 | shari on the most hated family in the… |
 | Teuchter on hairball |
 | nursemyra on hairball |
 | tobymarx on hairball |
 | dragonqueen on hairball |
 | healingmagichands on hairball |
| nursemyra on hairball |
 | noggin on hairball |
| Jane on hairball |
 | Big Bad Johnny P on hairball |
 | azahar on hairball |
| nursemyra on hairball |
 | Swoosh on house MD |
 | daisyfae on hairball |
| noggin on hairball |
What a fabulous day!
I haven’t been to the Feria de Jerez since May 2005. It is absolutely my most favourite feria, much better than the very famous Feria de Abril in Sevilla. And so yesterday myself, Nog, Jay, Pipocas & Chucky & Kidlet, “R” (another of the ladies) and her visiting friend all converged on Jerez to spend an afternoon at the fair…
“Perhaps one day we can have tapas together in real life!”
Thus spake Wandering Coyote in her comment on yesterday’s post. And this got me a-thinkin (always a possibly dangerous activity) which then led to wondering about organising a ‘weekend getaway’ meet here for blogfriends who either live in the EU, or are planning to be in Europe and might be able to also pop over to Sevilla, or who own their own jets . . . whatever!
As I mentioned over here, this was quite the spontaneous trip, which was also suddenly extended from an overnight stay to three nights when I found a charming little inn that had a special 3-night offer going. Pipocas and her husband Chucky (not his real name 
) really made this trip special by taking Nog & me out for lunch every day and also driving us to places near Tavira that we would have never seen otherwise.
As Chucky is Portuguese he ‘did the honours’ at mealtimes, ordering all the food and drink so that we often didn’t know what was coming until it showed up at the table. This was quite a refreshing change for me since I’m usually the one doing this for friends visiting Sevilla. It was nice to be on the receiving end for a change and be totally taken care of.
Muito obrigada, Pipocas & Chucky! 
Here are some of my travel notes on what we saw and did. There are also a few small photos here - if you’d like to see the complete photo album just click here…
No matter how fun and exciting it is to go somewhere new I always love that feeling when I’m back in Sevilla and come through my front door. I also love my bed and I am going to really enjoy sleeping with cats piled on top of me tonight.
Photos of Tavira mañana (if I ever get through the blog backlog…)
So, who out there keeps travel journals and which has been your most memorable trip?
[written at 12.30pm yesterday]
Writing to you from the top of a mountain somewhere in the Algarve. Was kidnapped picked-up today by Pipocas and her husband CHUCKY (who doesn’t like having his name mentioned on blogs - this is my revenge ) and driven up a very long and winding mountain road until I thought I was about to lose my brekky.
Nature all over the place. Meh.
Anyhow, just arrived in Cachopo (our destination for some reason) and next to the wee Museo Vivo - where they sell flax products and also show the flax-making process - I found this free internet access place! Interesting combination of high-tech inside with chickens pecking and clucking around outside the window.
Have no idea what the others are up to right now, but I know the Kidlet (P&C’s 4-year-old daughter) wants to have lunch soon so I’d better get going. I think we’re having wild boar.
Nog’s laptop can’t pick up the wifi connection at our inn, which is totally gorgeous and charming, btw, so I might not be around again till Thursday night.
Having a great time so far! Especially as we are being threatened with being taken over here for a cold beer after we get back to Tavira…
When Pipocas and I went out for some much needed cold water after our Japanese luncheon the other day she mentioned that she was going to Tavira during Semana Santa with her husband and 4-year-old daughter and asked if Nog & I would like to come and hang out with them for a couple of days while they were there. And well, I’ve never been to the Algarve and Tavira is very close to the Spanish border (and also accessible by bus) so I started looking into this possibility . . .
Will it be third time lucky???
As I mentioned on the travelling plans post, my friend Carmen has very generously offered to drive me to Gibraltar to buy underwear at Marks & Spencer, but the date has been moved up to this Saturday instead of the 22nd. And really, not a moment too soon given the very sad and sorry state of my knickers. Of course given my bad luck with having tried to get to this place twice in the past (mentioned here and here) I probably won’t believe it until I’m actually through passport control and walking through the M&S front doors on Saturday morning.
Anyhow, I’m getting quite excited and also plan to stock up on mince pies if they have any. And maybe a sweater or two. Oooh, and some socks. . .
Suddenly we seem to be going everywhere! (well, maybe)
Yesterday I mentioned that Nog & I might be going to Granada over the holidays. Since then even more travel ops have turned up! 
Today my friend Carmen said to me that as her husband will be working on Saturday 22 December, she thought this would be a good day to drive me to Gibraltar so I can finally buy some underwear. It’s no joke - ever since Marks & Spencer closed I’ve had to get my knickers sent to me from friends in England as M&S doesn’t deliver outside the UK. My two previous botched attempts to get to the M&S store in Gibraltar have been mentioned here and here. But Carmen has never forgotten my plight and so it looks like I’ll be getting new knickers for Christmas! 
Oh, and also see Gibraltar.
Then another friend Paco told me he’s going to be driving to Lisbon the weekend of December 28-30 because he wants his girlfriend to see the city in winter all decorated for Christmas. And Nog and I have been invited along because Paco knows how we fell in love with the place when we went there last June.
The planned Granada trip is also going to be with Paco as he and his girlfriend often go there to ski during the winter, so apparently we’ll have several weekends to choose from. Paco says they can just drop us off in Granada on Friday evening before they head up to the mountains and then pick us up Sunday on their way back to Sevilla.
And then, while I was talking about possible ways to sell some of our natural clothing stock this spring, it was suggested that I go down to Marbella. Carmen said she was there not long ago and there were several boutiques selling similar looking stuff, so I might have some luck there. And I remembered that my friend Manolo had offered Nog & I the use of one of his holiday apartments in Marbella for a weekend (well, as long as it isn’t booked) and said he might even be able to drive us there and back as he often goes to Málaga at weekends.
And so suddenly there are four possible trips to think about, none of which should cost much. In fact, all of them together should cost less than our Lisbon trip did. And since we’ll only be away two nights max (and no nights when we go to Gibraltar) we won’t have to worry about a cat-sitter. Ohhh, this is quite exciting! Hope it all works out as this would certainly make the coming winter months a lot more interesting.
Welcome to casa az, which is somewhere in that postcard view of Sevilla below.
click on the sun to read a random post
