Life in Conil

Hola,

We seem to have settled into our winter routine now.

Monday to Friday we start the day with an hour in the gym. After that we've shopped a couple of times and had one game of golf. It's very difficult to find a course that charges a reasonable rate for a game. Although the courses are empty they still want to charge high fees. The course we played charged 25 euros each if we played after one o'clock. It was quite short but there was water on most holes to keep it interesting. There were only 3 fourballs on the course, unfortunately the other 2 were directly in front of us and VERY slow. We eventually missed out 3 holes to get ahead of them and it was much more enjoyable then. At the moment we can't find another course charging less than 60 euros each.

In the evenings, Monday is 8 euro buffet followed by bingo and salsa dancing with Cuban Jorge. Wednesday is quiz night run by a superb quizmaster (blush), we did have 62 turn up for our first quiz this week. Thursday is line dancing (for Ann). There is plenty going on.

The weather is still mixed. We've had some lovely sunny days but the rain yesterday was torrential and lasted for hours. Most people seem to be planning on visiting the Med coast next year if only just for January. We are getting some lovely sunsets though.

On Friday the restaurant put on a free lunch for Romeria de San Sebastian. This is the town's Saint's Day. The big procession and picnic was supposed to be today but yesterday's storms meant it had to be postponed.

Best wishes to all,

Mike and Ann

Looks as tho the journey down here will be even longer next year - P&O have pulled out of the Portsmouth Bilbao route. We may well have to drive through France. That'll be fun!

Week two.

Hola,

The fitness regime has started. We've joined the Gym on the site. An hour a day every day. Our fitness instructor is a pro golfer so he is giving us lots of stretching exercises to help our golf. I don't think he's realised yet he's fighting a losing battle. Never mind we've got a round of golf arranged for tomorrow (after gym) so we are expecting great things.

The weather at the start of the week remained poor but it changed on Thursday. Since then it's got better every day. Today (Sunday) we were plodging in the sea at 5pm on an absolutely idyllic evening, low 20's and not a breath of wind. Long may it continue.

Keep in touch

Mike and Ann

2010 new beginnings

Happy New Year
I am just carrying on from last years blog, mainly because it seems too complicated to start a new one. I hope it doesn't confuse things.
Well, this year we set off on December 30th 2009 and after an overnight stop at a soggy Oxford we boarded the Pride of Bilbao at 3pm on New Years Eve. Much to our surprise we were given £110 of meal vouchers to spend on the trip. The voyage was our usual calm crossing. We saw many dolphins swimming with us which is always enjoyable. The boat docked promptly at 8am on Jan 2nd and we were the first vehicle of the boat, AGAIN. So we had to lead the procession through the dark dockyard and out onto the Spanish motorway.
We made 2 overnight stops at Salamanca and Merida and arrived at Conil on Monday afternoon. We set up and settled in.
We quickly met old friends but there were also some missing for various reasons. As at home the main topic of conversation was the weather, which has been poor so far this winter. Since we arrived it has been very mixed. Yesterday we walked on a beach in a deserted cove. It was cool but the sun shone, today I'm shivering in the awning as the rain pitter-patters on the roof. None the less we are settling in to our routine of life down here and beginning to unwind after the long journey.