Barcelona Council Define 'Ironic'

Virgin And Child, Garrucha Harbour

The Rain In Spain Apparently it rains here, on average, for just one day in the year, according to the Rough Guide. That day then was this afternoon, but it didn´t really dampen our fun. Yesterday we went to a castle, which was closed, we thought about the waterpark, but it is closed, most of the restaurants - closed, we´re in deeply un-tourist friendly southern Spain, but we´re still having a great time. Actually that´s unfair, it isn´t unfriendly at all, the locals are really nice, especially when we try to make an effort to get along in Spanish, but this is Spain for Spaniards, not for Brits. Luckily, I´m a Spanophile if such a word exists. The only way to eat here is to eat alongside the locals, the few touristy places are boring and crap, the traditional Spanish eateries are cheap and wonderful. We pulled in today at a beach bar, it looked really tatty from the outside but their were a few locals drinking (and smoking) at the bar so we went in. The food turned out to be really good again, racione size which is a small plate as opposed to the small tapas bowl size. We got deep fried baby squid, grilled salmon, paella with seafood and shellfish, steamed mussels, salad, bread and booze at a very reasonable price again. Stephen, Natalie and myself went ´adventuring´ this morning, we went for a walk to the `legendary snail cemetary´ and the `fabled lost cave of rabbits´, i.e. a dried out mud flat covered with dried out bird prey and a small, uninspiring hollow in the side of a hill. The kids though thought it was great fun, I had walked the same route on my own the previous day and had left `secret signs´ on the ground, arrows made from pebbles, which the kids had a good time hunting for. Natalie turned out to be the best tracker. After lunch we played football for ages, actually more time was spent retrieving our lightweight ball when it blew away in the strong winds and made a bid for freedom down the beach front road, but happy and exhausted we returned home for a barbeque of morcillo (black pudding), chorizo (catch all term for any spicy/piquant sausage), fatty belly pork, lentil stew and salad. Being bad lads we have walked from our apartment up the 14th, 17th & 18th fairways of the golf course we are staying at so we can have a vino and a play on´t interwebnet in the golf resort hotel. Now filled with mucho vino I fully expect Wosser and myself to fall in numerous bunkers on the pitch black walk home. Hasta luego amigos !

Hola Amigos We´re here in Vera, Andalucia. The weather is reasonable, and the food is great when we can find any. This part of Spain doesn´t really cater to foreign tourists, especially children. Restaurants often do not open until 8 - 9pm in the evenings, far too late for the kids to eat, but, the food is typically Spanish rather than Spanish/British. We dined at a place yesterday lunchtime in Almeira where the menu was a fresh fish stall, not noticing the prices on the chalkboard we spent a small fortune on prawns, but the fresh squid and hake that we chose from the many varied fishon on offer was fantastic, sliced and fried in the lightest of batters. (60€ for 12 prawns, then 74€ for the hake, squid, salad, bread, beer & drinks) Today we had lunch at a local tapas bar, very cheap and wonderful. 25€ for 6 plates of liver stew, marinated vegetables, tuna salad, chorizo, mushrooms in wine, potatoes in olive oil, bean fritata, bread and drinks. I´ve been struggling along in my paltry Spanish, but I´ve learned enough to cope in bars and restaurants, mostly. We´re having a good time with the Wossers, see you all soon.