Christmas 2015 Fuengirola

Cakey cake cake cake

After complaining like mad about Spanish cakes, Mama has identified the best cake shop in Spain and the best cake to buy from it. Le Granier is the chain and rasberry cheesecake is the name.   We seem to pass by there often even when we are meant to be going the other way.

Spanish Santa Claus

There are lots of Christmasy things going on including a berber tent in the central square with a man in it who had a chat with me about the weather in England.

Wooden Cheetah

Last year I spent Christmas with the Dutch and Sinta Klaus and now there seems to be a whole other thing going on.

Off to see GUJY.  Train to Malaga

The best bit of Christmas was Great Uncle Joe coming.  I love going to meet him.  He hugs me hard with his cheek and says 'Hey Guys'.  I say 'Hey Guys' all the time now.

Off with his case.

 He always lets me carry his case.

We had a lovely Christmas.  Gujy brought be some Beasty Trucks which I chased around the room for a few hours.

Beasty Trucks with chunky tyres

I took Uncle Joe to lots of churches.  

Out and About

 They have this miniature thing going on with the nativity scene.  Each church seems to have a bigger one than the last one.  They have fountains and windmills and gardens and this one even had fishes in it.

Fishes

 But I'm not interested in any of this.  I just want to look for Cheeses.  I'm not that bothered about baby Cheeses either.  I want grown up Cheeses.  On the cross.  With blood on him.

Jumping for Joy

 Mama bought me a Buddha. I dropped him and his hand came off so she put some red crayon on it and told me it is blood.  I still prefer Cheeses. 

A sneaky hug

 Gujy has gone now and I miss him but I don't have time to be too sad because I have my lovely cousins coming tomorrow and my favourite friend Kaviya then my Uncle Lollo and my Nanny and Ganggang Flipflip and then my Granddad Geoffers.
I have to go now as Mama wants to go to bed as it's nearly nine O'clock on New Years Eve.  Feliz Ano everyone and hold tight to your kite.

Cabo deTrafalgar, Tarifa and Casares

Mama wanted to stop at Cabo de Trafalgar because it was on the shipping forecast.  My goodness me what a wind. There were thousands of kite surfers. 

A shipwreck

 And not much else apart from lots of dog caca and a shipwreck.

It was all a bit wild.  So we went to Tarifa.  It was wilder there.

More kites

They do like this kite surfing business.  I told Mama that when I get older I am going to grow so tall that I am going to be a Kite Lifter.

Africa

She said we could see Africa.  I got very excited as I thought we might be able to see tigers but we couldn't.  Only kite surfers.

Tarifa

 We free camped on the beach and cycled into the old town.  We nearly blew away.  But the next place made up for it.  Casares.  We liked it there.

Oi what are you peeping at?

 Mama spent a very lot of time looking for big birds.  She finally got a photo of one.

Griffon Vulture

 We drove along this long bumpy windy road up a mountain and parked near the top next to the tourist information so Mama could steal their wifi.

View from our mountain

It was very beautiful.  We could see the sea.

The sea

I climbed a whole mountain by myself and we nearly got eaten by some big dogs but Daddy saved our lives with Mama's umbrella.

Mama's photo of the birds

 We had the most delicious meal in a restaurant there.

 Baby goat roasted with garlic.

Casares

 I liked it a lot.  But we had a terrible night's sleep because the wind blew the van so hard Mama thought it was going to blow Nona over.

Looking for something

We didn't but it didn't stop her worrying. Mama wanted to live here forever but I'd run out of underpants and the promise of a nice big appartment with bath and uncles aunties nanas granddads friends and cousins was waiting so we clambered back down the mountain and onto Fuengirola.
I now have clean pants.

Leaving El Rocio. Super Sanlucar de Barrameda. Finding Jesus.

So.  We had a sandy old week in El Rocio.  Whenever I got bored I just bent down and dug in the road.

There was a beautiful lake which they said was marshland with lots of birds on and when they took off they filled the sky with an amazing whirring.

I took my bike everywhere.  It was quite difficult going.  But at the weekend the horses all came out.

I had lots of goes.  On different horses.

El Rocio is where I first met the Cheeses Fellow.  I noticed him because he is in every church we went in and he has blood on him.

I asked Mama to tell me the story and then when I got back to the van I started to draw pictures of him. 

Mama says he's called Jesus.  We also met some really nice people who were our neighbours Uncle Geoff and Aunty Carole.  They spoke like my Granddad Geoffers and they had a dog callled Milly.  I thought they wer hilarious. Every morning I would get up and talk to them.  Uncle Geoff was trying to grow a chocolate biscuit tree.  I told him they didn't grow on trees.

I was sad to leave them but Mama said we had to go so we went to Sanlucar de Barrameda and parked in a car park.  It was a bit warmer at night there.

We were right by the riverand the beach and the town.  We could hear the boats chugging out to sea in the early morning.

And I went looking for the Cheeses fellow.

There were castles

and palaces

and churches.  The Cheeses fellow was all over the place.

There were lots of sunsets.

Mama and daddy discovered some really good tapas bars.

Mama took to drinking sherry and eating meaty treats.

We also found a shop which sold nothing but goes on small racing cars.  Mama said it was called ScaleElectric.  Daddy said what! Mama said ScaleElectric.  Daddy said Scalextric.  She went on a bit about it until she googled it.

So I  went looking for the Cheese Fellow.

Oh.  And I chased some pigeons.

Quarteria, Altura, Mazagon, Maracanas and El Rocio - Free Camping from Spain into Portugal

Driving into Spain from Portugal was like going into another country. Mama told me it was.  We stopped overnight in an aire at Quarteria which Mama didn't like because she felt like she was in a compound and daddy did because it was flat.  The next day we drove along the coast and found car parks full of vans parked right next to each other who looked like they spent all winter parked there in a car park.  Daddy said he didn't want to park next to them (even though it was flat) and we drove onto Altura and shunned the car park full of the snowbirds and found a space in another car park overlooking an amazing beach.  Mama fell asleep as she said I'd kept her awake all night and Daddy and I went poking a jelly fish.

Beach at Altura

We departed Portugal with the van stuffed with cake and bread and memories of Grandpappy.  We drove round hellish Huelva which was a smelly place black with coal and pumping gas into the National Park.  Stopped for lunch in Mazagon and moved on because of the smell of gas.  Find a wonderful place to stop in a car park by the parador at Mazagon overlooking an empty beach.

Parador de Mazagon

Sitting on the fence

The next day we drove to Maracanas which was right at the end of a road in the Donana National Park.  It was a very strange place but we parked right next to the sea and right on a cycle path.

Our overnight stop in Maracanas

The town was very thin and long overlooking the very long beach.

Another long beach

And it had an enormous empty promenade overlooked by expensive villas.

Whats it all about?

Not another Sunset

My best day was the next day when we all went cycling together.  Mama went on her bike, Daddy on his and me on mine.

View from our cycle path

I went really really fast and I cycled a whole 4 kilometers.

Me going fast

It was one of my best days and we had a terrible lunch to finish it off.  Frozen fried fish.  Baff.  I ate them all.  Mama screwed her face up and daddy worried about food poisoning.  Nobody died.
And now we are in the wild west.  A town called El Rocio.  Funny old place.  Hard to ride my bike because it's all sand.

Sand like snow

And there's marsh land with strange birds and wild horses.

What's this all about?

And churches and empty houses where the brotherhoods come on horse back at the weekend and parade round the town and let off bangers and play flamenco and visit bars on horses.  Think we might stick around for the show.