All Change!

We think we'll leave Spain on the highlight of the Alhambra, particularly as we now have an exciting new adventure to report on.

We all had a great time in Almeria and hope it won't be too long before we're back. The Holiday Property Bond's El Pueblito complex really is something special and we hope our next picture, shot from just outside our front door, conveys something of its charm.


When you see our first two pictures from our latest adventure, you might be forgiven for thinking that we liked the Alhambra so much that we'd decided to return. The other way of looking at it, is that southern Spain was the warm up for a trip to a close neighbour.

So here we are in the Grand Imilchil hotel, not a million miles from southern Spain.


Does the fine Moorish tiling remind you of the Alhambra as it certainly did us? Has anyone spotted the link? What we'd done was to travel a bit further south and cross the Straits of Gibraltar (albeit in a plane) to reach Morocco. Our starting point was the exotic city of Marrakech and Marrakech's Grand Imilchil hotel certainly has some Moorish influences, just like the Alhambra.

And it wasn't just the Imilchil hotel? Just 10 minutes walk from the hotel was the city's Cyber park and just look what we found there: a mini version of 'General Life'!


We hope we've seamlessly moved you from Spain to Morocco and whetted your appetite for more news of our latest travels.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Hungry and Thirsty

Bank Holidays and Royal wedding over, it's time to return to Spain. We hope you appreciated the diversion and can keep up with our to-ing and fro-ing. If you recall, our last post from Spain saw us out in the countryside enjoying the one and only dinosaur gorge walk.
We were on our way back to our apartment and looking forward to a swim in that beautiful pool. As we descended towards the valley bottom, we got quite excited when we spied something big and yellow ...

We wondered if it might be a Spanish trigpoint and therefore qualify for a post on our sister blog, http://www.bearsontrigpoints.blogspot.com/. We took a photo anyway; you can only see Pedro as he was the only bear sturdy enough to stay on in the wind that was blowing at the time. A short distance further, on we found further yellow markings, and these, coupled with the fact that the post wasn't on the highest ground, led us to sadly conclude, that it wasn't a trig point, but more likely a utilities marker. it's always good to be hopeful though! 

Once back at El Pueblito we made a great find. The bar served proper 'English' beer, and even better, our first glass was complementary ...

It was 'Bond Bitter', and very fine it was too. It was English beer in the sense that it was English bitter rather than English brewed. This was great as we got all the taste but with 'green' credentials i.e. it didn't have a great carbon footprint.

After trying the beer it was time to try the food in the site restaurant and we were all feeling very hungry after our sporting activities and our walk. 

Lots of love, the holiday party 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