Spain - BRIDGET THE MIDGET

Gran Canaria – 2nd Update

20th December 201517th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Well the main reason for being here, the weather, has not failed to impress with only one exception when it attempted to rain, but failed. There has been a couple of overcast days and one where the temperature dropped to 18C but the rest of the time has been bright with temperatures in the low/mid twenties. I have maintained my regime of four mornings a week at the gym, one day a week walking in the mountains and the rest of the time completing normal daily living tasks such as shopping, washing, cleaning, etc. or lazing on the beach. An unexpected portion of culture was absorbed watching a performance of ‘The Nutcracker’ by the Moscow Ballet Company. Such a highlight is almost unheard of in Maspalomas, but there is a relatively new theatre here and they are testing the populations’ response to different events. The almond blossom is out all over the mountains (well all over the trees that is), about a month...

Gran Canaria – 1st Update

22nd November 201517th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

We have been on the island for three weeks now. I have fallen into a routine of visits to the gym, mountain walking and lazing around. We are staying at the same complex as on our previous visit and so know some of our neighbours. Maspalomas itself has changed little except that the local authority is constantly upgrading the pedestrian walkways. Also several of the hotels and tourist bungalow complexes have been given facelifts. The other welcome improvement is to the roads into the island interior. From Maspalomas the GC60 is the main route to the centre of the island and the mountain range. This is a route Bridget and I normally take each week when I go mountain walking and it has been both widened a little and resurfaced. Being a mountain route the road is both steep and very winding, which is great MG motoring but, if it is full of potholes, can be very wearing on Bridget. I have already...

Knights Templar

30th October 201517th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Bridget and I arrived in Bilbao from Portsmouth on the 27th October. I decided to take the ferry as I had commitments that kept me in England until the 25th October, leaving me only six days to get to Huelva in southern Spain. Docking at 7:45 am, I decided we would drive down through Burgos and Vallalodid to Medina del Campo. It was an easy drive and we arrived a little after midday. The main reason for visiting was to see the Castle of La Mota which I mistakenly thought had links to the Knights Templar. Although the castle had a military function it was not one of the Templars’. It was used as a prison for the notorious Cesare Borgia (is he the American comedian that also played piano?). In 1489, following the marriage of Catherine of Arragon to Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII, and in recognition of France as a common enemy, the Treaty of Medina del Campo...

The Great Bridget Brake Off!

7th October 201517th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

It's almost time that Bridget and I weren't here. After almost 18 months in the UK it's time to take the brakes off and get rolling. We leave on the 25th Oct, destination Gran Canaria again. We will be taking the ferry from Huevla to Las Palmas on the 30th October, arriving on the 1st November and staying for the winter. To get to Huevla we are taking a ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao, then driving through Salamanca and Bandajoz. Need our sea legs! The plan, or as near as I ever get to having one, is to return in the spring via the Balkans. We have never visited Croatia, Bosnia, Kosova, or Serbia before so it will be a bit of adventure. The intention is to go as far as Albania and possibly Moldova or, if the fighting has ceased, Ukraine. I don't know why, but for some reason Moldova never seems like a real country to me (no disrespect meant). The name conjours...

Home Run – 1st Leg

19th March 201417th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

The run home has not started particularly well. Transmediterranea Acciona, the ferry company operating the original ferry service between Cadiz and the Canary Islands, is an un-principled operator with no concern for its customers. In full knowledge of the detrimental effect that sea water has on the bodywork of automobiles they insist on placing their customers cars on the open deck of their ferries. Bridget has a glazed coating of crystallised salt thanks to Transmediterranea. To anyone thinking of taking a ferry to the Canaries I would strongly recommend the alternative company that operates. We arrived in Cadiz and disembarked at 12:30 on Monday. From there we drove the eighty miles to Seville, my first overnight of the run. Bridget and I visited Seville on our first ever run together in 2006 and I was scathing in my summing up of the city. Although I only had a few hours to explore I have to say my previous comments were both...