Where's Bertie? He's in a municipal Aire at Tarifa, where it costs €8 for 24 hours.
Weather: A few high clouds, but I didn't notice any of them blocking the sun. Warm enough when in the sun and out of the wind.
Last night's parking spot had been excellent during the day and I'm sure would be fine most nights too. However, it turned out to be a surprisingly busy place on a Friday night, such that at midnight I was not only awake but searching the map to see if there was anywhere else we could go for the rest of the night.
I place no blame on the people causing the main disturbance, which was a car full of lads, with their engine running, playing music, occasionally singing, and often opening and closing the car's doors. The music wasn't being played loud enough to disturb anyone but those trying to sleep just a few feet away, and it was entirely our fault that we were trying to sleep in a car park. The problem with these situations is that you have no idea whether they're going to last a short while (=may as well sit it out) or for most of the night (=would rather be somewhere else).
I didn't check the time when they left (by which time we were twitching the blinds to observe them, as if that would give us a clue as to how long they intended to stay), but I reckon they were there for about an hour. Why they needed to leave the engine running all that time, I know not. Maybe they'd got a dicky battery or starter motor...
Peace finally reigned and eventually, in the early hours, to sleep we went, only for the alarm to sound what felt like five minutes later. I didn't feel inclined to jump up and head out for my run, deciding instead to go later in the morning, once we'd moved to Tarifa, in the hope that I would have livened up by then.
We arrived at the Aire in Tarifa at just after 0930, by which time I'd realised the problem with our timing. The Aire here is manned, but only from 0930-1300 and 1930-2300*, and to stop people sneaking in to use the service point without paying, they have put the facilities behind a high fence and gate, which is locked when the site is unmanned. A good way of stopping service point theft, but inconvenient for those staying here, especially if you want to use the service point before you leave, and you want to leave early. If our ticket expired at 0940 and there was someone ahead of us in the queue for the service point at 0930, we wouldn't be able to use it before we left. So, rather than pulling straight in here, we parked in a car park across the road and had a cup of tea first.
I commented whilst sitting across the road that there was absolutely nothing stopping us from staying where we were. Indeed, it turns out that there are many free places one can park in Tarifa. €8, including use of the service point is not, however, an outrageous charge, hence this is where we've chosen to stay.
Tarifa is the town at the southernmost tip of mainland Europe, it marks the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, is the closest place in Europe to Africa, and it is reputedly the windiest place in Europe. The latter snippet of information perhaps made it ill-advised to come here for a run. At least only half of it had the wind against us!
Running across the causeway with the Med on the right and the Atlantic on the left
The windiness makes it a popular place for kite- and wind-surfers.
Massive beach!
Our beachside run had taken us close to the southernmost tip of the continent, past the castle and through a nature reserve, giving us a good first feel of the place. We approved and were happy that we'd committed to two nights on arrival.
It was lunchtime by the time we were back at Bertie, and the birthday boy's choice was that we would go out to eat. Having already eaten two massive lunches out this week, and with this being a special occasion, we weren't after a cheapie menu del día. Instead I did a few minutes of research and found a couple of well-reviewed restaurants in town where we hoped to be able to have something small but tasty. The first place was rejected for its outdoor tables being in the shade and fully in the wind. The second one was busy, but we nabbed their last kinda-outdoor table (it was under an enclosed canopy).
It took us an age to chose what to order, as we had no idea what the portion sizes would be. In the end we settled on four dishes, which I think would have been appropriate, if it hadn't been for the freebie dishes that the restaurant gave out to all diners. As it was, we couldn't manage a pudding and came away every bit as stuffed as if we had eaten a three-course menu del día.
I didn't take any decent photos. The first one here is to illustrate the 'undertable' - when there was no longer any room on top of the table, the dishes that came next got put on a shelf under the table. The second snap was just after the final dish was delivered when I caught Mick seemingly thinking "We really don't need this one".
A round of 'Feliz Cumpleaños' was sung just as we were about to leave. A nice touch for Mick, even if it was intended for the 93-year-old lady on the next table. I suspect that if we had stayed a little longer we may have been able to wangle a slice of the cake that was served to her.
Nothing else has occurred this afternoon. We've been sitting around reading whilst digesting our food-babies.
Weather: A few high clouds, but I didn't notice any of them blocking the sun. Warm enough when in the sun and out of the wind.
Last night's parking spot had been excellent during the day and I'm sure would be fine most nights too. However, it turned out to be a surprisingly busy place on a Friday night, such that at midnight I was not only awake but searching the map to see if there was anywhere else we could go for the rest of the night.
I place no blame on the people causing the main disturbance, which was a car full of lads, with their engine running, playing music, occasionally singing, and often opening and closing the car's doors. The music wasn't being played loud enough to disturb anyone but those trying to sleep just a few feet away, and it was entirely our fault that we were trying to sleep in a car park. The problem with these situations is that you have no idea whether they're going to last a short while (=may as well sit it out) or for most of the night (=would rather be somewhere else).
I didn't check the time when they left (by which time we were twitching the blinds to observe them, as if that would give us a clue as to how long they intended to stay), but I reckon they were there for about an hour. Why they needed to leave the engine running all that time, I know not. Maybe they'd got a dicky battery or starter motor...
Peace finally reigned and eventually, in the early hours, to sleep we went, only for the alarm to sound what felt like five minutes later. I didn't feel inclined to jump up and head out for my run, deciding instead to go later in the morning, once we'd moved to Tarifa, in the hope that I would have livened up by then.
We arrived at the Aire in Tarifa at just after 0930, by which time I'd realised the problem with our timing. The Aire here is manned, but only from 0930-1300 and 1930-2300*, and to stop people sneaking in to use the service point without paying, they have put the facilities behind a high fence and gate, which is locked when the site is unmanned. A good way of stopping service point theft, but inconvenient for those staying here, especially if you want to use the service point before you leave, and you want to leave early. If our ticket expired at 0940 and there was someone ahead of us in the queue for the service point at 0930, we wouldn't be able to use it before we left. So, rather than pulling straight in here, we parked in a car park across the road and had a cup of tea first.
I commented whilst sitting across the road that there was absolutely nothing stopping us from staying where we were. Indeed, it turns out that there are many free places one can park in Tarifa. €8, including use of the service point is not, however, an outrageous charge, hence this is where we've chosen to stay.
Tarifa is the town at the southernmost tip of mainland Europe, it marks the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, is the closest place in Europe to Africa, and it is reputedly the windiest place in Europe. The latter snippet of information perhaps made it ill-advised to come here for a run. At least only half of it had the wind against us!
Our beachside run had taken us close to the southernmost tip of the continent, past the castle and through a nature reserve, giving us a good first feel of the place. We approved and were happy that we'd committed to two nights on arrival.
It was lunchtime by the time we were back at Bertie, and the birthday boy's choice was that we would go out to eat. Having already eaten two massive lunches out this week, and with this being a special occasion, we weren't after a cheapie menu del día. Instead I did a few minutes of research and found a couple of well-reviewed restaurants in town where we hoped to be able to have something small but tasty. The first place was rejected for its outdoor tables being in the shade and fully in the wind. The second one was busy, but we nabbed their last kinda-outdoor table (it was under an enclosed canopy).
It took us an age to chose what to order, as we had no idea what the portion sizes would be. In the end we settled on four dishes, which I think would have been appropriate, if it hadn't been for the freebie dishes that the restaurant gave out to all diners. As it was, we couldn't manage a pudding and came away every bit as stuffed as if we had eaten a three-course menu del día.
A round of 'Feliz Cumpleaños' was sung just as we were about to leave. A nice touch for Mick, even if it was intended for the 93-year-old lady on the next table. I suspect that if we had stayed a little longer we may have been able to wangle a slice of the cake that was served to her.
Nothing else has occurred this afternoon. We've been sitting around reading whilst digesting our food-babies.
(*Our arrival time turned out to be a non-issue for three reasons: 1) I had the opening time slightly wrong - it was 0900, not 0930; 2) the entrance/exit is entirely manual, so I'm sure we wouldn't be charged extra if we were a few minutes late leaving due to a service point queue; and 3) Even though we drove in at 1030, the guardian wrote the expiry time of 1100 on our ticket.)
Some developments in the English language don't always please (going forward) but your introduction of "undertable" is brilliant. We are all wondering what Putin's undertable is hiding.
ReplyDeleteMick and I (surely in common with most married couples) have a dictionary all of our own. I'm not sure you'd approve of our verb 'to dejumper', but perhaps more inventive is the daily activity of 'plumptiating', which is to make up our porridge for the next morning the night before so that the sultanas plump up overnight. There are many more I could name.
DeleteBravo!
Delete