A promise fulfilled

Some time ago, although I don't actually remember when, I promised Romy that we could go to a funfair one day. For the day, not just a couple of rides when the fair comes to town. To a proper place.

The Easter holiday seemed to be the time to fulfill that promise. I have to say I am not a fan. FR is even less of a fan. Mateo has never really been a fan. But a promise is a promise.

So, yesterday, Romy, Ruy (who is quite a fan) and I set off in the morning to make the trek to the coast and Tivoli World. It's not a huge place and has no outlandish rides but it is the nearest permanent fairground to us and for fair-deprived children, like mine, it pretty much hit the spot.

Blue skies, palm trees and just the right temperature

Apart from having to submit to the incredibly inefficient ticket system, which, despite having bought our tickets online, meant we had to join three different queues and wait for a total of 45 minutes before the required wristbands were applied. These bands provided access to all but a couple of the attractions in unlimited repeated turns.

There was a little moment of being underwhelmed as we set off to explore but the park is cleverly laid out to appear much bigger than it is and many of the attractions are not immediately visible.

I won't describe all the rides...(phew, I hear you say) but despite trailing around after my children for about five hours, carrying rather more than I had intended, we had a great day and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Ruy reckons he had probably around 100e-worth of rides on the Dodgems....



Here's a selection of fairground photos - always colourful but especially nice when the sun is shining!

A nice gentle Jurassic tour to start the day...

Following a spin on the Roller Coaster.

Probably Ruy's favourite - dodgems!

Clearly here, it's called the Techno Jump..but since we've lived in Spain, we know it as 'La Rana' or the Frog. 

Not sure if I took this before or during Romy's spin on it...

A rather uninspiring photo of what was the best ride - the Aqua falls - this was just after the infamous soaking!

And yes, they went on several times! Dried off quickly in the sun though. 

And another treat - a kebab...both still soaking wet but unbothered!

And having driven all the way to the coast, we had to visit the sea. Benalmadena was too busy and difficult to stop in so we drove along the coast to Torremolinos. It's really rather a lovely place despite its reputation. I always like this long, clean beach where you can mooch along and find lovely shells.




I wasn't remotely tempted but my children did their usual strip and waded in without hesitation. They confessed it was VERY COLD!!

How Ruy is chunking out...his voice is on the verge of breaking and he spends his time shouting 'Harry!' in a brilliant copy of Ron Weasely's voice in the early Happy Potter films....(And of course, Mateo used to look exactly like Harry Potter so it makes us all laugh.)

Do you see anyone else in the water? Nope...not one. 

This was around 7pm and after stopping at Riofrio to buy fresh and still wriggling rainbow trout, we arrived home in the dark just after 9.30pm. We'd watched the full moon rising over the Sierra Nevada as we drove and noticed that the mountains already looked to have much less snow than they had earlier in the week.

Delicious fresh fish just visible on our makeshift barbecue.

I admit to feeling a rather smug good mother and wife. FR was waiting with a fire in the garden to cook the trout, the children were full of their day and I was quite knackered from all the driving, safe too in the knowledge that I've prepared a rather good set of clues for this year's Easter Treasure Hunt that my children love to do on Easter Sunday morning.  I even made some chocolates for them on Friday morning....in secret!
I went to bed feeling good.

The full moon from my garden

And just so you know, Barney is still happily sunbathing in the garden as I write ...he won't be dinner this Easter!

Happy Easter. Hope you're all having good holidays.

The Sierra in the Sun

At last we set off as a family again!

This Semana Santa, or Easter week, has been blessed by incredible sunshine and a surge in temperature. What better idea than to spend a few hours in the snow before it melts away for the year. So, wearing what we thought was best for the weather and our intentions, including wellies, boots and suncream, we set off on Monday.

The drive to the mountains is always spectacular and the climb up (I don't mean this literally, we drove...) is ear-popping. There was enough snow left and we could see the skiers near Pradollano (the irony of the name always amuses...it means 'flat field' in Spanish).

Mateo set off on a solitary hike, heading for the Observatory at the top of the mountainside, whilst Ruy and Romy raced down the hill on their sledges. FR supervised and encouraged and I poddled off for a coffee and to find the loo at the nearby hotel. Such is life.

I did climb up someway afterwards, though and got some lovely photos - more of the same from previous visits, I admit, but there's something so glorious about the mix of sun, snow and mountains that makes taking snaps irresistible. I think I had my proper camera last time but this time used my phone - and couldn't see a thing as I pointed and clicked, hence the occasional appearance of my thumb....oops!

FR and Ruy to the left and Romy disappearing off top right.

I shot a little video of the end of a race, after Ruy had already fallen off further up the hill...Romy was 'sportingly' waiting for him at the bottom!

Romy looking somewhat smug...and Ruy the opposite! 

I love this photo. Actually, I love this man too. 

As Ruy and Romy changed out of their wet clothes, Mateo emerged from his visit to the Observatory, which was, as usual, closed. Here are a couple of his photos from the top....surprisingly there seems to be less snow up there!

Snow Virgine

View down from the observatory - we will be somewhere in the crowd in the top centre, I suppose. 

On the way back, we took a little side road towards Monachil, a little village of Granada, rather than following the main road back. And what a fantastic detour it turned out to be.

From the rugged, snowy mountain, which is lined by pine trees as you descend, we made a couple of turns on the road and emerged from the pines into a lush valley that was more reminiscent of Leon than Andalucia.

Complete with cows and new-born calves.

The snow just a kilometre behind us...

But not visible from this valley at all!

And daisies! I don't remember seeing daisies in the past four years...

At this point, my phone battery died, so I didn't get to take any pictures of Monachil. It's a medium-sized village divided by a fairly substantial river and it didn't have a decent place to have a coffee or a drink at 4.30 in the afternoon....Apparently, it has a most amazing river walk with a long, narrow bridge and it must be this, rather than the lack of facilities, that draws so many visitors here.
I suspect that my ill-humoured recollections of the place could be due to the fact that we felt just too hot and sweaty to enjoy it. We had been perfectly dressed for the snow, but by the time we stopped in the village, the temperature had risen to 30 degrees (C) and we were all beginning to wilt. Indeed, Ruy, the next day, was definitely suffering from a touch of sunstroke despite the protection he had. And this was still March....

By the time we reached home though, after stopping en route for the necessary refreshments, we were all feeling more cheerful and agreed it was nice to go out together now and then. (Despite the sunstroke and the car being like a sardine tin and not being able to find a place to get some tapas....)

I definitely enjoy being at home.....

Missing Chocolate

Until Wednesday, I hadn't even thought about it. When the sun is hot and the skies are blue, I don't think about chocolate - it's the wrong season, it doesn't work, you can't do it, not unless you have an air-conditioned kitchen which I've never had - so I hadn't missed it.  I don't eat much chocolate usually. I like it but it has to be really good stuff to tempt me and I haven't seen any since we were in the Alpujarras.

So no - until Wednesday, I wasn't missing my chocolate.

However, when the temperature outside dropped and the clouds began gathering (to rain on the processions), I began to feel twitchy. Something was wrong, something important was missing. Usually, just before Easter, I am super-busy melting, stirring, tempering, piping, mixing, (tasting), dipping and doing a whole host of other chocolatiering things relating to making chocolates for friends, family and for selling at craft fairs for Easter.

But not this year.

So today, I dug out my supplies, carefully packed and sealed and brought from England to Valladolid then on to Alcala la Real. Probably needing to be used by now. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought any Easter Egg moulds with me - just some little lolly moulds - owls and koalas. So I made some of those; then I dipped some strawberries; then with the rest of the tempered chocolate, I made a big slab with some crunched up cornflakes, raisins and cranberries and decorated it with white chocolate.

And I feel so much better now.

Hope everyone that usually has chocolates from me has found a suitable alternative this year (- but hope you still think mine are the best!)

Rain on the parade

It's a miserable change in the weather. Earlier this week, it was hot, sunny and more like summer than spring. But last week, my students told me that it always rains on Semana Santa.
This year, I was sure it would be lovely and we'd be out watching the processions all week.

It started well on Sunday. No parades on Monday.
We had impressive skies on Tuesday - but no parades for that day either.

And then the weather changed.

Yesterday, it was a tremulous group that set forth from La Iglesia de Consolación. They did a quick turn around the block and hopped back into the church as quickly as possible - if that is quite the right way of describing a group of people carrying an extremely heavy paso. Probably not.

Definitely a more serious affair than the procession held on Sunday. But wonderfully colourful.

This time, the two pasos shows the Virgin Mary and Christ, giving a sermon in the fields.
No one will risk getting the pasos wet - and this year, many processions all over Andalucia have been cancelled or cut short because of the risk of rain or because of an actual downpour. My students were right.

Here today, we've had the threat of rain all day - and about an hour ago, we had a tremendous downpour, sweeping in from the south.
A striking contrast to my previous skies!

Here's hoping it improves for tomorrow - but the forecast does not look good.

Keeping calm

OK, I confess. I wanted to write my next blog installment in a state of high excitement because FR had phoned me to say - "I've found it! Our home in Spain!"  But, he hasn't. My hope that the house in Meira, that looked so appealing in the brochure, would be just what we were looking for ..wasn't.

In fact, FR was quite down yesterday when we spoke because he'd been all day going around with Mark from Galician Country Homes - who has been extremely kind, helpful and enthusiastic about all things in Galicia - but thus far,FR has not been equally enthused. And he was tired. So I can't say exactly what he thought about what he'd seen because when he's tired, he does tend to exaggerate and also to use really bad language.  Listening between the expletives, I think he was saying that the villages are quite dead, very few children around and that what he had seen might possibly be OK after several years hard work but not what we had in mind. Personally, I think his view was also seriously affected by the fact that it was windy - FR hates wind - but he did concede that it was not cold and it wasn't raining, even though it seemed like the rest of Spain was suffering awful weather.  This is good. I've checked the forecast for today and it's not too bad; a bit chilly but no rain and only light wind...whereas in Huddersfield, it's a very chill 6 degrees and I've had to put the heating on.

So the search continues and I have to accept that it's early days. My mood wasn't exactly improved when the house down the road here had a 'SOLD' sign on it yesterday and it's been on the market for less time than ours. I know the market is subdued but we've only had one couple look. I'm desperate for more viewers; if only to make all the tidying up worthwhile.

The Easter holidays continue for the children and yesterday we went to the Royal Armouries in Leeds. They had all been so fractious before we set off that I had every intention of letting them take a weapon of their choice so I only had to bring the last one standing home. However, by the time we got there and listened to some pirate stories, watched some two-handed sword fighting and had lunch, they were all cheerful and quite pleasant company again. I found the amount of weaponry rather disturbing after just a short while and much preferred looking at the medieval pictures in the Tournament Field; whilst we were there, we found Guy, who was explaining how metal armour could 'bend' and that was very interesting. We all felt we'd learned something there and also got to try on some real armour.

I await news from FR with renewed optimism that today will be the day he phones and says, "I've found it!"