(written 11/4/06 12:58 Greek time, in Náfplio, Greece)
Leaving Granada behind, we set off for a big driving day. The city sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada, so we set off to sight-see through that on our way out.
The sign-posts were rather poor, and we ended up on a dead-end road up to a ski-field, not at all what we had intended. Still, the scenery was spectacular so we grabbed some shots and turned around.
A larger road took us south, before we turned off east on the A-348 to wind through the mountains rather than take the easy fast way along the coast. There were plenty of snow-capped mountains all around us, as well as with great views along the valleys. We stopped to make tea and enjoy the scenery for a while.
Due to our stopping for photos all the time, we ended up stuck behind the same slow truck three times, each time groaning as we saw it overtake us many minutes after we had stopped!
Eventually we started winding south towards the coast, where the scenery changed dramatically as we pushed east. Pretty much every crop planted was under a huge white cover, totally dominating the landscape in all directions. Not sure exactly what they were for - insects, the heat?
Driving on further on the fast A-7 motorway, we eventually stopped in a servo as Liz, our driver, was getting sleepy.
Mar Menor, a large section of water protected from the sea looked like a good place to stop for the evening, and the promise that the water was warm enough to swim in year-round was a lure also.
However, this place was not set up for people like us. Almost totally invaded by British moving to warmer climates, the radio stations and pre-fabricated neighbourhoods really didn't invite the tourist. Figuring that something had to be available for us to stay in, we found pricey hotels, a closed Pension and a campground. Not really wanting to, but having spent so long driving, we settled on the campground. We did all the paperwork and drove off to find our site, where it turned out someone else had parked their camper. Then another strange thing - the site was completely covered with rocks. They all were! Back at the office, they explained that they had no grassy spots for tents, despite having a large tent on their sign and map of the grounds! This was campervan/caravan only.
We were not amused, and gave in, driving to the expensive Hotel Entremares, just paying and being done with it. This place was not us at all, filled with package tourists all over sixty, us walking in with our belongings in plastic bags (haven't replaced our luggage yet), we couldn't have felt more out of place.
I had decided that dinner amongst such a crowd was not going to help us at all, we set off in search of food. A quick beer at a bar across the road where there was also a Chinese restaurant nearby, and we decided to head to a place we had found earlier, Los Belones.
This was practically a little piece of Britain tucked away in southern Spain. English supermarkets, pubs and all the signs in English, it was just the homely place we were after.
Randomly wandering into The Village Restaurant, we couldn't have picked a better place to spend the evening.
Dinner of shepherds pie, broccoli (for Liz!), yorkshire pudding, baked potatoes, etc. was exactly what we needed, and Jill the friendly owner proved to be rather charismatic. After dinner she got chatting with us, put us onto some locals who were all most excited to be chatting to some Aussies. Everyone had either been there, had family there or really wanted to get there one day. Us too, not long now! Once we let on that we were honeymooning, we had drinks brought for us, Waltzing Matilda (badly) sung to us, and a really good night. A few silly hats were put on us (Jill's thing, apparently), and photos taken, we felt we had made friends in a little oasis of Englishness.
Honking as we drove off, we headed back into package-tourist-land where we didn't enjoy our expensive hotel half as much as we had the inviting little pub.