Malaga Port

Not such good weather today, so we decided to catch the train to Malaga, which is only a few kilometres from our campsite.
We picked up a leaflet and followed a walking route that took us down to the Port area. It had a beautiful swirly roofed contraption that stretched right along the waterfront. Running parallel to it was a lovely park full of palm trees and exotic plants. It was all very nice, but very quiet today.
Once we reached the seashore, we found that the harbour was protected by huge square concrete blocks piled up above the water line.
I liked this graffiti of a scary monkey on one of them so got Darren to risk life and limb by scrambling over to pose next to it.
We then spent the next three hours in a cafe sorting out our future travel plans. Unfortunately, we haven't decided where we are moving to tomorrow yet, but April is mostly sorted - it is very exciting, as well being fiendishly complicated.

Benalmadena

Great start today as the sun was shining and we quickly caught the train to the cable car station in Benalmadena. We were all prepared to ride to the top of the mountain, and even had our hiking boots on especially for the walks around the summit.
Unfortunately, the cable car was closed for maintenance, so instead we had to hike around the pretty old town (with massive plant pots), then down to the harbour.
Look closely at the background in pic 2 and you can just see where we had intended to visit.
Instead we enjoyed a café con leche in the sun, and then hiked 12k along the seafront back to our campsite.
Ps, I nearly got my haircut in Benalmadena, but no one ever cuts it as I would like it, so when we got home I asked Daz to give it a go. He has no experience, but quickly built up confidence, hacking away madly while asking if I have been on holiday recently!  It all got a bit stressful and I hardly dared look in the mirror when he had finally put the scissors down, but actually it's okay - I think.

On the beach

Our first visit of 2015 to a beach, and here we are at Torremelinos. The long sandy beach was deserted so we had a bit of a laugh on our own.
It was very windy and the sea was rough. A few seconds before I took the photo of Daz, a huge wave had washed right through the swan house, so we waited for it to do it again. I had the scene planned - Darren was supposed to jump up the pole and hang on while the sea swept underneath him. We waited for ages but it didn't happen again, so you will just have to imagine it.
In pic 2, I was once again practicing cartwheels. I am definitely getting worse, and I wasn't good to begin with.
We noticed that even though it is only early February, the town is getting ready for the tourist season. The pedalos are out on the beach, a whole section of parasols had been re-thatched, and workmen were painting and decorating the beachside bars and cafés.
Roll on Spring.

Nottingham to Spain

My mum's hip replacement has been a big success and she is whizzing around everywhere on her crutches, so today we said goodbye to her and my dad.
We caught the tram to town and this is the view from the bus stop as we await the Skylink.
It sounds very exciting, but Skylink is actually a normal bus that runs from the city centre to East Midlands Airport. I note that it is not called the Speedy Skylink, as it most certainly is not. It takes a very round about route, with at least 50 possible stops. They are all loudly announced by a helpful computerised local sounding lady. I would like to know how many attempts it took for her to record 'thank you for flying with us' without bursting out laughing. Still it got us from T to A so I shouldn't moan.
After a pleasant couple of hours at the airport, and then in the skies, we arrived at Malaga Airport.
I have had a few worries while we were away as we left our motorhome in a tiny campsite that was run by two English people -Jeff and Irene - who we barely knew.
However, Jeff had been tracking our flight on the Internet and he picked us up five minutes after we phoned him. He whisked us off to Lidl for a quick supermarket sweep and then back to the van.
Fortunately I still had the keys in my handbag and the engine started first time. We jumped on board, plugged in the electric, filled up the water tank, fridge and cupboards and are settling in nicely.
It is still as lovely as I remember, and we start our travels again tomorrow - can't wait!

Tree of the Year

The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is world famous as the tree where Robin Hood and his merry men used to meet and shelter in it, in around the year 1190.
We went to visit and it is looking fantastically well for its age, which is estimated to be between 800 and 1,000 years old.
Unfortunately, this means that it can't have been the exact same tree as it would have only been a small sapling in Robin's day. However, there is also the small problem that Robin, as we think of him, may not really have existed either.
Apparently by the 1,260's, popular tales about him really were told locally, although I doubt that he looked much like Errol Flynn or Kevin Costner, or wore stretchy green tights either.
In 2,014 the Major Oak was crowned English Tree of the Year, and it is currently battling hard to take the European Title. I have voted for it and I note that to date,1,906 other people have also taken the trouble to join me. Unfortunately, the Polish entry had over 2,000 votes, so we aren't in the lead yet,  although I noticed that the Welsh were trailing badly with less than 400.
I don't know if the winner goes on to try to win World Tree, or even Universe Tree, but I am sure that it is in favour of world peace and would look stunning in its leaves and a pair of large green swimming trunks.

Hodsock Priory

I had heard about Hodsock Priory and its amazing snowdrop display and had been keen to go for many years.
I mentioned it to my mum who said that she visited about 10 years ago and that there wasn't much to write home about. Ignoring this advice, we decided to go today.
In the car on the way there I was over excited and Darren was completely under, so we evened each other out.
It was the perfect day for a visit with bright sunshine and a dusting of fresh snow.
I cannot lie, once we got there, there was not much to see. We followed the woodland walk and then made our way around the lake to see the Priory itself (which we were not allowed in).
The snowdrops were there, peeping coyly through the snow, and by crawling on my hands and knees, I could see that they were individually beautiful.
However, the view when standing just looked like a wood with a bit of snow on it. Maybe I was expecting more, and it was pretty, just not spectacular.
Darren said that it was what it said on the tin - snowdrops in a wood. He said a lot of other things as well, but they aren't all appropriate for this blog.