Gata de Gorgos 18/11/2019

Monday, 18th November 2019

Bit of another quiet day.
Did a bit of needlework.

Tuesday, 19th November 2019

Today, we went for a drive to Valencia, which is a 1 hrs 15 min drive, or 105 kms. The weather is perfect yet again. We have had no cloudy days, how ever it is getting a bit cool in the evenings.
Arriving in Valencia,  we aim for the train station, as that is where the Hop on hop off bus ticket place is, plus we know there will be parking there. So we find the said place, and park the car. After a short walk we get to the terminal for the trains, and purchase the tickets and after 30 mins, we make our way to where the bus pick up point is. There are two routes around Valencia, and we choose the one that is around the old part of the city. Valencia has a population of around 2.531 million people. This is a very interesting place, as we find out, and of particular note is that in the 1960s  the River that used to run through the city, was diverted away from the city, due to the continuing flooding that happened.
Valencia, is one of the oldest cities in Spain being founded in 138 BC. It has had Roman, Muslim, Christian rule in it's time. There are many amazing buildings that are dotted around the city. Our tour on  the bus takes around an hour and a half, and we find some wonderful places that we might like to explore later.
After our first tour ends, we take in the surrounds of the point at which we have choosen to get off, as this one, is also the place that the secound route comes too aswell. So we have a bit of time to fill in, and have a snack and warm up. It is starting to cool, as it is 4pm. After we have eaten, we go to the bus stop, and wait, a couple of the first route buses come and go, and we ask when the next b route bus will be along, and are told in around 30 mins. So we walk about the near vacinity, and check out the shops, as one does. I decide that if we are going to go upstairs on this second trip, I may need to get something to keep my head warm, so i purchase a nice Maroon beanie.
Once the bus right arrives, we go upstairs to take in the next tour.
Our second route, takes us along the newer parts of Valencia, and past the beaches that they have here. Again, it is an hour and a half tour, that is filled with some spectactular buildings and sculpture and statues and bridges. One in particular that sticks out is, a very large blue sculpture, called '' Dama Iberica'' that is made of 22000 blue discs, and is 18 meters tall. It cost  2.4 million to construct. We also pass by some pretty impressive buildings which are not the normal designs of the city. They are very modern and even somewhat futuristic.

So glad I  did  purchase the beanie, as it became quite cool, and the beanie did the required job. When the tour is done, we hop off and decide to catch route A to get us back to the train terminal, and we wait for a good while, but decide to walk back to the station, how far can it be. 

We eventually get back to the station, and just a bit further, we get to our car. We have enjoyed the day, and Bob states that he would like to come back and explore Valencia more. We head back to Gata de Gorgos, driving in the dark. This is something that we haven't done a real lot of in the past. 

Wednesday, 20th November 2019

A rest day, although we did go to the shops to get some food essentials and making plans to go back to Valencia, as our time here in this area is running out. We leave Gata de Gorgos on the 30th. 

Thursday, 21st November 2019

What an amazing day we have had today. 

It started with a drive to Valencia, again a 1hr and 15 min trip, and we have left our place are 8.30 so we can beat the lines for the first place we are going to. The Bioparc, opens at 10 am, and we arrive and find there is no lines and not a lot of people here, althoug there are a few groups of school children.  This is a wildlife place, where the animals are not contained in cages, and it is set on  10 hectares or 25 acres. It is owned by the city council, and has around mainly 4000 african  animals. This zoo is different in that the visitors are immersed into the animals habitat, only using rivers, ponks streams and rocks. We saw so many wonderful animals, and took a gread deal of pictures. One of the many wow moments was when Bob came to me and said, there is a really large fish in the water here, and it was, a Hippopotamus submerged i the water, but not just one, but two.

This was a wonder and to be able to see this, you can only imagine this happening in the wild. 

After a couple of hours we have a coffee break, and sit back on the verandah of the Cafe, and watch the Giraffe chasing the birds and the Gazelles, and the Saddle Billed Stork running over the ground. A truely amazing thing to experience. This Parc is a must if anyone is every going to be in this area. 

We continue walking around the Zoo, and watch a animal show, which has a variety of animals and birds entering the areana and doing their thing. 

After we finish at the Zoo, our next thing to do is to find our accommodation for the night. We enlist the help of the GPS, which has been invaluable to us throughout all our to date. The road system here is a little hectic to say the least. Roundabouts are crazy, and even if you have an indicator on no one takes any notice. There are many lanes, with traffic lights and it is a matter of picking which lane, and hoping for the best. We do make it to a car parking station, without incident, which is close to where the address is of our hotel. The thing about Spain, many hotels do not have the Visual appeal that we are used to. Quite often it is just a door way with signs outside or just a sign on the door. So we get our luggage out of the car, and head off following the GPS for the rest of the directions. We wander down streets, and the streets are narrow to narrower. One gets the for forboding feeling that we have booked something dodgey. We keep walking and true to form, we manage to get a bit misplaced, but, eventually find our digs for the night. Thankfully, it is all very good. The hotel office is just that, an office, with a single door and signs out the front. but when we get to our room/apartment, it surpasses our expections.

We rest for a while, and then we resurface and head out to check out the local shops about us, and to find something to eat. Funny thing, the time we start looking for dinner is around 7.30.  We walk to a couple of resturants and are told that they are not opened, one said they were closed and  the other mentioned that they were not opened but would be open at 8. Again, we still are not used to the different times of resturant times compared to Australia. Most places in Australia, usually close their kitchens at 8 to 8.30, where are here some of the eateries only start cooking at these times. 

We do find somewhere to have a meal, and then we head back to our room and retire for the night.

Friday, 22nd November 2019

So the day begins with us checking out of the hotel, but leaving our luggage with the hotel for a couple of hours as we want to walk around and explore the area more. Bob wants to go to the Post Office here, which is a huge old building that was built in 1922, it has 5 special statues at the entrance. It has two domes on each end with a structure in the middle. A truely unique presence.

Next we  on the agenda is the Silk Exchange. But before we find the Silk Exchange, we happen to by chance, find the Central markets. We will go back to the markets, as the building it is housed in is across the road of where we are wanting to go. The Silk Exchange (Llotja de la Seda ) building was built between 1482 and 1548 and is in three parts. There is the Orange garden, which is a walled court yard. The main hall and the side wing make up the second part of this part. The main hall, is the most lavishly decorated room, with twisted columns, and the ceiling consists of arches. It is truely majestic. The room upstairts iseven more majestic, with a carved ceiling, that to see is to believe. There is a just as impressive floor to match the ceiling above. The rooms are still in the original state. The third part  is a underground area, which in the merchants would be imprisoned for debts. A most wonderous building. In 1996 the UNESCO considered it as a World Heritage Site, as a exceptional example of a building in the late Gothis style.   

After we finish looking about this wonderful building, we head over to the Central markers, and wow, WOW. Amazing, another huge building, with high domes  and ornate decorations. This building began to be built in 1914, and was completes in 1928. The Central Market of Valencia is one of the largest in Europe and covers more than 8000 square meters. There are hundreds of venders selling fruit and vegies, meats, fish, wines, and mostly food items. There is a bar in the midst of all this, and it is a very busy place. 

With both of us seeing the things we wanted to see, in the city centre, as now head back to the hotel to gather our luggage, and make our way to the car. We have elected to take the car to our next port of call, instead of taking the hop on hop off bus, and figured that there would be some sort of parking. Eventually we find the car park and the car, pay our dues, and leave headed to Oceanografic. This is a oceanarium, and the building that it is housed in is an amazing structure. It is the largest complex like it in Europe. There is a dolphinarium, a penguin display, as well as Sharks, Sea lions, Beluga, Walruses, and many more. It is divided into 10 areas. Mediterranean,  Artic, the Islands, Tropical, Temperate, and the Red seas. Then to end the visit, it starts to rain a little, and we head off to watch the Dolphin show, which was very good. 

We leave this tourist area, and head to our car, and when we get there, I notice that our Passports are on the back seat. I asked Bob if he moved them there, and he said no, and then it hits me, at the same time that Bob says the suitcase is gone. Our car has been broken into with the quarter glass broken on the passenger side. So in summery, they took our clothing, which was just a couple of things, as it was just an over night stay. But in the suitcase, was Bobs camera, and on the suitcase was his Sleeping machine. My hand bag was taken, but fortunately it was empty, but I did have a leather purse in it, which was left behind, but the Australian dollars in it was gone. We were very lucky that they didn't take the passports, and they could have taken other cards, ie, shooters liscense, blue card and things like that. I guess our saving grace was that it was in English and the theives didn't understand the language. 

So we have the presence of mind to take pictures of the car, the broken window, and where it it was parked. Next we  need to report the theft to the police, and Bob stops at Oceanographic to ask one of the staff where the closest station is. He is given directions, and off we go. We follow the directions via the GPS and end up almost at the police station, but we park a little distance away, for fear of not being able to get a park closer to where we need to be. A 20 min walk and we find the Police station, and explain as best we could why we were there. The officer we saw understood just enough , and went away for a moment, then came back and ushered us into a small waiting room. We wait here for some time, with people coming and going, in and out doors. Eventually after an hour or so we are seen by a female officer who took down what was taken. and looked at our photos we had taken of the car. We worked out that approximately $3000 worth of stuff was stolen. The female officer spoke pretty good english, and was very pleasant when she was dealing with us. 

After all the details are taken, we are back walking to our car, and then it is well and truely time to go home. 

What a day.    

Saturday, 23rd November 2019

Today is a day of working out what exactly was taken yesterday from our car theft. There is forms to be filled out, phone calls to be made to the relevant insurance companies and Renault Eurodrive, for getting repairs done to the car. All being done by non French and Spanish speaking clients. Eventually, English is spoken after periods of waiting. So now we have to take the car into the closest Renault dealer, to get the process happening. 

Sunday, 24th November 2019

A day of catching our breath from the happenings of the previous days.

Gata de Gorgos 11.11.2019

Monday, 11th November 2019

Rememberance Day.
Did my walk today, 2.88 kms in 31.21 mins.
Today we explored more of Javea, and Bob wanted to go to Orange to get some more credit put on his phone. When we found the Orange shop, there was a lady standing outside with her dog, and we said hello to her, and she spoke back in English. It turns outm she was from Cuba, and had been here for 40 years.  She was waiting outside as she couldn't take her dog inside, so I offered to mind the dog while she was attended to inside. Bob went inside when there was a free person to attend him, and then the lady went inside to wait aswell. So the dog and I waited outside, and thankfully the dog was well behaved, and wasvery concerned about his mum  being inside. He was able to see her and on occassions as he moved the door would open, so he could really see her. Eventually, she came back out and said she couldn't wait any longer, and thanked me for minding her dog. I then went inside and Bob was just finalizing his stuff.
After we left the Orange shop we were walking towards somewhere to grab a bite, and we were talking about English sausages, and a woman overheard us, and said " Do you want english sausages?" So we were told about a couple of places we might be able to get some from. Bonus. This lady was from England, and had been in Spain for 20 years.
After we found somewhere to eat, we decided to check out some of the lookout spots that are about the area. There is a few about, and we found a couple, perched high up ontop of cliff sides, and overlooking the ocean. I still marvel at where people build their houses, and how they ever get built. The coast line here is quite spectacular, with its sheer cliff faces, straight down into the water.
We when we are done looking at lookout spots, we decide to try a place that was suggested to us about the sausages. First place we go to, is a a small british shop, which seems to be very pricey, so we go onto the next suggested place, Iceland. This place is a larger grocery store, with lots of English products, and we find the sausages, but they are not exactly what we are looking for. However we do get some, and conclude, that we will have to wait until we get back to Australia for some proper snags. We also buy some Vegemite from here, aswell some other items.
All in all a good day.

Tuesday, 12th November 2019

I didn't go walking today. Didn't feel like it.
When we were at the Orange shop yesterday, Bob bought a Sim card for the mobile wifi that he had got. When we got home yesterday, he was trying to get the mobile wifi to work, and he couldn't get it connected. So today he made a phone call to where it was purchased from, and as a result, the issue was resolved. A phone call was also made to check the progress of the external drive that is being fixed, and due to the lack of English on the other  end of the phone call, it was decided that we should go into the shop and check it out. So in the afternoon, we go into Ondara to the computer place, and check on the progress, and also Bob leaves his computer there also to get some work done on it.  Hmmm, this is a little concerning, as we have been using the laptop to watch movies connected to the TV, but now we have nothing but the regular tv, which is all in spanish. But Bob tells the guys, we need to have this stuff done by Friday. They say this can be done, so fingers crossed. Considering the external drive has been there for a week now.
After this we go to the big shopping center because Bob needs to go to the Orange shop again, as his phone doesn't seem to be working, even though he has credit on it. He finds the Orange shop, and gets it working, apparently the lady the other day, didn't start the month when she put the credit on it.
We walk around the shops, looking at things, and I decide that Bob doesn't have enough warm gear for the oncoming cold, so we look for some suitable clothing, and found a few things that were in his size, and a purchase was made. We venture up to the food court, and get some dinner and head back to the unit.

Wednesday, 13th November 2019

A quiet day, I went for a walk this morning.
We went up to a look out in the local area, and took in the surronding areas. I went to a Art and Patchwork shop and purchased a magnifier light for when I will use when I am doing my needle work.

Thursday, 14th November 2019

Another quiet day.
Went for a walk this afternoon, 3.06 kms in 33.27 mins
It is quite windy here through the days and nights.

Friday, 15th November 2019

Walked this morning, 2.45 kms in 30.1 mins

Saturday, 16th November 2019

Quiet day in.
Just doing some needle work and reading.

Sunday, 17th November 2019

Today we did venture out.
We went to Calpe in the afternoon, and it was quite windy and cool. Calpe is 22 kms or a 36 min drive from where we are staying. Calpe has some beaches, and also is near to a Roman site, that has rock cut sea pools. There is some remains that date back to the Bronze age. There is a Marina and a huge rock that is near to the Marina, which reminds me of the Gibaltar, but not quite as big. There are many birds that nest on the rock. We take some pictures of the area, and walk about, looking at the food selection that is available at the resturants. All with their Gas heaters going. It is quite cool, and very tempting to eat there, but we did see KFC on the way into where we were, and decided that that was what we were having. But there will be another time to come back and taste the foods here. There were lots of seafood selections, which Bob is partial too.
We head back to KFC and it is nice and toasty warm in there, make our food choice and enjoy the warmth. The chicken is nice, and after we have eaten we head back to Gata de Gorgos to our unit, deciding that we will difinately be coming back to explore further. 

Gata de Gorgos 4th November 2019

Monday, 4th November 2019

I started my day with a walk. 

Today is another quiet day, although we decide to go and get a few things and our destination is the shopping center at Ondara, about 15mins away. This is a huge shopping complex, and is circular. Three stories of shops, and eateries. Not at all what I expected.
I did make a phone call to a doctor surgery, to make an appointment to get a prescription. I must confess, that I thought it would be very difficult, due to the language barrier, but to my surprise, the receptionist answered my call in English. Ahhhh all is good, so an appointment is made for tomorrow.

Tuesday, 5th November 2019

Melbourne cup Day.
Walked again today, am starting to time myself with the distance I am doing.
We go to Javea to the Doctor, and have no difficulty finding it. After a short wait I am seen to by the Doctor, who speaks good english. He writes me a script for Seretide, and all is good.
Bob has made a chiropractor appointment for Wednesday, and an appointment with a dentist on friday. So all our medical things will be taken care of this week.
We went into Ondara to drop in the external drive to get fixed, as it doesn't seem to be connecting very well. While we are in Ondara, we grab a few items.
Wednesday, 6th November 2019

Walked again today, just short of three kms, in 33 mins.
A quiet day today. We went into Gata de Gorgos to the chiropractor, and walked the streets trying to find the chiro, and eventually found the clinic. The chiropractor and partner are from France, and was interesting talking to them. After we had finished at the Chiropractor, we walked about some more popping into different shops. There were numerous shops selling wicker products.  We then headed back to our accommodation for the rest of the day

Thursday, 7th November 2019

I started my day walking. Bob walked with me, and we walked 3.4kms, and took 42 mins.
Did some washing
Today we went into Javea to explore the old part of the town. When we arrive, there seems to have been a market happening and it was in the throws of being packed up. I had decided earlier in the day that I should look at getting my hair cut, and I mentioned this to Bob, and as we were just starting to look about the markets that remained. There was a hair dresser, and Bob suggested that I should go in and get my hair done, and of course, I procrastinate, giving the language barrier, but I do go in and the lady who spoke no English, and I spoke little Spanish. I manage to tell her I just want a trim and she understands and with some hand signals, the job gets done. End result is hair cut, and it looks good according to Bob.
We continue our walk about the old town, and find somewhere to have some lunch. Afterwards we go back to the unit.

Friday, 8th November 2019

I started my day walking. 2.48 kms in 29.21 mins.
It is dentist day for Bob, and we head off to find the clinic in Gata de Gorgos. Finding a park is not as easy as previous efforts, but we do find one. We find the Dental clinic, and fill out the required paperwork, and after a short wait, Bob is ushered into the dentist to have his filling repaired, he broke it some time back, and only now have managed to find a dentist.
After we finish with the dentist, which seemed very well priced, we head to the local cave that is about. The cave is at a place called Benidoleig, and the cave is known as the Cave of Skulls. Tests have ben done on animal and human bones and have resulted in life existed in this cave 50 000 years ago. It is a large cave, and one could imagine cave people living in something like this. There is black on the roof of the cave at certain spots, which historians think it was caused by smoke from fires of the humans. Inside the cave, there are colours of green and dark grey, and some browns which would be from mineral leaching into the rocks. There is not many staligimites or staligities but there is certainly lots of water dripping and running down the walls of the cave. In one section of the cave, in earlier years, a part of it had a pond in it, and had to be swum across to get to the rest of the cave. It was a very interesting thing to do, and we were the only ones in the cave. It was very well lit and presented so that one could get an idea on how things were way back then.

Saturday, 9th November 2019

Walked 2.88 kms in 31.21 mins.
Not a lot else done today.

Sunday, 10th November 2019

Didn't go for my walk today, rest day for walking.
Rest day all round.

Arcos 28th October2019

Monday, 28th October 2019

A quiet day today. We did walk into town, as Bob wanted to go to Orange, the phone shop, and we grabed a few essentials on our way back, as we are coming to the end of our visit in Arcos de la Frontera. So we are trying to use up what food stuffs we have.

Tuesday, 29th October 2019

Just a little bit excited today,  as  we are going back to Gibraltar to explore it more. We have a bus tour booked so we can enjoy the day without the hassles of traffic. Our tour leaves at 12.30 and we arrive early, but that is a good thing, as we have sufficent time to find parking, and to locate where the tour leaves from. Plus, we have to go through the customs again, and being unsure as to how long the lines were, we decided to err on the side of caution, and be early. I always get a bit nervy when we have to show passports, even though I know everything is good, one never knows. We pass through and find the suggested parking place, and go up 7 levels until we find a park. The first few floors of the parking station are private. Then we locate where the bus leaves from, and there is  man there, who comes over to us, and tells us we have arrived at the right place and that we have a bit of time, and suggests we can go to the cafe downstairs or just a couple mins walk go to the main street. We elect to go to the main street, after we have had a comfort stop, which incidently happened to be at the right time, as, when I entered there was no one about, and when I opened the door to get out of the cubicle, there was a waiting line on both ends of the building.
We get to the main street, and it seems to stretch on for a long way. Bob has not had breakfast, so we find a cafe, and order some food to sustain us while we are on the tour, which is a couple of hours.
We head back to the departure place, and wait, and other folks start to arrive and mill around. We have drivers arriving and the guy we spoke to earier arrives, and heads over to where we are to do some paper work. So starts the loading process. He and another lady are consumed with people wanting to get on board, and they are told to wait, as  the buses shuffle positions. It seems there are about 5 buses that are leaving, and a couple of these buses, are doing the WW11 tunnels. Our man signals us over, as he has already seen our ticket earlier, and we get to board the bus first, and we are doing the war tunnels tour.
Once under way, our bus driver gives the audio guide of the area, and the history aswell. It turns out this driver has been driving the buses since 1975. He manouvers the bus around the tight corners and narrow streets, and I am glad we have choosen do to the bus tour. Our first stop is at the Light house and the old cannon on Europa point.   As we wind our way up this huge rock, our guide tells us of the history of the battles of the past, and all about the naval base. There was a 50 percent naval personel, and 50 percent civilan presence until the late '70s. We stop at St Michaels cave, which was absolutely amazing. It is believed that this cave is bottomless, and inside the cave is used for performances of ballet, music and other things. It is a massive cavern and has been presented with a light spectical. This stop was also where the Barbary macaques monkeys are. This is the only wild monkey population on the European continent. They were just so awesome to view, and get up close too. Although you could not touch them, they did let you get close enough to get some great photos. There were a variety of sizes, including a couple of baby ones.
We get back on board the bus, and continue the tour, and our next point of interest is the WW11 tunnels. This is another amazing stop. The effort required to drill out and dig out the rock so that the millitary forces could defend the rock, is mind blowing. In its prime, it housed 16000 men, and had 5 hospitals operating.  It has 55 kms of tunnels throughout  and was able to be used for up to 16 months. It is explained that it was designed to have a slight gradient so that water would drain out by gravity. Water had to be shipped in, as there is no water source on Gibralter, and even now, all houses have a duel system. The toilets are used with salt water,   and then have normal water for everything else. And even for the fresh water for the millitary personell in the tunnels, it was designed to use gravity to feed the water to where it was required.
We have another stop, at a lookout, and then we are winding our way down the hill, all the time having points of interest pointed out to us. As most of the people  on the bus are from the cruise ship that is in dock at the moment, our driver decides to drop them back to the wharf, but not before he drops of those who are not on the ship, at a point near to the city centre. We get off, and ask how far to the bus terminal and the driver says we can stay on, because we are going back to where he is going. It turns out that the ship is the Sky Princess, and is a brand new ship. The passengers have to show their boarding pass medalion, and of course we don't have one, so our driver explains that we are not getting off, and all is ok. After the passengers disembark at the required area, we have the bus to ourselves, and return to the bus terminal.
We take a walk back to the main street, and explore it a bit further. It is a gathering of tourist shops, food, clothes, of which I guess they are all rather pricey, as it is a tourist mecca. We find a currency exchange place, as Bob has some Dirham that needs to be changed back to Euro. So after this is done, we find a place to have a drink, as it feels like it is beer o'clock. We have our beverages, and then we head back to get the car and head back to Arcos. It has been a great day. 

Wednesday, 30th October 2019

A fairly quiet day today, just a little walk into town to post of a couple of things. Started  to pack things up as  this is our last day here in Arcos de la Fronteria. It has been a wonderful time here, and our accommodation has been good. Walking up and down the streets with their hills has been good for our fitness levels, although not all together good for Bob and his knee at times. We go out for tea, at the place we went to no long after we got here.

Thursday, 31st October 2019

We leave Arcos around 9.30 after our hosts relative makes sure the key and everything is ok. I recieve a hug from  this lady, even though we didn't speak much during our time there, I always said Hola when I saw her.
We have planned a stop at a place called Jazcar, which is a hour and thirty min drive, or 105 kms. Jazcar is a village in Spain that is totally blue, as in the colour. It was painted blue, as a promotional village for the Spanish release of  movie The Smurfs. After the movie was made, the film company offered to repaint the homes back to original colours, but it was refused, and the residents voted to keep their homes blue.
It was a wonderful experience, and there even is a huge Poppa Smurf statue in the town, with lots of arty reference to the smurfs. This place is tucked away in the mountians, and it is a very windy road to travel to, but so worth it.
After we leave Juzcar, we are headed for Granada, as we are overnighting there on our way to Gata de Gorgos. Juzcar to Granada is a 3 hrs drive or 262 kms. We share the driving on this league of  the trip, and I take the wheel from Juzcar, travelling down the windy roads.
We arrive in Granada at our hotel, eventually after the mandatory wrong and missed turns. Fortunately our hotel has parking for the carm so after we have found our way to the parking lot, we then settle into our room and taken in the view.  We venture out into the evening and take a stroll down the streets, this is the first time we have been out at night when it is dark. Given that up until now, darkness decends around 8 8.30pm, so this is a pleasant time. There are lots of people about, as it is halloween night, but it is still very enjoyable. We check out a couple of statues, and a water feature and go down some other streets, looking for something to have for dinner. We eventually get almost back to the hotel, before we find somewhere that is not to busy and we dine on good food. Day is done so we head back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

Friday, 1st November 2019

We start the day with the Hotel breakfast, and then ask if it is ok to leave the car in the park until we come back from exploring the city. Bob has found the equivalent to a hop on hop off bus here, except it is like a train on wheels. We ask directions for the closest stop at the recpetion, and make our way to the said destination. We are somewhat early, so decide to walk about where we are. We are at a Bull ring, and we walk around it, taking in all that there is about. Unfortunately, at this time, 9am there is not much open.  So we wait in the park for some time, hoping that the little train will come soon. Eventually it does arrive, and we board after we have purchased our tickets. We get to one stop and are told we have to disembark as this train is out of action, and another one will be along soon. We take in the surrounds and there are a few market type stalls there, selling artwork and photography, and the usual tourist shops selling their wares, and of course the coffee/bar places. We meander around, and get back to the waiting stop, and the number of  passengers swell. We will be lucky to get onto the next train that comes, but we do. It is now a case of don't get of, otherwise you might not get back on.
We travel around the city and take in the history and listen to the audio telling us all about Granada. Our stop comes by that we originally got on at, and we hop off and head back to the car. The tour took about one and a half hours.
Our next destination is Gata de Gorgos. A distance of  440 kms or 4 hrs and 20 mins. Again, the driving is shared, and we are given the gps co ordinates for our next accommodation. How wrong could it go. You would think not likely with gps, but as in our true style, it takes us to somewhere that is not even remotely near where we should be. We go down some very interesting roads, and then they get more interesting, as they are now just tracks, so the decision is made to turn round, and the proves to be interesting in itself. So now we try a different tact, and use the directions given via the tripit app, and that is no better. So eventually contact is made with the host and he offers to come and meet us somewhere, which we accept, as it is now dark. After a short time our host knocks on the car window and takes us to where we need to be. And thank goodness he did, as I am sure we may not have found it on our own, as it is down some one way roads, that twist and turn, and have blind corners on them. Our host shows us through the place, and tells us a few things, and he is on his way. Our accommodation appears to be nice, and will have to see what it looks like in the morning.

Saturday, 2nd November 2019.

Our lodgings are good, as we are out of town a little way, and it is nice and quiet. There are lots of orange trees growing around us, and there are some pidgoens in their boxes here. Our view is amazing, as we look out at a huge mountain of rock. We go into the township of Gata de Gorgos to get some food items, and it seems a nice area. Gata de Gorgos is known for its wicker making, and we see some shops with baskets and assorted items on display. We take a walk around the town, and do our shopping efore we head back to our place.

Sunday, 3rd November 2019

Quiet day and washing done. We go for a walk about our area here, as the roads are all paved, and relatively flat.