We left Villajoyosa on Sunday 13th January after saying our goodbyes to all our friends. The last week there was really special because we had friends Zoe and Sam arrive. These are one of the couples we did our work experience with back in August. We had such a laugh then and as they were in spain and we were in spain it seemed a great idea to meet up. They are very much like us, they like to meet up but not every day and also like their own space so it works well. A lot of the peaple on the site want to meet up all the time, same places same peaple every day. Not for us.

Almost everyone on the site had or has a bug which is going round. A cold, sore throat, aching limbs etc. Nikki got it before me and I thought I had got away with it but then it caught up with me. Of course mine was the worst bug going. I even checked in the Guinness book of records and they could not remember such a bad case. But I kept going.

We drove up the AP7 motorway to get to Benicarlo. It’s a good road, although its a toll road it gets you there easier, and Sunday is a good driving day because no lorries are on the roads unless they are carrying perishable goods. We don’t catch the ferry until the 31st so have plenty of time but I don’t like to rush things. The weather all the way was glorious and is forecast to be all the time we are here, which is until Saturday. Then we will be heading for an aire just outside Girona. We have been to this site before, it’s a good site to stop in on our way south or on our return. It’s by the sea and you can hear the waves lapping the shore at night, or even in the day as you chill in the sun trying to recover from the worst bug ever.

Bug or no bug you need to get on with life, you still need shopping, so a walk to the supermarket. The walk takes you all along side the beach, past the marina into the town. If you have to go shopping it’s a great walk.

And talking of shopping, Nikki wanted some more footwear to wear with her posh dress for the last evening of our training course. Dressing up is optional I think. I will make an effort and put my posh jeans on. Nikki will look loverly so that will take all the eyes of me. Shoe shopping, do you know how many shoe shops we looked in while still at Villajoyosa. Loads and none of them had what she wanted which meant we had to look in some more bloody shoe shops when we got here in Benicarlo. Luckily for me she found what she wanted in about the fourth shop.

Nikki’s new shoes or boots.

I will take a picture of her on the evening of the night out with her posh dress on also. So what do you do after shopping. I needed my hair cut, so while walking around in between the shoe shops I spotted a barbers, but there was a queue so walked around a bit more and returned. The guy only had two more to cut and said come back in half an hour. So we went for a coffee and a hot chocolate for me. Nikki ordered it all in Spanish and we got what we wanted so she must have got it right. My hot chocolate was the best one ever, I think they put a bar of chocolate in a mug then zapped it in the microwave, you could have stood the spoon up in it. Yum yum.

Back to the barbers for the hair cut. The guy was a real character. So I am sat there with a Moroccan barber who is in spain and has also spent ten years in Holland cutting hair. His English was ok and we had a laugh. All the time he was cutting my hair he was laughing and joking, dealing with peaple coming in to book appointments. At one stage on the road outside, a one way system, a car pulled up and started to shout to him, so he grabbed his appointment book and made him an appointment and then he drove off. All this entertainment and a hair cut for €6 and the haircut was one of the best I have ever had.