Friday Morning

We woke in the morning, still off schedule from jetlag. The floors were cold, so I sniveled about my sore knee and made Larry get up to make breakfast for us. The swelling in my knee had gone down, leaving a lovely bruise and some scuffing which eventually formed a scab. Mmm-mmm, good.

Breakfast was tea with milk and sugar, toast and eggs and bacon and juice. The hot water kettle heated water in a flash, but if you got any moisture down in the plug or socket on the base, the breakers would flip. Too much water in the kettle would boil up over into the handle and down into the plug. Not all that safe, but great otherwise, LOL.

I mentioned I had cold sores before I left. I did, three of them, one on each side of my upper lip, and one below. The Zorivax seemed to be helping, but then I was using Abreva, so I am not certain. What I do know is that I shouldn't have been using Zorivax while traveling. It messes with my system. That, and we'd been drinking tap water from the Madrid airport, not suggested normally. After breakfast, I was not in good condition ... I was very glad Larry had picked up some Imodium at the SLC airport. I'd forgotten to pack it. I feel as if I were being punished. But the medicine, some tea and the bidet set me right. By noon I was up for a little exploring.

We drove up and down N340, mostly checking out what was in the area. There are old stone towers up and down the coast, faros ... I do not know how old these are, I need to do some research. I tried and tried to get a good picture of one, but they're all fairly inaccessible. The one you could get close to was on a roundabout and I was too close to get a good picture!

We found access down to the beach; the wind kept snatching my scarf off my head. Two guys were fishing and catching small fish, but big enough to eat. We scrounged for beach glass and I found a bit of nifty sea-buffed blue and white on red clay tile. I will make a pendant from it! I took a lot of pictures, but had the camera on normal instead of landscape. All my outdoor shots had a blue tint. I've tried to fix it, but not with perfect success.

Next we found a little grocery store, LIDL. We never did figure out how to use the shopping carts; they were all chained together. I think you had to put a coin in. We did have the foresight to carry a shopping bag, our big Ikea bag we'd picked up in a thrift shop. You have to pay for your plastic bags if you do not have your own bag. We purchased water, wine, jam, mustard, lunchmeat, eggs, gouda and ... pads. Yes, Aunt Flo paid me a surprise visit. Oh yay. I had some supplies, I always carry them, but geeez, falling down, cold sores, the runs and now this? Argh.

Grocery stores ... we went to the LIDL a couple times, and to the nearby and much larger SuperSol. The Supersol is perfect for picnics; it has a deli and a bakery and a nice selection of take away snacks and fresh produce. The LIDL had a larger store, but we only went to the small one. LIDL is cheaper for water and wine, a liter brick of red table wine was Eu69. That's a buck and it lasted all week! G00d stuff. Larry got some "sidre" ... basically hard cider, but it was a little skunky and old.

We decided dinner would be simplest right at the resort. There was one other table with guests. The off season can be very, very slow. We had red wine with our meal because you cannot get a glass of water. Water and wine cost about the same thing. We had delicious calamari to begin; I had chicken curry with "sultanas" (raisins) and Larry had pasta. His was shrimp in a cream alfredo sauce made with sherry. Oh yum. The food and service were very good. Not cheap, the bill ran to Eu28 and then there was a tip. We asked and the waiters shrugged. Whatever you like, they said, this is not like America. Although they only knew we were Americans as they had already asked Larry if he were Australian!

If it seems as though I am fixated on money, indeed I am. We both were concerned for the first couple of days, the dollar is not strong and the tourist and airport facilities are not inexpensive. Once we began finding our way around and shopped locally, we felt a bit better. If we had to pay full resort prices for meals, we'd not have any money leftover at all!

Pictures: a brick of wine, Larry making breakfast, the view of vacation villas from our balcony, us on the beach, a fisherman, LIDL grocery store. I ended up filling my memory card and did not bring a spare. I was smart enough to bring a voltage converter so I could charge my camera battery! I do plan on putting more pictures up on Facebook in albums, and maybe Flickr if I can scrounge up my password.

Tomorrow: the open air market, Dali statues in Marbella, dinner in.