Oldies On Tour

Friday 13th October 2023

Always a worry to wake up on this day/date, still best foot forward and all that😂😂. 

We head off towards the ferry but have until Monday evening to get to Bilbao; ferry departs around lunchtime on Tuesday, but didn’t want to have to rush.

After breakfast Martin did his last checks on “all” our devices, ensuring everything was downloading according to plan; he informed us that it will take many more hours of being connected to the cloud via WiFi before everything is in the right place.  The moral of the story is “not” to leave well alone!!!!!  At this point we must thank Martin for all his hard work helping sort out two dinosaurs attempting to get into the 21st century.

We hit the road around mid morning heading towards Teruel 270Kms, just under 3-hrs driving.   The first part past on the AP7 to Valencia was boring and fairly heavy with traffic but after turning off onto the A23,  the traffic was minimal and a pleasant drive through some low lying mountains, though at the top we were 1275 meters above sea level.

We arrived in Teruel, found the overnight parking and as Vince had described on Monday, there was the bus stop.  Prior to heading into the centre we popped into the bar next to the parking lot for a late “Menu del Dia” only to be told they didn’t serve them on a Friday!!!  So a quick drink which fortunately came with a small “Tapas” we were ready to head into the centre about a mile and a half away.   We headed to the bus stop and waited a few minutes ‘till the bus arrived only to be told, “No Dogs”:  Oh dear, so let’s walk.

As we headed out we soon realised we had to head down a rather long steep hill, now steep hills and my knee do not go together but there was no alternative other than turn round; not an option.   Of course like all hills, if you go down you have to come back up and today is no different.   

After numerous stops to rest we eventually hit the historic centre, and it was heaving.   Firstly we went into the tourist information to get a map of the area and as we headed out noticed there was a train that went around the town, so joined the queue for the next tour, in about 5-minutes time.   Soon after joining the train arrived and as soon as it had let all its passengers off our queue started to board.  When we hit the front of the queue we heard those immortal words again, “No Dogs”; so, deflated we walked off.

The walk here did take it out of us so we parked ourselves at a bar/restaurant in the main “El Torino” square and ordered a bottle of wine with a plate of its renowned “Jamon Serrano” and settled down to watch the world go by.   This is a busy place with lots of Spanish tourists.

Teruel is a high altitude town in the mountains of the Aragon region, perhaps this also affected our walk in, or are we grasping at straws?  One of the main feature is the “Santa Maria de Madiavilla” Cathedral” dating to the 12th century and another is the “Torre de El Salvador” 14th century Mudejar tower.   Whilst enjoying the ambiance of the square we planed our “day-out” for tomorrow so didn’t rush to get going and we had also decided to get a taxi back.

Food eaten, wine bottle empty and bill paid we headed off through the quaint narrow streets passing the entrance to the Mudejar tower, still open, and out of the old town where we were hoping to pickup a taxi; there were lots of cars but none of them were taxis so continued walking down the big hill hoping to “hail” one as we walked, but to no avail, none came our way.    At the bottom of the hill was a petrol station so went in to buy a bottle of water and at the same time ask the girl behind the counter where we could get a taxi; she went one better than that, she rang the taxi company; “service beyond the call of duty and with a nice smile” but to no avail, she made several attempts and let it ring and ring a long time, but alas no one answered.   We thanked her and headed back up the big hill we’d come down earlier n the day.   My we both struggled but I was the one to keep stopping to give my hip a breather, yes my hip as walking with a bandy leg on a hill affects my hip.   It took for ages to reach the top but we preserved and eventually came to the flat part of the walk; that’s better.

Back in Rosie we collapsed, and the dogs were also tired but one decision was immediately taken; we will leave Teruel for another time and head towards Soria tomorrow, after all this was Friday 13th!! 

Monday 9th October 

Our time here is up, but there is still one more thing we have to do; we have to visit Pat and Vince as Pat has been in hospital for a few days though the good news is, she is home now.   

After saying our goodbyes to our hosts Lee and Sarah, we drove the few streets to their house arriving mid morning.   Vince and I thought it “prudent” to sit outside and leave Pat and Christine to have a good “chin-wag”  and set the world to rights.

After everyone had caught up with everything we all said “our” goodbyes and left, heading the 180Kms to Alcalali to meet up with Martin for a couple of days prior to heading back north. 

We arrived just after lunch and spent this glorious afternoon around the pool enjoying a few G & T’s and enjoying the dogs jumping in and out of the pool chasing the ball.  This evening Martin set about up-grading my laptop, one of several reasons to return so soon.   He also persuaded me to join “the iCloud” as I had so much not backed up, unforgivable!!!

The 4-nights we are staying will be novel not to be in Rosie as we are in his guest suite; wow two guest suites in as many days!!

Tuesday 10th October 2023

During the night my laptop was working hard all night to what it had to do but as I have so many pictures on my laptop with different ones on my iPad and a different set on my ‘phone, it is safe to say I was in a “pickle”, but I’ve come to the right place!!!

The other side of Xalo there is a small village on the mountainside called Llíber, and in that village is a small pedestrian square with a particularly good bar that does excellent Tapas. off we went arriving in time for a late mid-morning coffee and Soberano.  This was very enjoyable, sitting out in the sun watching people come and go and listening to the road builders.   They had decided to dig up the only “through” road to lay new drain and water pipes, and they were noisy at times.   Anyway, as time marched on it was lunch time so ordered our first Tapas, again each of us chose a separate plate, but we “only” had “just the one” bottle of wine!!!!

After a protracted coffee morning and a Tapas lunch, we headed back to the house, replete and happy and again entertained by the dogs.  All the while my laptop was still “doing its thing”, my-my, what a mess it was in!!!

Early night tonight, for some reason we are all as knackered as the dogs!!

Wednesday 11th October

A good nights sleep was had and refreshed we breakfasted with my laptop still whirring away in the background.  Martin is gob-smacked as to how many ‘photos I’ve taken over the years, you wait ‘till you sort Christine’s out!!

There was shopping to be done but Christine elected to stay and get up-to-date with washing and clean Rosie which meant Martin and I had the responsibility of heading to he supermarket.  The issues had been Monday and Thursday are red days so everything is closed.   The responsibility got to us so before entering the store we stopped for a coffee, Soberano and a “toastada con tomate”; give us the confidence to get it right. Also today, we have to head to a Bodega to get some rather lovely local wine from a village just up the road.   This wine is curious as it has Muscatel grapes which would suggest it is sweet but no it is dry and it is really very good.

Back from the supermarket and we headed straight to this family run Bodega, unfortunately straight is not quite right.   The village has extremely narrow streets and they all look alike still Martin got us there ok.  Next parking, ha!!  But to our astonishment and good fortune the proprietor’s son came out and told us where to leave the car.  15-minutes later we walked out with a few cases🤠🤠🤠

The rest of the afternoon followed the same, pool party🤪🤪;  tonight though we are heading out to dinner, a rather nice restaurant we like in the narrow back streets of Xalo called “Restaurante Del Hierro”. We’ve been there many times before and never disappointed, tonight was no exception.

Back to the house for a night cap before bed, a checkup on the IT front and away we went.

Thursday 12th October

We had great plans when we sat down to breakfast, we were going to head down to Denia market, but then realised it was a big red day here in Spain meaning nothing opened, no market, no shops, zilch, just petrol stations and restaurants and with all the Spanish out and about celebrating Columbus Day, we decided to stay in, after all it was the last chance to get in the pool.   

After checking my IT equipment and starting on Christine’s, Martin headed down to the local garage to buy some fresh bread; yes we think they bake it!!, whilst Christine and I moved Rosie closer to the house and filled up her water tank.  I also took the opportunity to top up the generator tank as well, now we are all set for tomorrow.

Our work completed, the bread arrived and it was lunchtime.   Goodness me, we eaten so much these last few weeks, we’ll blow the scales up!!!  Big diet starts next week🥶🥶

This afternoon was much the same, I rather like this way of life, perhaps we should live here😂😂, the dogs being the main source of entertainment, but “not” when they shake right by us after they get out of the pool😩😩

Tonight is our last night so Martin is cooking us one of his famous curries and if past performance is anything to go by, it will be very good.   Whilst this was going on Christine and I sorted our stuff to save time in the morning.

After another superb curry and a nightcap we are done; bed beckons and the off tomorrow morning 

Thank you Martin for putting up with us, especially our delinquent puppies cxxxx

Sunday 15th October

To be fair the night stop in Leclerc was fine and not too crammed in, probably due to bad parking by the two motorhomes beside us; thank you bad parkers!!!   In addition, there were facilities for water, for a price and discharge facilities which we made use of.

Logrono is about a two hour drive and our plan is to find the motorhome park, park up and head into the old part for our “last lunch” for this trip, and being a Sunday, the town should be buzzing; we’d identified a suitable restaurant and according to the write-ups, sounded rather good.  Additionally it didn’t open until 1330hrs so no pressure for us to rush.

Driving to Logrono was fabulous, the scenery as we drove through the mountains was extremely dramatic and though the road was of good quality it did twist and turn a great deal much to Christine’s discomfort.  There is definitely no argument, the beauty and greenery of this part of Spain is a complete contrast to the desert and the surrounding areas of the south.    In spite of all the greenery, obviously this is an area of heavy rains, but the lake that has been created to form a reservoir in these mountains was extremely low; no doubt blaming global warming!!!!  The nice thing about this route, albeit inconvenient, are the old stone bridges; the new wide roads go to the bridge but the bridge is a still single road, fortunately each time we arrived at one of theses bridges, there was no other traffic😁😁.   This may be an “out-of-the-way” route to take, but it was certainly worth the effort and I would do it again, but from the other way!!

Arriving in Logrono around midday we had two motorhome parking places to chose from and fortunately we had to pass the first one to get to the second one.   Arriving at the first MH park was interesting as this carpark had been completely taken over by a car boot sale; no room whatsoever, so headed to the second one.   Me thinks “they’re having a laugh”, SatNav took us around a couple of roads and deposited us in a carpark admittedly amongst trees, but it backed onto the big one with the car boot sale!!!  The good thing was the car boot sale hadn’t encroached this area and after a quick circumnavigation of the of all the spaces, settled on a spot at the end; at least no one could go on the end and also over the road behind us, was a large green grassy area, ideal for the dogs.

After parking and settling Rosie up on a couple of front blocks, and being a Sunday, we spruced ourselves up as best we could.  In the town and cities there is still the culture of the family dressing up smart and heading out to lunch, we did our best!!!

The walk to the old centre was a little over one km, flat to the river Ebro, “very good news”, over the bridge then a short climb up a gentle hill to the Main Street with the restaurants, bars etc., and of course a lovely square.    After Teruel this was like a “walk-in-the-park’, arriving at the chosen place to dine 15-minutes early though chatting with one of their waiters we were invited to sit down and he’d get us a drink while we waited.   Unfortunately for him we had also spotted the restaurant next door, they had a Sunday “Menu del Dia” and it looked very inviting.      We had the dilemma, “fixed” menu or “a la carte” but the decider was, when they both opened at 1330, the fixed menu restaurant was immediately busy whilst the other didn’t have any people at this point.

We enjoyed a pre-dinner drink observing everything that was going on, families promenading etc., before ordering.   Whin I asked the waiter for the wine list, he shrugged his shoulders as there wasn’t one however, he asked me to accompany him and we were joined be another waiter who escorted me into a temperature controlled room, “their bodega”, full of all sorts of wine and we must not forget, Logrono is the centre of the Rioja region: No prices of course!!!    This is the second time this has happened to me in Spain and the first time it was costly but hey, we head back to U.K. next so just choose and enjoy it.

We had a superb meal and of course kept an eye on next door, see what we’ve missed, and we were happy with our “lot”.   Of course TT & R sat patiently under the table for the couple of hours we were there; we’re amazed how good they are when dining out, they have always done it quite naturally. 

It was time for “La Cuenca”, and swallowed hard as it was arriving only to be rather surprised by the bottom line; now at this point I should have said something, yet they are responsible for their own accounting aren’t they?,  so kept quiet, immediately paid and left.   They hadn’t charged for the bottle of wine from their bodiga and I know it wasn’t the cheap stuff like the first glass Christine had earlier, it was bloody good!!!!

Tonight England are playing Fiji in the quarter final so had to be back in time for kick-off at  1700hrs, but still had some time for a walk around the square etc.   Christine elected for an ice cream from the ice cream parlour and we then went to a cafe in the square so I could have a coffee and a brandy.   We sat and watched the waitress head to another table took their order and back inside, ignoring us as Christine munched her way through her ice cream.  She then returned with that tables order and just chatted to them as Christine got on with her ice cream, at which point another couple turned up and the waitress went straight to their table.  By now Christine had finished her ice cream and we got up and left.   There were two cafes in the square adjacent to each other. The other one was busy but unfortunately no table on the periphery where we can park two dogs; we got that wrong!!!!!!

The walk back was easier as it was down hill to the river then flat, and upon arrival noted the car boot sale had all packed up, the big carpark was empty, even our area has also emptied out, even better.

With the walk back the dogs were happy to sit for a bit so got the iPad out and switched the rugby on.

At the outset of this years RWC England had been written off; lucky if they get out of their pool was the thinking, well they performed better than expectation, not only have they come through the pool stage, they are the only team to have won every match and came out as the pool winner!!!  Now it’s the knockout stages so it’s “win or go home” for every team from now on, so important.   Fiji are a good team and beat us at Twickenham in the last game they played so pride, as well as a place in the semi final is at stake.   This was a nail biting game, ebbing and flowing but fortunately in the end, England found their stride and won.  Result:- England 30 : 24 Fiji,   We now have to watch the next match, the winner between France and South Africa will be our opponents in the semi final.

2100 hrs after Christine had taken the dogs out we settled down again in front of the iPad for the next Match.    France being the host nation who had never won the RWC had a lot resting on this game, for them it was unfortunate to finish up playing South Africa in a quarter final, two teams who should have both gone through to the semis, so we knew it was going to be “hum-dinger” of a match.

From the moment the whistle blew it was brutal action, both teams giving it their all, and both teams scores progressed together, surely this game was heading for extra time.  What a match, two fairly evenly balanced teams, both deserved to win but of course this is knock-out time and France was eventually the losing team.  Result:- France 28 : 29 South Africa.    England now know they will meet South Africa in the semi finals; a repeat of the 2019 RWC final in Japan, I just hope the result is different!!!

After a really good day we headed to bed, Bilbao tomorrow

Sunday 8th October 2023

This morning Lee and Sarah had to head to the lemon tree market and we took the opportunity to do a few jobs in and around Rosie; all go!!!  

Today we are going to “Oasis” a restaurant we regularly frequent when we lived here, and were always joined by Lee and Sarah when they were over.  The excuse this time was Lee’s birthday, well in a few days time!!   First a quick ‘phone call to check if we can bring the dogs, yes we can.

Arriving at the appointed hour we took our seats and the dogs settled down, no doubt thinking for about an hour or so.   When we get here we have a habit of just having starters, a lot of them but we only order one at a time, and we each chose one or two; we like “to linger” and we always have a conversation about how many bottles of wine we’ve consumed, we never remember!!!  After about 4-hours the two dogs became fidgety, so needed a short natural break!!  We then carried on for another hour.   We are usually the first to arrive, and we are “always” the last to leave, and today was no exception; another super lunch😀😀

Back to Calle Acebo  but arrived “toooooo late” for the Japan V Argentina match, but this result had no bearing on anyone, but now it was decision time.   We could either watch the Qatar Grand Prix or the Tonga Rumania game; we elected to watch the Grand Prix.  We decided if this was an exciting game we would watch it on “catch-up” but looking at the result, we made the right choice.

Lee had set the tv up on the bar down by the pool to watch Fiji V Portugal, the last, but a  very important game, well for Eddy Jones’ Australia, they needed Fiji to lose by more than 7-points to replace them in the quarters.  What a match, The “Flying Fijians” weren’t flying tonight and Portugal played jolly well and managed the unthinkable, they beat Fiji but not enough, Australia are on their way home😁.  Result: Fiji 23 : 24 Portugal and after the final whistle you would have thought Portugal had won the World Cup, they were so happy and quite rightly so, they played well, and deserved the win.

During all this time Sarah was playing with Tom-Tom and Rosie, throwing the ball everywhere and completely knackering them out, another good nights sleep🤞🤞, tomorrow we head off, our visit to Campoverde is coming to an end. 

Thank you Lee and Sarah for your hospitality and we thoroughly enjoyed re-visiting Calle Acebo; the house is in very good hands.

Saturday 7th October.

No rush this morning so for a change we made ourselves a cooked breakfast before heading to “George’s” the vet in the village.   We had arranged this appointment to get all the necessary paperwork, worming tablets etc., etc., to get them back into the U.K.   transporting dogs was a fairly simple procedure but now it is far more complicated and very expensive so in passing asked if they could have Spanish passports, and if so would that improve the coming and going’s of our dogs, to which he answered ‘yes”.   The next questions were, could he do it how long to do and when.  We knew he was off on his annual holiday later today so we would think about this for next time, but to our surprise he said comeback in a hour or so and he would do it, it was that simple!!!

At 1100hrs we had arranged to meet Keith and Penny for coffee so this all dovetailed nicely.   We were also joined by Keith’s brother Boyd and his wife Jennifer so had a jolly hour or so before heading back to George’s.    

An hour or so later we walked out of George’s with Spanish passports for Tom-Tom and Rosie: job done😁

Now it was back to our old house in Calle Acebo, we are staying with our friends, Lee and Sarah for a couple of nights and the bonus is: six rugby matches, 3 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and if the timings allow, the Qatar Grand Prix!!!    These matches complete the RWC pool stages and a couple of teams are “sweating” on some results, Australia to name just one!!!

But first a few drinks around the pool.   It was quite strange returning after 6-years but it was rather nice especially the garden, to see all the shrubs Christine planted all those years ago grow profusely and make the pool area very private.   Next we headed back to the top terrace; this reminded us why we sold, all those steps!!!  We enjoyed lunch before settling down to watch the first game, Wales V Georgia, nothing riding on the result of this game but still worth watching, especially how far Georgia have come and should probably be considered as a replacement team in the 6-Nations; but politics will get in the way and it won’t happen😡😡. Result: Wales 43 : 19 Georgia

Now we had the game we were waiting for England V Samoa; England were already through to the quarters but having had such a poor run-up to the RWC, they had a point to prove.   This was a tight match, not so much for a good game, more because England made so many unforced errors and were at “six’s and seven’s” at times and Samoa just capitalised on them and ran us ragged, even Mr Farrell took to long to take a conversion further aggravating the situation.  The final score tells it all: England 18 : 17 Samoa.

Immediately after this match we switched over to watch the Sprint Race in Qatar and as the checkered flag came down switched over in time to see the Anthems of Ireland and Scotland.   Scotland “had” to win and by a margin to get into the quarters, Ireland were already there but South Africa was vulnerable.   This should have been exciting but it was a non event, Ireland just “squashed” Scotland.  Result: Ireland 36 : 14 Scotland

Having enjoyed copious amounts of alcohol during the day we enjoyed some good old fashioned sausage sandwiches, ideal food after many pints of beer/cider!!!

With not much evening left we headed off to bed, tonight we are in the guest suite, a room we never actually slept in before; a novel experience

Friday 6th October

Market day in Pilar de La Horadada so after breakfast that’s were we headed for.   Parking here is ok as there is a lot of waste ground though one has to bump over the kerbs to get there!!

Two main reasons for visiting and the most important was to get our kitchen knives sharpened; there is a stall that sells all sorts of kitchen wares but for us, he sharpens knives.   To date he is the best “knife sharpener” in the business that we have found.   The least important reason, well for Christine anyway, was to get “Churros con Chocolate”; can’t come to Spain and not indulge.

We only have three things on the agenda today, market in the morning, haircuts at midday and dinner with Roger and Helena this evening, and in between we headed to visit Mary, always good to see her and give her a “hard time”, she loves it really😂😂😂, and whilst there we will take the opportunity to top our water tank up.   .   

We got our knives sharpened as planned and enjoyed our churros before heading to “Paula’s” salon.  Paula has cut our hair for a number of years at several salons and used to manage the hairdressers by Spar, but late last year went on her own so decided to support her in her new posh salon just up from Iceland and as usual did a good job.

Mary was our next port of call, this would be our last chance to catch up as we leave Monday morning so had a good “chin-wag” before saying our goodbyes ‘till our next visit to Campoverde. Leaving Mary’s also we went back to the Spar shop to add more bottles to our “Tio Pepi” stock 

It was now time to return to the doggy park, time to “knacker” the dogs out before dinner.   This doesn’t take very long as we have the “technology”; 3-tennis balls and a ball thrower, we keep throwing the balls and not giving them time to sit and relax until they’ve had enough.  We always know when that happens, they take the ball off to another part of the area and sit on it!!!   We will be staying here again tonight but as we’re dining at “San Marino’s”, the other end of the village we will drive down there first.

Parked near the restaurant and enjoying a pre-dinner G & T we waited for the arrival of Helena and Roger.   Though it was a Friday evening the restaurant was surprisingly empty, there was one other table apart from ours; historically unheard of, still we had a good evening and as usual the food was excellent.   It was very good to catch-up with them but poor Roger was struggling as he had only just left hospital following serious surgery, but hopefully getting out tonight and having a laugh will do him the world of good; we hope you get over the nasty experience very soon and thank you for making the effort to “come out to play”, very much appreciated.

Back outside the dog park we settled down for the night, this will be our last one here.