Saturday, October 20, 2018

Maggie visits from England.

Maggie and Margaret have known each other since they were at College together in 1967.


Although Maggie is familiar with many countries in the world, this is the first time she has visited Spain so we wanted to show her what our part of the real Spain was like and this involved touring around locally each day and having lunch in various restaurants.


I collected Maggie from Reus airport on Saturday 13th October and we got back to the village just in time for lunch at the village bar/restaurant.


After lunch it was time to explore the village...


...which is always interesting.


Sunday, we visited the ermita of our neighbouring village, La Fresneda,...


...where you can see our village and our house across the valley.




...then a trip to the Sanctuario de la Virgen de Gracia where renovations have started.


Lunch at the Restaurante Bar Matarraña, one of our favourite restaurants.


Monday a visit to Horta de Sant Joan for lunch at Restaurante Miralles...


...followed by a visit to the Picasso Museum, (which was closed),...


...a visit to the Monastir de San Salvador,...


...a visit to the ermita de San Hipppolyte,...



...the iberican settlement at Calceite...


and the ermita de San Cristóbal on the next hilltop...


...and the Torre Cremada on the way back to our village.


On Tuesday we visited the town of Morella...


...had lunch at the Restaurante Hotel Rey Don Jaime...


...visited the shops in the afternoon...


...and enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the lovely streets.


On Wednesday it was a visit to Alcañiz with lunch at Meseguer...


...followed by coffee at the 12th century Parador...


...and of course a look around inside.


On Thursday we had coffee on the terrace...


...followed by a walk around our Ermita de San Juan with Rocky...


...then a truly memorable lunch at the Hotel Rural Font del Pas at Beceite just after which, it started raining.


Friday the weather was still against us so we had a delightful lunch in Valderrobres at Fonda Angeleta and returned home.


In fact the weather became so bad that in the evening lightning caused a power cut for the entire village so we had our last supper by candlelight! What an experience this week has been!

Saturday, September 1, 2018

¡Fiesta!

The fiesta started on Friday 17th August with the BBQ where everyone cooks their sausages on small fires...


...and eats them with friends. 


This is followed by a tour of the village going from one peña to another for a drink the only problem being that on the way, people throw buckets of water on the passers by. We don't do this bit!


The following day there is the mass at church. Margaret wore her traditional costume or traje regional.


There is always a good turnout at the church...


...and others wear traditional costume too.


For the final day of the fiesta there is the meal in the Plaza Major, around 400 people,...


...and the meal this year was Fideuá, delicious!

Saturday, August 4, 2018

My 70th Birthday celebration

Although my birthday is on 3rd August, we decided to have the celebration on Saturday 4th to make it easier for our friends to attend.


25 of our friends were able to attend the celebration meal which was held in the village restaurant.


The meal went down really well and everyone enjoyed it.


The photos were taken by José Antonio and the video by Juan - both worked relentlessly and captured every moment.


After the meal it was time for more fun so we had the "1948 quiz",...


... a very important year as that was when I was born.


 Margaret asked me 3 questions and I got them correct - my prize was a bow tie!



After that, I asked the remaining 26 questions and each person had the answer to 1 of those questions on their place card in front of them - everyone got a prize...


...which was delivered to the recipients by our 2 excellent helpers, Ariadna and Claudia.


Everyone wore their "prizes" for these photos.


Some had won ties, braces, hats,...


...garlands, necklaces, clip-on head wear and comic sunglasses.


After the meal we all came back to the bodega in our house for the birthday cake. As you can see from the photo above, I'm not 70, I'm 35,...


...in each leg...


...and more toasts and well wishes with more cava!


Everyone was extremely generous with their presents and after the presentations, it was time for a group photo outside in the cooler early evening.


Finally, supper for friends who had stayed on to help clear everything away!

What a celebration! Well, you only have a 70th birthday once!

To see the slideshow of the photos click HERE