Route and Randoms

Planning our Route

 

Above is a rough idea of where we are hoping to go this summer - we leave Mojacar on 15 April and need to go back to the UK to MOT the van so doing the Santander - Plymouth crossing on the first map.  Then over to Dover for the Calais crossing on the second map.

This is a very rough route that will change but below are some of the places we want to go to with a few links:

Madrid Marathon
Monte Carlo Grand Prix
Venice
Rome
Amalfi Coast
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Castle - Germany
Mosel and Rhine Valleys
Bruges
Dunkirk
and too many more to mention at the moment!

Please do let us know of any places you recommend - either via here, email or Facebook......

We're enjoying our Winter in Mojacar - it's lovely waking up to blue skies every morning but as soon as the sun goes in the evening is pretty cold!  Gas fire is on some nights...

Here are a few random things we've been up to in the last few months:

Ribbon For Life Day

February 3rd was Ribbon for Life Day in Mojacar Playa to raise money for cancer charities.  Pink ribbons were on sale and the town was trying to break the world record for the longest length of tied ribbons.  You could buy a ribbon and write a message on it if you wished - we did and added ours to the collection of ribbons.  The ribbons were about 2 ft long and ladies spent all day tying them together and they stretched for miles along the Playa.  The record was broken - below is a report and photo that our local radio station Spectrum put on Facebook.

Spectrum FM Costa Almeria

STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS...
The final figure raised at last Sunday's 'Ribbon for Life' Day on Mojacar playa is in excess of €12,000. CONGRATULATIONS to Bronia and the team from A.E.C.C. The documentation for the recording breaking 5550 metres of tied ribbon has been sent to The Guinness Book of World Records for ratification.

There was loads going on during the day - live groups, displays, classic cars, beer and wine stand (we stood by there of course!) and a huge paella was cooked.  There was a massive queue for the paella but we were very unBritish and stood with some Spanish men and got ours handed over the fence at the back - result!  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

The Paella

 

Dave liked the classic cars!

 

Sunset Boulevard

This happens every 2 - 3 weeks and we get a stunning sunset - we don't often have cloud but when we do and the sun goes down it looks spectacular over the mountains and beach.  The video below doesn't do it justice - you need to be here to see it.

 

 

"Working 9 - 5"

Well maybe not that long and not such an early start!  But we have been doing some decorating in the apartment and here's Dave attacking the patio wall with his roller brush.  We'll post a pic of the finished patio in the next blog with a new Bourganvillea plant to climb up the wall and other stuff - it's looking good.

Christmas Decs Spanish Style

Everything on this random bit of the blog is way out of order but never mind!  Christmas is a bit different in Spain - they don't decorate their houses like we do at home with lights and Santas and stuff!  Well not in Mojacar anyway.  Instead they plant poinsettias on all the mini roundabouts (there are quite a lot here - the Spanish like their roundabouts!) and put a red carpet outside the chemist - you can just see in pic below at the end of our road.  There were a few xmas deccie shaped lights along the Playa but that's all - we didn't really feel 'Christmasy' till we got back to cold UK for our visit there!  When we got back nearly all the poinsettias had been stolen!!

Facial Hair

Dave not Mogs!!  Dave has tried various beards and Movember looks over the last few months - we reckon the best goatee look is the current one - his Johnny Depp look:)  We had the snowboarding look for the snow trip that involved a bit more hair!

Training Runs

Mogs has been running lots and upping the mileage for the Marathon training.  In the past her training buddy Annie used to cycle on long runs and hand out gels and drinks so Dave has taken over this job!  Here's some pics taken on some of our training runs - there's fab runs and bike rides both along the coast and in the mountains and dry river beds.

13 mile run through the hills - upping the distance now! 10th Feb

 

Sea front run

 



 

Running through the dry river bed

 

 

We got lost on this run (Mogs directions!) and ended up way high up in a village! Dave was on bike Mogs running.

 

Run along the beach

 

Guitar Man

Dave is playing loads of guitar - he learnt 16 songs in one day!  Ask Guitar Man to play any song and he can now - even the Bubble!  But he has to find a video of it first on YouTube and it has to be quite easy - he says.  Our next blog may include a clip of him playing....