30th November 2016. Benidorm, Spain.

It turned out Jane and Steve were at a campsite a bit further along the road we were on so we arranged to meet at a specific junction.  Thank goodness we did.  The weather was overcast and miserable when we set off although we discovered it was far warmer than we’d expected and we ended up carrying our coats a few minutes into the walk.  We walked down a road full of bars which was just confirming our opinion of what Benidorm would be like especially when we saw a HUGE neon sign in front of us for the Red Lion pub.  Jane and Steve probably got fed up with hearing this but if we had been there on our own we would more than likely have made a hasty retreat to the van at that point, packed up and left but because we were meeting them we couldn’t do that.

They were a sight for sore eyes when they appeared from across the road, it was so wonderful to see them.   After big hugs they took us to the sea front to a coffee shop for coffee and cake.  It was a lovely start to the day and we sat and chatted for a while looking out over the sea at the huge rock in the water.  Jane asked whether we would like to explore the Old Town and they gave us a wonderful guided tour then took us up to the raised point at the end of the promenade called El Castelle.

We were very surprised at how lovely this part of Benidorm was (even though Kathryn and Alex had promised us we’d love the Old Town, we couldn’t help but feel sceptical), there was a warren of little alleyways and it was a huge surprise to see how beautiful the point was with the lovely church and the pergola.  Jane took us down to a lower level near the sea which gave yet another beautiful view of the surrounding area.

We spent the rest of the day together and they introduced us to the joys of tapas.  We went to a couple of tapas bars for food, that’s definitely a different way to eat, it was great fun and stopped to have pancakes and coffee for pudding.  Darren had ice cream unsurprisingly (sorry Benidorm your ice cream is pretty poor, not a patch on Weingerode number one so far).

We eventually all made our way back to our respective campsites around 11 p.m.

What a FANTASTIC day.