20th November 2016. Benicàssim, Spain.
This trip is certainly furnishing us with new experiences left right and centre.
We were serenaded by 4 cockerels at 3 o’clock this morning, they’re not renowned for their singing voices but I’m sure their little barber shop quartet were doing a rendition of “Good morning, good morning, the World’s a brighter place. Good morning, good morning to you!” I’ve never heard that many cockerels piping up together even when we stayed at Highfield Happy Hens Brit Stop in Derby!
Once the cockerels had given it their all and gone back to bed my ears unfortunately homed in on music playing in the distance so that kept me ‘amused’ for an hour until the local dogs suddenly remembered they’d been remiss and hadn’t yet treated us to their well rehearsed rendition of the ‘dawn chorus’. I must say they put on a particularly expressive version, there were far more howls than barks than any of the previous versions we’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of listening to (Lynn was equally as impressed, when I mentioned this later she said she’d tried to record it because it was almost harmonious with an occasional little “woof” adding a bit of uumph).
We hadn’t decided what we were going to be doing today except I’d promised to show Lynn and Jane the eco balls I use for doing the washing and Jane had promised to show us her skillet because Lynn and Darren had seen something similar in a shop in town and they wanted to compare them,
We had breakfast and wandered over to Lynn and Darren’s motorhome with the eco balls, very soon Jane came over followed by Steve a while later, we stood in the car park chatting about what we were all doing today and Lynn said they’d eaten at a good restaurant the previous day and had mentioned to the owner that she might be back today with two other couples and wondered whether we’d all like to go for lunch, we didn’t need to be asked twice, it was a brilliant idea, so far on this trip we’ve only had a couple of Spanish meals because we’ve no idea what is on the menu so to go out with a group of people who knew what they were doing would be great AND we’d get the chance for a much longer chat. I did my ‘show and tell’ then we went over to see Jane’s skillet which can be used as an oven, that looks like a great item to have in the kitchen, she also had some very wide elastic bands to which she’d attached some non-slip matting and she used that to stop their plates and bowls from sliding around in the drawer, what an ingenious idea AND she had some brilliant non stick pans with detachable handles so the pans nested in each other without wobbling around.
Lynn decided she needed a cup of tea and as she’d mentioned the Moroccan tea she uses she asked whether we’d like to try some. We set up camp on a bench (later on we noticed the men had done the same but on the other bench on the otherside of the aire) and Lynn bought out a Moroccan tea pot and some glasses and showed us how they make their tea, it was really interesting, apparently the Moroccans don’t use a spoon to stir the tea in the pot instead they pour some into a glass then pour it back into the tea pot and they do this a couple of times to mix it.
It was so nice sitting in the sun with two lovely ladies drinking posh tea and chatting, what a great way to spend a morning.
After we’d cleared everything away we all wandered down to the restaurant, it was a nice day so we were able to sit outside for our meal. Lynn was very kind and she asked the owner whether they would be able to make me something without fish or meat in it, Lynn’s husband Darren had photographed the menu yesterday to show us but it had changed and everything appeared to have either meat or fish in it. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal they brought out to me, it was so good my mouth thought it was in heaven and judging by the empty plates everyone else enjoyed their meal too. The restaurant owner bought us out a plate of ring biscuits (which Lynn and Darren said were called gateau) a tray with 7 glasses and a large Moroccan teapot of peppermint tea on it. He then proceeded to stir the tea in the way Lynn had shown us earlier using the spare glass.
When we got back to the vans Lynn asked us if we’d all like a carajillo, coffee with brandy in it, she’d introduced us to that the day before and it was very nice, she said that they serve it for breakfast in the Spanish cafes.
That kind invitation led to us 3 women sitting in Darren and Lynn’s motorhome having a brilliant girly evening, we chatted for hours AND we even discussed the NO NO topics of religion and politics. I brought my blue bandana over when I popped back to our van for something to contribute to the food and drink we’d been consuming and Jane and Lynn tried it on, they both looked great in it.
The men stood outside chatting until it started to rain then they disappeared over to Steve and Jane’s motorhome and carried on chatting over there. We eventually all went back to our own vans at 2 a.m after an extremely enjoyable and unexpected evening.
We consider ourselves so lucky to have arrived at the aire at the same time as these two lovely couples and are very pleased that Darren made the effort to come over and talk to us when we first arrived. We’ve had 2 memorable days.
Hi there. It will be lovely to meet up with you both again, those few days were brilliant, Lynne you’ve ‘forgotten’ to give me your email address (accidentally on porpoise?!!! Lol!) and we’ve forgotten where you said your next two stops were.
Mandy
Hi guys.
We had a great time also. Nice to meet you both
Good to read your blog and about us!
Hope to see you again on the road.
Darren n Lynne