10 Days in Spain

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Location at Hondon de las Nieves, 30 mins from Alicante.
I know that you like to keep up with my travels and this is a great way to share some of my photos… so here I am just back from 10 days in Spain.
This was a visit to my cousin, Marilyn, and her husband Terry. They moved to Spain 18 months ago and live in a small urbanisation in an agricultural mountain valley between 2 villages – Hondon de las Nieves and Frailes. Surrounded by fields of artichokes, vines, almond trees and olives - it is a lovely place. Only 30 mins from Alicante and the coast it still feels like real Spain being far enough away from the massive developments by the sea.
They have done wonders in the 18 months on their plot of land – building a pool and terracing around the villa to provide lovely relaxing outdoor areas to relax and eat and cook in the outdoor kitchen. Lots of this work undertaken by Terry – so mountains fo earth shifted and slabs carried…and I know that Marilyn has been a pretty good labourer too.
So it was a perfect relaxing holiday for me … many days by the pool reading with the occasional dip when I got a bit hot!! We visited the village markets and a very big one at the town of Guadamar where we bought 2 kg bags of aubergines, tomatoes etc for 1€. Guadamar has a huge sandy bay popular with Spaniards enjoying their holidays. The sea here was perfect temperature after a very warm August and as it was nice and shallow and sandy I was in there like a shot. Another day a short trip in the car to a reservoir in the hills behind the villa brought us to the start of a lovely walk up the mountain.. an easy track led us up and up through pine woods with the smell of rosemary and thyme around us and of course at the top great views across to Alicante and the sea.
A first for me was on a Spanish train as we took a ride into Alicante… very efficient – and what a lovely city it is…and not too big so it was very manageable to walk around. The harbour is dominated by an ancient hilltop fortress and with a picturesque old town as well as modern shopping streets it was very easy finding our way around. I am sure that on return visits I will go back there to explore further.
And so it was saying hasta luego and return home for me. ..but not before I had planned my next trip of course… well - how could I resist a £12 flight to Stockholm!!! So my next trip will be a few days to see Richard and Catherine and their new apartment at the end of September.
I have had reports from 3 of my house-exchange couples who are also on their travels ( USA Canada Europe) and sad to say just missed meeting up with Jocelyn and Mac in Alicante- bit of bad planning there. And it is hard to believe that this time last year I was about to set off on my six month trip…. Maybe it is now time to start planning another one.
Bye for now to all of my dear friends – keep in touch – I love to hear from you.

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