As I sit here and start to write this I can’t believe we only have one month left in Europe. We are on the ferry from Cherbourg to Poole on the 31st January. Our route from here will be Benicarlo, Girona, Grissoles, Tours, portbail, Cherbourg. Or something along them lines depending on weather and if I change my mind or get lost. We still have a months, well five weeks actually holiday then in the Uk before we start our new jobs. We have a lot to do in that time including our stay for five nights in a hotel. The camper will be in the hotel carpark so not to far away for me if I find hotel life strange. The time spent on this campsite has flown by. We have been here for fifty days and only had two days rain. I know you don’t want to hear things like that but you are reading my blog so I have to tell you these things, I can’t lie.

Christmas is over, yipeee and new year is upon us. Tonight will be noisy as the spanish do like a good party. Any excuse for them to let off fireworks. And they all get together as big family’s. I think a lot of them have hearing problems also because they don’t seem to be able to play music at a normal volume. And then all the dogs will join in which will set the cockerel off because he will think it’s time to get up, not that he knows the time anyway. Hope you all have a good one whatever you do.

My list of jobs to do on a rainy day is getting bigger. You know one of those lists where the jobs needs doing but it can wait, it’s not important. So because we have not had a rainy day for such a long time my list has got bigger, and another problem is half the things on my list are outside jobs so I can’t do them in the rain. I know what your thinking, do the outside jobs while the weathers good. I am on holiday you know.

Next winters trip. I know we have eight months of work in between. But we are already thinking about it. We are not coming back to this site for long stays anymore. It’s a great site and love the area. We have a loverly pitch and once we give it up we will never have it again. The only reason we have had this pitch the last three years is that when the site first opened we had this pitch just out of sure luck it was a really nice sunny one. Because we had it first we had first choice of booking it for the next year, like a loyalty thing. So we did and again for this year. But now it’s time to get on the road again. I like to move about more and Nikki is ready for a change. It will mean more driving but we will see so many more places and meet so many more peaple and hear there travel story’s. I will take more pictures and can do more on my blog so all you lucky peaple can read more of our adventures. We want to go back to Portugal, we might just do Portugal and Spain. Who knows. Time will tell. Whatever we do it will be an adventure before dementia.

Happy new year to you all and thanks for reading my blog.

Mike and Nikki XX

Benidorm love it or hate it. We are not big fans of it but we have a lot of friends who do like it. I don’t mind going in there to visit but I do like getting on the tram to come out of there. It amazes me with all the skyscrapers and bars and mad people. You can see why it has a name for itself. At the far end of the beach is a hill with a cross on the top. I have always wanted to walk up to the cross. Not for religious reasons, just to go up there and admire the veiw above the madness. Our friends Rob and Jean who were down in Devon on the same campsite as the one we were on have rented a apartment in Benidorm. They rented it last year also and we went in to see them. They contacted us about going to meet them for the day. Rob likes walking so a golden opportunity for me to go for a walk with him up to the cross and leave Nikki and Jean to sip wine on the seafront. The story of the cross goes like this.

Once upon a time when Benidorm was just a God fearing fishing village, (with 7km of white sands) a young Mayor, Don Pedro Zaragoza, with much vision, designed an urban plan that would convert Benidorm in to a tourist magnet and a skyline on a par with New York (hence the city is still sometimes referred to as Beni-York). But along the way he encountered PLENTY of opposition … from the landowners who were wary of giving up their sheep grazing meadows to make way for roads and skyscrapers, to the locals who were simply scared of change. But the sector he upset most was the church, when, following a road trip on his Vespa to Madrid, Mayor Pedro Zaragoza obtained special permission from General Franco for tourists to wear bikinis on the beach. This was HUGE news in the fifties; bikinis were considered sinful and were banned in Franco’s Catholic Spain, yet Pedro argued if they couldn’t wear bikinis, the tourists wouldn’t come and so Franco relented … 
But to allow ‘foreigners’ to wear bikinis on our beaches was a bittersweet victory; it actually brought Benidorm the fame it craved … but for all the wrong reasons. Benidorm was hailed a sinful place and the Bishop of Alicante threatened to hang a sign at the entrance to the town naming it ‘HELL’ so visitors could be forewarned.

So to appease the masses and especially the church, quick action was needed and it was Benidorm’s priest Father Salvador Perona that saved the day organizing that a giant cross be made from wooden lamp-posts and erected at the highest point to symbolically restore some goodness into the town.

And so it came about that on a chilly morning in the last week of December 1961, following an official blessing ceremony, the wooden cross was carried on the shoulders of the locals from the Church of San Jaime on the headland between the two Benidorm bays, across the town and up the Sierra Helada mountain, where it was erected and has stood for the last 55 years.

The whole town turned out to help with the journey, with the children dressed in their Sunday best, and so successful was the event that it was later declared by the church as ‘Day of Pardon’ as the souls of the ‘Benidormense’ people had been saved from sin!

It is unclear exactly when the original cross was replaced with today’s more sturdy concrete version that lights up at night, but today the cross is a much loved landmark, visited by thousands of people every year. Some, just to walk off the excess holiday calories, others, local youngsters, to hold ‘botellón’ late night drinking parties. It is also a favourite lovers landmark – most Spanish couples have locked lips at ‘la cruz’ as it’s known locally … and even the final resting place to hundreds of Benidorm fans who have specifically requested their ashes be scattered there.

Made it, even with them little legs.

The veiw from the top, that’s from the top of the hill not the cross.

We walked from the far end of that beach in the photo to the top. You really get an idea how far it was when you look at it from the top. While we were walking along the front by the beach I looked up and thought, bloody hell thats a long way up to that cross, which you could just see on the top of the hill.

While walking along the seafront you see all sorts of peaple from newly weds to nearly deads. And the sellers trying to sell there copy Rolex watches and football shirts etc. And the pea peaple, who are the pea peaple. The pea peaple are con artists. They have a table with three cups on and a pea. The idea being the pea goes under one of the cups and the guy shuffles them about and you put money on which one the pea is under. They work in gangs of about 4/6 The one guy doing the shuffling theothers are an instant crowd which draws their prey in, they place bets and obviously win which encourages the victims to place bets. You won’t win so walk on by. As we were walking along there was a police car stopped, we walked passed and heard a shout the pea men scattered throwing their table on the beach and they all dissapered into the crowd, after the police car had gone by they all started going back to where they were.

Another building I wanted to see close up was the Intempo building. To much to do that day so I biked out there today, it’s only a round trip of 12 miles. The Intempo building is a huge gold skyscraper. In 2005 a 92 million euro loan was obtained from Caixa Bank to begin the build. Work began in 2007 and should have finished in 2009. There were problems all along the way and eventually building stopped because the property developer filed for bankruptcy. The main building was done but still a lot more to do.

Intempo has 47 floors and stands 192 metres tall. The gap between the towers is 20 metres or 66 feet, I don’t know if that is exactly but I think it will be near enough. And is all connected by the cone shape between floors 38-44. All this has been stood like this for a while. Now sold again recently and due to be finished in 2019. It will have apartments, 398 car parking spaces and 133 storerooms. Prices for the apartments have not been released yet but I can confirm I will not be buying one. Start saving if you want one. Enjoy the photos there free. I will not charge for biking time and photo shoot.

I can’t believe we are half way through our winter trip already. We only have six weeks left before we get back into the Uk. The reason we are having to go back early this trip is because we have changed our jobs and have to go back for 5 days training at the beginning of February. We will be put up in a hotel for that time. Hope they don’t expect me to put trousers on. Our new job is working as wardens for the caravan and motorhome club. We will be based on a site near Fareham in Hampshire next year. It’s a loverly site, we actually stayed there before coming away this year. We are really looking forward to it.

The other morning there was the first bit of snow up on the mountains in the distance, it didn’t last long, as soon as the sun came up it melted it. As usual I have been out on my bike and have been out on smaller rides with Nikki, even taking her off road the other day, only because we got lost but some good photo opportunities. I like derelict buildings and can imagine what they would be like when they were lived in etc. What a view this one below would have had.

And through the square window today.

It’s so peaceful up in the hills with a few old houses scattered about and a few that are still lived in, not like the one in the photo. Every now and then you might see a person walking along with his goats or sheep, or sat in the shade. Also this week I have had my hair cut. Always a great experience in spain when they don’t understand you and you don’t understand them. I don’t really mind because I don’t have to look at it and it must have been ok because I haven’t had to many strange looks while walking about. No more than usual anyway. All around the campsite its quite funny, everyone is excited about Xmas and there are lights everywhere, up the trees around their caravans or motorhomes except for one pitch. Yes you’re right, that’s our pitch. We don’t do Xmas, it’s just another day but this year we have made an effort for you all. So below is what Xmas is about to us, as I say just another day. Happy Xmas.

As the title says sun, sun, sun, we have had such a good run of lovely weather here in Villajoyosa. And what do you need when the weather is hot, you need some shade. What do I have on the side of the camper, a sun shade….that broke last February when we were here. What did I not fix this summer. Yes you got it in one. I bought the new bit, the gearbox winder but just never got round to fitting it. I got put off by people saying it’s a nightmare of a job to do. The other day I thought, it’s calm, sunny, I have nothing to do I will look at it. Managed to get the end cap off and and work out how it all goes only to discover that there is another part that is also broken, so I put it all back together and put it on my list of jobs to do next year, or to be more precise a job for the professionals to do next year. Luckily as I was wandering around the campsite, there outside someone’s camper was a sun shade for sale. Nothing like the one we have attached to the camper but one that you can just attach when you want it. Talking to the guy he said it was brand new, he cannot put it up on his own so it’s for sale. €40 offered him €30 about £27 and it was mine. Walked back to our pitch and put it up. Bargain and some shade for Nikki. Brand new it would have been £110. So that will keep us shaded now, don’t want my beer getting too warm.

Bill who I went out with on my bike the other day has now left to go home but before he went he wanted to go out one more time on the bikes with me and Steve the other guy who used to go out with him. We had a really good ride, up and down mountain roads, up and down dirt roads, up and down tarmac roads. Some great roads and all in all we did 24 miles, not far if you’re just going on the road but believe me when it’s up and down and on dirt roads it’s a long way. The next day my legs were aching.

A couple of days after that ride I went out on my own to the reservoir Embalse De Amadorio to take some photos. The light was good and the reflections were great.

And of course I had to take photos of my new bike in the climate it likes.

Our friends Jeff and Jan, the ones we went out for coffee with the other day said about going out again to a great fish restaurant they know in Benidorm. So we checked the wallet and decided, what the hell we’re on holiday let’s go for it. Not a big fan of Benidorm but ok to dip in and get out. We caught the tram in which takes about 15 minutes and then walked down the hill from the tram to a little cafe for the first stop. Jeff and Jan love Benidorm and because they live out here know all the good spots to go. The restaurant we were going to was called Las Gaviotas, Very popular with the spanish so much so if you don’t get there before 1pm you have to queue so we knew it was going to be good. We got there just before 1pm so had a choice of seats. I told Jeff we should sit next to the windows because that way you get bigger portions because when people are walking by they look in and think wow look at that let’s go in here!

The food was fantastic. So this is what we had. Tostadas which is toast with Alioli and tomatoes on it, a huge salad plate and the main meal the fish platter, which consisted of a variety of fish covered in tempura which is a light batter. Now your licking your lips this was all washed down with a couple of bottles of wine and a Diet Coke for me. By the time we were half way through our meal the queue was already out the door. And all that for the four of us came to €45 just over £40.

We left there to go to a hotel for a drink where Geoff wanted to show us the view from the top. The hotel is called Hotel Madeira. It has a lift on the outside made of glass so as you go up you have this great view of Benidorm. Out the lift and to the bar and out on to the terrace. WOW what a view. Ok you pay a bit more for your beer and wine. When I say a bit more I mean another fifty cents per drink. Well worth it. Shame the light was not brilliant, slightly hazy but still nice.

Out the hotel and head for the tram home, one more stop in another spanish pub for a beer and a couple of games of pool. A great time was had by all. And no bad heads today. Apart from mine in that photo, god I need a haircut so bad. Something to do next week.