We've settled in quite well now, and have almost worked out how to keep the house relatively warm. Apart from going to the loo in the night which is still an arctic adventure.
Temperatures are varying from fairly parky in the mornings and at night – coat needed – to basking in the afternoon sun in just a t-shirt. Cue a burnt face too, so much for the 23 euros wasted on 'sun spray' at the local farmacia.
Have had 2 Spanish lessons so far with the very nice Elena – useful not just for more language but also asking where stuff is around town. Although it was a bit odd that where I wanted to cover a few early basics such as letters of the alphabet and time of day, she seemed keen to firstly teach me about the different types of land and sea snail, in varying sizes. Perhaps they are a menace round here??
Nice just wandering around town though, finding local bars and restaurants, markets and little fruteria shops. And endless barrels of sherry as Sanlucar is one of the three towns making up the 'sherry triangle'. Maybe one day nirvana will occur and I will finally find the gin-vodka-whisky triangle too.
Our chums David & Mandy arrived very late on Thursday night. In some ways surprising that they came as it transpired that some years ago they had bought a house on a golf course in Spain, which had gone badly wrong and they lost – gulp – £250k over the deal. And of all the towns in all the cities, in all the regions of Spain – it was in bloody Sanlucar!! So it was a weird 'welcome back to hell' for them – till the G&Ts kicked in anyway.
And luckily the sun came out to play too. We headed off to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the 'white towns' in this region, all beautiful and up on hills. Came out of the car park, crossed a roundabout towards a little sun-trap of an outdoor cafe for a drink – and Mands tripped heavily on some uneven road, totally face planted and cut her eyebrow open, scraped her hands, face, knees etc. Not a good start! At least now I have learned the Spanish for 'steri-strips'…. Ouch!
Still it was a pretty little town to wander around, had lunch in a sunny courtyard and got back to Sanlucar in one piece.
We headed off to Puerta de Santa Maria and heard a bit of brass band music. Very slow and sombre, a bit like the start of Live and Let Die, according to H. I had to ask if it was a funeral procession as it felt a bit wrong to be gawping if it was. But no, apparently it was a day of 'feria', celebration for El Nino Jesus. Well, they really do need a better choice of tunes, we thought. Had to keep a straight face as the canopy bearing the sacred Jesus came round the corner – with all these white-plimsolled feet poking out underneath it. Like a square caterpillar going for a walk… Bit bizarre.
But the boys did at least manage to get in a good old sherry and brandy tasting at the big Osborne bodega – marked everywhere with the sign of the large black bull. Ole!
Best bit of all had to be our lunch on the beach in Rota, just down the beach from here. Stunning sunshine, huge empty sandy beach, great sunny day, down to t-shirts, excellent tapas lunch. What a find – we've been twice so far and it won;t be the last time, that's for sure.
And of course, no visit would be complete without a cycle down the prom to the cocktail bar in Bajo de Guia, the seafood area of Sanlucar. Barman looked a tad surprised when we ordered 8 margaritas, but the fiesta evening there was in full swing, lots of people, nice groups pulling us up to dance and one pissed old fella who asked if I was on my own. Why do I always pull the grimmers??
God knows how we made it home as we decided it was a good idea to do 'backs' – girls on the seats of the 2 bikes while the boys pedalled – and I had Scrumpy running alongside on her lead! At some point H got on the bike seat and I was on the metal grid at the back – now that's not a good idea for the undercarriage, as I discovered…
A top weekend and D&M headed back last night. H went off to Gatwick this morning for a few work days at home and I've spent this morning at the butcher's, the supermarket and cleaning the house in preparation for Janine & Ross's arrival in a few minutes. Housewife-tastic. Little does Scrumpy know that the Black Devil Floss dog is imminently arriving to shatter her peaceful doggy calm.
More soon – Scotty x