LA MARINA, HAPPY NEW YEAR

Monday 21 December

In the morning we say goodbye to Bill and Nina and we will meet up with them again soon as they have to go back to the hospital in Benidorm for a follow up after surgery that Bill had.  It seems from what we hear a lot of British come here to have dental stuff or surgery done as it is very cheap compared to England.

We head back to where we stayed outside Rob and Sue’s apartment as there is a bookshop that sells English novels and Scot needs more books so we stop there and buy a dozen or so books.  We then head off to the marina area near the esplanade where there are a few shops.  We park up and walk around the streets.  It is a nice town and we have a look in a few shops.  We need to get a couple more things from the supermarket so we leave the esplanade area and drive out to the huge Carrefour supermarket which is one we love to shop at.  This supermarket is massive and the variety of things make us feel like kids in a lolly shop.  It is difficult though as since we have such a small fridge we need to be careful we don’t buy too much as the food will just spoil and we will waste money.  We get our essential things and we will come back on the bus to get a couple of supplies just before Christmas day.  There is also a shopping mall here with some clothing and shoes shops etc that we will come back and we may be able to find something small for each other for Christmas.

We need to get to the camp or they may give away our site so we head off to La Marina which is 20kms up the road.  We arrive and check in and set up our little campsite.  We are on a corner which isn’t ideal but there are no others available.  We see people having street parties which look fun and we know that a lot of people here have probably been coming for a long time and know most others.  In the camp we see a mix of nationalities from Austrian, Belgian, Swiss, Danish, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, Swedish, British and of course now Kiwi Aussies!  A huge mix though and we hope we will meet a few of them during our stay.  It is nice to actually be stopping for a few weeks as you get set up and then you just have to take it all down again.  We find our rugby world cup flags which we bought with us and use them as decoration as we have few Christmas ones.  We couldn’t find any solar xmas lights so we have none of those yet either.  We go for a walk along the beach to check it out and today there are a few waves but normally it is quite flat.  There are a couple of restaurants within a short walk along the sand so we will also check them out at some stage.

Tuesday and we decide we need to check out the spa and all it entails plus the gym, so we do a workout first and then change for the spa.  The pool is only 14m but if you swim for half an hour then you can get a km done.  The steam room, sauna etc are all great and we just know that we are going to really enjoy some down time here.

Wednesday 23^rd December

We decide it is bus day today so we take the bus back down to Torreveija.  It stops right in the middle of town so we have a bit of a walk to get down to the esplanade where we need to check out a couple of shops and once we have done that we  head over to the main shop area which is about 3kms away.  We check out the clothes shops and I manage to find new speedos for Scot for Christmas, a bit boring I know but what can you do when you don’t have the time or knowledge of an area to find things.  Anyway after a while we head back into the Carrefour for our Christmas supplies.  After a bit I realise the buses back to the camp aren’t that often and if we don’t leave soon we will be waiting another 1.5hours before we can leave so once Scot has completed his purchases we need to catch a taxi back to the bus depot so we are just in time to catch the bus back.  There are a bunch of drunks sitting around the depot having a go at each other and a homeless man comes and sits right next to me.  I am not bothered by his presence, but I cannot stomach the stench of urine and whatever else so I have to move away.  We get back to the camp and relax with a drink and a book (which becomes a common activity).

Christmas eve and the day is just spent in the spa, the gym and sitting reading relaxing.

Christmas Day

We have heard from our newly made friends Nina and Bill and they are going to join us today for a chicken roast with roast veges which is nice as we are feeling a bit friendless here to date as we haven’t yet had a chance really to go out walking to meet fellow nearby campers.  Those around us are keeping to themselves very much so we need to find some like minded English speakers.

We have a lovely day though when Nina and Bill arrive and we polish off a few bottles of bubbly and beer and our dinner was lovely that Scot cooked.  I did desert – fresh berries and ice cream, not hard really, but we haven’t had ice cream in our ‘house’ at any time so is a treat.  I have managed to continue to have fresh raspberries, blueberries and occasional strawberries, every day, for our entire trip so far.  I am happy about that and now in Spain of course they are still available here.

The day finishes about 9.30 as it is getting chilly and since we have no table and seats inside where we can sit Nina and Bill head back to their van which is parked up outside the complex and we head off to bed.  People her in Spain actually do not celebrate Christmas day, they have a celebration with presents on Christmas eve and their big celebration happens on Jan 6^th which they call kings day.

Saturday 26th December to Wednesday 30 December

Unfortunately I have caught the ‘camp cough’ which is quite shitty and sounds like it is rife amongst the other campers around the camp.  Apparently a flu went around everyone a few weeks ago so I am glad we weren’t here then.  Scot bikes into the town area and gets me cough medicine which I didn’t know contained pseudo ephedrine so after taking a huge dose of it before bedtime I was buzzing the whole night and there was no sleep for me…buggar! And very little for Scot.

We basically spent these days going to the gym, spa, beach and relaxing.  On the Wednesday we met a few English people that we end up having a chat with and organise to spend NYE with them.

New Year’s Eve is spent as we plan to spend the next month, swimming & relaxing in the spa and reading in the sun when it is out. Our van is not perfectly sited for the sun all day but we move around as the sun crosses and we get enough. We end up with our new English friends Alan & Ida and their daughter Wendy and her man Dave. We have a great nite chatting and getting to know each other with lovely nibbles and drinks. Vicki has made a batch of mulled wine which goes down well with the girls and I enjoy typical cold English pork pies. Around 11.30 us youngies – Alan & Ida decided to stay in – trotted off to the upstairs bar where there was a disco and partying going on. It wasn’t too crowded so we easy got a table and the girls had a bottle of bubbly and the boys beer. We all celebrated the New Year which in a way is strange as we normally do it with lots of our family & friends in familiar surroundings and here we are on the other side of the world so in some ways for me it was a little sad. The music by 1am had changed from disco to boom boom house which isn’t our thing so we left the locals to it and headed home. The funny thing was the party started at 11.30 and went to 6 am which we couldn’t quite understand but hey the Spanish start late as we have found out. We have so far found the locals very friendly and it seems to be a pretty laid back country and we are beginning to really like it and can see why it is so popular with the Brits, Germans, Dutch and French. It is not only the cheap prices and the weather that makes it attractive also that they are made welcome by the locals.

Friday New Years Day 2016

We sleep in late as it doesn’t get light till 8.30 and we are a bit weary. It is a beautiful sunny day and after brekky we head down to the beach for the local Polar Plunge. We are running late so don’t take anything with us as we don’t know what to expect. Well we arrive to a large gathering with BBQ,s and picnics and everyone nearly ready to dip their toes. There is a countdown and all those brave enough scream their way into the waves. The water is chill but not like any of the winter NZ Polar Plunges  and everybody has a good swim. There are people of all shapes and sizes and as close by is the nudist beach the amount of flesh showing isn’t to unsettling. No one here is too worried about wearing togs when the flesh is overflowing as we see it at the spa, good on them to. Mind you it is a bit weird seeing 70 year old Germans getting undressed on the beach! A lot of the oldies at La Marina are not exactly growing old gracefully in the fitness stakes and I think they have all led a life of excess. Everyone is very friendly and we quickly meet a lot of new people and as pretty much the only token colonials on the beach we are made very welcome and they generously share a glass of bubbly or three in the warm winter sun till around 3pm. We then went and had a couple of drinks with a pommy couple we had stopped and chatted on the way back from beach. These two ladies had stopped near the camp waiting for their hubbies and were sitting on chairs and said hello as they had remembered us from the beach (though we had met so many we weren’t sure) and as a joke they were pretending to be ‘Truck Routes’ which we may have explained are girls who sit on roundabouts and crossroads waiting for truckies to send some custom their way. I said I only had a 2 euro 60 cents which got a laugh especially when I said I had enough for both of them!  Really beaut pommy humour and we have found all of them real fun so we are really looking forward to meeting more.

Saturday & Sunday  2 & 3 January

As it is the weekend we have to pay 3 Euro to use the pool, spa etc for 1 ½ hours which is ok but what isn’t is having to share with all the locals and their noisy kids. The Spanish celebrate xmas more on the 6^th Jan as the Three Kings Day so the camp has a lot of families arriving for the holidays. All of a sudden there are kids everywhere but we just have to accept it. Sunday is worse so relaxing not enjoyable at all.

Monday 4 to Friday8^th Jan

As you will see each day now is pretty much like the one before ground hog day. The little town of La Marina is only a couple of ks away and quaint with all we need if not to specialised. We have spotted a bike shop so we get Vickis gears on her bike fixed (15 euro) and I buy a crash helmet as I am going to go biking with some guys tomorrow and though no one wears a helmet here it is legal to but I feel safer with one especially out on the busy roads. We also spy a booze distributor warehouse so check out the prices. We can get a 24 can pack of Strongbow cider for around $20aus and beer for cheaper. In fact at the camp store I can buy cans of full strength beer for as cheap as 25cents each. Yeah Hah. On the way back to camp we decide to stop at a small restaurant we have been told about by other campers. It isn’t big but cosy and they serve Tapas and titbit foods that you can buy what you want. They have about 20 large barrels of wine and sherry type drinks. You get a glass and you can sample all the wines (small sips in the glass) and then choose what you like. A glass of around 250mls costs about 1Euro and if you bring your empty plastic bottles you can fill them up for between 1.45 Euro to 2.95E per LITRE!! So we are going to take our 6.5L water bottles to fill. And the wine is really nice not crap. So we had 4 stuffed mushrooms, 3 Stuffed tomatoes, 1 stuffed eggplant  a potato & onion bread,  all the olives you can eat,2 wines each plus a dozen tastings for 11Euro all up about  $18aus. Can’t wait to go back may have to leave the bikes behind!

We were going to take the van to the mechanic to get the headlight looked at but after looking at the manual we did it ourselves as well as the rear light which had blown a bulb. The campers here are great as they came and told us our light didn’t work and then another told us our rear light wasn’t working when we drove in. They look out for each other especially when a newby arrives and they are trying to fit their million euro Winnebago McMansion on wheels into a camp spot. We have heard stories where the male driver isn’t listening to the wife and backs the brand new life investment into the tree or they have wedged themselves in and can’t get out or as we saw yesterday a humongous German (they all seem to be German) bus camper came all the way in and then couldn’t get past the hanging xmas decoration lights so had to back all the way out. We try not to laugh but it can be a bit of entertainment on an otherwise slow day.

This morning I went for my countryside bike ride with Pom Mike (and his wife Lisa) who we were told to go say hello here by our friends Rob and Sue who know them. Again we are surprised how well we get on with couples around our age or older and it is like we know each other. We went for around an hour and I got to see some of the surrounding area including the obligatory truck root –I mean route – who we waved to as we sailed by.  Mike & Lisa have been coming here for 6 years now as Spain is somewhere you can retire early as it is so cheap. After we went and had a few beers with them and ended up going to the camp restaurant for a small meal and a drink as neither of us wanted to cook and by then a few to many bevvies had gone down.  It was with a slightly tired head the next morning as I headed to my first ever bike spin class with Mike and Vicki was off to do her 1km in the pool. We hope to be a lot fitter by the end of the month and there are no excuses with the great facilities here.

Well until we finish our relaxing month, there won’t be too much on the blog as I am sure you don’t want to hear of our relaxing spas, drinky poos in the sun and a gym workout. We will continue in more detail when we leave and head hopefully for a week in Morocco then head through Portugal and France and on to the UK