Moncada to Murcia (and back)

 After an excellent first week, while everyone else in the Valencia group went to learn how to make paella, gazpacho and sangria in downtown Valencia, I travelled down to Murcia in southern Spain to visit an old mate and his wife.

After successfully navigating the Metro to the airport and collecting my hire car I then had to negotiate my way out of the airport and onto the Autovia around Valencia. This was quite daunting for me as I had never driven in Spain although I had driven in Europe extensively many years ago. Once you get used to the layout and signage of the Spanish motorway system (Autovia) then it’s quite easy.

However, using Google Maps to navigate in Spain isn’t quite so easy. After about an hour Google Maps instructed me to ‘turn right’ where there wasn’t an exit, so I swore at the phone. You know how modern phones have a voice command function, well this caused the phone to search for a new location sounding like my swear word and then insert this as a way point into my travel route. This explained why I found myself heading back towards Valencia – cue more swearing!!! Once corrected the rest of the journey was fine. 280kms and several hours later I arrived in Mazarron to meet up with my old ‘partner in crime’ from my early days in the Army. We first met on Day 1 in basic training 35+ years ago and we hadn’t seen each other for 22+ years so we had lots to catch up on and some drinking ensued.

for legal reasons my old 'partner in crime' cannot be shown in public as he is on the run from UK Law Enforcement for really poor fashion sense and thus hiding on the Costa Del Crime

me enjoying a Saturday evening by the pool

I spent a relaxing (and sobering) Sunday morning walking the dogs (not mine) and chilling by the pool exposing my white Irish skin to the hot sun before eating an excellent BBQ lunch. After some more relaxation I then travelled back up to Valenica – without any mishaps from Google Maps or swearing by me! If you have not journeyed into the interior of Spain before then I recommend that you take the time to do so as the scenery is fantastic.

it's a dog's life

chilling by the pool    

Meanwhile, it seems that the Valencia Villains had an enjoyable weekend sampling the local cuisine and refreshments, falling in the water at a boating lake and being serenaded by drunken women at the local cafe.

Thank you to Callum and Chris for an excellent weekend down in Murcia – let’s not leave it until another 22 years have gone by until we meet up again.

And now on to week 2 …