Summer 1999 in Spain
The finale of our 9-week tour of England and continental Europe was a favorite: our second home in El Pinar, Almeria, Spain.
By this time we had been living out of a suitcase for nearly two months, so we were really looking forward to flying to Spain to spend 10 days at our vacation home in El Pinar, on the Costa Almeria. Incidentally, most of our traveling was done courtesy of American Airlines’ AAdvantage Program. If you use a travel award, be sure to find out what flexibility you have for stopovers. Using 60,000 mile awards, we flew from Denver via Dallas to London Gatwick, made our own way to Denmark and Germany, but then flew from Munich, via London (unfortunately!), to Murcia (Spain), and ten days later, from Murcia to London — where we chose to stop over for 24 hours to visit friends — before flying back through Dallas to Denver. It took some planning but was well worth it! You also have more flexibility than with a paid ticket if you need to change your flight arrangements.
Anyway, back to Spain … El Pinar is one of the few places I know where nothing changes from one year to the next. The views towards the Mediterranean and surrounding mountains are quite spectacular. There are only about forty houses in our village, not a single shop, just a small restaurant and bar — a great place to eat when you’re feeling too relaxed even to prepare a meal. A few days here and you may never want to return to civilization!
Our friends Barbara and Rowland have made El Pinar their home now for many years, and it was great seeing them again and meeting a recent addition to their family, Robbie, a beautiful Alaskan Malamute puppy — yes, he’s still a puppy!
One of the joys of spending time in this region of Spain is the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables to be found at the local markets – delicious peaches, juicy oranges, tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes, all freshly picked. We ate very healthy meals during those ten days — apart from the occasional coffee, cognac and churros! Well, we were on vacation!!
Nothing lasts forever, and all too soon we were aboard that plane, heading for the USA. They were nine fabulous weeks but now we were ready to go home, to see our sons and our daughter-in-law, and visit with friends we hadn’t seen for so long. First stop Wal-Mart, to get ten rolls of film processed!
Mick: this journal, and the entire website, was supposed to be all about RVing! This year we’ve spent more than three months overseas, without the RV. Perhaps we should rename the site “The Daly RoVers” or, as we are known to our friends, “The Daly Nomads”!
Jenny: yes, but it’s being “fulltime” RVers that gives us this wonderful freedom to travel!
