Saturday, May 31, 2014

The bestist so far ...

We left Torre del Mar yesterday morning, heading for Granada, but as we were heading along the motorway Elaine said, "That looks nice down there, lets get off the motorway and check it out".  I am so glad we did as we explored our most bestist (is it a word?) and fantastic place yet.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Nerja .. I am sure loads of poms have been there for their hols, but to us it was just so fantastic ... touristy but still very Spanish.

One of the many lovely streets ...

We had lunch at a lovely little cafe up a side street, the chap next to us was having lunch with his parrot!! 

There were actually quite a few people about ... it's just that when I get the camera out they hide! 

The town square and church ...

Lovely views ... 

The wind had dropped down so it was very pleasant.....actually it was 'kin fantastic! 

It was so nice we went into a couple of very helpful real estate offices to check out prices.  It is definitely a bit more exy then a lot of other places in Spain but it was oh so special ...


By now Bombo was over the view ... 

We weren't ... 

Boom!


Lovely crystal clear water ... 

Sammie said, check this out...white pointers!!  

So many restaurants and bars ... 

Later in the afternoon we carried on our trip up to Granada.

There was still a bit of snow on the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas ... 

Once again fantastic, deserted roads ... 

We had a query the other day as to whether the dogs prefer the boat or the motorhome.
They are more relaxed in the motorhome and generally just sleep! 


It was quite late by the time we reached Granada and moored up for the night.  We found a nice little site on the outskirts of Granada.  The first people we bumped into were four Aussies from South Australia - they were sitting having drinks, so invited us to join them!  We went to get the dogs out of the van and when we got back they had gotten out a big Aussie flag and displayed it across the front of the table!  They were really nice people and we had a good 'yarn'!!

.  One of the couples (Graham and Colleen) was in a motorhome, which he bought for £2000 two years ago on Ebay, and comes over for the European summer.  The other couple (Bob and Ginny) had a car and caravan and who do the same thing.  During the winter they head off back down under whilst the vehicles are stored at Weston Super Mare.  I got them very interested in narrowboating!  

They were leaving this morning, heading to Gibraltar so we had a quick photo opportunity.   I was still in my dressing gown, it was 08.30 am!! 

This morning we headed off to check out the Alhambra Palace ... 

We walked around the perimeter as we had the dogs with us.  They were not allowed into the palace and it was too hot to leave them in the van ...


Incredible building ...


Lovely views across to Granada ... 

Elaine, the women in red, coming down the stairs (with Bombo up on the wall again!)... 

We left Granada in the afternoon and headed back down across the mountains to the coast.

Bombo assumed the position ... 

The landscape changed drastically on our drive back down to the coast.  We saw lots of caves and cave-houses but couldn't get a good shot of them ...


At one point on the journey, it looked like we had landed on the moon - the landscape was so rugged and barren looking.

Totally deserted roads for a change ... 

We passed the odd fort ... 

Yay, we can see the sea ... 


We stopped by at a Supermarket to get supplies then carried on to the closest camp site.  Closing in on the campsite the road got very narrow ... 

But oh so much fun!! 

That's us in the centre of the pic.







Where we stayed: 
Coordinates:  N 36o   49' 35"          W   2o   30' 59"

An older camp site ... little bit run down but right on the beach!!  Has all facilities / services you need. 
Is in the Camping Card / ACSI book so was 16 Euros a night, inc. one wifi hook up.
Has a nice terraced bar. 



Thursday, May 29, 2014

Torre Del Mar Gets a Big Tick

This morning we took the doggies for a walk along the beach, heading along the other way, away from the town.

Very few people about on a superb day ...

Bombo was in his element as he was on a beach ...

I did my Ronaldo impersonation pose.  He flexed his muscles when he scored the last goal in the Champions League final the other night ... I think once the bod is a bit more tanned you wont be able to tell the difference!

Call that a bod.....pah ...

Elaine was collecting more beach treasure, as in stones and shells, the van is well and truly overweight now!

Bombo found a dirty, disgusting dead crab and would not let it go.  We had to force his jaws apart to get it out ...

We took the doggies back to the van, which was lovely and cool inside, as it is in the shade of trees and shade cloth.

Off we went on the treadlies ...

This was midday!


We rode to the marina 5ks away down the other end of the beach.
This place on the beach front would do nicely, not too big ...

We road back along the beach front then went into the main part of town a few streets back from the front.
There are people here honestly, but it is siesta time ...

We had a nice little drink in a bar.  1 Euro for a beer and tapas, I like those prices.

I don't like to rub it in because its pretty obvious that the weather in Spain is better than the UK. 
14.3 million people from the UK visited Spain last year!  

So just this once OK ...


All in all we thoroughly liked Torre Del Mar. It gets a big positive tick on the liveability scale!

Nearly Went Naked!

Took ages to upload the pics so we are a day late with the blog.

Yesterday morning we headed up the scenic Mediterranean highway ...

Turning off to check out Fuengirola, it was actually quite busy - well we had four cars in front of us at traffic lights!  We didn't stop though as we were heading to the hills ...

Next place on the map was the Monty Python favourite of 'Torremolinos...Torremolinos'!  Once again, we just cruised through ...

We skirted past Malaga and headed up the hills.  Malaga looked huge with hundreds of apartment blocks ...

Our destination was Vinuela which is about 30 mins in from the coast.  We had seen Vinuela on the TV show 'A Place In The Sun'. Also at one of the shows we met a Geordie chap that had been living there for sixteen years and highly recommended it, so we had high expectations!  It was a lovely little village but far to quiet.  Elaine said it reminded here of a retirement village she worked at back in Sydney.  We are trying to find a balance of not too many tourists, but with a bit of life. 
We are trying to find Manly in Spain lol...
So Vinuela was crossed off the list quite quickly.

Very close by was Lake Vinuela so we went and checked it out, the colour of the water was amazing, it was Turquoise.  Unfortunately there were signs everywhere saying no swimming!

There was a BBQ area but it looked like it had been razed by a bushfire - not too appealing ...

We then headed back to the coast.  I set the co-ordinates in Tom Tom and away we went ... we got to the reception area and a chap walked in front of the van with his 'old fella' hanging out!!  I checked the camping card book and my co-ordinates and realised we had arrived at a nudist camp site!!

I wanted to stay but Elaine said that it would be unfair to the other male members!!!

Off we went to site no 2 just down the road.  It was deserted and a bit crappy but we checked in as we were feeling tired and it was right on the beach.  After we parked up we noticed signs everywhere NO DOGS!

We went back to reception to tell them we had 2 dogs. "I am sorry, you cannot stay here"... woohoo, what a relief - we didn't want to anyway!

Site no 3 was a couple of k's down the road and was much nicer, with a restaurant, pool, good shade etc. plus it was dog friendly, which mostly they are.  With the camping card book they are all the same price 16 Euros, incl elec, wifi etc. (which is a big saving on the usual prices).

We took ourselves and the boys for a walk into the town of  Torre Del Mar which was about 500 metres away from the site ...



It was warm but windy and it was playing havoc with the beach beds!

We really liked the feel of the place ...

The prom was lovely and goes the full length of the beach which is 4 k's long.
Once again there so few people about.  Apparently it all kicks off in July, August and September.


It was like walking the dogs along the Manly seafront again. ...
Had we found our place? 


By now we were getting peckish so stopped at a nice bar on the beach and had a yummy Paella ...

A little girl was playing nearby with a toy cockroach but it scared Sammie to death ... it was only an inch long! 

We walked back to the site along the deserted beach ...

It was just so lovely we are going to stay for another day and check it out on the treadlies ...





Where we stayed:

Laguna Playa Torre Del Mar (Malaga) Andalucia.
Nice place - all facilities you need and loads of shade.  Right on the beach.

Co-ordinates:  N 36o  43' 46"         W 4o  6' 9"