Hotel Monasterio Santa Eulalia Totana

We've not been far since Amanda's return as she was absolutely knackered. She is having to spend her mornings working but we've decided to get out and about a bit more so today we are going down to Mazarron on the Costa Calida.

Although it's not that far, only an hour and a half away, it is quite tough going. The route takes us through Cartagena, quite a big city with very busy traffic, and then over ...

... in sweat by the time I got back to the ship. It was hot out, I had 9 liters of wine I was carrying, and it was about 2 miles from the supermarket to the ship.

Jacqui had spent the morning in the spa so we met back in the room when I got back to the ship and had showered off. Then we went back out and walked around the downtown area again. By that time, everything had already closed for Siesta. I’m still not sure why we stopped in Cartagena at all…

... cycling yet. We were supposed to nail 100 miles to make it to Tracy's but after a full day of effort we only managed 75. Anyway, during this epic uphill struggle we encountered a petrol station in the middle of no where. Here they had a hose pipe where we could riskily fill our water bottles. It was at this point i decided to add the quote of the day section.

Whilst Alex was ...

Well, another day on the road. Sunday. Not a good day in Spain. They take there Jesus and stuff like that pretty serious over here. This probably explains the the 50 ft statue they built of him on top of a mountain. I mean, honestly, i dont want to say i could do things better, but, spend that money on finishing buildings or building roads that cyclists can use, or policing the beaches, anything but a 50 ft statue. Waste of money.

So, anyway, we arrived in ...

... and order Churrioes which they found hard to understand what we were ordering cuz its pronounced differnt than how it is spelt.

Later that evening we cooked some we wedges on the BBQ then we had those which sausage and curry sauce!

Then we went to a spanish bar which was quite exspensive but it was all locals except for 2 other english people.

... spanish familes.

We went to a spanish bar and had a few drinks there and then we saw the road train which went back so we got onto it the lady came over for us to pay and started pointing at my eyes and speaking in spanish i think she was saying i had nice eyes lol!

We got the road train back to bolnuevo which played music and when u went past people everyone waved at you!

... selling these long things which looked like long thick chips. I wasnt that good at spanish to ask what they were so i just went a pointed saying una! She said Ingles and i said yes she gave me one portain( six sticks) and i put sugar on them as i saw other people doing

They were very nice it was like donut dough in a long stick which was fried, I later found out by my nan that they were called Churrioes.

Then we went back layed by the pool that night we had dinner at me nans.

... all the locals seemed to be at this bar and no tourist except for me and Josh and this is exsacly what i wanted to go to the more spanish areas with the locals and not the tourist areas.

Then after a drink there i went for a swim in the sea and we walked back to the villa and swam in the swimming pool.

It was about 3pm and 39 degress now!! Then sat on the balcony read a book and walked down to the restaurant at 8pm to take my ...

One may think that with the trouble we had in getting here, we weren't meant to be here. There was a fire on another train aheadd of us, and we were delayed by 2 hours. Then our train was having problems and we had to transfer to another train. All in all we arrived in Murcia at 12:45am, 4 hours late, but very excited to see Javier, Carmen and still waiting to see the girls who got up and went to school while we still slept.

... about this and having been impressed with their travel money service I gave them a call. The info they provided was great and they broke it all down for me and explained how each process worked.

I'm happy to announce that we are now looking at a house in Brittany, France and feel completely secure entrusting our savings with No1 Currency.

I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking for any type of currency transfer.

David.