Spain 2023 - March 10th to 12th

Friday 10th March

Today was housework day.  It should have been done for Ingrid and Bob coming, but as they didn’t come it got left.  Richard did his bit, mopping the floors, but I never got round to doing my bit ☹

We had a quiet day today after the excitement of the mountains yesterday.  I spent the morning in “New Zealand”, looking out on this, can’t be bad can it??!!

The pool got up to 28° so we both had a swim.  Richard was skinny dipping but after my experience last year I chose to wear a swimming costume.  What was the experience?  I walked out of the villa naked, ready for skinny dipping and there was a man at the gate selling electricity!  It was the only time anyone came to the gate like that!!! 

Yesterday I talked about the Santuario de Monteagud.  I did some research on it today and was disappointed that we hadn’t gone up to it. 

The building of the Sanctuary started in the 17th century.  In 1936, the sanctuary was looted and in 1939, during the Civil War the building lost its doors and windows and, at Christmas 1943, during a heavy snowfall, the roof collapsed, leaving only the walls standing.  Then, in 1956, a Bishop decided to restore it, but the person in charge of doing it simply razed to the ground what was left of the original building.  I can find no trace of another Sanctuary being built but I have found that in 2017 a 1960’s building was again razed to the ground.  On the 23rd August 2019 the Bishop of Almería, Adolfo González, consecrated the altar and blessed the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Head of Monteagud in Benizalón,

The Sanctuary de Monteagud has been a source of confrontations between residents of Uleila del Campo and Benizalón as to whose municipal area it belongs.

A festival of the descent of the Virgin is now held every September. The descent of the Virgin is, according to legend, when she appeared on an oak tree on the mountain. Thousands of pilgrims come every year to the sanctuary, hence all the picnic tables and benches along the road.

I “borrowed” these two photos from the internet. 

Saturday 11th March

We drove up to the Parque Commerciale for coffee and for me to do a bit of shopping in Consum before returning to the villa, but no lunch for us today!

I had booked afternoon tea at No.1 Meseta in Bedar.  No.1 is a lovely guest house run by an English lady called Katie.  We first went in March 2020 with my sister and brother-in-law when No. 1 hadn’t been open long.  We had a lovely tea then and we did this time too.  I asked Katie how it had been during Covid, and she said that it was hard, especially as her partner was working in the UK at the time and they didn’t see each other for 6 months.  They had imagined that most of their business would be from the UK, but of course that didn’t happen.  Katie had given us the table with the best view, and it was simply wonderful to be eating a lovely tea looking at such a stunning view.  My altimeter said that we were at 1237 feet.

 

It was very hot up in Bedar, but fortunately there was a nice breeze on the veranda of No.1.  As we drove back along the Paseo the temperature gauge on the car read 32°.

Back at the villa we both just sat and read, it was too hot for much else.  Needless to say, we didn’t need dinner!


Sunday 12th March

I was determined to do my bit of the housework this morning, it didn’t take long.  With no carpets, everywhere gets so dusty.  It seemed that as soon as I dusted a surface it was covered in dust again.  The TV sits on a glass unit, not a very clever idea out here!

I was so behind with the blog so had to sit down and finish the three days’ worth that I publish at a time.

I had booked Sunday lunch at a new restaurant today.  Shea is a well known figure in Mojacar having been chef up at La Parata (where we had lunch in 2019) and then opening his own restaurant in 2020.  I don’t know why that didn’t take off but where he is now is so much better. 

The restaurant looks quiet in the photo but it soon filled up with 100% ex-pats!  They offer a menu del dia (menu of the day) every day but on Sunday it includes three roasts.  They charge €14 for two courses and €17 for three.  Needless to say we had three!  We both had avocado and crab marie rose, roast beef and KitKat cheesecake.  It was all excellent. 

We had walked down to Shea’s and walked back along the beach, where for the first time this year I was able to have a paddle. 

At the bottom of our road, just before turning onto the Paseo there is a round house which has always been a real mess which was a great shame as it is in a wonderful position.  Last year someone started work on it and this year it is a multi-cultural centre. The first photo was taken in 2019 and the second today.