Rest, relaxation and a bit of rain in Spain COMPLETE 11/10 About This Page:

[Nimros]

Sorry about the rain, Eeyore but it looks like the visit to the Valor Factory more than made up for it.

Glad you had your GPS with you, but looks like you were able to navigate all those winding, narrow streets without its help.

[duck addict]

Hydraulic Press
To extract the Cocoa Butter from the Cocoa Paste

[chezp]

Originally Posted by duck addict

Hydraulic Press
To extract the Cocoa Butter from the Cocoa Paste

You see, I knew someone would know the answer to that one...

[DawnK]

Great trip!!!! Love me chocolate!!!

[KMB733]

Glad you were able to find the Chocolate Factory! What a great way to spend a rainy day.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry for more rain! The chocolate factory looked like a fun time!

[chezp]

Friday 16 October – part two: a night out on our own

We headed back to the car and drove down to the front of Villajoyasa, so that we could see some of the coloured houses that the town is famous for. Once again, they were digging the place up and we ended up having to drive through an underground car park, as that was the only way to get along the front. What a nightmare! Still, we got some lovely photos when we came out the other side, although you can still see what a drab day it was.










We headed back through the town, getting a few more photos on the way…




… then it was back along the coast and it was still a miserable day:




We headed into Moraira, where we figured we’d get a light lunch, but we were totally out of luck with the parking, with absolutely no spaces to be found anywhere. Once mention was made of the aioli back at the villa and getting some French stick, that was it, the decision was made, lunch would be back at the villa. A quick stop off at the local supermarket to pick up some French stick and back we went for what turned out to be a great lunch. Aioli is good stuff!

We spent the afternoon back at the villa, with Dave cleaning out some of the swimming pool, which I found fascinating, as I’ve never seen that done before.

Soon, it was time for us to go our separate ways for the night. Dave and Barb were going out with their friends for one of the neighbour’s 40th birthday, back to the cheap Chinese in Calpe and we’d booked a table at the hotel restaurant at the bottom of the hill. We headed out about half an hour after them, after repeatedly assuring Barb that we’d be absolutely fine. She kept telling us that she was worried about us, but we did keep telling her not to worry.

When we turned up at the restaurant, we were very glad that they’d suggested we reserve a table, as a lot of the tables in there were already booked. We had a lovely table by the window and it was a beautiful old place.



We spent ages picking what we were going to eat, as there were so many non-meat choices in there, with fish and vegetarian pizza and pasta options. In the end, we opted for mozzarella and tomatoes for me, minestrone soup for Mark and we shared a prawn cocktail, which turned out to be excellent value. We counted 16 prawns in there (only because we were dividing them out equally! ) and sampled a bit of each other’s appetisers. All of it was lovely.



For main course, eventually I opted for a fish pizza and Mark had the pork loin in mushroom sauce. Mine was so light, unlike many pizzas and I heard no complaints from Mark about his.



Because my pizza was so light, I still had room for dessert, although I was the only one who went for it, as there were only three choices and all of them had lots of dairy in them. My tiramisu was absolutely divine and perhaps the best I’ve ever had. It was lovely.



Having finished, we got the bill and everything came to €48 (about $71.50), which we thought was good value, as that included two glasses of wine for me and three glasses of Coke for Mark. It was a lovely place and we were very surprised to find that it was a German owned. There was only one other table of British and everyone else in there was German, which was a bit odd for an Italian place. We headed back to the villa and headed to bed an hour later.

The weather today was wet and miserable with temperatures in the 60s, although it dried up later in the day.
The best thing today was our lovely dinner.
The worst thing today was getting lost in Villajoyasa.
Today we tried visiting the Museum of Chocolate.
And the result was it was a lot of fun and well worth a visit.
The most magical moment today was sampling the chocolate at Valor.

Next: is that Britain under all that cloud?

[BritDisFan]

What a sweet little restaurant, the food looked really nice too.

[Colexis Mom]

More great pictures! Dinner sounded delicious!

[Hugmonster]

Your tiramisu looks like creme Brule... Yummy!

[KMB733]

The colored houses remembers me of the houses on Key West. Dinner looked great

[Nimros]

What a excellent dinner choice - your food looked so delicious!

[chezp]

Saturday 17 October: is that Britain under all that cloud?

When we got up, we heard all about Barb and Dave’s night out last night. We weren’t entirely surprised to hear that they were recognised by the staff in there, who saw Barb, when it got to the liquor time, and said “avellana”, immediately remembering that she liked the hazelnut liquor! It sounds like they had a great time, although they told us that they didn’t start eating until 9pm and they didn’t get home until 12.20am. Although it sounded like a lot of fun, I’m glad we didn’t go, as there was no way we’d have made it that late.

It was quite a sad morning, as we were flying home later in the day, and by the time we worked out what time we needed to check in, we realised that we’d have to leave the villa at around 11am. It was a beautiful day, which was just typical, after the last couple of wet days. If only it could have been wet today, then it would’ve been easier to go home!

At least we got to see a cricket, basking out in the heat, which was neat:



Mark did all the packing and we discovered that our suitcase was 3lbs over the weight limit, so Mark’s parents kindly agreed to bring our honey back home, as well as the raisin wine and three bottles of liquor we’d bought. I must admit I didn’t feel so bad about them having all those bits and pieces, when I saw what other members of the family had left them to bring back. By comparison, our little bits were small fry!

Anyway, over the last few days, we’d agreed that we’d drive down to the villa next year, probably in September, and as I told Dave and Barb, if we did that, we’d be able to pay them back by bringing down anything that they wanted.

We sat outside, just relaxing in the sun and Geoff and Janet came round to say goodbye to us, which was really sweet of them. They’re a lovely couple and I hope we get to see them again when we next come down.

Finally, it was time to head out and we drove to Alicante airport. As we did, the skies darkened, so maybe the weather was wishing us farewell. We said goodbye to Dave and Barb there and headed inside. As is usual, there were nice long queues to check-in, so I went to apply some more cream to my insect bites, as I didn’t want to risk bringing the cream through in my hand luggage and, by the time I’d done that, Mark was nearly at the front of the queue. Not bad going.

We quickly cleared security, although I don’t think the same can be said of the guy in front of us, who stood there for ages, trying to put everything back after going through security. He was still there after I’d had a restroom break!

We wandered around the shops for a while, looking for some of that lovely hazelnut liquor, but found nothing. Eventually we headed to get some food and I found some nachos with cheese, while Mark had a cheese burger. Then it was a case of waiting for the gate to be announced and we waited and waited, then we waited some more.

While we did, I got some Haagen Dazs ice cream, a new flavour from what I could gather of cappuccino caramel truffle and very nice it was too.

We waited a bit more for the gate to be announced and, when it was, it was the one we were right in front of, so we quickly got in line, having seen how it worked, lining up for these flights. Fortunately, we were in about the first 20 of the A boarding group. We had a long wait to actually get on board the aircraft, but when we did, I saw a row of seats empty about four rows back. My face fell as I got to them, as I thought the whole row was out of commission, but no, it was just one seat, the other two were fine, so we went for those.



The flight back was fine, although boring. I really don’t recall the flights last year being this dull, but this time, I found the time passed painfully slowly. I guess we’ve just become too used to all the wonderful mod cons, like in-flight movies that we get whenever we fly to the States. On the way, I took some photos. As we took off, you could see Spain laid out in front of us…




We think this was the north coast of Spain, although we’re not 100% sure



Maybe this was the coast of France?

… then as we reached France, it got a lot cloudier and you could barely see any of either that country or our own…






That gave us a very good idea of what to expect when we got home and we were about right. It was very cloudy, miserable and damp and not a great welcome back. We cleared immigration and I went for a restroom break, while Mark went to get the luggage. Apparently, ours was the first case off and was way ahead of anyone else’s. That would’ve been great, except he then had to stand there and wait for me and of course there was a queue for the ladies – isn’t it always the way?!

We headed outside and I called for the car to be delivered back to us and it was back with us after just a few minutes’ wait. Then it was back home, another vacation over, but our Christmas one to Disney, Miami and the Florida keys and the Pocono mountains only a few weeks away!

The weather today was hot and sunny and in the 70s in Spain and in the high 40s and damp and cold in England.
The best thing today was sitting out in the sun before we left.
The worst thing today was coming home.
Today we tried eating at Alicante airport.
And the result was the food wasn’t bad and it wasn’t too badly priced.
The most magical moment today was seeing our car again.

[ccmom]

Wonderful trip report. I'm looking forward to your next Disney installment, as I'm sure you are.

How long would it take to drive to Spain from England?

[Colexis Mom]

Great finish Cheryl! Thanks so much for taking us along for the ride!