We wanted to go somewhere different, and so, we ventured to Jaen (pronounced in a Southern Draaawl, Heyen!) – the olive oil capital of Spain, producing more than the whole of Italy, and 40% of Spain’s. An impressive accolade, but sadly, probably the only notable one for Jaen. It had a lofty Parador from which to peruse the miles and miles of surrounding olive groves,and an impressive cathedral but,mainly, it is a very good base from which to see other, much more handsome towns, eg. Ubeda and Baeza.

That said, I was very happy to meet Travi (which apparently means naughty in Spanish), my host in Jaen. He didn’t seem to know how to play with other furries so I gave him a crash course!

One of the privileges of my trip is having fans come out to visit, or, indeed to meet old Chums of my Mums,and subsequently charm them, too. Such was the case of the Lady from Queens Drive, who my Mums hadn’t seen for over 10 years, and with whom they re-booted their friendship in Jaen!

And then, we were off to Malaga via the airport, where we picked up one of Brodie’s Mums (an ex GF – Brodie, not the Mums!).The best bit was that I got to sit on MJ’s knee whilst DIBz got folded up in the back with my bed and all our luggage, as well as hers! Malaga was a sort of revelation – city and beach, with Tapas, bars, culture, art, Tapas, bars, street art, buskers, fab market, Tapas and bars!! You’ll notice, there’s a theme, there!

As you all know the name of this blog is “Europete”, but it might have been “Trans-Continental Pete” if only I could’ve popped across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangiers from our next stop, Tarifa. Sadly, that wasn’t to be, but the view from our gaff was incredible – lots of grass to play ball on whilst looking at mountains in Africa!

It was all going very well, until MN noticed a small black passenger on my front leg….luckily the additional medicine I’d been taking meant that the tick was dead. Unfortunately, though, it was still embedded, so a trip to the nice Spanish vet was required. He showed my Mums how to use the tweezeery thing and removed the dead so’n’so, commenting that it had a nice complexion as my Mums had used Sudocrem to try and suffocate it! (not knowing it had ceased to be, already!) I came away with a new anti-tick collar and some treats, and my Mums with a hefty bill! Hopefully, there won’t be any more such visits and I shall remain tickety -boo! We were all super excited to have another log burner (having had one in Jaén,too) – we miss our fire at home! And it did get a little chilly in the eves so we snuggled up with the fire blazing!

Tarifa town was OK, but we loved Bolonia with its’ amazingly long beaches and dunes. MJ pretended to be cultural and visited the Roman ruins at Baela Claudia but there was a good bit afterwards, when we went for a long walk and played ball on the beach, seeing lots and lots of kite and wind surfers.

There was even time for some swift refreshment!

Our 3 days in our secluded coastal get away were over very quickly and then it was time to start the celebrations for MN’s Birthday!
We headed to Jerez de la Frontera and stayed in a loft that wouldn’t have been out of place in somewhere called New York City – I have this on good advice as I’ve only ever been to the original one!

Anyway, it was pretty cool, though I was disappointed not to be allowed to go for a dip in the pool! Jerez was a place to wander and to wonder at why some places had been left derelict whilst others took your breath, they were so beautiful. One of the highlights of our visit was me being able to accompany my Mums on their sherry pairing tasting menu Bday dinner – that’s a mouthful! And theirs were pretty much, constantly full – with their 5 courses! Ah,well, it was a special occasion! The most special that it was a very pleasant change for me to be welcomed into such a swish establishment,and I repaid them by sprucing up and wearing my dickie-bow!

Now, some of you know that my English Grandma Eileen had a saying that “once you’ve found somewhere you like…”, meaning that returning to a place was perfectly acceptable, if you had enjoyed it the first time. And so, we bade a fond farewell to Jerez de la Frontera,and bade a second, hearty hola to Cádiz! My Mums had booked an apartment that had a parking space nearby. MN carefully navigated the one way system and we found the garage, manoeuvred in (always tense because of the roof-box!) and we fitted! Hurrah! But then couldn’t fit under the roof of the garage at the bottom of the slope…BOO! Mums swung into action to remove contents of and, said roof-box. Then, it turned out that the car was just too big for the allotted space, so after many expletives and a lot of stress, the roofbox was re-attached and we ended up in the same garage as our first visit,for about eleventy billion more Euros! Heyho! There’s something about Cadiz – stunning architecture, a mahoosive sandy beach along the new part of town, it’s just magical. Even with our bijou accommodation which basically meant that we were sleeping about a metre away from traffic going very fast down our one way street, it was just fantastic,and my Mums got to try a trendy Tapas bar that I allowed them to visit on their own – well, I was shattered! All that ball playing on the beach and in the Plazas!

They were also allowed out to visit the Torre Tavira with a camera obscura which was pretty cool and they got some great shots of the city. They even talked about living there!

And then, that was it, apart from a slight detour to El Rocio – think the Wild West meets Lourdes!

Our time in Andalusia had come to an end,and Spain’s Iberian cousin, Portugal, beckoned us back, because, as we know…”Once you’ve found somewhere you like…!”