Camera Club BBQ

Yesterday Allen & I went to a Camera Club barbecue with Rod & Maxine. It was held at the Grand Designs house "La Pedrera". We could all remember the house being featured on the TV show so it was interesting to see it up close.

The house has a large 2 tier swimming pool connected with a slide.

It overlooks a lake & scrubland with not a neighbour in sight.

Before & after the barbecue the men took part in a photo treasure hunt. They were given a topic & then they had 15 minutes to go take 1 photo, before returning & having it loaded into the computer. They did 2 of these before the food was served and another 2 afterwards. They will learn their fate on Tuesday evening at the last camera club meeting of the summer.

While we were eating there were a couple of largish lizards appeared & wandered around under chairs & tables. Of course with so many photographers there they must have thought they were film stars.









Medieval Fair

About a month ago we decided to go to a medieval fair which was being held in nearby Orihuela. It was located in the narrow streets just off the town centre. The streets had been strewn with straw & all the stall holders were in medieval costumes.

I stupidly said to Allen - why are they all dressed in Moorish costumes then realised that in medieval times Spain was under the rule of the Moors, duh!

There were bakers making bread in wood ovens, huge cakes where you just bought portions & cheesemakers.

Food was being served from huge barbecues which had very large hunks of meat on. A bowman was shooting arrows from a long bow at a target at least 30 metres away & hitting it!

An assortment of the photos Allen took:-

Free Day Out

On Monday, we went on a free bus trip to Novelda, courtesy of the Alicante government.  

Saw two beautiful Modernist houses built between 1900 & 1903 by a lady who wanted everyone to know how much she was worth and by heck she must have been worth a hell of a lot.  

There was loads of Art Nouveau decoration and just like me my thoughts turned to card decorations.

After a quick cup of coffee it was off to the castle and sanctuary, which is actually a church.  The church is built in the same style as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but unlike that one the Novelda one is finished.  

A local artisan is currently constructing an organ for the church. It will be completely made of marble, which is produced in that area.  It is quite a long way from completion but they have about 2 dozen of the pipes connected up to a small organ and the sound was amazing.  They have a model of how it will look when it is finished.

Must make a note to go back once it is completed to hear it.  The acoustics in the church should be amazing.

Next stop on our journey was a winery, where we were shown around the production processes - no free samples at this stage.

Then into the restaurant of the winery for a typical Spanish lunch - 3 hours later and after 10 bottles of wine on our table for the other 9 as I was on water there was the opportunity to purchase some wine to take home!

Back onto the bus for the journey home and we were returned to Torrevieja, some happy and some very, very happy travellers.