres long, 5 foot high and covered in bright stripes? If anyone has it, do let us know…
Anyway – feeling very fortunate to be here, with the weather improving by the day and we are about to launch into an online beer tasting with Fi & Rich, with the beers the three of them made on a brewing course a few weeks back and which H has – of course!! – brought all the way out here… x