What's going on.

My car was iced up this morning and my 400+ mile journey today was mostly in freezing fog, I am not amused. Besides the change in weather conditions the contrast in accommodation was something as well, I left a four star apartment in Gran Canaria and stayed in a tiny room in Pamploma University student accommodation last night which is affiliated to the youth hostel association of which I am now a member, better late than never.
Last night I was stuck in the middle of the university campus so I settled for a machine meal that cost less than two euros (seriously subsidised, it would have been ten times that at the airport) I am spoiled for choice now being surrounded by restaurants so it looks like it is steak tonight.

Maspalomas to Gwytherin

According to google maps I was 2600 miles from home this morning now in Pamplona I only have a little less than 1100 miles to go. I am going to miss Lidl which was just around the corner, for their croissants and  their Perlenbacher beer at 70p a litre and of course the advantage of being able to swan around in shorts and T shirt in December.

Tomorrow I leave Spain for an unhurried drive through France stopping at Tours and Calais and the plan then is to catch an early ferry to Dover on Tuesday 20th so that will give me plenty of time to get home that afternoon.

This trip has given me lots of time to think and also to refer back to my comments over the past three years. I agree with what I said after my last Iberian journey (why didn't I listen) solo extended touring is not all it is cracked up to be and no I will definitely not be buying a property abroad unless something outrageously cheap becomes available in Cyprus. I was thinking of doing a round the world trip to take in the British Lions tour to New Zealand next summer but it was getting silly if I had included everything that came to mind I would have been away for four months and I know I would not have enjoyed that at all. So if I do go to see the boys play it will probably be for only four to five weeks and I will call in to see Gill (my sister) and visit the parts of Australia still on my bucket list. The other parts of the RTW trip can become separate holidays or mini tours and if Saga can do them cheaply enough then that would be a bonus.

Well that's it I will be home for nearly five weeks so that should give me time to lose the paunch and get fit again, then maybe I can put a few walks on in February and March.

Lidl- Canaries

Jan and I came here in 1997 and although Playa Del Ingles was a bit Costaish the rest of Gran Canaria was a sleepy but developing location, I knew that it was being built up but until today I did not realise how much. My journey down the coast road to Puerto Mogan was an eye-opener, there are now package resorts all along the coast, it is not pleasant. I appreciate that the resort/marina at Puerto Mogan was built at as tourist destination but then it was one hotel and the cute traditionally styled port by the marina, now it is overbuilt and swarming with overweight pink people. I am glad I said yesterday that I would not be returning here. The Canarian people have got it right most of the population live in the northeast of the island so they don't have to see the abomination that is happening in the south.

I sound like I am turning into a grumpy old man. Too late I was there already.

Now definitely looking forward to getting home.

People.

I think I am beginning to agree with my girls, I don't like people. Don't get me wrong friends are a different thing, they can be in mobs and noisy as they like. I know I have become city adverse over the past few years and I thought that I disliked airports because of the baffling security measures but Saturday morning's check in took 20 minutes from arriving at the airport to looking for breakfast the other side of security but I was still unhappy and then it came to me it was the hordes of strangers with bad personal hygiene getting in my way, invading my personal space, talking too loud and generally making me feel claustrophobic. OK that cleared the air now the good and bad news.
I booked airport parking and my hire car with TRIB at Ryanair, the parking was good but the price I paid for the hire car which looked fine at the time turned out to be a deposit only and the final cost was over double including the mandatory full cover insurance. I thought I was worldly wise to these scams but obviously not. All I can say is beware of any deals Ryanair offer and steer clear of CarTrawler.
The good news happened today. The reason for the jaunt to Gran Canaria was to offload my timeshare, I had been quoted fees of up to £6,000 by timeshare resolution companies but after half an hour of straight talking we have agreed that my contract will be put forward for resolution and in the meantime my week will be rented out to cover my maintenance fees  and believe it or not there will be a small cash some due after Spanish taxes, this is a far better rsult than i had ever hoped for.
Coming back to Gran Canaria without Jan has been very strange, especially as i am staying in our timeshare apartment where we spent our last Christmas together but it is other things like our favourite locals restaurant where they still remembered us or the cafe on the beach in Playa del Ingles where she bollocked the waiter for being rude or Puerto Mogan where we had strawberries and ice cream overlooking the marina. The memories are wonderful and more meaningful because I will probably not return here again.
The best thing about the Canaries is the weather, i have been enjoying temperatures in the mid twenties which is just right for me so it is shorts, T shirt and flipflops all day, which is a lovely change after all the rain.
There has been a big change in the four years since we were last here, then the Brits were in the majority followed by the Germans now it is all three of the Scandanavian countries followed by us Brits and Germans in joint fourth place, you only have to look at the restaurant menus to see this in fact in some places the menus are only in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. From my memories of the sixties, Swedish and Scandanavian girls always had the reputation of being beautiful but from what I have seen here British girls beat them hands down I can't wait to get home.

Back to Spain.

I took the direct route from Lagos yesterday up towards Badajoz, I only let the satnav have her head when she indicated a road that was not on the map, it turned out to be a good choice the road was deserted except when we neared the village of Santa Susana which was lovely, in the middle of nowhere and mostly the sturdy traditional houses, it also knocked 10 miles of the journey. I arrived in Badajoz with plenty of time to visit the castle (Alcazaba) and walk the town walls, I was surprised how big the old town was and overawed to think that the castle was stormed and taken by soldiers using ladders in the face of sustained musket fire but it was at the site of the breaches in the wall that I felt close to Sharpe. Even with the outer wall down there was still a steep slope to climb and this was mined and obstructed as well as being seriously defended by massed soldiers no wonder there were so many casualties.
Last night's hotel in a golf resort was a huge bargain, less than £34 for a big room double bed marble bathroom with a bath to soak my aching body and pig cheeks dinner with beer and wine for the cost of a Big Mac and fries, it was a shame I had to leave early to get up to the British Consulate in Madrid. I got lost in Madrid's underground road system, there are only signs advising you of destinations outside the city and of course my Coleen doesn't work underground but I did get there by 9:45 and everything went well. My case was dealt with by a competent young lady who did not treat me like the idiot I am and after filling out the forms I am now in possession of an emergency passport which will allow me to travel to Gran Canaria and back and then drive home. The whole passport laundry episode is going to cost a minimum of a couple of hundred pounds by the time I get a proper replacement passport and probably another hundred if they catch up with my parking infringement.
Some adventures cost more than others.

Dissappearing

OK, if you are going to do your laundry when you travel always make sure you check the pockets. I prophesied a few weeks ago that things were going too well. Last night I did my laundry and found my passport still in its secure map pocket of my walking trousers, I thought nothing of it and put it out to dry, imagine my consternation when I checked the passport and I had faded from sight, all that remained was a ghost of my photograph. In the old pre-electronic days my passport used to get sodden on journeys across Germany on my motorcycle with no problems but now a little drop of water and I have been washed away.

I raced down to the nearest British Consulate in Portimao and after skidding across the pavement on an offering left by one of the local dogs I found that they had closed 10 minutes ago and tomorrow is a saints day (public holiday) so I am now banking on the consulate in Madrid but Hey! this is what makes travelling fun, anyway to keep you amused her are a few messages from the locals.

Yahoo, the sky is blue.

Well that front moving in on Saturday brought thunderstorms that wrote Sunday off completely but yesterday and today the sun was out. I hit the road yesterday to have a look at Sines up on the West coast, it is a oil and gas port so nothing there but Vila Nova de Milfontes was a different story, I had a wander around but I think it could be worth a few days or even a week if I am ever this way again, it would be good to explore on a pushbike and maybe a dinghy on the river.

Looking upriver to the town

Today I went for another cliff walk this time the path was not so obvious and I got lost a few times even in a huge complex that called itself a 'Wellness and Fitness Resort' but the only thing I noticed was a boot camp complex.

These are actually photos I took of last weeks walk, I forgot the camera today in the excitement of being able to get outside again.
I am chuffed because ever since I updated to Windows 10 I have not been able to add photos to the blog but I have now found a solution by copying and pasting into my old Windows 7 pictures file.

Dodging the rain.

I don't understand it, here am I in the Algarve hiding from thunderstorms while in Gwytherin the sun is shining and it is lovely walking weather. Yesterday I headed inland to Silves to visit the castle and the town. I was here three years ago to visit the huge weekly market but now half of the market site is now a motor-home campground that sit there with their dishes pointing at the nearest satellite.
When I got back to the coast we had a cold front moving in from the south west with winds force 4 gusting 6 so I took the opportunity to do some reading. Diana by R F Delderfield is the closest I have so far managed to a romantic novel and at times I did get impatient with the characters but the last 10 or so pages had me crying my leg off and this was written by a man. I have asked for recommendations for female authors but none have so far been forthcoming. I have enjoyed a number of so called children's authors such as Rosemary Sutcliff and the authors of Divergent and The Hunger Games, please feel free to give me some hints but definitely no detective dramas, thank you.
Today my cloud dodging took me into Lagos town where I identified the restaurants recommended by JB and also found the barber for next weeks haircut but I had forgotten about the Autumn Internationals and only managed to catch the second half of England's annihilation of the Wallabies in a pub called Fools and Horses, a great year so far. Eddie Jones may have a Welsh name but I don't think he is pleasing too many of my neighbours or my sister Gill's in Australia for that matter.
I am having serious misgivings about this form of travelling but I will save my conclusions until the end or tour wash up.
New note to Kay, Perlenbecher is back to the original spelling in Portugal but still twist off.
So back to my book now, I have found a historical novel by Sharon Penman and so far she is ticking all the boxes.

Where does the time go?

I had a wonderful weekend with Ian and Monique, my Andalusian cave dwelling friends, it is over two years since I saw them last but you know how true friendship is when it seems like only yesterday. They took me around to a dinner party on Saturday night at Linda and Barry's and there were also two other ex squaddies there so I am sure we bored everyone rigid with our war stories.

From there I stopped off in Tavira just over the Spanish border into Portugal, I struck lucky again with a traditional welcoming local hotel with a huge breakfast choice at half the cost of a Premier Inn room only.

After meandering along the Algarve coast I finally arrived in Lagos to check in to my apartment for the next 9 days, The apartment has been renovated and is in immaculate order, I have in the past had to wash all the cutlery and crockery before cooking but this place is clinically clean, thanks to Anna the doll like Ukranian owner who doesn't look a day over 25 but knowing my previous form she is probably at least 35.

I have done recces of the town and today I went on a cliff top walk suggested by Johnnie Boy, considering we were supposed to be having thunderstorms and heavy rain today I had a blissful 5 mile stroll along the cliffs to  Praia de Luz and back in the sunshine and spent the rest of the day chilling out on the balcony with an R F Delderfield novel.

Nothing too strenuous planned for the next week so it might be quiet on this blog for a while but I did see a sign advertising a motor-home waste emptying site and lower down the sign it advertised organic strawberries for sale, mmmm tasty.