A quick weekend trip to Spain – Day 2 part 1

We had a lovely lie in, thanks to Nichola and Jak for lending us the soft pillows- the ones in the hotel were like rocks!!! A good nights sleep was had by us both….unfortunately I over ate yesterday compared to my more recently established much smaller intake…consequently I had to get up several times…I am never sure why hotel bathrooms have frosted glass doors because when you have to go in the night you wake your partner up by putting the light on- a definitely design fault!!!! However we didn’t really totally wake until 9.00 am and then we languished in bed doing emails and social media responses etc.

At 10 am we rushed out of bed to ablute…the bathroom – except the door- is too our liking…it’s a low bath so I can easily get in and out to use the over bath shower and John can bathe….having completed the getting up rituals, we got ready for the day.

It was a bit of an overcast day.

Jak, my son, called to say they’d be a little later than previously discussed….this was great as we were also running behind the agreed schedule…for those of you who know me you’ll be saying “what’s new“…. I am always either very early or very late but have problems actually keeping to agreed times 🤣🤣.

Jak is an online personal trainer – RESULTS WITH WINDER. He has a busy business with a lot of “body-builder” elite clients along with those who just want to get in shape….this is a busy time of year for him because the body building competition circuit is coming up and his clients are all prepping for this and with the summer just around the corner his “get in shape” customers are also hard at it…. He is also in the prelaunch stage of his new company “Peak Resilience”. This is a quality gym/sportswear company which is due to launch in May ……there’s no one better than a body builder who spends his time in the gym to design and have made top quality versatile sports gear…so we are looking forward to its launch…..I did model one of his prototype hoodies yesterday evening as it got a little chilly…but I won’t share the pictures because I am not the type of client who will benefit from his Pure Resilience range it’s for the sports minded not the short, fat old age pensioner….having said that it was very comfortable so I may need to invest when it’s launched 🤣🤣🤣

Jak in a Peak Resilience sweatshirt

Nichola his fiancé is also about to launch a new company called “Pulling Through” This is practical equipment for big dogs. Most dog harnesses are not designed for dogs with big chests…in-fact they encourage dogs to do what they naturally do which is to pull. The other types of harnesses can rub under the front legs and cause sores. Halties are not designed for dogs with short noses like boxers, bull dogs etc they rub and cause sores. Collars are a useless design for big dogs because again they can rub and dogs pull on them. So Nichola’s new company will be making equipment which is much more comfortable for both the dog and the owner…

We wish them both good luck with their new ventures. With such busy schedules we are just grateful that they can fit quality time in with us. They picked us up from the hotel and took us to a small coffee shop…..this is no ordinary coffee shop. “Biscky” is owned by Melanie Thijssen- http://www.biscky.com @biscky.chocolate.pastry

It makes the most divine chocolates….diet out the window🤣. We each had 3 and a great coffee each…the total cost was €16 unbelievably cheap… John and I each had a coffee, ginger and honey and a passion fruit chocolate….we wandered down to the seafront and sat on the wall indulging ourselves…

Breakfast over….although for Jak and Nichola it was elevenses! We headed off to the market. It was a busy place with stalls on either side of a wide road which was closed to traffic on market day.

The left hand side had mostly fresh food, all very tempting- but we showed some restraint. The right hand side was clothing, jewellery, leather goods, crockery etc etc. We soon came across a stall with the elastic webbing belts John likes. His present one has been worn until it’s no longer elastic so we selected 2 for €9 ….they are usually twice this for 1 in the UK…we then went on to about 5 handbag stalls until I found one which I liked to replace my deceased one….its not leather but at €15 it will certainly be a good replacement.

The new and the old 🤣

We wandered back to the car from the market

Jak wearing one of the new prototypes and carry honey which has been collected from bees who feast on orange blossom.

After the market we went back to the supermarket we’d been to yesterday. John and I got a salmon poke bowl and a seafood one with prawns and octopus. They even supplied the cutlery to eat it with.

Jak and Nichola dropped us back at the hotel.

They had a filming session in the gym and we were both ready for a rest…We enjoyed our lunch in our room before deciding that a siesta was required.

More tomorrow on the second part of the day.

2 J’s are on the move again – a quick jaunt to Spain.

5.20am saw us frog marching our way, dragging our little weekend wheelies behind us, to Bedford Station….the world might be in turmoil but we’re still off on our travels again regardless !!

The train to Luton Parkway was on time….note to self – if your ticket says Luton Airport on it, it includes the cost of the ‘dart’ up to the airport. The cost of the ticket was £17.50 each….no railcard discounts at that time of the morning. Unfortunately while walking from the Dart to the airport entrance the strap on my beloved handbag broke….i guess it wasn’t a fair contest with the amount of wallets, passports, etc stuffed in it, it didn’t really stand a chance of survival….I bundled it into my tote bag …well at least it will give me something to buy at the markets we’re visiting tomorrow.

We passed through departures protocol with speediness never before witnessed at Luton Airport and we even got a few smiles from the staff. I had a close and personal pat down by the security staff after setting off their bleepers….but all was good. By 7.30 we were sipping a very hot Starbucks Americano and munching on a piece of stale cardboard, which had been advertised as a ‘butter croissant’ …..job done breakfast over ….

The Ryan air app pinged to tell us that our original plane had been swapped and we were to proceed to gate 11 where we would be allocated new seats….we did as we were told, a jolly attendant informed us we had been allocated the same seats and on we boarded.

We took off on time and landed 20 minutes early. We had to register our passports by visiting a machine which took our biometrics. There were plenty of staff on hand and it literally only took a few minutes. We queued a short while before going through passport control but it was all easy and relaxed…

We found our way to the Centauro car hire desk……a couple of pointers here…if you book via a third party don’t get seduced into buying their comprehensive insurance…I had bought AXA insurance through our booking agent, Holiday Autos. AXA isn’t recognised by Centauro and they wanted us to leave an £1800 deposit and if we had an accident we would have an access of another £1800….and they couldn’t provide us with the paper work for us to claim it back from AXA….but we could take their own comprehensive insurance for £140 for 4 days…..by the time we’d finished the cost of the two insurances were greater than the hire of the car!!!! Hey ho….They made a great thing of up grading the car … to a bigger SUV…a MG….its ok apart from it looks as if someone’s been playing bumper cars in it…..I don’t think it has a panel which isn’t dented…the paper work accompanying it says ‘significant damage’…..but as they said it was the only one they had we took it….note to self -don’t hire a car with this company again…looking on the bright side, if I do hit a pole or kerb no one would ever know it would just join the rest of the dents..!!!! With the help of good old ‘waze’ we set off and arrived in our destination – Dna Monse Hotel Spa and Golf, 35 minutes later…..so far so good ..

Our hotel is very pleasant….the reception staff quickly booked us in…our room is like any other hotel room…a huge bed and a massive bathroom. The view is that of various apartment blocks. It is quiet and airy.

View from hotel window

A quick rest before my son and future daughter-in-law came to pick us up. We went back to their apartment. It is delightful….2 en-suite bedrooms a bright airy kitchen, lounge and dinning room, a balcony and stairs up to a massive solarium roof terrace which has wonderful views across the salt lakes. We were greeted by a welcome party…The Boys…Marvin took a few minutes to remember his ‘grandma’ but soon realised non-stop tummy rubs were available and CJ soon became reacquainted. How perfect can life be – my wonderful son and DiL and the fur babies…..only the growling tummy reminded me that I wasn’t in heaven.. Even John was in heaven with his camera in the warm sun…..

My fur grand-babies….the little fella, Marvin and the big boy CJ
A “shadow boxer”- CJ

They then took us out and along the promenade in Torrevieja. Very pretty….we stopped at a restaurant, sitting outside in the sunshine and had a very much needed roast chicken and salad late lunch….

After our growling tums had been quietened we headed off to see the sun set over the lagoon. A spectacular sight.

A quick trip to a supermarket…what a magnificent array of fresh fish…huge aisles and generally a much nicer experience than the hustle and bustle of our UK supermarkets. Shopping done we headed back to the apartment for a rest with the boys.

The Boys with their Mummy

Sometime later my multi-talented boy cooked us a braii ( barbecue) like no other braii….we had prawns, octopus, pure meat burgers, chicken kebabs, chicken fillet, asparagus and peppers accompanied by some crispy potatoes and a superb salad with mango and all the usual salad bit in it.

We munched, chatted and laughed the evening away.

Returning to the hotel, we had thankfully borrowed two pillows and by midnight we fell into our huge bed…..what a wonderful day…but for us oldies we were ready for some much needed shut eye…..more fun tomorrow…