473: It was all June's fault!

Is there such a relationship as a cousin-in-law? If there is then I've got one whose name is June. She and my cousin Steve have just celebrated being married 38 years. Quite impressive, although I can beat that by a country mile. Anyway, I was reading June's FB status and got the distinct impression that they were celebrating in their Spanish residence, in an urbanisation not far from Mazarron. She confirmed this and said "come down for a brew". So I did. A bit more than 'a brew'.

Salou to Mazarron by car is 540 kms and takes about 5 hours by car. But I don't have a car (in Spain) so I thought to make an adventure of it by train and bus. Left Salou last Wednesday and returned yesterday (Sunday). Overnight stays in Albacete, Cartagena, with Steve & June, & Murcia.  Lots of fast food because it's available when I want it, rather than having to adjust to Spanish meal times. A lovely BBQ with Steve & June, on their roof terrace.

Let the pictures do the talking:

Albacete (in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha)

Brekkers: croissant with 'mermelada'

Catedral de San Juan Batista

In Parque Lineal. One of a series of impressive displays of the different planets in our solar system. Should we bring in sharia law for graffiti 'artists'?

Carthagena (in the Murcia region)

I'm going to hang a sign round my neck "No me gustan las aceitunas"

Steve & June. On Friday afternoon they took me to the site of a disused fort with 2 enormous guns set up in 1936 to protect Cartagena. A hair-raising drive along narrow twisty-turny roads up the side of a mountain with a car seemingly coming the other way every time we came to a corner. I'm glad Steve was driving and not me.  

made in Sheffield in 1927!

 There are more and better pictures, and an explanation, here.

Murcia

Two pieces of luck on Saturday. Firstly, Steve drove me to the nearest bus stop to them so that I could catch the 09:40 to Mazarron (and then another bus to Cartagenia and yet another to Murcia). The 09:40 didn't turn up and, just as I was about to ask Steve if he would be kind enough to drive me to Mazarron, a bus turned up and took me directly to Murcia. Great. The second piece of luck is that the hotel in Murcia very kindly allowed me to check-in early. Marvellous. Turned out I was on the conference/congress side of town. I'm very pleased I was in the 5-storey Hotal Azarbe rather than the 5-million-storey hotel opposite!