Sunday with the Spanish Dingles

Rich had to go into work as he's had a brain wave idea about the generator he's building. Not sure what the brain wave was and TBH, wasn't particularly interested at 8.00am on a Sunday morning.

We meet at around 11.00 near the Rastro in El Vergel and wander across the road to the Rastro (car boot type thing). Straight away we're contending with people with little dogs, getting pulled and yanked by their owners and nearly getting stepped on by people who, amazingly are actually interested in the stalls filled with items rescued from the bins. Saw a wonderful empty coke bottle for sale and a few empty whiskey bottles and although was tempted to buy, refrained. We're soon negotiating people in wheel chairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs (I've never seen so many in one place) and even a few old women on crutches! WTF! One woman on crutches was so bloody fast that she overtook us! Why, oh why do they bring these people to the market? Why would anybody want to get jostled about just to look at some rubbish on tables? Why not just sit them outside the bins? They could get the rubbish for free! Better still take them somewhere nice, like the beach.

A rather showy looking, white, standard poodle passed by, with its equally beautifully groomed owner. It sported a cutesy little ponytail in its head, complete with little pink ribbons but when it over took us it had clinkers attached to its bum! Why spend so much money and time on a well groomed pooch and then embarrass it by not sorting its bum bum out? Poor old Pheobe Trixabelle or what ever it was called, the shame!

THEN!!!! A bike (my favorite), a bloody woman pushing a bike through the crowds, spiking many whilst barging her way through! Unbelievable. Never mind, I thought, at least the fruit & veg will be OK. WRONG! Brown bananas, bruised apples and limp lettuce. There were some rather nice plants on one stall but at this stage, feeling very claustrophobic, hot, sweaty & irate, I couldn't face hauling it though the obstacles.

Only one thing could make this trip a little better and that's the Chinese bizarre so off we go, in our cars, park miles away, hike to the chincy and yep, it was closed!

Determined not to spend the day in, we drive home and I make a hastily put together picnic and we decide to go sight seeing around the Vall D'Ebo. We fill up with fuel and off we go. I must point out that Rich and I aren't the best at sight seeing and when we didn't find Caves in the first village we came across, we settled for a castle. In we drove, looked at the crowded car park, looked at the castle, looked at the hike up to the castle and swiftly drove back out again. We drove around mountains in search of some caves or perhaps a Lagoon or even a pond where we could stop and have the picnic but had to settle for a Font. We sat on a cold, stone wall watching the water drip out, a drop at a time and watched the tadpoles swim in and out of the algae. Didn't really fancy the 'fresh' mountain water but thankfully I'd packed a sprite. Rich ate his tuna mayo sandwich, on white and I had a handful of peanuts. We took the obligatory selfie, to prove we'd made it out of the house and off we went.

We got quite excited at one point in some remote village, as we saw a sign for a monument but it turned out to be a metal lions head on a wall with water coming out of its mouth, far more water than was at the font. We also saw a tall rock with a hole in the top. It was a far distance from where we were and Rich was unwilling to actually get out of the car to investigate so he took a photo through the window.

All this excitement was too much so we went for the yearly trip to the beach. Found a beautiful sandy beach which was practically empty and went and sat, leaning against some wooden things. Were soon joined by an aging black dog, attached to a pink lead. Had a long cuddle with the elderly dog, slagged off her condition a bit, before realising the owner was sat the other side of the wooden thing, Ooops. Took a quick selfie and hastily retreated back to the car and home for a roast which didn't happen because the meat hadn't defrosted, so jacket potatoes went in the oven for an hour before I realised the gas had run out in the oven and we still had raw potatoes! Cheese on toast it was!!!!!

Still have sand in our shoes to remember our time on the beach.