Firstly and foremost John and I wish you happy festivities wherever you are in the world .
2025 started slowly for us. John had two eye operations which slowed our travelling down. We also had a February deadline for another of our books – “50 Gems of Bedfordshire” it will be published February 2026 by Amberley Books. …I think this will be about Johns 30th book with Amberley Publishers…and my 2nd!
In April we headed to Norfolk with my Dad. We hired a lovely bungalow near Sheringham for a week. What a lovely week it was, meandering around our beautiful countryside.
May saw John and I heading to Portugal and Southern Spain….we fell in love with Praia de Luz ….wonderful apartment for a week, super beach, restaurants and “Jackson Mystery Tours” around the countryside….(that’s Johns name for exploring and getting lost).
A wonderfully relaxing and “chill out” time.
We travelled up to Spain and spent time in an intriguing village called El Rocio….a real throw back place on the edge of a national park which is home to the highest number of Iberian Lynx in Spain…needless to say we didn’t see one…but we did very much enjoy our time there.
We travelled on up to Seville for a week…hiring a strange apartment in a residential block. We enjoyed the Cathedral, horses and carriage sight seeing, a river cruise and a flamenco show.
Driving back into Portugal we stayed a week in a holiday complex apartment near Albuferia….ummm not one of our best accommodation choices…. But we made the most of it with beach days and exploring the area.
Back in the UK we had a variety of days out with Dad, such as a coffee on a longboat on the Grand Union Canal
The end of July we headed for Devon. A fantastic occasion which saw my sister as a truly radiant bride as she married Mark….a day which was such a happy occasion.
September came and yippee! we were off to South Africa…..
Much joy as we met up with good friend Gill and our dearest Cora
Then off to Kruger for 3 weeks of heaven…..this year we started at the most southern point and went right up to the northern tip……Mother Nature blessed us and we saw some truly magnificent sights…
Our cameras didn’t stop clicking…but we did take a few shots of people..
And of course there were some fantastic sunsets…
Back to the UK we went with Dad to the New Forest in mid November…although it was cold it was still fabulous to see the ponies and we sat watching them on several occasions from what was my mums favourite spot….a joyful occasion we repeat every year…
As we reach the end of 2025 there is nothing left to say except to wish all our followers a Very Happy 2026…we hope your year is filled with adventures, laughter and love.
After such a busy day celebrating Johns birthday we were slow starting the day on Thursday. After a leisurely breakfast we wandered the maze of tiny cobbled streets to our favourite hotel…..at this point I must say if you’re going to Seville we thoroughly recommend The Saville Hotel Centre- looking the price up for our 3 nights we found an apartment was false economy, the hotel would only have been €30 extra and would have included breakfast…you live and learn. ….John dropped the rubbish off at a municipal refuse area ( as required by the apartment) and we hailed a taxi. €7 later we were outside the cathedral. We queued about 30 minutes and then bought tickets €14 for me and on the production of Johns passport €7 for proving he was over 65. The cathedral is absolutely beautiful. We wandered around foe a couple of hours, delving into every nook and cranny, saying a few prayers in various chapels and enjoying the splendour of this religious treasure.
On leaving the cathedral at its rear end we wandered across the road to a taxi rank. On spying a tourist gift shop we browsed an purchased a Seville t-shirt for John and a flamenco style hair group for me…..then would you believe it we caught sight of the bottle of Orange wine, my son, Jak had been asking us to get him.
Grabbing a taxi we headed across to the oldest part of Seville, not far from the theatre we had been to the day before. Jak had told us of a restaurant he really rated.
El Rinconcillo is the oldest restaurant/bar in Seville and it is totally heaving in character. We had to queue to get in. Jak had said the tapas were amazing, it seemed plenty of others agreed with him. However the tapas is served with you standing at the barrels which we didn’t really want to do. So we managed to blag a table in the restaurant on the same level as the tapas and bar. The waiter spoke superb English. The place had the same high class food and seeped with history as Rules in Covent Garden London has …so we were delighted and intrigued. We had some nice fish…not certain what it was but it was divine and followed it with coffee cake. The kind waiter pored me a taster of Orange wine so I knew what we had bought Jak. Altogether it was a lovely lunch.
We got a taxi back to the apartment before having a leisurely siesta…..we really had, had a nice time in Seville. Another famous city to tick off our list.
The following day we packed up, said goodbye to our apartment and dragged our cases along the cobbles to the carpark. A kindly gentleman translated the ticket machine for me and I had soon paid the €56 for the 3 days parking. We set the cars sat nav up to take us to Albufeira….it managed to get us out of Seville without taking us down any tiny roads for which I was very grateful. We arrived at our next apartment Sun & Serenity which was on the Balaia Da Mar hotel grounds….there are lots of privately owned apartments on hotel complexes in Portugal. The hotel receptionist kindly spoke to the agent in Portuguese and told us we were too early. An hour later we were allowed to go to the apartment. We met the lady and she had brought a young g English speaking man with her. Well!!!!! What can we say….pictures do lie ….it didn’t have a balcony …the view was through a window…ok we can live with that, there was a bit of a divider between the lounge, kitchen area and the bedroom…but basically all one room and the bathroom was very bijou……the shower door opening just enough to squeeze in sideways…one boob at a time so to speak….. the loo was behind the door but ok it was livable with….but!!!!! The whole window ( the only window in the place) was covered in hundreds of fleas…..umm…..they knew I meant business when I said “NO” after a three way discussion for nearly 30 minutes we agreed to wait 2 hours, if they got rid of the fleas ( evidently to recent wet then hot weather had caused an influx throughout 5he area but they only last a couple of days) we would stay and if not they would “try!!!!” To get us a refund…..those of you who know me will understand that I made it very clear that I was not amused. However 2 hours later the lady came back with plug in repellents and sprayed and it did do the trick…it certainly exterminated them immediately…..I’ve been using the spray ever since…. So we are in this pleasant enough hotel complex, the view from the window is of lush gardens and magpies chasing seagulls…it’s very green and nothing really to complain about. We went across the road to the Balaia Golf resort for supper. I had stayed there many years ago. The food was very nice at a reasonable price so it will become our go to place…..next to it is a Spar supermarket where we stocked up on water and breakfast goods….Another excellent day on our road trip.
Breakfast at Hospederia El Cazadero Real was the best we’d had so far…at last !! Soft bread rolls, yogurt, fruit, cold meats and preserves…..wow last nights splendid supper and the hotel breakfast was beginning too make up for the rather poor food we had been eating since arriving in Spain. Feeling replenished we set of to Seville. Thank you El Rocio for a great experience…an adventure to be remembered. Arriving in Seville we followed our Google maps and went wrong. We stopped outside Hotel Seville Centre and the charming doorman reprogrammed us. We found where we were staying….but the less said about the next couple of hours the better…..My ever loving, patient husband did his best to keep me calm …..the cobbled roads were narrow and cars parked down one side, so I literally inched our large SUV down them and took no notice of the crazy Spaniards peeping behind me. When we found our street I didn’t need to worry because it was so narrow no cars were parked I just had to miss the bollards and the buildings…looked more like a narrow footpath than a road….The property agent turned up an hour later and told us we could park in the apartments underground carpark…..are you joking or what….try as I may I couldn’t get the car through the gate it was just too big. The following day I saw the smallest 2 door BMW go into it and it took them 3 attempts to inch it in, so I felt better about refusing to continue to try. Lola the agent kindly came with us to the public above ground carpark where there was plenty of space it just meant we had to drag our cases a few hundred yards. The apartment is on the second floor, looking into a courtyard. Luckily there was a lift. It is roomy and has everything we need…it’s a bit dated and one might describe it as “ shabby -Chic” . Although personally I’d just call it shabby. We spent a few hours resting before going in search of a supermarket, on foot!!! I asked a young couple who sent us on a short walk which took us to a grocery shop opposite the Seville Hotel Centre. We purchased enough groceries for breakfasts and that nights evening meal…..John provide the packhorse service by lugging it all back to the apartment. An early night was required, to get over the narrow street incident…..
May 21st- Johns birthday. We started the day slowly with press and cards and breakfast …
We then walked to the hotel. We found a lovely helpful receptionist, Judith, who gave us a map, circled where we were, where the Cathederal was, where the boar trips go from and where the Flemenco dance show was. We then purchased boat tickets, for €20 each, and theatre tickets, for €23 for me and €18 for John, from her….what a star…..
I had already booked a table in the hotels 13 th floor panoramic view restaurant for the evening. If you’ve got deep pockets and want a really nice hotel I would choose this one…. the doorman, receptionist and waiter couldn’t do enough for us and their English was excellent.
Across the road from the hotel is a taxi rank. A €5:60 taxi ride took us to the Cathedral square. There was a big queue and seeing as there were horse and carriage there we decided to leave the Cathedral until later and take horse & carriage instead. We agreed the €45 price and our driver would point the sights out to us in English…so off we went…
I must say, both our driver and our horse were cheery chappies…..A beautifully groomed, healthy looking horse, with pricked ears denoting happiness and a whinny for all his mates as he passed them. We went past the Houses of Parliament. Palace, university, opera house, statues etc as well as into the main park which was very beautiful.
Our tour lasted about one and a half ours….it really is a lovely way to sightsee. We thanked our driver and his horse…
We decided to leave the cathedral until the next day because there was still a queue and we wanted to fit the boat trip in before the theatre. It was quite a walk to the river but we made it intime to get the 2.00 pm boat. The commentary was in Spanish and English so we understood what we were seeing….some was the same as we’d just seen from the carriage but there were lots of bridges, buildings erected in 1992 for the EXPO’92. Lots of interesting sights whilst enjoying the river…
Disembarking after our 1 hour cruise we ambled along towards the theatre. We stopped at a rather posh street cafe/restaurant for a much needed drink and a shared seafood salad.
The walk to the theatre was quite along way, through the maze of pedestrianised cobbled streets in the heart of the old town. We exchanged our vouchers for tickets and had a drink in the bar….wow…what a show it was…
The show was superb but not what we had expected…the Spanish dancing was highly aggressive almost verging on intimidating, there was nothing quiet or gentle or loving about it but ir was certainly very passionately performed. After the show we took a €13 taxi ride back to the apartment. We had just enough time to shower and change before heading back to the hotel for supper… The restaurant only had about 6 tables and a super view across the city..The food was very nice, I had prawns on glass noodles and John had hake on polenta. We rounded it off with crème caramel and coffee ice cream. Not overly expensive, the bill including drinks and a tip was €76. The view as the sun went down was spectacular….
As we waddled back to the apartment we had full tummies and tired legs….my little legs had walked 10,996 steps and I was ready to fall into bed. Happy Birthday my darling husband, what a wonderful day we had filled with adventures, creating many happy memories.
As we were only 10 miles from the coast we decided not to leave the area without at least taking a look. So we headed out of town, not by saddling up our horses!!, but in our 4 wheeled chariot, named Nissan!!!! We headed for Matalascanas. This is a purposed built seaside town, very popular with the Spanish. It is built in a compartmentalised fashion. This reminded us a little of Milton Keynes in layout. We found a non-paying parking space and walked to the sea front… a strangely angled concrete structure seemed to be a focal point of some interest….a bus load of Spaniards seemed intent on having their photo taken in front of it….so we did the same….!!!
It was very blowy so we decided not to frequent the beach and instead decided to investigate the town. Every compartment had a roundabout with a left turn into the area. These areas were named hotel, commercial, residential. Each roundabout had a great sculpture on it…
We retraced our steps back to El Rocio. After a little debate on how and which petrol to put in our chariot we succeeded in filling up for €71 ….petrols about the same price as in UK…but we are hybrid so using less. On returning to the hotel we were flabbergasted at what a difference a day makes….we had seen the town as bustling but on a Monday lunch time all the shops were shut. Walking down on to the square there were no horses or carts at all and only 2 of the street restaurants/cafes were open. We selected the one we had, had the rubber frisbee in rather than the one we had, had ham biltong in !!!!! We both went for paella because it would be soft and my gums are suffering from the hard inedible food. I’d stuck to yogurt and a banana for breakfast, so by now I was hungry. The paella arrived with two tiny shell on shrimps, a small strip of calamari, and quite a lot of chunks of meat which could have been goat, horse, cat!!! Who knows….but it was soft and that and the rice were very tasty.
Siesta time, the internet was down so we snoozed. At 4.00 pm we decided to take the car to the Parks Board office…there was no problem with parking as it really was a ghost town. The shops opposite the hotel had finally opened…
Having got to the Parks board office an hour early we had hoped our tickets would be number 1 giving us the first choice of seats on the bus…but alas they were No.7…. Never mind…. We waited out the hour before boarding the bus. We got a good window seat so we were happy. The bus was much bigger than yesterday’s , it was a 30 seater. Lucia gave us a warm welcome and off we went again. This time we saw far more cows grazing, prior to seeing a big herd of deer. We looked around the eucalyptus tree stumps for both rabbits, who evidently have their burrows there, and Linx, who evidently hunt the rabbits there…..but neither wanted to show them selves to us.
We disembarked at the same spot as yesterday. There was a marked difference in the bird species, in that we didn’t see any flamingo, but large flocks of spoonbills. They always make me laugh. We also saw some grebe, a pair of shovelers, a coot with their young and a lot of black/ glossy ibis.
The next stop was the visitors centre. Here we did see more flamingos, even more glossy Ibis and an array of waterfowl.
Before leaving the carpark we viewed the storks nest and thought we could see 3 chicks and the adult.
Our return trip to El Rocio was punctuated with lots of beautiful bird life…but alas the much desired viewing of a Linx eluded us. We thanked both the driver and Lucia for another great drive which concluded back at the Parks boards office at 9.00 pm. We then headed for a restaurant . The receptionist from the hotel had recommended an eatery near where we were and so we decided to give it a go. Wow…they were so helpful and tried with their English and Google translator. They brought us 5 different fish to choose from….the biggest was a sole so we went for that. The owner brought the scales to the table and weighed it and told us it would be €40 ….we gave him the thumbs up sign and off he went to cook it. Some 20 minutes later he returned with it cooked and proceeded to fillet it at the table. It may not have been very aesthetic but it tasted divine. They served it with frites and an onion and cold potato salad…. Wow it was good to finally eat something soft, tasty, delicious and we recognised what it was…. This was the best restaurant in town and really nice people who wanted to be helpful.
After supper we drove back to our hotel, with comfortably full tummies. Another lovely day…tomorrow we move on to Seville
We were packed up and ready to go by 9.56 precisely!! We bid a fond farewell to our lovely apartment and headed out of town to the N125 then took the A20 to the A22. It was strange watching all the place names on the signs with the last name in capitals- Espanha…Spain…that was where we were heading. We didn’t actually realise that we were in Spain until my phone bleeped and we had gained an hour. We also went over a fairly spectacular bridge so we thought this was probably the two countries land boarders……The road also changed names from the A22 to the A49…..So Spain here we are !!!!
We were fascinated by the storks nests at the top of virtually every pylon. We continued on until junction 50 when we turned onto the A483. The roads were all good, dual carriage ways. We suddenly dropped to a two way road and taking the sign to El Rocio we immediately started driving on quite deep sand. ……wow, wow, wow all the white buildings had wooden rails outside for tethering your horse. We found what we thought was the main Square and stopped to ask the way….we were sent in completely the wrong direction… and had to stop and ask again ….we were sent back to where we had come from…..we found a parking one of the much queued for limited spaces ….but we still couldn’t see our hotel. I went in a saddlery shop and the lady took me outside and said 3 doors down….it was a horse only road….so we left the car where it was and walked the short distance. Sure enough there was our hotel….Hospederia El Cazadero Real. Checking in was a drawn out process, because, although we later found out most the guests were English speaking, the receptionist didn’t speak any English…..anyway after paying the €260 for 3 nights we were shown to our room. I had requested ground floor and had been told it was an inside room, I had asked if it had a window and was told the window had a buildings view…….ummmm If the window had opened, which it didn’t, it was boarded up, it would have looked at the breakfast serving area. There was a small double bed with about a foot of room each side so you had to walk sideways to get into bed. There was a chair at the bottom of the bed then the very bijou bathroom and shower. To be quite honest the shower was bigger than the rest of the bathroom and almost big enough to sleep in….to say we were disappointed was an understatement….weve not had a room this small before and I can assure you we won’t be having one again !!! But C’est la vive……there was a nice communal outside terrace overlooking the lake/ marshlands and the square where horse rides, and horse and cart trips take place.
All along the street there were Spanish dress shops and traditional riding dress shop, lots of leather wear…the flamenco style dresses were magnificent in all vibrant colours.
We decide to take a wander, to lift our spirits after the shock of our room…my dad would call it a Kyle room- very petite but with everything in the right place!!!!…… only trouble was it didn’t have anything in the right place!!! So we took off on foot, walked around to where the horses were and paid €20 each for a 20 minute horse and cart ride. The driver didn’t speak any English and insisted on smacking and playing loud music on his phone…. But we did see the town of El Rocio in a traditional way.
Our driver seemed to know how to ask for a tip, which we refused. We ate a plate of ham, which was a bit like biltong in the square for lunch. We then walked up to the church. Inside it was extremely ornate, very beautiful.
We decided not to siesta but took a rest on our hotels roof terrace. As supper approached we googled the restaurant the receptionist had given us and off we went…..it may have said 6 minutes walk but in that deep sand it seemed far further. We got there at 7.00 pm to be told it didn’t open until 8.00 pm…..so we walked all the way back and settled for a restaurant near our hotel adjacent to the church. It also didn’t open until 8.00 pm so we sat having a Coke Zero whilst watching the beautifully dressed ladies, in traditional Spanish Flamenco dresses, and their husbands in their boater type hats, coming and going to church. The restaurant owner was very kind and although he spoke no English he happily typed into my Google translator and hey presto we had lightly grilled tuna steaks with chips, followed by cake…..
What an amazing place this is…a real living throw back in time, it has refused to be modernised and their traditional way of life strongly lives on….we feel privileged to be here.
2 J's World of Adventure 