Magical Mojacar.....We'll Be Back

It was our last day here today.  We didn't change the routine much .... we went down the beach for a walk with the boys, then breakfast in a beach bar (Arriba).

Elaine and Bombo doing the last prom walk for 2014!

Then it was up to the local servo to fill with fuel and check the oil, water and tyre pressures.

While we were there we spotted this heavily disguised car which was filling up with fuel.  They do a lot of car testing in this region, the car was full of gadgetry and sensors and looked like the new Jag XF.  I asked the driver if it was the new Jag, he gave me the old "no speaky English"....in a Brummie accent! 

When he left the counter, the girl behind the desk told me that he is always in here ... and confirmed that it is the new Jaguar XF!

The rest of the day was spent packing and cleaning up the flat.

Tonight we made a last trip to the shopping centre to get a birthday pressie for El's friend.  Then we went out for Pizza to 'Ottocento' then to the local (Emerald Isle) for a last drink ... where we learnt that the Great Train Robber Mastermind Gordon Goody lives in Mojacar and has done so for many years!! We bade farewell to our friends there and the landlord gave us a bottle of red as a parting pressie :)

So, Mojacar, what is it like??

The easiest way to describe it by what it doesn't have ...

• There are no high rise apartments.
• There are no Maccas, Burger Kings, Pizza Huts or any fast food franchises.
• There are no huge shopping centres.
• There are no water parks and theme parks etc, hence very few children.
• There appears to be no crime, although Elaine spotted a little old lady nicking a plastic flower from outside a shop the other day!

So there you have it, it's a lovely quiet little place that not many people seem to know about.  There are some excellent cheap restaurants and bars and a really lovely local community.

If you fancy a lovely, relaxing, sunny break I can wholeheartedly recommend  Emerald Holidays for all your accommodation needs.  Once again they are fantastic, honest people ... who couldn't have have been more understanding when we told them that we were cutting our stay by one month.

So tomorrow we head off back to the UK ... we should get back on Saturday.

We have now decidedto postpone our return to Oz so we have cancelled ours and the boys tickets so it looks like the poms will have to put up with us a bit longer!

Now where are we going to live?   Hmmm ... we seem to have nothing left to live in!!!  

Adiós Mojacar espero que veremos pronto xxxx

Penultimate Day In Mojacar :-(

Yesterday arvo Bombo wanted to watch Man Utd vs Arsenal down the pub (Emerald Isle) ... there were no arguments from me, he was very happy to see the mighty reds win!

We took the dogs back to base, had a quick dinner then went back down the pub to watch a very good blues duo (Jake Bourke and Rihd) ...

The chap on the right was a giant, look how small he makes the guitar look! 

They were very talented - we we determined to stay til the end and almost made it, leaving at about midnight!

Today was packing day - Sammie was determined not to get left behind ...

Later in the day we went for a walk (and a sit) on the beach ...

It was such a lovely day, we are going to miss this place so much ...

It has been the most fantastic laid back break ... and we both have a massive feeling that we will be back!

Tonight we went down the beach hut (Tito's Cantina) to watch Clive Sarstedt and Maurice Casanove in action again.  We sat at a table and then suddenly realised the resident cat was sitting opposite us - somehow the boys didn't spot it!

The owners dog was also chillin ...

When we left the owner gave Elaine a big hug.  They have been running Tito's and the beach bar for over 30 years.  Just as we are about to leave Mojacar we are just starting to get known in the community a little bit!

I planned a route back ot Calais today and booked accommodation en route.  I don't normally like planning ahead because if there are any hiccups you can lose your money, but it is a lot easier knowing where we are heading for!

I will leave booking  the ferry till the last day or so!

A Week In The Real World!

I left Mojacar on Monday morning for the one hour drive to Almeria airport.  I had reserved a spot in the airport car park but I needn't have worried as there was all of five cars there!

As you can see the terminal was packed.....my flight was one of three that day!

You couldn't miss the plane, it was the only one on the tarmac!

It was a quick one hour flight to Madrid, then a change of planes for a two and a half  hour flight to Amsterdam.  I still had a load of Qantas frequent flyer points so I used them up flying business class ... I felt very special as I was the only one up the pointy end there and back!

It was a massive shock to arrive at Amsterdam airport and join the hustle and bustle of the real world.

Amsterdam always has nice cabs waiting at the airport, usually Mercs and BMW's but this time I was ushered into this car that looked like a Maserati!  As soon as we left the terminal I said to the driver, "this is quietest car I have ever been in, is it a hybrid?"  "No", he answered, "it's the new all electric Tesla saloon".  Apparently his cab company recently took delivery of 100 of them.  Once we cleared the terminal onto the freeway I asked him what it went like but I should have kept my gob shut!  He hit the throttle and the next thing we were doing 180ks!  This car is sensational!   I checked the figures on the net,  0-60 MPH or 97 KPH in a fraction over 4 seconds!!  I have never been in a car like it, it goes like the clappers with no engine noise, just a bit of wind noise!  Technology has come a long way since battery powered fork lift trucks and milk floats!

I couldn't get a good shot of the dash, it is more like a Airbus A380!

I arrived at the hotel at about 19.30 to meet my old boss and another old colleague in the bar, then it was out to dinner with some suppliers from Canada until 2.30 am.  Then we were up at 6.30am on Tuesday to meet more suppliers in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. This was just the start of the first day!!

So to the show, it is the largest marine trade show in the world.

Craftsman Marine is a brand of motor that we sell in Australia ....

This is their new 210hp model ...

The chap with the beard is my old boss, the ginger chap next to him is another old work colleague from All Marine Spares ...

The show was fantastic, but oh so busy with meetings every day from first to last thing.

The reason we were there was for the show, but we also had some fun whilst there.  Well, it is Amsterdam!

We stayed in the Americain hotel, which served as the Nazi HQ in the second world war.  It's not a fact that they are too proud of though. It has the most fantastic Art Deco dining room ...

We were out every night, averaging about 4.5 hours sleep a night!!

It's a fantastic friendly city, this was my 13th visit ...

The bitterballen was always a great late night snack ...

This is one of the small halls!  The show is huge but we did manage to see all of our world wide suppliers ...

My flight home left at 07.00 so I was up at 05.00 after going to bed just before 02.00!

Man, it was good to get home ... the boys were so happy to see me!  Elaine seemed quite happy too.

I slept for a good twelve hours straight that night!

One of the reasons for going to the show was to chat to my boss about working for them again ... no probs on that front but we have decided that we may delay our return to Oz for a few months.

.

We have decided to head back to Blighty for now so we will leave Mojacar for the drive back Monday or Tuesday next week.  We will look at the map tomorow and plan a route.

I will do a blog about magical Mojacar tomorrow.  Now to catch up on some more Zzzzzzzs!

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane......

Tomorrow I am leaving for Amsterdam for a few days.  Normal blogging will resume next Friday unless I get some time between  window shopping and cafe hopping in Amsterdam.

Reality is I am going to WORK! 

Back to today though and what a glorious day it was!  The temps are now in the low 20s so it is very pleasant indeed ...

Yesterday I said goodbye to my favourite hat, today Elaine said goodbye to her favourite sandals. They lasted for nearly three years....one must make things last when there is not a wage coming in! 

Talking of the hat, it had been put on top of a stick overnight ...

Next stop was the Animal Welfare League Christmas fete ...

There was a very good turnout ...

Elaine was glad to see that her Objets d'art were for sale on one of the stalls ...

After that we 'did' lunch was at a beachside cafe ...

... where Bombo did a bit of sunbathing, much to the amusement of passers by ...

Indalo Man

Indalo man is the local protective symbol, he was discovered as a cave drawing in the late 19th century ... they estimate the drawings to be 4500 years old.

Elaine has been making various crafty items with a few of them depicting the Indalo man ...

He is everywhere in the Mojacar and Almeria area ..

Elaine donated her Objets d'art to the local animal welfare charity, along with a lot of our old clothes etc.  We have got to whittle everything down to 2 suitcases for when we return to Oz.

Back to yesterday....what a awful day weather wise!  It was blowing a gale litterally!  Check out this schooner bashing into the heavy weather, he was a couple of hundred of metres off the beach, interestingly the wind was a right old sirocco ...

We met a group of Swedish motorhomers in the village yesterday, they even had clothes on! They were looking for somewhere to stay for a few days, so .  We told them about the spot we stayed at in our motorhome last July.  We passed by a few hours later to see that all eight motorhomes had moored up safely!

Today dawned to a complete change from yesterday. It was lovely and warm with not a breath of wind and a dead flat sea.

It was also a very sad day, I was instructed by Elaine to bin my very knackered straw hat.  I bought it when we were on the narrowboat in Newbury and love it!  It is was a very well travelled and worn hat.  I couldn't bear to chuck it in the bin so I left it to weather away on the beach! 

Today was market day for the local church, they had a fair bit of old tat for sale ...

Not a bad location for the market though ...

We spent an hour or so lazing on the beach.  Sammie isn't looking forward to flying back to Oz..... 

... so he going to tunnel back!!

Late in the arvo I went down the pub to watch the rugger followed by the footy.  It's been another tough day in paradise!

The Cat Lady Of Mojacar!

This is Elaine's new moniker, as she has now started feeding a few of the local stray cats ...

They are very friendly little pussies - they are quite siamese looking.  What we think happens is that they are just left behind when their owners bugger off for the winter,  Elaine is going to contact the local animal welfare group to see if they can help them;  the animal welfare group is run by ex-pat poms, animal welfare is not a priority for the average Spaniard.  

They were very hungry this morning!  There is a black one as well, hiding in the trees!

We had breakfast at one of the remaining open cafes, which is run by a couple of poms and is a very nice cafe.  We had a long chat with them about running a business and living in Spain in general.  The business is up for sale as they have enough of the corrupt business practices of the local council.  They have been running the cafe for about 10 years and every year another official wants a handout for ridiculous things.  They will carry on living here though as they do enjoy the lifestyle.  

After brunch and our chat we went on a little road trip to Aguilas, which is about a one hour drive up the coast from us.

The route we took was up the scenic coast road.  We found quite a lot of motorhomers parked up on the beach fronts along the way!

The first lot we came across were very much 'clothes optional' travellers ... there was meat and two veg all over the place!

No close ups!

The second group were parked up in a really nice spot ... I want another motorhome!!!!

We didn't spot any pommie vans at either place though, so I don't know where they are all hiding out!

We arrived at Aguilas at the start of the siesta so we had the town to ourselves ...

There was an old Spanish steam train parked up in the middle of the town, as you do!  It was built in Glasgow in 1905!

How about this for a dove, bloody kids with their spray cans!

We managed to grab a seat outside a restaurant for a mid afternoon snack.  I had an ice cream sundae and El had some patatas and mushrooms (tapas)!  Strange, but that is what she fancied :)

The town square was lovely, as was the weather, which hovered around 24 degrees for most of the day.

Can you spot the spray painted dove in the tree?

The locals were playing petanque on the beach ...

Aguilas is very much a 'Spanish working town' ...

... meaning that it is is not predominately a tourist town ...

Most of the locals live in flats ...

On the way back to base we ended up on the tollway, 34 kilometres and 4.50 Euros.

We spotted one other car!!! 

We stopped off at the supermarket on the way back to buy some cat biscuits, then called in on the felines to give them their evening meal!