Middle-aged flash packers

Before I get on to the subject of beaches, we were rudely awakened yesterday morning by the sound of something falling and then loud dripping. We are familiar with such sounds as in our own home over the years, various members of the family have left taps running with sink plugs in, forgotten about baths which have then overflowed etc., so we are masters at knowing when water is coming through a ceiling. S leapt out of bed, established immediately that water was indeed coming through the ceiling of the shower room, and rushed off to find the cause and also something to catch the drips in. No cause was found so we phoned Veronica, our landlady, who sleepily answered the call and made it round 20 minutes later.

She couldn’t find the source either but the neighbour who has the roof terrace near us told her that someone else had a problem with leaks when they ran the air conditioning “too much”. Instant guilt from me as we have been running it all night, then annoyance as we’re paying a small fortune to stay here, what do you expect? What kind of air conditioning has a hissy fit when you use it “too much?” A useless one that’s what. Anyway, it stopped leaking and hasn’t since. I think it was the neighbour. Left a tap on. All the signs are there.

And so to beaches. Steve wanted to see Trafalgar Point, where Nelson met his end fighting the Spanish and the French. About an hour’s drive from here, a lighthouse and a dilapidated tower stand looking out onto the rocky seas where ships were sunk, Britain won and Nelson uttered those famous words “kiss me Hardy.” There’s no museum or even a plaque here marking the event.

The beach to the right of the lighthouse is part of Playa del Zahora and is where we chose to settle ourselves – what a great choice it was. One little beach bar and nothing else except a large sweep of sand and a gloriously wild sea. I thoroughly recommend it. This a beach full of beautiful people with splendid physiques and it would be easy to feel a bit inferior with all this perfection around but what I love about being 60 is I just don’t care. They’ll all get old and those pert boobs bottoms will sag too. Enjoy it while you can. Meanwhile I like to think Steve and I dazzled them with the whiteness of our skins, sunglasses definitely needed.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we did it again today. This time we chose our local beach Playa de las Redes, a 7 minute stroll from our apartment. More of a mix of families, friends and older people this time. We noticed people greeting each other as they strolled along the beach and groups of over 60’s chatting together drinking beer and wine and sharing food. Brilliant.

Tomorrow we move on to La Zubia, a small town between Granada and the Sierra Nevada. We have booked to visit the Alhambra and we are hoping to get some hiking in. Weather is not looking good unfortunately but we’ll see.

Now for expectations:

✓ El puerto de Santa Maria – met. I had no idea what this was going to be like other than it was probably quite urban with a beach. Check.

✓ Cadiz. – met.

✓ Trafalgar point and beach – exceeded