Wark This Way

Archive for the ‘Spain’ Category

Just taking a short break from the cold misery of old Blighty (though to be fair it’s not been THAT bad a winter). Here’s a few shots of Embalse Del Negratin just outside of BAZA in Andalucía that I took this morning – and remember – this is FEBRUARY! The water’s probably a little cold to go swimming but it’s a nice thought.

Not much happening  so I figured I’d tell you about our weekend. We’re currently enjoying spending time in Spain.

On Friday we set off from Galera to see friends Angie and Dennis down to the area around Cuevas Del Almanzora, near VERA, in Almeria. One of the problems with Spain is… it’s big and in rural areas there are simply not that many main routes – so you might be looking at the map on the right and thinking “surely there’s a straight line from A to B – well, no.

However, the route is pretty much motorway except for a short stretch at either end.

Arriving mid-afternoon Friday we all promptly went off to the beach and then after coming back to their place for a chat and a dip in the pool (remember we’re talking upper 30s temperature here – water’s pretty much part of the day’s entertainment) ended up in a nice little nightspot area nearby for drinks.

The following day we went back to the beach and after a battle with the (not insignificant) waves in which I ended up peddle-dashing my knee on the rocks – after fighting to get back on my feet without getting a mouth-full of salt water, I discovered I’d lost my specs in the sea – hardly a good start to the weekend as you can imagine.

Thinking about it, writing this blog isn’t much fun without specs – so guess where we’re going tomorrow – well today as it’s 1.45am already Monday morning. Anyway, we ended up in a really nice restaurant Saturday night to finish off a very pleasant weekend break. We spent most of Sunday morning driving back up to Galera, but managed on the way to find a great market near Vera (and temporary sunglasses for me – I normally wear reactolite varifocals). Spanish rural markets are much of a much-ness – you see the same Indian guys selling fake watches and fake sunglasses, but the quantity and variety of fruit and veg is worth seeing and in this case there was quite a large covered-over area selling plants, much to Maureen’s delight.

We got home mid-Sunday afternoon and as it was too hot to do anything outside, I finally got my two new remote cameras working…lots of improvements over earlier models – these allow 2-way audio as well as quite decent imagery, though being cheap Chinese IP cameras the audio is nothing to write home about…. at least now I’ll be able to keep an eye on both the UK and Spain on the iPhone… handy given the increasing unemployment rate in both countries!!

Oh, so there’s this puppy who seems to have adopted ourselves and our neighbours…he’s cute as well until he craps in the garden and starts barking at 1.30am – just after some “caller unknown” has rang twice on Skype and THREE have left YET ANOTHER stupid message saying how cheap calls are in Spain (despite being instructed verbally 3 times not to ever send me a text again). It’s going to be a long night…

Don’t forget you can see larger versions of most images by clicking on these smaller ones. More pics here on Google Albums or keep up with our Bedrock Facebook page

I’ve just realised I’ve not put anything in here for a while. I’m currently in Spain enjoying a short, email-free break from daily life.  for those of you looking in from the UK I can tell you the weather in Spain’s a lot nicer than it is in the UK right now. Having said that this morning it is quite cold, but the sun’s starting to appear so I’m sure that’ll not last for long. Head on over to the Spanish website to see what’s happening there.

Meanwhile a glimpse of the weekly market in Galera, Andalucía. I just happened to be passing on the way to the post office and noticed how summery everything looked. This morning there’s a thick mist over the valley – but of course that’ll last until the sun gets to it. A good start to the day, found my long lost Spanish mobile SIM frame with the PIN number on it… I had visions of having to change numbers, not for the first time! So a good start, now I just need to find somewhere that’s open selling milk – I’m in desperate need of a cup of coffee..

Meanwhile the Hollyberry Cottage website is all up and running, anyone fancying a romantic break in the Northeast of England might want to take a look at the site…