Didn't make any plans for today, so we had a walk up to the new bus station this morning to have a nosey around and look where the buses are going to.....Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Paris are just a few destinations.

Whilst we were there, my friend phoned and we ended up having a run in the countryside and then back to Polop, but I was really annoyed with myself because I have two camcorder batteries on the go and I usually charge one up as one depletes, but I forgot to put it on charge last night and the battery in the camcorder was nearly empty...so I ended up with 2 empty batteries in Polop. Arrgggghhhhhhhhh For security reasons, I only leave the camcorder on charge whilst we are in the room and I usually charge during the night, but I just got into bed last night and forgot.

The sun was shining this morning and I thought we were looking at a lovely day, but by 1pm the clouds built up and down came the rain....its been raining all afternoon.

Whilst I was in Guadalest, I bought some Nispero honey for my porridge, that I have for breakfast every day in the Uk and I was undecided whether to buy some rosemary honey too....they also produce lavendar honey in this region as both rosemary and lavendar grow wild freely.
I was telling Roberto (who works in the Hotel Regente) and where he lives, just outside benidorm, his friend has bee hives to produced this honey, and bless him, he brought me a jar of the stuff this morning as a present....How sweet of him.
So, I've now got 2 jars of honey to wrap up well in the suitcase.

Nispero fruit is like a plum sized apricot with a distinctive sweet taste and they are widely grown in the Costa Blanca, and from afar they look like small oranges, but they are Nispero fruit.
Millions of them are exported to Japan because the Japonese regard them as an aphrodisiac and they eat them with the skins intact, but any Spaniard worth his salt, will tell you to peel them because the skin can give you an upset stomach and the poos.

From memory, I think they are called Medler fruit in English.

It looks like we will be staying in tonight, but I don't mind as my feet have done far too much walking again.
Dave's in bed having a siesta, but if I spend too much time in bed, then I can't sleep at night, so I've put a fortune in this computer to bore you all to death, instead.
I think we are going to Valencia tomorrow, so the camcorder is charging up, whilst Dave snores away.

Bye for now

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Sanji,I have ejoyed reading your daily reports and they have made me want to visit Benidorm again.Our friends who are in Blackpool for New Year have asked us to go to Benidorm with them next New Year but I think we will be paying a visit there soon!Enjoy the rest of your holiday,Jay

Hi everyone in Benidorm sorry for been a bit but Hola from Snowy Leeds. Our son is outside having a whale of a time.

Sue

Snowy leeds
I'm absolutely cream crackered, we have been to Valencia today and I think we have passed every orange grove in the Costa Blanca.....miles and miles of them, as far as the eye can see...all the way from Benidorm until you get within a mile of the city.
We went into the cathedral, it is 4€ or 2.70€ for children and pensioners...that's me

They give you a little dictaphone type of thing with head sets in your language and as you go around the cathedral (which is all numbered) then you press the appropriate number on the keypad to hear information, when you get to number 18, this chapel holds the holy grail that Christ used ...or believed to have used.

A beautiful place, but you need more than a day.
I think tomorrow is going to be a rest day, I think we both need a day to just do absolutely nothing because we just seem to have never sat still on this holiday.

Forgot to say on my previous post that the honey that Roberto brought me was Rosemary, so I now have Nispero and rosemary to try when I make my porridge next week.

I've been through more villages and seen so many things, that my head is spinning with things to remember.

Bye for now

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello Sanji,

Good to hear you are having a good time!!. We flew back last night and really enjoyed our break, the exchange rate was a shocker and hopefully will improve by April for our next visit. I was suprised the time that we were over in Beni how empty the bars on Calle Gerona were and some were closing early and they were saying it was the emptiest it had been at new year for years. Still we had some great nights out in the old town which was a change from the usual bars. Anyway enjoy the rest of your holiday and hopefull the rain from Wednesday has all gone!.

Hiya folks.
I'm using the internet from a Dutch bar on levante promenade because they are continuing laying the new floor in the Regente and someone pull the computer station out for the workers and also pulled the wires in the wall socket.

Sam
I think most bars would be empty on New Years eve as I guess the majority of people would be sat around a table in the hotel having their gala meal and the ones in apartments will have got tickets to get into places like the White Horse, Plaza and the Triangle.
It really does baffle me when people say it's quiet

I missed the rain in Benidorm on Wednesday as I went to Valencia that day and there was no rain there

We are going to take it easy today as we have to trek up to the old town around 6pm to get a good spot for the Three Kings Parade.
It's busy today and the sun is shining, people are sunbathing on the beach, it's a grand day, yesterday was also a brilliant day (weather wise) but I wish I could say the same for the exchange rate it's 132 euros again today.
I was reading in the local rag that the mayor has had enough of the bad image of Benidorm that is being constantly portrayed by the various forms of media, Benidorm uncovered, Benidorm the series and people exaggerating the crime statistics.

Petty crime is happening and I'd be a fool to deny it isn't, but compared to the number of people in the resort and the size of the resort. then it is about time it was put into perspective.

We have walked the length and breath of Benidorm during the last 10 days and we have ventured into places that most tourists never see.....we have seen no trouble or had anyone step into my personnel space....and we have felt as safe in Benidorm as any foreign town or city.

Someone in my hotel had their purse nicked in John and Josephs,we came down the lift with them and they were telling everyone their sad tale of woe, but considering that they have been walking around for the last week from breakfast to bedtime in an alcohol enduced stupor, then I'm not surprised, infact it's a wonder they have managed to find their way back to the hotel...
If you want to make yourself a sitting target and a victim, then you will greatly increase your chances of becoming one......I have very little time or sympathy for them, sorry.

Righty ho, I'd better get out in this sunshine, it looks like Dave has finished his bottle of beer......

Bye for now

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

We are just on our way back to the hotel, having videod the three kings parade.
My hand is frozen from holding the camcorder the route has been changed this year and the procession finishes in the park now, instead of Triangle Square, with a fantastic fireworks display that seemed to come out of the town hall building...very moving experience, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

I got a good shot of the fireworks by standing on top of a central heating vent for some building, then Dave and another bloke helped me get back down.....I'm getting to old to be standing on plastic chairs and climbing buildings, and I had to pay 5 euros for the plastic chair.!

The three kings didn't arrive on camels this year because of some animal rights group and there were very few animals in the parade because of this.
The kings arrived on floats, I prefer the camels personally.

I've a lot of editing to do when I get home, I've filled two tapes up already. the old town looks lovely with all the christmas lights.

Dave's just having a brandy to warm himself up in this bar and then we will make the journey up the drag, back to the hotel Regente.

Byeeeeeeeeee
Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello Sanji

Have been following your holiday reports with great interest. It feels almost like being there in Benidorm. Thanks for all your postings - I really enjoy them.

Keep up the good work!!

Lin

Sanji wrote:

The three kings didn't arrive on camels this year because of some animal rights group and there were very few animals in the parade because of this.
The kings arrived on floats, I prefer the camels personally.

How ironic, when they kill bulls on a regular basis. But then, that's tradition for you.
I do wish that they would stop the bullfights.

Hola Sanji

Ive been follwing your day reports too ive really enjoyed reading them,

Danny

Yesterday was the best day as far as the weather is concerned, it was in the high seventies and we walked to Dove park and then caught a bus to Cala Finestrat.

People were sunbathing/in the sea and the resort was busy with most places already occupied in the front line cafe's.
we then took a walk into the Hotel Bali and went up the lift to the Panoramic viewing point....that's a bit of a rip off at 5 euros each and even though it was a perfect day to view the Costa Blanca, I still didn't see Ibiza. but you could see all the coast as far as Calpe in one direction and past Alicante in the other direction.

I don't like the hotel Bali, it reminds me of airport hotels for business people, with no atmosphere at all and very austere....you're just a number in there, or atleast that's how it appears to me.

Last night we were in bed early as both of us have started with a cold and we are coughing and sneezing like two old crocks. we dosed ourselves up with "beechams " tablets and got in bed to get warm and get rid of the shivers.
I think we have both pushed it too far this holiday, but enjoyed every minute, it would do my "head in" to sit around the hotel all day long and then in the concert room all night, but each to their own, as they say.
It's a lovely day today and I've just changed my last traveller's cheques at the "Barrel"......132 euros to the pound for either cheques or cash.

Planning on doing absolutely Ziltch today and walk nowhere.

Pebbles, there is a law now in Spain which forbids animals being used as performing animals, there were a couple of camels being "walked" in the parade, but it is forbidden to ride them......
Whilst I enjoyed the fireworks, the actual parade was a dissapointment compared to previous parades because of the obvious lack of animals, although the geese were there again this year, but I could have quite easily missed the 3 kings if I was looking for them arriving on camels, when they arrived on some silly float that was featured in last years parade.
It seems to get smaller each year.
Bye for now

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hola from cold Yorkshire.
We landed back last night around 9pm and after clearing customs, we walked outside into a snow blizzard that passed through East Midlands and it went as quickly as it came.
The taxi driver was late because there had been an accident on the M1 south bound, so we were blinking physically shivering by the time we got into the car.
We turned the key to my house and both went straight upstairs and got into bed....it had been one long day.

I had to go to the farmacia in Beni yesterday morning and buy some Amoxicilina for Dave and some Doxiciclina antibiotics for myself, we both have come back with a chest infection, (a red nose and looking as white as a ghost) but, I'm not surprised as we have been in lifts, buses, coaches, planes and other places where people were coughing their guts up.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts from Benidorm, I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing or just boring you all to death.? but as I don't drink alcohol (I just don't like it) and there is only so much coffee, water, pop and tea that I can drink, then I usually find a computer to pass a little time away, while my hubby gets inebriated, when he thinks I'm not looking.
When I've sorted the washing and feeling a little better, then I'll start on the video's.

Besos x
Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Sorry you're feeling poorly Sanji, but at least it didn't seem to mar your holiday.

Can you still buy antibiotics over the counter in Spain? I thought they stopped that a couple of years ago so haven't tried since.

luci

Sorry you're feeling poorly Sanji, but at least it didn't seem to mar your holiday.

Can you still buy antibiotics over the counter in Spain? I thought they stopped that a couple of years ago so haven't tried since.

Thanks Luci, luckily we didn't start with the "cold" until Sunday, as we came home on the Tuesday, but it was obvious that we both had more than a few mere sniffles by Tuesday morning.

Antibiotics.? yes you are correct, they had a clamp down on being able to buy them as easily as smarties, as medical science has proven that the over use of antibiotics in the past, has led to what we all now refer to, as superbugs.

This "law" came into force in February 2007 and whilst in Benidorm in December 2006, I brought back a good stock of antibiotics for various members of my family, who would have paid over £6 for an NHS prescription, and the cost was 2.39 euros (£1.50) for a course of the same tablets....I purchased enough antibiotics to start my own pharmacy without any problems from the farmacia on Avda Mediterraneo.

I presumed the same as you, that I wouldn't be able to buy any, as the proposals in the new "law" stated that you had to go through a doctor in future to obtain them.....
I was annoyed that I had packed everything but antibiotics, I had forgotten that I had slung the ones we usually keep in the case, in the bin, after the Costa del Sol trip in September because they were now "out of date".....and I should have known better, not to replace them, there and then
I had no problem buying both types of antibiotics on Tuesday morning from the Farmacia next to the Eurotabac shop, just down from the hotel Regente.

I wouldn't advocate people rushing off and buying antibiotics, but if you're like me and know what the doctor in the Uk will prescribe without even seeing you and know that you have a chest infection, then why not.?

I can't take Amoxicillin, I'm allergic to Penicillin, so my GP (for years), always prescribes Doxycycline, which by the way, you should avoid sunbathing when taking and it impairs the effectiveness of the contraceptive pill.
It saved messing about trying to get to the doctors this morning and started the treatment a day earlier....although now I'm turned 60, I no longer pay for NHS prescriptions, but it's just a pain and a car journey to the surgery, when the last thing you want to do, is go out into the cold.

HTH's
Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello Sanji
Welcome back to chilly uk!
Sorry to hear you are both poorly and hope you will soon be better.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts from Benidorm, I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing or just boring you all to death.?

I am sure I am correct in saying that we certainly do not find your posts boring, and I have a look most days to see what you have been up to whilst in Benidorm. I am looking forward to your videos.
As you know we are returning to Benidorm in three weeks time and then I may be seeking your advice as I am planning the Costa del Sol for May.
Get well soon!
Sue

Thanks Sanji, will remember that for next time we're in Spain.

I too try to avoid taking antibiotics, but I often suffer from dental abcesses and need the full 500mg amoxycillin ASAP if I get one. I suffered so often on holiday that the dentist used to give me a prescription before I went on holiday so I would have them handy. Wouldn't dream of taking them for the common cold, but there are times when they are necessary.

I could wait 3 weeks for an appointment to see my own GP and a good few days to see my dentist, even though it was an emergency so there are times when it is right to self medicate.

luci

This "law" came into force in February 2007 and whilst in Benidorm in December 2006

That should read February 2006 and December 2005, but due to a temporary hitch that Van is working on, I've been unable to edit it.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

hya sanjiiiiii
i love reading your reports get me excited and ready for my visit on feb 5th cant wait
looking forward to the next video
from pat