Suffolk Branch and the Royal Wedding

Here we see Polly and Suffolk Branch's own traffic department assisting with crowd control along the Mall.  Did you see Polly on her bike being an outrider when Catherine left the Goring Hotel?

Liberty, as a veteran bridesmaid bear and fashionista, did a live commentary on the BBC along with her boss Paula Reed from Grazia, on the wedding dress and outfits generally.  Particular favourites Sam Cam in Burberry, Prince Albert of Monaco's fiancee's dress and Pippa Middleton's gorgeous bridesmaid dress.   Love, love love!

And finally, the rest of Suffolk Branch toasted the happy couple with vintage champagne and then tucked into a yummy tea party!  Hurrah!

Happy Easter!

And hot on the heels of St George's day comes Easter Sunday, so a very happy Easter to all our readers.

The sun is out and we've had a lovely stroll down to an Easter service in a church full of beautiful flowers. This was just one of many arrangements that made St Mary's at Burgh Parva a very bright and cheerful place.

And we've been very lucky to receive lots of Easter cards and chocolate eggs; all made with Fair Trade chocolate of course!

Yes, we like Easter and hope you are having a good one too.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

For George and for England

Hello readers,

We're not in Spain today, we're in England, both in body and spirit. And where better place to be on our national day and the day of the saint with whom I share my name - George.

The problem with having a name like George is that I can't really deny my English heritage, as it's a very English name - although I am aware of the Greek roots. Sometimes, usually when I'm abroad, and embarrassed by the behaviour of my fellow Brits, I'd prefer not to be so obviously English, but on days like today, I'm proud of my nationality and heritage. St George was a rather fine chap after all, and thankfully it wasn't a bear that he slayed, but a dragon.

We had a rather timely meeting last night with a prolific collector of flags. As we admired our friend's collection, he told us he had several duplicates, and, knowing about our flag pole, from which we like to fly the bear flag, he asked us if we'd like the duplicates.

Actually, duplicates wasn't quite the right word, and we went home with 3 flags featuring the cross of St George, including a fine bear sized one.

We got them all flying this afternoon and they made a stirring sight and some lovely flapping noises. If you look hard you might see Yorkie and me on the roof of the bearmobile, looking proudly at our new acquisitions.

A happy St George's day to you all.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Perhaps Not One to Try at Home

As we tucked into our lunch, prior to going out exploring, it started to rain - in Spain! It was quite heavy rain so we convinced ourselves it would be a short, sharp shower. And so it was, by the time we were ready to go out, the rain had stopped. Bravo we thought!

Our first foray out into Spain proper, was going to be on foot, and straight out from El Pueblito. One of the nice things about HPB sites is that you can often buy a pack of local walks - for just 1 euro - from reception. We had got our pack on arrival, and decided on number 2, a nearby dinosaur gorge walk, to start. We were attracted by the dinosaur theme and it sounded the most adventurous, which appeals to active and brave bears like us.

It was a simple 15 minute walk to the gorge, then the fun started. Our path was straight up the, now dry, floor of the gorge. There was lots of scrambling over boulders involved and we also had to pick our way through lots of plant growth. And then, it started to rain again. Normally walking up narrow, and steep sided gorges is not a good thing to do in heavy rain, as there can be a danger of flash floods. However, on this occasion, as the river bed was very sandy and long dried up, we felt there was no risk of flooding. The rain didn't last long anyway, it was just another shower.

You'll need to be very sharp eyed to spot us in our first picture. We're sitting on a rock in front of our first dinosaur find. As you can see we'd found a fossilised giant ray. It was simply huge, and we marvelled at how small the modern day rays have become in comparison. If this one hadn't been fossilised we'd have been very scared.

Our next prehistoric rock was of great interest for two reasons: first, it was full of fossils and, second, it made a great climbing wall. As you can hopefully see, despite my camouflage fur, Yorkie and I wasted no time in starting a race to the top. By now we understood exactly why this was called the dinosaur gorge walk; it was because of all the fossils everywhere. 

As we left the gorge, we started to climb and to get some great views of the area where we were staying.  We didn't find any more fossils, but we did get a fine hilltop view of El Pueblito. Home for the week was one of those white boxes! We'd thought we were staying in a nice, quiet, away from it all area when we arrived, and  now we could see why. Apart from a few local farms and dwellings, there was nothing but countryside all around us.

By now we appreciated that we had picked a great place to holiday, and we were really looking forward to the rest of the week.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Pedro xxxx

Has El Pueblito Ever Hosted the Olympics?

After a leisurely breakfast on our sunny balcony, our first full day got properly underway with a welcome meeting in the bar. Thierry, the charming Parisian site manager, thoroughly entertained us with his great brand of humour, while we all enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee, apparently the nearest thing you can get to French coffee in Spain.

Meeting over, we decided to check out the outdoor facilities while we mulled over all the information we had been given about the site and surrounding area.

The facilities are fantastic. We were very keen to have a go at Padel tennis as this is now the number 2 sport in Spain, second only to football. Having a go made us feel less like tourists and more like locals.

Padel most closely resembles tennis, but is played on a smaller court and everywhere is in play - you can't hit the ball out of court. There is a link with squash in that you are allowed to take the ball off the back wall and the sides. You play with a chunky plastic paddle (no strings) and, great for us, you serve underhand, as Wimbledon type serves are not realistic for small bears.

We gave it our best and had fun. Even though our rallies weren't very long and we spent as much time outside the court retrieving wildly hit balls as in it, we thought we'd done well for a first attempt. That was, until we heard on the radio the other day, that Padel is easy to pick up and anyone can play it! We beg to differ.

We also enjoyed being Continental on the petanque court and had some very competitive games. The table tennis table and crazy golf course also beckoned and we had lots more fun. After dipping a paw in the outdoor pool which was extremely bracing, we were relieved to find the indoor pool which was extremely warm.

The sun loungers were oh so comfortable, and behind us there were a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. We could tell we we would be spending a lot of time here. We could already see that it could be very easy never to leave the site as there was so much here to entertain us.  But, we reminded ourselves, we had come to see Spain, and that was exactly what we were going to do .... but lunch came first!  

Our afternoon continues shortly.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Our Iberian Itinery

Hemos ido a Espana! It's us, George and Yorkie, back from our latest adventure that took us to Spain, and we're more than ready to take up the reins of the blog from Eddie, who has done such a great job and no doubt whetted your appetite for a sailing holiday in Greece.

So what took us to Spain, apart from the need to do more research for the Friendly Planet Guide? There were a couple of reasons. For the last 3 years or so, our first holiday of the year has been taken in Britain and, while we always have a good time, we would have liked some better weather. The sunshine of Spain and some Spanish Rioja seemed very appealing. Second, as you may recall, we spent several weeks in the north of Spain, 18 months ago, when we were walking the Pilgrimage route to Santiago. Having seen the north of the country and enjoyed practising our Spanish, we thought it would be good to see the opposite end of the country and practise our Spanish a bit more.

And so we came by plane and our hire car, Trig, to the Holiday Property Bond's newest development, El Pueblito del Alfaix. We're quite unusual in Bond circles as there aren't too many Bondholders who are bears, but we're always given an enthusiastic welcome. 

Our studio apartment is the very one that you can see in our first picture. It was right at the end of the the first row of apartments. We didn't have the upper floor, that was another apartment, but the big patio windows opening onto a balcony were ours. We just thought we'd point out that we are sitting on the wall, as you may not have spotted us.

Our apartment was everything we could have wished for. It was well laid out, well equipped and still very new. 

While inside was great, we tended to spend a lot of time out on our balcony. Sadly the clouds had descended for our picture, and they are hiding some gentle mountain slopes, but you can still see all the citrus trees in the foreground.

As you may have noticed, there are 4 of us, not 2. We invited Gio along as he was with us in Spain on pilgrimage and loves the country, and the 4th member of the gang is Pedro, wearing the red t-shirt. Pedro has kept a low profile in the blog so far, while he's been learning English. He is in fact a true Spaniard and moved to England from Spain to join Bears Unlimited. There was no way that we were going to leave Pedro behind when heading for Spain, and, anyway, he is great company, as you will discover in the posts to come.

Join us again soon.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx