Dutch and Norwegians.

We finally left Mazarron after 3 very relaxing days.  It was a nice place to visit, but wouldn't fancy living there ... it was a bit like God's waiting room!

Our first stop this morning was the Lidl supermarket just down the road for a stock up.  The shopping went fine apart from the staff ... what a rude, snotty bunch they were!  Elaine was reaching for something off a high shelf when one of the staff grabbed her trolley and flung it across the aisle and barged Elaine out of the way, because they wanted to get to the shelving below!  After we had done our shopping we tried to be pleasant to the checkout chick, greeting her in our best Spanish but she literally threw the goods at us and chucked the change at us ... never once making eye contact.  We were still trying to be pleasant saying Gracias as we left ...  not a smile - nothing!  She was blatantly ignoring us and chatting with her colleague instead.  There were a lot of older English people in the shop. quite a few seem to live in the area - I think the checkout girl (and the staff in general) are anti English because she was fine and smiley serving the Spaniards before us!

I would have to say that this isn't the first time that a Spaniard has been extremely rude ... and I am afraid it won't be the last.

When you are driving they will never ever give you a friendly wave if you let them in, but that doesn't worry me as they do that to each other also.

Minor problems in the scheme of things though.  We had planned to go up the coast today (where we were last October) but we decided on clocking up a few miles instead so we cut inland and headed up the motorway to Benidorm!

At Murcia we hit some reasonably heavy traffic ...

Just behind this mountain there were some aliens....(Close Encounters of the third kind?) well we thought it was similar!

Here we are driving into Benidorm ... quite a shock to see all the high rises all of a sudden!

We did a lap around the sights but couldn't find a parking spot except outside a couple of strip clubs, so we decided to move a little way up the coast instead!  We headed for a place called Albir ... although the camp-site is just inside Altea.

The camp-site we are at is called 'CapBlanch'.  It is quite a strange site, inhabited by heaps of Dutch.  There are a lot of long term Dutch here, who bring everything, including the kitchen sink, with them!  There are a lot of caravans with awnings, tents and out houses set up around them, along with all home comforts and loads of plant pots and decorations - marking out their territories!  We were cracking up on the amount of crap they bring with them on their hols!  One lady got quite shitty when Sammie pissed on a tree on the edge of her territory!

Look at this bloody set up - they have brought their Buddha statues and topiaries with them too!  They are a strange bunch, they all ride around on matching push-bikes, too much of a clique site for us!

Albir itself is quite nice, one small problem is the beach is all pebbles not sand ...

... which are really painful on bare feet ... thank God for Crocs, I say!

Elaine sat on a bench whilst I went for a dip, very pleasant it was too. 

The doggies are barred from the beach ...

Too hot for Sam - even with his wet t-shirt on !

We went for a walk this evening and found ourselves browing Estate agents' windows.  It seems that most Estate Agents are run by Norwegians and aimed at Norwegians!  There are also Norwegian doctors, Norwegian dentists, Norwegian Restaurants ... 

Here we be ...

Where we stayed:

Camping Cap Blanch - it is in the Camping Card ACSI book, so it is 16 Euros a night.  Quite a tightly packed site but has basic facilities.  No pool here but seems to have a tennis court and fitness activities.  Also ... free wifi - that is the best bit !

25 Beach Road Cap Blanch 
03590 Altea, Alicante 
Costa Blanca - Spain 
Tel (0034) 965 845 946 
www.camping-capblanch.com