Spain - Part 2

Tom's new favourite food

Sunday dawned nice and sunny.  We decided to go on a walk from the villa.  We had tried to find out about local walks in the area, but to no avail.  We aren't sure how walking works here, has all land got public right of way, or are you liable to get into trouble for walking through someone's olive grove?  Not sure.  We made a few false starts walking up what we thought were tracks only to discover they were people's driveways, but we managed a semi-interesting walk in the end.  A little boy, however, didn't enjoy himself and grizzled all the way round, until we found some windfall oranges which we rolled down the road, that was fun, but the rest wasn't.  Oh and we said hello to Mr Horse and the goats that live just down the road from us.  Tom was straight in and stroked the horse's head - we couldn't believe it - so he can be brave when he wants to be.

When we got back to the villa we discovered that we were almost out of beer - not a good situation, so we went into Frig to get some more.  We found a shop that was open, but we couldn't find anywhere to park our car, the town was seriously full.  So, we ended up down in Nerja as the supermarkets there are on this side of town.  The supermarkets there were closed.  Oh hum, so we ended up in the town again.  By now it was lunch time, so we decided to go back to the bakers and get some pastries to eat overlooking the sea.  This we did.  Tom seemed to eat more than either of us, focusing on a rather lovely Quiche Lorraine of which Matt and I only managed one bite each.  We then got ourselves an ice cream each.  Tom said he wanted a pink ice cream, so I got a fruits of the forest one.  This he liked very much - in fact I think he had more than me - he has certainly got to like ice cream on this holiday.

We then came home, Tom had his nap and we spent the afternoon playing by the pool, Tom once again using his potty when he needed a wee - what a good boy.

Pool time

Monday - another big moment in Tom's life - this morning he did a poo in his potty - Matt and I were very excited.  We are getting there.  As it dawned clear, hot and blue, we decided to go down to the beach.  So we packed up and went down to the Playa de Burriana which was a nice enough beach, some stones, but mainly sand.  He sat ourselves down close to the sea and started to play.  Matt took Tom down to the sea, from which I heard almighty screams - Tom went absolutely mad.  He showed himself to be absolutely terrified and this was with Matt holding him, not dunking him.  Tom wouldn't calm down at all so in the end we had to give up.  Luckily he was happy enough playing in the sand so we let him do so.  What made it worse was there was a little German girl a year younger than him on the beach having a wonderful time running about and playing in the sea.  She really wanted Tom to play with her, but he did his usual shy, clingy routine and wouldn't.  He was interested in her though, watching her from a distance and when she had all her clothes off, he decided to do the same and stripped down.  He finally went over to say hello, but wouldn't play, he would only watch.  He even got given some food by her parents, but wouldn't eat it, would only hold it.  What a shame.  He could have had a wonderful time playing with her.  Oh well, silly boy!  After Paulina had left the beach, we decided to give up and have lunch at one of the seaside restaurants. We slightly over-ordered, still haven't got to grips with how Spanish menus work, ended up with a huge portion of calamari, a huge huge portion of chips and half a chicken, baked potato and veggies.   Then it was back to the villa, nap, playtime round the pool, dinner and bed.

Frigiliana playground

Tuesday we decided to go back for a wander through Frig as we only scratched the surface last time.  We took it easy, Tom was in a good mood, so we took advantage of it and strolled around at his pace.  We looked around the shops and found some bits and pieces we liked.  Matt got his holiday T-shirt (the only time he buys clothes is on holiday).  Had a sit down, drink and ice cream in a cafe overlooking the gorge (guess who ate most of the ice-cream?!) then some more exploring before finding a restaurant where we ordered a paella for lunch (Tom ate more than his fair share - "nice rice") and then we explored the upper part of the old town.  Wow - I thought the lower street was nice, but the upper street was unbelievably pretty.  The locals obviously take great pride in their town as it was immaculate, little white washed houses in narrow cobbled streets, plants outside, a really nice atmostphere.  Tom even got cooed over by an old woman sitting in her porch, he was on good form though as we had to climb some steep steps - he didn't complain once, which is unlike him and a very pleasant change.  Then it was back to the villa for the afternoon routine.

Wednesday it dawned cloudy.  We hoped it would clear up over breakfast but it didn't.  Whilst outside Tom had his first accident in a couple of days which was a shame, but to be expected.  We decided to go exploring today, so took the road out of Frig and drove the windy roads to Torrox.  We then went to find a beach to play on, but they were all stoney, so we drove back to Nerja and went back to Monday's beach.  Tom still wouldn't go anywhere near the sea, but was happy to play with the sand.  At one stage, Matt and I were making sandcastles and playing football, whilst Tom was lying on the beach - isn't it supposed to be the other way round?  Trust us to have a child who is scared of sandcastles!!!!!

El Acebuchal - 'The Lost Village'

After an hour or so we packed up and headed back to the track on which our villa is located, but this time carried on to El Acebuchal - a hamlet up and then down a narrow windy track.  We had been recommended lunch there.  Wow!  What a place.  It has a horrible history where all the men and boys were shot during the civil war and the place was then abandoned until 1998, when an old villager decided to rebuild his family house, which sparked others to do the same and now it is the prettiest of places.  There is one restaurant there serving home cooked rustic spanish food.  The menu sounded wonderful, I couldn't decide so asked the waiter to decide for me.  Matt ordered lamb in a cinnamon sauce - which turned out to be really sweet and almondy but in a nice way.  Our meals arrived, and they were gorgeous, my first ever wild boar was lovely, Tom liked both our meals too (how many 2 year olds have had wild boar?).  We decided to try dessert and were treated to home made chocolate ice cream with big white chocolate buttons in it (Matt was in heaven) and a huge lump of date cake (Tom was in heaven).  What a place.