Sam - First visitor

Wednesday 28 November

No time to update the blog lately because we have had our first visitor. Our good friend Sam from Steyning, West Sussex. Sam arrived on the Gatwick-Malaga Easy Jet on Sunday afternoon. After a turbulent flight she arrived with hand luggage only (very sensible). The hand luggage contained gifts of Tia Maria and the Sunday Times. Fantastic. Another treat was 2 episodes of ‘Strictly’ downloaded to Sam’s iPhone for Petra to watch. A true friend. 

We were able to sit out on the terrace in the afternoon on the sun-loungers. Sadly this was to be the only opportunity during Sam’s stay as the weather got cooler each day. We spent Sunday evening catching up on the gossip, eating and drinking.

Monday was cool but sunny and we decided to walk the Ruta de Tajos. The walk was very enjoyable with great views and we walked much further than our previous attempt at it. It’s a long walk and it took it’s toll on Sam’s hair. At this stage we discovered the true purpose of the iPhone. 

Not quite Steyning darling....!

Sam and Petra cooked paella on Monday evening, we used one of the recipe books at the house and we were very grateful that it suggested substituting snails with a few sprigs of Rosemary. It was very successful and we ate the lot.

On Tuesday we decided to take the bus to Malaga and hopped on at 10.00 am. It was cold in Riogordo and we were wrapped up in layers and regretting leaving our gloves in the house. Of course it was warmer in Malaga and we managed without the gloves. We had a good walk around, Sam posed for a photo on the street named after her and then had a coffee break before visiting the Cathedral. It’s a vast and very impressive building building. It’s known as the one armed lady because the southern tower was never completed, leaving it with only one completed tower. We stopped for a tapas lunch which we enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine, the waiter shooing away a lady begging with a plastic cup.
We made a few purchases for supper including one made by Sam of the top quality cured ham off the bone in the market before getting the 3pm bus back to Riogordo. We didn’t want to miss that one as the next is 6pm and we needed to get back so that Petra could watch Strictly! We had a lovely evening grazing on our goodies from the market, the ham was delicious. 

Paella for dinner....yum!

It turns out Sam's husband's distant relative has a Street named after him. 

This morning Sam was up early making the tea before going for a walk to Riogordo returning with a huge poinsettia purchased in the market. Our first Christmas present, thank you. We had brunch before driving to the airport. Whilst Petra and Sam headed into ‘departures’ Kevin had attracted the attention of a couple of the airport policemen who were admiring the camper and have a good look inside, and why not? 

Sad to see Sam leave today but we headed back to Riogordo and spent the afternoon relaxing.