Mon 15 Jan 4° Albox

Last day in the house,  last clean, tidy and pack up.
Last dinner, last dog walk.

Back to Bessie,  leisure batteries down, haven't had Ehu or sun for a while, so no heater brrrrr.

Sun 14 Jan 5° Albox

The final countdown.....we took the dogs for a walk while the buyers came for walk through and information gathering of house etc......3 hours later they left, a lot to go over. Pat had written most things down for them as well so they were well pleased.

Had the rest of our currys from yesterday for lunch. Caught up on blog and replied to one enquiry on Bessie.

Pat and Les gave us their memory foam mattress topper so Tony and I cut it to fit the mattress in Bessie so see how my hips are tonight on that, looks extremely comfy.

Chicken and vege for dinner.

Pat and Les move into Ruby tonight, so tommorow final bits before we all leave Casa Patrizia and end of a 15 year era for them and lots of very happy memories.

Sat 13 Jan 4° Albox

Cold again, good day for cleaning house and tidying garden.

Pat put a message on about us wanting to sell Bessie, so I wrote an add and decision made! We are very sad and dissapointed not to be able to take her back, but all plans subject to change and Plan B is to look for a smaller  self contained campervan whike in house sit in Auckland for John and Lesley,  that we can park at home home when the tenants move out in October and travel from there.

We can still do the South Island so not cancelling our adventures just adapting them, and being back in the house we can travel around the weather haha.

After a very full on day Les said he wanted to buy Tony a beer he had worked so hard today, so we got changed and went for a beer and they shouted us a curry from Indian restaurant,  lots of different curry's that we didn't know, we all ordered different ones and tried a little of, all delicious.

Back to Bessie for pink Port and a honey liqueur for Pat who had a bit of a cold or allergy from the bar we had a pre dinner drink in.

Fri 12 Jan 3° Albox

Very cold but will soon  warm up as it's cleaning house day today, Pat and Les were packing and getting Ruby ready to leave on Tuesday after sign off and key handover. We did the apartment and downstairs patio.

Very busy day,  but still a lot to do.

Turkey steaks and veg for dinner, drinks and chat till late , looking at Pats photo slides from the 70's......a real blast from the past haha.

Thurs 11 Jan 14° Almeria to Albox

Lovely day again, blue sky and sunshine, we slept in 10am! All that exercise yesterday haha.

Aches and pains not too bad considering all we did. Walked along the promanade,  couple of surfers out in the sea.

Pat rang,  she said enjoy the sun shine, it's cold and very windy there. As we drove on it did get very windy and we certainly felt the gusts in Bessie.

Lots of discussion on Plan B and C and different options if we don't take Bessie  back,  feeling very sad and dissapointed.

Rugid,  baron landscape through here, past town called Vera and lots of lemon trees and windy as we drove into Albox, recognised quite a few places,sat nav took us past Pat and Les road, turned round and arrived just before 4pm they were waiting at the neighbours fence, we were parking in her driveway while here. Clicked over 17,000 miles.

Went up to their house, had a cuppa and a catch up,  then out for a beer and to the Happy Garden restaurant,  we all had the Korean speciality Binbanbok.....or something like that...a hot sizzling bowl with rice, vege and choice of meat. Yummy. Complimentary liqueur s.

Back to Pat and Les for brandy night cap,  looked through Pats old photo slides of early 70's....a real blast from the past haha.

Wed 10 Jan 12° Almeria

Beautiful day for our exploring, a one and half hour walk started off well along the promanade,  then up and up .....castles are always on top of hills.....then many, many steps, knees and hips  complaining but worth the  views from the top.

The historic Monument of La Alcazaba medieval fortress, 500 years old, similar to Alhambre in Granada but bigger and amazingly it was free entry.

Water ways running down from  the top through well maintained gardens which were once streets and houses.

When we had finished and come outside we spotted a Moroccan cafe restaurant  so after all our excersie and climbing we treated ourselves to morrocan tea and cakes yummy, €8.50 for 4 cakes and a delicious pot of sweet morrocan tea.

Met Julian from Wanaka and a young German lawyer Peter, we walked together to the Catedral Fortress  at €4.50 entry including audio guide well worth it.

Afterwards Julian offered to shout us a beer in the square, first beer came with crisps and cheese tapas, 2nd beer with plate of tomatoes and olive oil.....Tony  said how good the tomatoes were, so 3rd beer we got an even bigger plate of  tomatoes.

Had a good chat, two great guys, Peter went off to his hotel and Julian offered to walk us to the bus stop. Much easier than the long walk in.

Chorizo risotto for dinner.