And finally

Thurday and Friday were just lazy days.  Lots of time by the pool

Reading, and listening to audiobooks. I had the same spot nearly every day!

Stuart swam, I bobbed around on my noodle, just to cool off.
A really relaxing holiday, a nice resort with some great towns and villages nearby

 And as usual, we had a little convertible car to zip around in.

Wish we could have brought it home!

Monday to Wednesday

Monday
Drove to Cartegena again, and this time I remembered to take my phone so there's some pictures.

It has a lot of Modernista architecture, like a mini Barcelona, some lovely villas, and many being refurbished.



The main square and Town Hall are lovely,



We visited the Castle first, and to get there you have to go up a scenic lift and cross a walkway. They call it scenic. I called it scary. Don't like heights. Or lifts. Or walkways.



But the views were pretty good when you got there



The streets are full of public art, mainly statues



And we explored a bit before visiting the roam forum, of which quite a lot has been uncovered and preserved.


Including some nice mosaics

Had lunch in a cafe on the Main Street, and got back in time for a read and swim at the pool.
Then we had a BBQ in our little garden



And were visited by a group of slightly older kittens who entertained us for hours.



Tuesday
Lazy day. See previous posts

Wednesday
Drove to Santiago de la Riberia for lunch. Lovely seaside town. Parked near an interesting building. No idea what it was.




Went to the beach, and I got my toes wet.



Sat and had a beer, or two




And looked across the lagoon to La Manga, where you could clearly see the buildings on it.




Came home for dinner at a restaurant just down the road where we met a lovely couple and their children who'd ordered too much food and tried to share it with us. Trouble was, so had we.
We keep underestimating the size of Spanish starters which I think are meant to be shared by about 4 people, and we order one each...



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Location:

More lazy than not

Thursday
A lazy day. Definition: stay in bed late. Have coffee, read, breakfast ( late). Go to pool. Stuart swims about 20 lengths, I float a bit, maybe swim a bit, sit on edge of pool and read book. Back for lunch. Fresh bread, cheese, ham, tuna, salad, fruit, beer. Read some more. Back to pool. This time Stuart swims some more and I alternate listening to iPod, (podcasts and audiobooks usually, at the moment it's Neil Gaimans Radio adaptation of Neverwhere), back for shower, G and T and then dinner in one of local restaurants.

Friday
Drove to the coast. Roof down, we went to La Manga. It's a 21 km strip of sand, a spit I suppose, which forms a huge inland saltwater lagoon called La Mar Menor




It's enormous. Not very exciting though. We drove all the way out along the spit, but it's very built up, not a lot of planning regulation has gone on!
Drove back and to one of the resorts along the lagoon where we had a very good pizza for lunch!




Got back to find two tiny kittens on our patio. One ran away, the other was too weak, and it also had a very sore eye.


Gave it some milk and ham, and it perked up a bit. Always difficult to know what to do with these feral cats. They live wild, catch the odd bird, and rely on tourists. We've been told at other resorts than when the tourists go home, they usually die.

Decided to eat in, so had a great English meal of jacket potato, sausages, beans and cheese. fab. Then sat indoors, first time ever on this holiday, and watched a DVD of Django Unchained we'd brought with us. It was brilliant, I love Tarantino.

Saturday.

Lazy day, see above. Ate at restaurant on resort where our starter of a shared plate of cold meats was so huge we brought half of it home for the kittens, secreted in my handbag!

Sunday
Everything will be closed, so what more is there to do but have a lazy day again.
Went off piste for dinner to a local restaurant in a nearby village. We got a free garlic and cheese bread, had a lovely steak with chips and salad, although something was lost in translation for the salad, I asked for a small mixed salad and got a huge one with tuna and ham. Tuna and ham don't go to well with steak but I managed. At the end of the meal we got two complimentary caramel vodkas which were lovely, and when I said how much I liked the portable wine cooler, (think plastic bag) the waiter went round the back and fetched me a brand new one. All for €30!



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Murcia and Cartagena

Monday
Decided to go to Murcia, capital of the region. About 25 mins drive in our little convertible VW.

How cool is the driver



Parked in a back street having got lost, but could see cathedral in distance, so managed to find old town. Crossed the river, with a strange creature in it



The cathedral was in a lovely square and was incredibly Baroque, very impressive.



Went for short walk and discovered The Royal Casino, very impressive and opulent building in a variety of styles. This was the Moorish entrance




The "English" Library




The rather impressive and over the top Ballroom




And my favourite, the "primping nymphs" on the ceiling of the ladies powder room




Wandered round he back streets, and found a great bar for lunch in the cathedral square




Which had a water mister which blew water droplets over you every few minutes, very cooling! Not sure if you can see them in this picture.



Seemed to be a really nice city, and think we'll come back. Loved the name of this shop


Got back to resort about 4, just in time for a relax and dip in pool before heading off to centre for dinner. Tried a different restaurant and had cocktails to start with



Fab view across the resort at sunset



But had to negotiate sprinklers on way back again!



Still, cooled us down!

Tuesday

Lazy day. Got up, just before midday. Breakfast. Read. Lunch. Pool. Read. Pool. Gin. Shop for more gin and brandy as we'd run out.




BBQ. Joined by 5 cats.




Did Times crossword. Cheated. Finished it

Wednesday

Drove to Cartagena. Forgot phone, so no pictures till we get back, have camera but no way of getting pics off it.

Beautiful Roman Old Town. Visited Roman theatre, amazing. Walked down lots of back streets with Modernista Villas lining them.

Lunch by the sea, tuna salad, beer, eggs. Great!
Back in time for swim.
Want off piste for dinner and visited recommended Spanish restaurant in little village near us. Amazing. Just let proprietor bring us what he recommended. This is the starter



He brought me the bottle of wine. Let me drink what I wanted, and charged me €2! Great meal. Got lost on way back and drove into wrong resort. Drove round it a bit, then out again. Security guard who'd let us in said " did you feel like a look round?". Had to admit to being lost. Took 10 mins to get to restaurant, 35 mins to get back. :-).


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The holiday begins...

Saturday
Up very early, for us anyway, 0530, having stayed overnight at airport hotel in Manchester to avoid an even earlier start. Still, we had a good view of the airport




Grabbed a coffee, and a five minute walk to the airport to be met by huge queue for bag drop. Almost as long and slow moving as when they printed off your boarding pass for you and called it check in. By the time we'd got though that and security it was almost time to board. Quite an uneventful flight, thank goodness, still hate them, and we landed at Murcia airport. Very small, but thankfully very efficient and we had our bags and car in about 30 minutes and were off. Nice little car, red VW TVR convertible. Just about managed to get all the bags in it, and drove to resort, after a detour to a hole in the wall of an industrial unit in an industrial estate to pick up the keys. Very strange!

Resort is built round a huge golf course, we don't play golf but it is nice and quiet. Lovely apartment on ground floor with a patio and small garden and 2 mins from a pool.

Here's my feet enjoying themselves, on a very comfy chair!



Did the obligatory supermarket shop, I do like a well stocked fridge on holiday, and spent a couple of hours relaxing at the pool. Got back and disaster struck! Stuart had paid a considerable sum to bring his banjo with us so he could practice every day, and discovered he'd left the key to the case in Manchester. After much experimenting, he managed to get it open with a cork screw. Whether it will ever shut again is a different matter.




After the obligatory G and Ts we walked to the centre of the resort and had dinner at a lovely restaurant where the set menu had three starters and I thought we had to choose one, but they gave us all three, meaning we had little room for the seafood paella. Obligatory Spanish brandy and bed, where unfortunately Stu's sleep was somewhat interrupted by my iPad at the side of the bed which chimed every hour, and ticked all night. Maybe turning the clock application on without checking the settings was a bad idea. Still, I managed to sleep for nearly 10 hours!

Sunday
A chance look at twitter ( forgot to mention that yesterday I fixed the wifi network in the apartment as Stuart couldn't:-) ) alerted me to a potential problem back at base. Logged into our incident chat room to find we'd had a fire on campus and lost a lot of the network. Great team at home pulled everything together, but couldn't help keeping a watching eye on it. Naughty me. Lazy day. Breakfast. Reading. Lunch. Pool. More reading and listening to podcasts. I listened to one on quantum cosmology which was slightly surreal. We both like to do different things in the pool. Stuart swims.



I just float.




Another walk to the centre for a dinner of bruschetta, beer and pasta



Followed by my favourite, ice cream with liqueur poured over.

On the way back we decided to take a short cut across the golf course, which as well as giving us lovely views,




Also meant that we got drenched by the sprinklers that came on!



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Location:Murcia

Camping at Rowsley

Another camping weekend over, this time our annual trip to the Grouse and Claret at Rowsely. A lovely pub just through Chatsworth which conveniently has a campsite at the back of it. Normal routine on Friday - get there, pitch tent, have minor argument about how to do it, fill tent with all gear, and join friends in sunshine for drinks and nibbles. Dinner in the pub, and back to gazebo for nightcap. I have new, solar powered fairy lights for our tent, whch was very exciting!



Saturday morning was a communal fry up, then the bus to Ashford in the Water and a walk to Bakewell, partly along the Monsal tail which we joined at Thornbridge station.



Then walked to Hassop station where there is a lovely tea room and book shop. Lots of wild flowers along the way,



and lots of bikes. Groups of hikers and groups of bikes on fairly narrow trails don't exactly mix well, but not sure there's an answer. Arrived in Bakewell in time for lunch at The Peacock and a look round the shops and a visit to the ducks of course



Where we saw some interesting coloured babies



before starting the walk back, which involves a bit of a climb but gets you some lovely views.



More early evening sunshine and a BBQ - normal stuff, chicken, burgers, sausages, gammon, lamb - and a bottle of chef's privilege (Prosecco) for the two cooks.



Got some good pictures of the "supermoon"



Next morning a leisurely start, mainly because we could hear it raining, so stayed in the tent Then we went to Rowsley station and caught the steam train at Peak Rail which goes to Matlock and back several times while you have Sunday lunch in their Palatine cars.


Joined by some of my family including my Mum and Dad who were celebrating their Diamond wedding anniversary, so the Queen came too.


Lunch is excellent, roast beef and all the trimmings followed by a real sweet trolley! And you get to see the steam train .




Luckily it stopped raining for the walk back to the campsite, and we sat around a bit or played on the now empty campsite


and then had another BBQ.
Next morning we were up and off early, leaving a couple of wet tents so we could get to work by 9. But the sun Shen all at, and when we went back to get them in the evening they were dry. Apart from the inside of ours, and we seem to have sprung a leak!

Another great weekend, good company and some sunshine.