On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 35 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Monday 13 September – part four: : you really can’t take the table with you!
When we got to Benidorm, we decided to drive along the beach area and we were thinking about maybe eating there, but that never happened.
For those who don’t read Spanish, this sign says that they’re building the tallest residential building in the whole of Europe!
We found some new parts of the town that we had never seen before, but good grief, it didn’t change our view of the whole place. It may have a wonderful beach, but my goodness, the rest of it is just appalling.
Finally, we left Benidorm and embarked on the journey back to the villa via the non toll road route. We headed first through Altea....
... then it was through Calpe...
Here we stopped at one of the local supermarkets, Mercadona, as I’d been told that they stocked the “pink fizz” that we’d had at Geoff’s the other night. No joy in there.
We carried on back towards Moraira and decided to try another supermarket, Masymas and there we finally got lucky with the “pink fizz”, so I grabbed six bottles of the stuff, as it was only €2.90 ($3.70) each. We also bought some pizzas, as we still hadn’t managed to get lunch and it was now heading towards 3pm. We hadn’t drunk anything since breakfast, so I guess neither thing was helping to make me feel better. :
We stopped off at another supermarket on the way back, just to get a box to get all our alcohol purchases home in and then it was back to the villa.
We were really surprised to get there and discover that the others weren’t back yet. They rolled up about five minutes after us, and probably just as well, as we needed a little help to use the oven. Oh my goodness, the pizza we bought was absolutely divine and very reasonably priced as well.
The excitement of the afternoon was seeing a giant crane delivering something to a house a few doors up the road. The view of the blokes watching it was quite entertaining as well!
While there, we saw Geoff and invited him to join us for the Chinese in Calpe that we were going to tonight. After some discussion about the time we’d be eating, he agreed to join us, coming round for drinks at 7pm and then going on to the restaurant around half an hour later.
We spent much of the afternoon inside, as it was just too hot to move outside. The weather forecast kept threatening that it would get cooler, but there was no sign of it at all. : It was so hot that, for the first time since we’d been down, we had the big fan on in the living room to try and cool us all down.
Once it did cool down a bit, I went out on “Operation Brown Leg”. Having managed to get a reasonable colour on my top half, such as my arms, necks and shoulders, I was a bit disappointed about the state of my legs, which were still as white as it was possible for them to be. Although I knew that realistically, they probably wouldn’t be out much when I got home, unless we had a heatwave there I still wanted them to have a little colour, so I’d spent the last couple of days trying to concentrate any sunbathing on those in a bid to get them browned. So far, it wasn’t working but I kept trying....
Before we knew it, it was 7pm and Geoff arrived promptly, to be greeted with snacks and beer. I could see Peter getting twitchy when Dave offered him a second beer, but he was very good and didn’t say a word. It was left to Barb to impatiently tap her watch just before 8pm!
Before we headed off, we got some photos of all of us sitting outside:
We piled into the cars, with us taking Peter and Frances and Geoff going with Dave and Barb. Even though Calpe’s not that far away (probably about eight or nine miles), it takes forever to get there, as it’s such a twisty road. On the way back, I actually counted the turns, as I’d been told it was somewhere between 48 and 52. Well, I guess I miscounted, as I only got to 43.....
On the way over, we were treated to a lovely sunset, so I grabbed Mark’s camera and got some shots of it and some of the scenery, just to prove to him that you can get decent photos with his camera from a moving car. I think I succeeded....
We discovered when we got to Calpe where we’d gone wrong with finding the Chinese restaurant, as we took a road that was too low. We pulled up into a new parking area and all headed for the restaurant. Geoff had called earlier to ensure that we were booked and on a round table, as that’s more sociable. Interestingly, they didn’t ask for his name, so we had no idea if there’d be a round table waiting for us or not – but thankfully there was.
Immediately, Barb took a great interest in what we’d call a Lazy Susan (do not ask me why.... ), which is a circular turning table, so you can move the food around the table between people. It was lacquered wood and very nice, so Geoff asked how much it was on her behalf. At first, Dave’s face didn’t even flinch, but I think that’s because he first heard €49 ($64), but he’d missed the first digit and it was actually €149 ($194), so that was a : go! There was some talk of us leaving with it under our arm, or perhaps the table itself or just the tablecloth, so I was very relieved to see everyone leave with nothing under their arms....
I started to look at the a la carte menu, as the cheap menu of the day doesn’t have any fish options, apart from shrimp curry and, last time I had that, it was waaaay too spicy for me. Geoff announced that you could have sweet and sour prawn on the menu of the day, which was fine for me, so I went for that, with veggie spring roll for starter. Mark had the hot and sour soup, which he told me was very hot (just as well I didn’t get that shrimp curry then... ) and the chicken chop suey.
As with the last time we ate here, the food was very good and amazing when you consider the prices. We had ice cream for dessert and then the best of the part, when the hazelnut liquor, brandy and this time, peach liquor arrived on the table. Barb and I opted for our favourite, the hazelnut liquor and Frances tried some, although entertainingly, she decided that she preferred my limoncello. Mark tried the peach liquour, but didn’t think much of it. I couldn’t try it, because of my allergies, but I smelt it and it didn’t smell much like peach to me. :
The total bill, for the SEVEN of us, including the wine and the liquor, came to just €33 ($43) – now that’s what I call good value for money!
We all pretty much tumbled out of there, having had plenty to drink (we had two bottles of white wine and one bottle of red wine during the meal), and then it was back to the villa, where some people (mentioning no names, but Frances and Mark... endulged in a nightcap of a limoncello. I was too tired and was starting to suffer with my insect bites so I headed straight to bed and I think the others followed not long afterwards.
Today we drove 85 miles. The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was the Fonts de l’Algar. The worst thing today was how hot it was and how lousy I felt. Today we tried going to Fonts de l’Algar And the result was it was a lovely site and much more to it than I thought there would be. The most magical moment today was sampling that honey!
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The water in your pictures from yesterday's update is so clear! Beautiful!
As for the non-tanning legs, that's me too! My shoulders, arms, and face get somewhat tanned, but my legs never!
I can't believe your total for dinner! That's amazing!
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Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
I really struggled to get going this morning. My body just did not want to do anything, except lie in bed, feeling sorry for itself. I suspected immediately that it was due to my body fighting the infection from the various insect bites. The current count was now up to three on my left leg (all huge), one on my right leg (thankfully still small) and one on my left arm (massive). Later on in the morning, I managed to do a couple of self portrait shots, so you could see just how bad they were.
Suddenly, the fact that I’d felt so lousy, inexplicably, in the car yesterday made sense to me. I suspect it was the startings of my body fighting back against my war wounds....
Our great entertainment of the morning came at breakfast, when Peter, under Mark’s direction, actually cooked some eggs. Now I know this may not sound like a major deal to you guys reading this, but you need to understand that it seriously was. It had come out earlier in the holiday that Peter had never made a bed, so when he pulled his own sheet up on his bed, that was a big deal.
Now what do I do with this? Now first you need to crack the egg... ... then you need to get it into the pan.... And he’s cooking! And the final result!
It shows how big a deal it was that Barb was taking photos of the occasion through the window, while I was behind, shooting photos and even Dave wandered in to see what was going on....
Frances was the only one who stayed away. As we said, she was probably in too much shock to get up from her seat! I did show her the photographic evidence of the goings-on though....
All of that helped to take my mind off how awful I felt from the bites, but once I’d had breakfast, I returned to my previous Eeyore stance. Mark eventually suggested that perhaps I should go and have a shower to cool down the skin and wash it out, so that’s what I did, also adding in a hair wash, as I knew there was no way that I’d be in a fit state to go swimming later today.
Just after I came out of the shower, Mark informed me that everyone was starting to get ready to go. Great, not what a girl with dripping wet long hair wants to hear! : I dried it a bit and put it up in a bun and got myself sorted. The rush was because, after much deliberation, we had decided that we would take a glass bottomed boat trip out of nearby Calpe today. Originally, the plan had been to go to the Aquarium in Valencia, which I was desperate to do, but Mark wasn’t that keen, so that got knocked on the head. Anyway, the boat trip went out hourly from 10am and everyone wanted to go on the 11am one, so off we set.
We made it with about 15 minutes to spare and parked up and went to get our tickets. I must admit that I was sure that it would just be ourselves, with Peter and Dave, as we knew Barb wasn’t a good sailor and she’d talked about staying on dry land with Frances. Therefore, we were both quite surprised when Dave came to get the tickets and asked for four. Not what we were expecting... :
Our vessel
We boarded and took our seats....
It was at this point that I started to get a bit nervy. Maybe I should’ve taken those sea sickness tablets I carry with me? I really hadn’t been thinking straight this morning.... Barb reassured me, saying that there was no way she and Frances would be out here unless it was like a millpond out there. Well, yes, that was a fair point, so I should be OK..... or so you’d think...
We were fine coming out of the harbour and I got a fair few shots of the Penyon d’Ifach and Calpe itself. It was fascinating to see it from the water, as usually we drive through the back section of it and only get close to the water whenever we go to the port. It really is a beautiful place.
In the far distance, even here, you could see the skyscrapers of Benidorm....
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Sorry those insect bites did you in! There must be some killer mosquitos over there. Hope you get to feeling better and I can't wait to read more about the boat trip.
Cheryl, What a day - insect bites, car sickness and now sea sick(?). I do hope things get better. BTW all the shots at the waterfall were gorgeous. I often find if I just ice my mosquito bites it does help to take away some itch and redness and the heat of them as well. You must be hyper-sensitive to the bites as I've never heard of anyone actually feeling sick from them - maybe Spanish ones are different then American or British skeeters.
Great update. Sorry to hear about your "war wounds", as I swell up like that, too. It is NO fun!
Feeling a little queezy awaiting your next installment ...
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: you really can’t take the table with you! 
We also bought some pizzas, as we still hadn’t managed to get lunch and it was now heading towards 3pm. We hadn’t drunk anything since breakfast, so I guess neither thing was helping to make me feel better. 
and then it was back to the villa. 
Oh my goodness, the pizza we bought was absolutely divine and very reasonably priced as well. 
), which is a circular turning table, so you can move the food around the table between people. It was lacquered wood and very nice, so Geoff asked how much it was on her behalf. At first, Dave’s face didn’t even flinch, but I think that’s because he first heard €49 ($64), but he’d missed the first digit and it was actually €149 ($194), so that was a 
Mark tried the peach liquour, but didn’t think much of it. I couldn’t try it, because of my allergies, but I smelt it and it didn’t smell much like peach to me. 
Hope you get to feeling better and I can't wait to read more about the boat trip.
Holly: 
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