Dospalmas

Off to an early start to our day as we have a rental car to return before catching our flight to London. Once again we are flying with British Airways and this time the service we received was quite different than on our flight to Spain. We enjoyed comfortable seats, a free meal and drinks including alcoholic beverages. Our flight flew into London City Airport but we quickly bought Tube tickets for our trip to Heathrow, which worked our very well. At Heathrow we stopped at the British Airways desk as we noticed that on our next flight we were not seated together. The agent informed us that we were together and printed us new boarding passes. We then inquired about an upgrade to business class but it was sold out. As we boarded the flight ... read more

This morning we drove to the neighbouring city of Benidorm to pick up our rental car for our trip to Malaga. We were early for our pick up so walked down to the seaside and enjoyed a coffee. Once we had our rental we took some back roads back to Albir, so Pat did not have to drive on the highway. Once back we loaded our rental car and headed out on our 5 1/2 hour drive to Malaga. It was a hot drive as the temperature was in the 30's the whole way. We stopped in Almería for lunch and a walk to stretch our legs. Then we continued west towards Malaga, passing an area which has the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world covering over 26,000 hectares. Several millions of tons of greenhouse ... read more

Today was probably our laziest day ever on holidays! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then drove into Albir for coffee. The rest of the day was mainly spent relaxing by the pool.... read more

Today we are off to the village of Guadalest which lies at the head of the Guadalest Valley, some 35 kilometres inland from where we are staying. The winding road from the coast to Guadalest is almost worth the trip on its own, passing as it does through stunning scenery. The valley is covered with woods of pine, holm oak, maple and ash and in the cultivated areas are orchards of apples, cherries, and pears, groves of olives, oranges, almonds, figs and lemons, and the local fruit, nísperos. The village economy relies almost entirely on tourism these days but from Moorish times its position at the top of a granite mountain where the Moors built their castle, rendered it almost unconquerable. Surrounded by the Aitana, Serella and Xorta mountains, it appears it was first settled by ... read more

Today after breakfast we went into Albir and looked around the village a bit before finding a nice coffee spot. The town is very touristy with lots of restaurants, shops and grocery stores. Lots of foreign tourists walk the streets in only their beachwear, which can be quite unsightly at times! We spent the afternoon in or around the pool, as it is another hot one today! In the evening we enjoyed some delicious Thai food at a local restaurant. After dinner we strolled along the lovely beach promenade.... read more