Sun Shinning - Soaring Temperatures

Our intention was to leave the hostal early on Tuesday morning the 22nd February, we had no desire to breakfast in Algeciras and we hadn’t had the best of nights sleep. We loaded our trusty steed which was still outside the hostal (thank goodness), and took off heading around the coast to Gibraltar (about 22kms), to spend a couple of hours before heading off to Puerto Banus (a further 50 kms), where my sister Barbara has a holiday apartment which she lets out and fortunately for us it was available.

We arrived in Puerto Banus just after 15.00 hrs, in blazing sunshine with temperatures reaching an amazing 26 degrees – a new record, I’m startin to melt and Ann is just about considering the possibility of shedding one of her 5 layers. We decided to stay in Puerto Banus for a week or so and use it as a base from which to tour and explore the area. It is a lovely resort with sandy beaches, a large marina full of luxurious boats and yachts, which in turn is surrounded with many chic and fashionable boutiques and restaurants. It is situated some 5km from its perhaps more infamous neighbour Marbella, (where some years ago the playboys and the dell boys assembled to show off their ill-gotten gains), and some 57km from Malaga.

We’ve spent our time chilling and relaxing, just enjoying the glorious weather with occasional trips to outlying places of interest. We did go to a town called Antequera around 130 km away from Puerto Banus, which was full of interesting and historic buildings, unfortunately due to the time of year they were not all Alberto (Spanish for open, si, my command of Spanish is increasing daily lol) We even managed somehow to order two pork baps to take away from a travel agency, I don’t know how we done it but as you can see from the photos we certainly enjoyed them, even though they cost us 400 euros each which we think included a time share in Antequera with a lovely balcony looking out over the castle!!!

 

  

Just outside Antequera there was an area of great geological interest (take note Jim Nallen, another destination for for some field study), called El Torcal. It was an amazing place full of extraordinary rock formations (a geologists dream), it was like being on another planet, you almost expected to see a pre-historic animal stroll by (we’ve used the expression pre-historic animal cos we can’t spell tyrannasorarssex). Hopefully the pictures will give you a good idea of what it was like. In addition, the roads were wicked, I mean serious ‘hairpin’ bends, at one point I thought I was valentino Rossi – hey Georgio Salvatorre Attardo you would’ve loved it.

We celebrated Anns birthday on the 2nd of March and would like to say a big thank you to all of you for your birthday wishes. We really pushed the boat out, I bought Ann some expensive nail varnish (after I talked her out of the Jimmy Choo shoes she had her eye on -see Picture), she removed four of her 5 layers of clothing, donned some mascara, lipstick and freshly painted her nails (toes as well) and we tripped the light fantastic at an Italian restaurant in Puerto Banus. It was an exquisite meal, washed down with a bottle of Moet (Joke –it was wine really), and the waiter even brought Ann a piece of cake with a candle in it. However, most of you will know, Ann does not do cake, so greedy guts Tony had a bonus and managed to force down another course; I can’t begin to tell you how uncomfortably full I felt afterwards, but it tasted delicious at the time!! The celebration culminated with a birthday conversation with our orphaned children back home in freezing cold Blighty, at least thats what they told us (I’m dreading the gas bill – joke kids).

Before we close this blog, we’d like to send our congratulations and very best wishes to our niece Jo Nicholls and Jay her fiancée, who have just announced their engagement – great news. Also congratulations to Carol and Barry her parents (Barry it looks like you wont be able to retire just yet!)

That’s all for now folks, we’re still in Puerto Banus and likely to be here a little while longer, so watch this space.



Lots of love

The Easy Riders xxx

Police Swoop in Algeciras

Up Monday morning bright & early after a great night’s sleep, we had breakfast, over which, we decided that we’d do a bit more touring of Old Cadiz before we left for the Port city of Algeciras where we planned to catch a ferry to Morocco the next morning Tuesday morning 22nd Feb. So we loaded up our bike and motored round to the ancient area of Cadiz hoping to see the numerous Ancient buildings including the Old Cathedral, the Roman Theatre and the Royal jail, which were grouped fairly close together. I have to say the temperature had turned up the gas and soared to 23 degrees (The warmest to date), it really was a beautiful day but not, I hasten to add, a day to be walkin round in full motorbike kit. After a couple of hours we decided to call it quits and conceded that it was time to get back on the bike and head south for Algeciras which was about 130 km away. Before we left Cadiz we filled up with fuel and ( Rob Ballinger please note), put in half a litre of oil, which aint bad for a bike engine thats completed over 1400 miles.

We programmed the satnav to avoid the motorways and set off at around 2pm, the road we chose took us through some lovely countryside and at one point through a national park (De Los Alcornocales) which was very green and beautiful. I have to say we passed a number of wind farms with giant wind turbines along the way, some of them very close to the road. This in itself was a bit of a problem as they did tend to take your focus away from the road. We passed numerous road signs reinforcing the issue of ‘rear ending’ (humorously in cartoon style) , so clearly the giant turbines solved one problem but created another, c’est la vie!! I’m pleased to say we safely negotiated the wind farms and arrived in Algeciras in bright sunshine at around 15.30 and headed optimistically for the TI.

We were given the usual assistance and armed with a road map of the immediate area, we set off on foot to find a hostal. The first place I called into I was welcomed by the hotelier who was flanked by two members of the POLICEA. I was given short, sharp shrift, told there was no accommodation available, or in other words clear off. I thought it was odd at the time but decided that prudence was the better part of valour and took my leave. We moved up the road to another hostal but after close inspection by D I Ann Cronin we passed this opportunity over - rather quickly.

There was another hostal just around the corner in a small plaza, actually that’s overly descriptive, it was a small square that had a large ‘pull in’ for as it turned out the ‘white van brigade’ but we didn’t know that, at the time we arrived it was empty and looked for all intents and purposes like a small ‘plaza’. with a couple of cafes at either end. Ann duly carried out her inspection, she came down the stairs with an impassive look on her face that told me ’ this was ok, but let’s barter on the price’ Negotiations took place and once agreed we set off to find the bike.

Due to its’ location it was a bit of a mission to access the Hostal Algeciras (as it was called) but after about ten minutes and three aborted attempts, we eventually found the right road that would take us to the square. However, as we entered the road I could see there was a van at the top blocking our way through, I hoped by the time we got there it would’ve moved on. As we got nearer it became abundantly clear this was no ordinary van it was a chuffin Police van and there were police and black Africans running round like headless chickens, (It was goin nowhere), I was waiting for the bullets to start flying and I’m thinking ‘Sweet mother of God, what’s going on?’. For a moment I thought we had mistakenly ridden on to a film set and at any moment the director would shout ‘CUT’. We both sat there on the bike absolutely speechless but clearly both thinking ‘what the chuff are we doin here’ I guess we were secretly hoping that the director would shout ‘ CUT’.

With all the shit that was going on around us, for what seemed like a lifetime but maybe only a minute or two, one of the POLICEA eventually saw us and decided that we could squeeze between the van and the wall of the building. Well I aint no expert or magician and I’m thinking has this geezer noticed how wide our bike is? Well with Ann screeching and hollering through my ear piece I’m telling you if there had of been a ramp up into that van I’dve taken it as the safest option. Sadly that option wasn’t available so I dropped the clutch, into first gear said a quick Our Father and closed me eyes, how we got through that ‘Gaza Strip’ and out t’other side unscathed, God only knows. I can tell you it was a great relief and no wet pance either. When we pulled round the corner to the hostal we were still speechless but knew what we had to do, we looked for the guy whom we’d booked into the hostal in order to cancel the booking but there was nobody around, we reckoned he’d done a runner, we seriously didn’t see him again. In the end and against our better judgement, we decided to ‘Bite the Bullet’ and opted to continue our overnight stay as we were leaving for Morocco the next morning and it was very close to the port facility.

It was probably an hour or so later when I reflected on the first hotel that I had visited, it dawned on me that there must have been an orchestrated, perhaps even covert, police operation and we had nearly blown their cover lol. Understandably there were no photo opportunities whilst all hell was going on around us, so in this instance you’ll have to use your own imagination!!

Algeciras was not your typicalyl friendly Spanish city, I guess in no small part due to the many and varied nationalities. It felt very oppressive and threatening, the buildings were mostly of a high rise nature and created a very claustrophobic atmosphere, Ann and I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable. Our discomfort was increased when we went into a cafe/restaurant for something to eat down by the port. It was a large floor area, kinda split into two, front and back. We ordered a meal and sat down at the front, to wait for the food to arrive. There were several tv screens around the place but seemingly only the one at the back was on and quite loud. I decided to take a look and was quite shocked at what I discovered, it was a bit like walking into a cinema, there were many people in the room all of them gazing up at the screen. I too looked up and realised why they were all glued to it, it was the Al Jazeer TV channel reporting on the outbreak of civil strife in Libya and quite graphic with it. I quickly left but not without the seeds of doubt creeping into my mind about our anticipated journey into Morocco. I went back to Ann and we chatted and joked, our meal arrived and I have to say it was the first bright light that we’d both experienced since our arrival into Algeciras, it was absolutely delicious.

We settled our bill and walked back to the hostal; we went up to our room and turned on the TV quickly tuneing into the BBC world news; we both listened intently to what was unfolding and inwardly recognised that Morocco was a no go area. We consulted the Foreign Office web site and whilst they weren’t openly stating that Morocco was under serious threat they had recorded troubles in one or two of the larger cities. At this point we decided to abort the tour into Morocco until political stability returned to the region. Whilst this produced a great sense of disappointment, at the same time there was an enormous sense of relief, clearly this had been playing on our minds for some time and the decision, ironically, was like a big weight lifted from our shoulders. We further decided that once light came we’d be out of Algeciras as quickly as possible and head up to Gibraltar and continue our tour of Spain.

You will note the lack of photos (for which we are sorry), but that in itself tell its own story

So that’s it for now, and to all our friends at home you can sleep easy in your beds knowing we wont be venturing onto the North African Continent just yet!!

All our love

The scarry Bikers. Xxxx

The Prancing, dancing and Flamenco - Horses ??

Saturday 19th up early, had breakfast and pre-booked our next accommodation The Hostile Fenix (no that’s not a spellining mistake, but that is) in Jerez de la Fonterra, not far from cadiz. Actually it wasn’t hostile at all, in fact the guy on reception was very very helpful. I think the real issue revolved around the hot water or should I say lack of it; it’s always nice to shower and freshen up when you arrive somewhere new and in this instance we were a little cold and slightly damp after our journey from Seville, having no hot water after we’d booked in, was not popular. We had met with some heavy rain on the way but it didn’t last too long and the wind helped to dry us, we covered the 110 km in about 1.5 hrs. In most cases we endeavour to avail ourselves of the scenic route and try to avoid the motorways because it’s much more fun and the scenery can, at times, be quite breathtaking. The problem with the motorways (besides some of them being toll), everything flashes by and you can’t really stop to take a look, so, when we do use them I have to rely on the beady eye and a commentary from D I Cronin perched on the rear of the bike.

Jerez de la Fontera is famous for it’s horses and has a famous equine school – The Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, sadly though, we were disappointed to find the school was closed for visits at this time of the year. However we did manage to smell them as we walked past – We thought we hummed, but I can tell you them horses were definitely competing - lol We didn’t spend too long weeping about it because it’s also famous for Flamenco and its wines and we soon managed to locate some life and entertainment at a local tapas bar where we ate some of the local food (which was very tasty) and slugged a glass of vinho or three along with it. Unfortunately there was no local flamenco to accompany it so Ann got up on the tables and danced to the tune I screamed out on the guitar!! I’m afraid there’s not alot more to be said about our walk around J de la F, we took a couple of photos and that’s about it. But now that I come to think of it there was something quite significant about the place, it’s the first town we’ve visited since our tour began that we didn’t get to see the inside of a church, we tried but without success – how strange and highly unusual!

Anyway we managed to get a hot shower the next morning, it turns out the electric fuse was switched off. We breakfasted and got our kit loaded onto our trusty steed who was waiting patiently outside for us, a turn of the key and she roared into action – the onboard computer gave us full clearance to take off and that’s exactly what we did. Our destination this morning Sunday 20th was Cadiz the oldest European City with more than three millenniums of history.

The sun was shining the sky was blue and the temperature, a delightful 20 degrees - bring it on. The journey was relatively short probably no more than 40 km; Before we knew it we were in Cadiz. It’s a long narrow strip of land a bit like the shape of your arm with your hand extended out and thumb pointing up. I can’t be sure whether it’s an island or a peninsular but there seems to be water all around and it’s accessed over a bridge. Our first port of call was the T I who were once again extremely helpful and assisted us in finding suitable accommodation (though I do have to say I did turn on the old ‘Tony Cronin Charm’ to get the girl to ring around for me).

That said we found our hotel in the old and historic area of the City, The Hotel de francia y Paris (sounds very grand), was situated in a plaza and a bit of a mission to find on the bike. It was surrounded by ancient and historic buildings in fact we were next door to a beautiful Church, where we attended the evening mass. Just as a point of interest, when we were on the bike trying to find the hotel we were hailed down by the ole Bill, well blow me down if this time The ArchBishop stepped right out infront of us with his Mitre and Staff in hand with the Bishop in tow leading a procession that included a wonderful array of military and naval personnel dressed in their historic uniforms with an old marching band at the rear. It was a sight to see and one unfortunately we couldn’t capture on camera, we were royally greeted into Cadiz!!

After our shower and change into civvies, we hit the streets, out on a walking sightseeing tour that eventually took us to the sea front. It was absolutely glorious the sun was blazing, in fact Ann had removed 3 layers of clothing and was at last enjoying some warmth from the sun( probably a new temp record 22 degrees). We stopped off at a packed local bar and through our exquisite multi lingual skills – (speaking loud and the usual hand sign language), we managed with reasonable success to get some grub (one good, one not so good) and a drink of beer. Being in Cadiz on the Sunday was a real joy, it seemed like every man and his wife was out with their children and families, eating, drinking and socialising it was like a festival , I genuinely believe it is their way of life, and the ‘Family’ is paramount – long may it last!!!! We carried on walking and thoroughly enjoyed ‘People watching’ taking in the scenes all around us, it can be very therapeutic, we even encountered a crocodile basking in the sunshine, whatever next.......

We had a very satisfying day and even managed to get to speak to our kids, that was a real treat, all three of them were back at home and we spent an hour sat outside our hotel in the square in Cadiz catching up and laughing while they they told us they were shivering at home (and before you say it Keith, about me being mean with the heating, I’m speaking metaphorically). We finished the evening with a nightcap at a bar close by, and then retired to bed looking forward to a good night’s sleep in a comfortable warm bed.

Love to everyone back home

The easy Riders xxxx

Ps Sorry Simon, but the whereabouts of them Katherine wheels will remain a secret, they’re only for very special people or very special occasions....... xxx (These are for Emma)

Back into Spain

I’d like to be able to write that we started the next day (Wed 16th) with a hearty breakfast but ‘I cannot lie to you’. If truth be told we were not really sorry to be leaving our naff accommodation. (By the way, Keith, I haven’t started moaning yet) We loaded up the bike, paid our bill and took our leave. The weather had improved somewhat from the previous evening, although there was still a considerable amount of low grey cloud hanging about, I think most it over the accommodation, and the temperature seemed to be hovering around the 13 to 15 degree mark.

So once again with the satnav programmed we headed due east, we were on our jubilant way, riding our sturdy steed heading out of Portugal back into Spain, destination - Badajoz (pronounced Bathaajojjj). The weather picked up, the grey clouds dispersed and the sun broke through with temperatures soaring to 17 degrees (I’m sweltering but Ann is still wearing all 5 layers of clothing - It’ll probably take Morocco before she starts to shed a layer or two). Life is good and we are really enjoying the easy carefree way of life, I reckon we could get used to this!! Anyone want to join us??? The roads are a joy to ride, very little traffic, great tarmac surfaces and gloriously twisting and turning bends – what more could you ask for?

We made Badajoz in good time and made a Bee line (Lisa you might appreciate that) straight for an eatery as we were ravenous. An hour or so later feeling fuller we set about finding a place to stay. The first port of call is generally the Tourist Info, whom to date have always been immensely helpful and in most cases multi-lingual. As most of you will know, languages are not a problem for me - I just ask Ann, “What did they Say”. Actually all joking apart we do really well with the communication and somehow it works out, it really is part of the fun!!

We located suitable accommodation and made our way to the hotel Condedo. D. I Cronin dismounted the bike and went about her business (for those that don’t know, D I stands for Detective Inspectoress). Ann is extremely thorough and generally puts the hoteliers through the wrangle (I’m sure it should be the other way, but there we go), she checks out their credentials and ensures the room is up to standard and meets her specification, sometimes she might even try to squeeze a little bit of discount, depending on how she feels. I’ve been told by one or two of the Hoteliers as we’ve been leaving, they thought she was from one of the Government Depts - I didn’t like to ask which one, just in case - hehehehe.

Badajoz appeared to be quite a modern city but for us it was only really a short stop over on our way to Seville,and with the weather turning a little nasty we didn’t get the opportunity to explore the sights. We did however, visit a few bars and even had the opportunity to watch Arsenal play Barcelona on the TV.

Thursday 17th Feb 2011, we loaded our kit onto the bike, had breakfast at a great little Spanish Bar just up from our Hotel made good friends with the barman who happened to be a biker, in fact he showed us a picture of his beloved Honda CBR on his phone which was more than I could show him on mine –food for thought. We bid him farewell, mounted our steed, set the Sat nav –destination The Beautiful city of Seville, heading due south and staying at the Hostal Jenthoff which we had booked over t’internet .

The journey took us about 2.5 hours we covered approx 205 kilometres (for you Keith just over 120 miles). The weather was dry and clear but very very windy and somewhat challenging riding the bike, the roads were once again beautiful to ride, undulating and winding, we eventually finished our journey into Seville on a dual carriageway and for those worldly travellers it was route 66!! The sat nav brought us to our destination and by 15.30 we were back in our civvies and walking into the centre of Seville. The sky above was azure blue, the sun was shining and temp soaring above 17 degrees, isn’t life good!!!

We’d decided to book a couple of nights in Seville, so Thursday was a bit of a recky for us in preparation for a Friday tour extravaganza, and my goodness that’s exactly how it turned out. I can only describe our visit to Seville as brilliant, it really is a magnificent city, steeped in history with many, many outstanding buildings both architecturally and historically. We took a total of 70 photographs whilst we were in the city, I’m pretty damn sure that’s got to be a record for us, however we will not populate the blog with all 70 so you can breathe a sigh of relief. There were many highlights and I’m not going to describe them all but there were three that stand out in my memory:





1. The Cathedral (Cathedral y Giralda) I’m just going to say ,outstanding, we were in there for over 4 hours (some pictures to enjoy).

2. The Bullfighting Arena (Plaza Toros Maestranza) – we had a thoroughly enjoyable tour of the Arena from a very well informed tour guide. She was excellent and we were lucky enough to have an extra 15 mins or so afterwards with the guide on our own when she told us all about the history of bullfighting. I only occasionally interrupted her just to put her straight on a couple of points that I felt she’d gotten wrong , (I think she took a bit of a shine to me, but I can’t tell you why, I probably reminded her of a famous Torero - Fr Ted (Marky Elsmore you might appreciate that).

 3.Plaza de Espana - An awesome building, built for the Spanish Exhibition in 1928. (some pics for you to enjoy) I should also mention the University, another outstanding building which we walked through and somehow had a bit of an impromptu & unofficial tour (we took a ‘wrong’ turn and managed to get on to the upper floors) we just walked around enjoying the facility and nobody asked us for id, well I suppose they must have recognised D I Ann Cronin!!!

Thanks for all the welcome comments, we really enjoy reading them and it makes home that little bit closer.

Congrats to Natasha & Steve on the birth of there new daughter Isabella – it was worth it wasn't it Tash xx    Also congrats to proud grandparents Sheila and Kevin - AGAIN!!

Lots of love

The Easy Riders xxx

Lashing Lisbon –The city built on 7 Hills

The sat nav behaved impeccably and took us to our 4* hotel which had been pre booked for us by Ann & Arthur, it was a valentine special - offering B&B for two nights (Sunday 13th & Mon 14th) + a bottle of champagne for the sum of 88 euros in the centre of Lisbon (an absolute steal). How ironic that we’ve been married for 35 years and yes, we’ve celebrated valentines day in different ways, but wow actually celebrating a romantic w/end in Lisbon was somewhat surreal .We wined and dined and generally enjoyed the opportunity to spoil ourselves in the warm and plush surroundings and even a hot cooked breakfast for two mornings, which we haven’t experienced in some time. I have to say, that whilst we were treated extremely well by the hotel staff, the weather, on the other hand was less kind, sadly it pee’d down the whole time we were there. Nevertheless, we did get out to see some of the sights, and experienced Lisbon’s hospitality, including the underground and the ancient tram system.

We decided to take our leave from Lisbon reasonably early on Tuesday 15th Feb, the weather had improved slightly meaning no rain in the immediate vicinity but still quite overcast and very ominous. Temperature (especially for keith) was around 10 o’clock GMT and according to the barometer probably 5 minutes on the median to rare side. Well after a full and hearty breakfast from our 4* Hotel Lucia we put on our gear, loaded up the bike, programmed the satnav and with an audience and a round of applause from the hotel staff we took off faultlessly, and turned up a one way street the wrong way – only joking.  

We were once again on the road heading due east to our next destination, Evora. As we left the city heading for Evora, we crossed over the River Tejo estuary on a bridge which I can only describe asawesome, it was at least 7 miles in length and some distance up in the air, a major fete of engineering and alot of EU money in the making I’m sure!! Sadly though I didn’t get the chance to take a picture, Ann wouldn’t let me stop.

By the by for the officianado’s of the blog we have logged over a thousand miles on the clock since we landed in Santander on the 2nd Feb; We’ve experienced temperatures as low as 5 degrees on the bike going up thru the mountains which, combined with the wind factor probably taking them down just below freezing, up to a pleasant 15 or so degrees of sunshine in Chaves. As far as rain is concerned we’ve been very fortunate indeed. We have witnessed some torrential downpours both in Torres Novas and Lisbon, but on each occasion, thankfully we were off the bike sightseeing.

We arrived in Evora in good time and after a search found some accommodation, which on reflection, left alot to be desired, but hey ho you win some and you lose some. The town itself had alot of history, Of particular note was an ancient Temple dating back to Roman Times, it also had a wonderful aqueduct structure, an absolute joy to behold, the type of structure that Mike Baggot would be proud to put his name to . (so Moira and Jim Nallen if you’re reading the blog see the pics and please take note, in my view this would be an excellent opportunity and a most worthy destination for those history and geography pupils of St Bens, to carry out some practical field study, subject of course, to approval from T S.) hehehehe. The weather later that evening took a distinct turn for the worse it absolutely chucked it down with a thunderstorm to boot – fortunately for us, we were tucked up in our pits and at best just out of reach of the rain.

So friends here end’th the reading, onwards and upwards, tomorrow’s another day.

Lots of luv

The essay writers. Xxx

God works in Mysterious Ways

We delayed leaving Coimbra (pronounced queenboro), due to the inclement weather, it was either spend another night traipsing up and down them feckin stairs or take a flier and head off to our next destination Fatima, which by our reckoning was not too far away. Regrettably we chose to ask a local bus driver a question relating to the direction in which Fatima lay, before we knew it he was programming the sat nav and advising us not to stay in Fatima due to the high costs. Well, of course I was happy to stand aside and let him carry on, he’d used those magic words TOO EXPENSIVE. Unfortunately a BIG BIG MISTAKE , we finished up in the middle of nowhere having bypassed Fatima. We eventually stopped off at a place called Torres Novas, well off the beaten track, but managed to find a very nice hotel which as it turned out was owned and run by a British woman and her Portuguese husband, they were indeed a splendid couple and really made us very welcome, in fact, so welcome we spent two nights there the 11th and 12th. What was slightly unsettling, the woman owner was from Stoke,(not a problem in itself but she supported the Potters - just an inhouse joke for Anns bro Pete and two daughters,who are Stoke City fanatics). But I guess I had the last laugh cos Stoke were playing B’ham that weekend and the Blues won!! Hehehehe.

We visited Fatima on Saturday and experienced the wonders of Fatima - prayer and belief, a truly humbling experience, and one we will remember always; We even attempted confession but sadly there was no English confessori hearing confessions at the time –Phew, a close encounter. We watched in awe at people who walked on their knees (no b.s.), for a distance of what must have been at least 300 metres, praying for their own personal intentions, we experienced the presence of God all around us and a feeling of great trust. Needless to say we made our own intentions and placed our own trust in Jesus - so all our M.E. friends watch out.

We left Fatima and headed for a place called Bathalia; What I’m about to share with you next Ballinger Bob will find difficult to believe, but literally 10 miles down the road from Fatima in the arse end of nowhere, there was a motorbike show similar to the NEC but on a smaller scale. What an amazing co-incidence, one of my prayers was answered at Fatima!!!! We spent the rest of the day wondering around the show and really enjoyed the event. We sat on numerous bikes and played about, it was great fun; but Mr Ballinger, I have to report,no purchase or bartering was entered into. Having said that, I think we may have converted Ann (see pics).

As we left the show it was astonishing to see the number of motorbikes just outside in the car park all parked up like dominoes and Tony had to somehow get out without knocking one of them down and creating carnage, but hey one of Ann’s prayers was answered for we emerged unscathed out of the car park.

We got up Sunday morning to face a deluge of wet and windy weather, not a great prospect ahead of us as we were heading out for Lisbon approx 120 kms away. We decided to wait and attend the midday High Mass, blimey knock me down with a feather if the ole Bishop wasn’t there himself. It turned out that he was giving Confirmation to the youngsters of the parish and every man and his olive grove was there – it was a lovely service. We said our goodbyes to The Hoteliers Ann & Arthur and headed due South (Specifically for Mr Wilkie), destination Lisbon and this time no bloody bus driver to mess the with the sat nav........


We will update you on how our romantic weekend  panned out – lol . That’s all for now folks

Luv to all
The Easy Writers  xxxxx

Back On The Road

Well we left heaven" on Tuesday 8th and travelled through some lovely countryside towards our next destination, Porto. We enjoyed a really great lunch along the way in a large roadside restaurant (a posh name for a truckers cafe). Unfortunately the journey was slightly spoiled by a wrong turn onto a 'Toll Motorway' - quite an experience particularly when you're not expecting it and you aint got the money to hand, (they're not known for their patience in Portugal!!)

Anyway we arrived safely at our accommodation in Porto, thanks to the satnav; A good hotel with a small underground car park that required careful negotiation! Once ensconced one or two of you will be pleased to know that we shed our 'minging' attire, showered and put on fresh and sweet smelling clothes as the picture shows, a big thumbs up from us both.

We decided to look around Porto and discover what was on offer, hey presto Ann magiced us into a market and for her next trick she turned me into a chicken in a cage full of "COCKS" and look she's wagging her finger about to perform some more magic (I’ll leave that up to you guys to decide what devilish deed she carried out)??????????????

We meandered our way around the centre of Porto experiencing the many beautiful and historic buildings and somehow managed to finish down on the river estuary, an area famous for its port wine. Due to the poor weather we took the opportunity to spend an hour or so touring the Sandeman Cellars which was very interesting and informative with the added bonus of some Porto wine tasting. The area down by the river was full of history with some significant structures, including the bridge across the river accommodating both road and rail links - quite amazing. Again we’ve taken a number of pics to show what Porto is like, one of the pictures happens to show a hat that Ann was trying on for Ladies day at Ascot

We agreed after spending two very full and interesting days in Porto, it was time to move on and so by mutual consent Ann decided that we should make an additional stop on our journey to Lisbon at a town called Coimbra. We arrived late afternoon and quickly found some very unsuitable (on the fourth floor, without a piggin lift) but affordable accommodation in the town centre.

We encountered rain for the first time so spent some time indoors discovering important facts about the town – it happens to have the third oldest university in Europe and specialises in Medicine and engineering, apparently it enjoys a similar status in Portugal as Oxford does at home.

The picture below illustrates the panoramic views from our bedroom, you also get an idea of the number of feckin stairs we had to climb to get to the fourth floor!!

That’s all for now folk. By the way it’s really nice to read your comments so a big thanks from the both of us to all of you, lots of luv The ‘Not so Hairy’ Easy Riders.