Return to Spain
September 17th 2007
Today I set off for Spain, a year to the day since J and I had made the same trip to renovate her old town-house in Spain. Then, we drove leisurely through France and Spain for nearly a fortnight, as you can review at the start of the blog. This time, I travelled alone, and flying direct to Malaga from Bristol. J will join me later for 2 weeks on October 3rd, her 2 part time jobs keeping her in the UK this time.
The prime purpose of the trip is to be on “Flood Watch” ….to be there when the heavy rains come, to observe the water flows, and to hopefully rectify the flooding problem that happened 3 times during the renovation work, due to sloping the roof terrace into the small patio drain. I will do a separate post at a later date explaining the problem and possible solutions.
J set the alarm for 4 am , which was a bit premature. We left for the half hour drive to the airport through the empty streets of Bristol….so different from the jams of week-days. Joined the long check-in queue about 5.15 am….EasyJet are quite efficient checking in, but after the long security queues, had to go straight to the boarding gate, and the plane left on time @ 6.15 am. At least it was a lot more efficient than the dreadful queues we had to endure at Stanstead recently.
An uneventful flight getting in to Malaga @ 9.45 local time. The only light relief on landing was a luggage pile-up on the carousel (where it goes back behind to the loading area), caused by a pushchair getting jammed, and 40 or so cases piling up and falling off there. Irritated passengers started collecting their luggage from the pile, and someone managed to unblock the jam, but a large pile still remained. Luckily mine was not caught up in the melee.
Joined the crowd of people waiting for the bus into town, which was nearly 30 minutes late. By then, there were about 80 people waiting for the bus. Of course, there was no orderly queue, and when it finally arrived, there was a scrum to board the bus, everyone struggling with heavy luggage through the small entrance at the front, paying the driver their 1 euro fare……the only consolation. The reason for the bus delay soon became apparent …the main road into the city was a building site for several kilometres, a single lane in each direction, with heavy cranes and lifting gear…something to do with the new metro I think.
Got to the bus station at 11.50 just as the Coin bus was pulling in. Rushed to get my ticket from the station kiosk ( not allowed to buy on bus), and just managed to catch it, arriving at about 12.45…..a 6 hour trip door to door.
The house was fine….a bit damp and musty, but I opened up all doors and windows to let the air in. The only minor problems were a fine layer of dust everywhere, both inside and out, the bougainvillia blown over, the patio drain full of leaves, silt and detritus from the garden and the downstairs bathroom was full of hundreds of small black flies, mostly settled on the white tiles.
Before tackling these, I popped out for some fly swats and lunch at Bar El Timon….tapas of albondigas (meat balls in tomato sauce) and enchilada patata (potato salad), and a small beer…with change from €4.
Spent the afternoon cleaning out the patio and drain, killing most of flies, drilling hole and hook to support bougainvillia and mopping throughout the ground floor, inc the bodies of hundreds of flies…only a few left for another day !
Shopped at Mercandona for the staples of life …beer, wine and a nice loin of pork cut into thin cutlets @ €5…enough for 5 meals (froze enough for 3), cereal, salads, juices etc..Cooked meal about 9 pm and then watched TV news as best I could….Northern Rock leading here, so I guess the ”run on the Bank” continues.
Interesting weather story from Northern Spain…severe thunderstorms with hail the size of tennis balls causing damage to property and cars. Unfortunately, no sign of rain here….hot and sunny with temperatures in high 20’s continuing.
Sat out on the mid terrace with a glass of wine until turning in about 11pm as knackered.
Today I set off for Spain, a year to the day since J and I had made the same trip to renovate her old town-house in Spain. Then, we drove leisurely through France and Spain for nearly a fortnight, as you can review at the start of the blog. This time, I travelled alone, and flying direct to Malaga from Bristol. J will join me later for 2 weeks on October 3rd, her 2 part time jobs keeping her in the UK this time.
The prime purpose of the trip is to be on “Flood Watch” ….to be there when the heavy rains come, to observe the water flows, and to hopefully rectify the flooding problem that happened 3 times during the renovation work, due to sloping the roof terrace into the small patio drain. I will do a separate post at a later date explaining the problem and possible solutions.
J set the alarm for 4 am , which was a bit premature. We left for the half hour drive to the airport through the empty streets of Bristol….so different from the jams of week-days. Joined the long check-in queue about 5.15 am….EasyJet are quite efficient checking in, but after the long security queues, had to go straight to the boarding gate, and the plane left on time @ 6.15 am. At least it was a lot more efficient than the dreadful queues we had to endure at Stanstead recently.
An uneventful flight getting in to Malaga @ 9.45 local time. The only light relief on landing was a luggage pile-up on the carousel (where it goes back behind to the loading area), caused by a pushchair getting jammed, and 40 or so cases piling up and falling off there. Irritated passengers started collecting their luggage from the pile, and someone managed to unblock the jam, but a large pile still remained. Luckily mine was not caught up in the melee.
Joined the crowd of people waiting for the bus into town, which was nearly 30 minutes late. By then, there were about 80 people waiting for the bus. Of course, there was no orderly queue, and when it finally arrived, there was a scrum to board the bus, everyone struggling with heavy luggage through the small entrance at the front, paying the driver their 1 euro fare……the only consolation. The reason for the bus delay soon became apparent …the main road into the city was a building site for several kilometres, a single lane in each direction, with heavy cranes and lifting gear…something to do with the new metro I think.
Got to the bus station at 11.50 just as the Coin bus was pulling in. Rushed to get my ticket from the station kiosk ( not allowed to buy on bus), and just managed to catch it, arriving at about 12.45…..a 6 hour trip door to door.
The house was fine….a bit damp and musty, but I opened up all doors and windows to let the air in. The only minor problems were a fine layer of dust everywhere, both inside and out, the bougainvillia blown over, the patio drain full of leaves, silt and detritus from the garden and the downstairs bathroom was full of hundreds of small black flies, mostly settled on the white tiles.
Before tackling these, I popped out for some fly swats and lunch at Bar El Timon….tapas of albondigas (meat balls in tomato sauce) and enchilada patata (potato salad), and a small beer…with change from €4.
Spent the afternoon cleaning out the patio and drain, killing most of flies, drilling hole and hook to support bougainvillia and mopping throughout the ground floor, inc the bodies of hundreds of flies…only a few left for another day !
Shopped at Mercandona for the staples of life …beer, wine and a nice loin of pork cut into thin cutlets @ €5…enough for 5 meals (froze enough for 3), cereal, salads, juices etc..Cooked meal about 9 pm and then watched TV news as best I could….Northern Rock leading here, so I guess the ”run on the Bank” continues.
Interesting weather story from Northern Spain…severe thunderstorms with hail the size of tennis balls causing damage to property and cars. Unfortunately, no sign of rain here….hot and sunny with temperatures in high 20’s continuing.
Sat out on the mid terrace with a glass of wine until turning in about 11pm as knackered.
posted by Chris @ 11:19 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Aaawwww...my poor cactus!! All summer with no water...obviously not happy! jackie
Post a Comment
<< Home