Week 19 - Staying put.

We are starting our third week at Javea. That’s almost unheard of. We have of course rationalised it, we had to wait for Dirkje’s birthday, then of course we had to help move her into her new apartment as with her son working away we had the only available car. The weather is awful and whats the point of moving in bad weather and there is a bank holiday on Friday so the Spanish will fill the sites we fancy and spend the weekend partying, It’s all tosh of course we simply can’t be arsed.

We have nevertheless set a move date of Monday 9th December and a place to move to. Cartagena. What we have to do now is find somewhere nice to spend Christmas. It was going to be Portugal if not Vila Nova De Milfontes where we had originally intended but time has passed and we don’t want to make a mad dash over there.

There was a “concert” on site today. A French couple put them on every now and then, he plays keyboards, clarinet and piano accordion, no! not at the same time, while she sings. It was a very pleasant hour and a half. All in French of course but many songs were ones that we recognised.

We went for a walk yesterday first into the “centro histórico” high up the hill and then down to the port. It was a long trip by the time we got back but very pleasant.

Close to the entrance to the site is the favourite roost of a group of noisy quick flying birds, they are green look like small parrots but we simply can’t get a good enough view to identify them. We will take the binoculars next time we walk that way and try to identify them.

It seems very strange that we are sitting in the windless warm sunshine while East England and parts of Holland are having such a tough time of it.

Having gone on line to find out about the weather conditions in UK we have learned of the death of Nelson Mandella. Obviously at 95 years old, not totally unexpected but still very sad and quite shocking news to loose one of the worlds greatest leaders.

We didn’t go sight-seeing today. We had far more exiting things to do. Sue did the washing then we washed and polished first the car and then the caravan - how sad is that? Well a bit, but of course this is a lifestyle and not a holiday so in between the sightseeing and absorbing foreign cultures etc., we have to maintain the basics of life.

We have discovered that the little green birds are parakeets but have discovered nothing more. It seems that a breeding pair escaped from local captivity and have thrived into a noisy little group but are not native to Spain.

We had another great night out last night, Christmas late night shopping, tapas trail, entertainment etc., unfortunately we never learn and arrived a little before 8.00pm the published kick off time. When we gave up and started for home about 9.00pm the shops were still empty and the streets all but deserted but as we arrived back we could hear a band start up.

More basics today we have had to admit that Christmas is getting close and all the cards we have done (immediate family only this year so please don’t get offended when you don’t get one) had to be posted so it was a walk back up the big hill to the post office where strangely the smaller ones cost more to send than the bigger ones.

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After our card posting we went for a look at “Los Molinos de Jávea” the remains of a string of windmills high on the hills above Jávea. There is not a great deal to see from the windmill point of view, indeed some of them are in private gardens and appear to have been turned into additional accommodation but the views over Jávea are absolutely stunning, high enough to get a magical view but low enough to see interesting details not visible from the ground. The mills are described on the city web site as follows (it is a Google translation so some interpretation is required):-

“ . . . Because the port concession in the eighteenth century for export and trade in goods and fruits, along with a local economic development based on rainfed crops, makes the wheat will become the most important product, both produced by locally or imported from Sicily.

          For processing into flour mills born Javea, situated in a strategic location on the hill of Cabo San Antonio advantage of the south wind "Llebeig" blowing pretty hard all year. Construction cylindrical over 6m in diameter, and 7 high, forming inside 2 levels, the lower used for storage, and the top where the wooden mechanisms were moving heavy circular wheels to grind wheat stood , which is still observed, and the mechanism of the blades.

          There are 11 mills, with 3 being owned by the City and undergoing restoration. . ."

View from Los Molinos
Last Updated - Sunday 27th April 2014.             © Seve  Ghost 2014