Early Friday morning,
not too long after daylight, saw us
driving up the road to La Garnatilla to collect our son from Villa
Tranquila where he had been resting and recovering for the past week from a
very stressful job back in the old country.
He was due to meet the love of his life who would be jetting into Malaga
mid morning. She, unfortunately, could
only manage two days away from the cold winds and rain so we were hoping that
the next two days were going to be as warm and as sunny as usual.
The new flyover on
the Puntalon/ La Garnatilla road is almost completed and looks as if it will be
in use in a few days which means, we think, that work will be commencing
underneath on this long awaited stretch of the A7/E15 coast motorway. Yes, we read that the work was about to
re-commence but…….
well, it has been
years now since it was promised.
All aboard, the
going was good, not much traffic about and we took our time.
It’s a pleasant,
scenic drive along the coastal motorway to Malaga with plenty of sea views and
wide sweeps of the sea to enjoy.
After dropping the
lad off at ‘arrivals’ in plenty of time to find his hire car, we wound our way
back down to the motorway and off at the next junction where we actually
managed to go round the roundabout only twice this time before finding the exit we needed. I remembered, on our previous visit to Ikea,
we reached Torremolinos, having missed
the motorway exit altogether and sailed past the giant Ikea warehouse, before
we could turn about.
Ages later,
carrying things we didn’t know we had needed and not finding the very thing we
intended to buy, we exited the store seriously in need of refreshment. Only
someone exiting the desert with a terrible thirst would want to drink the coke
or coffee on offer in the store.
Back in the car we
headed west, herself determined to seek out the ‘Iceland’ that has been the
talk of Motril for some time now. ‘Have
you been to Iceland?’ seems to be the
latest question on everyone’s lips or,
‘so and so’ went to ‘Iceland’ with the Club last week……
Himself thought it was situated around about
Fuengirola so, after reaching Mijas Costa, some considerable distance past
Fuengirola, we decided it was time to turn back.
Much later we
suddenly pulled into the underground car park at a huge shopping complex with
thousands of cars. Herself became quite agitated at this sudden and undiscussed decision and
as she wasn’t sure we were where we should have been anyway, we turned around
and pulled out again.
Driving around,
himself spotted a small sign that said ‘Iceland’ so we drove back into the
underground car park and parked.
Up the escalator
and out into the surprisingly uncrowded shopping mall, we spotted a large map on
which we located our destination before heading off for a much needed
drink. Finding a very attractive
looking KFC we ordered a meal sat down
with our drinks and waited…and waited…and waited.
Over twenty
minutes later arrived a freshly cooked chicken burger and some underdone chips. A lesson not to be repeated.
Feeling stronger we headed for ‘Iceland’ only to find that it wasn’t where it should
have been and after walking around the area for a while and re- discovering the
‘map’ and then discovering that we were lacking map reading skills, also discovered
that ‘Iceland’ was somewhere outside the shopping
mall altogether.
Back down to the
car park.
We did find it
eventually and were even luckier to find a parking space as by this time we could
quite easily have given up the search and headed for home.
‘Iceland’ was
heaving, bursting at the seams. A couple
were fighting with another couple over the frozen bacon packs. Some of the freezers and food sections were
all but empty. The heat from all those bodies had sent the
temperature rocketing and the checkout queue seemed a mile long.
Were we glad to
get out of there.
I can’t say that we won’t ever go back but
right now it’s very unlikely.
Layla & Dobby
dogs gave us a huge welcome home.
Himself found his sunglasses chewed up and one or the other had torn up
a newspaper and spread it about but it was a relief to find that no large holes
had been dug anywhere.
Three hours later
we were spruced up and on our way to a merry party. Arriving home again well
after midnight we received another warm doggy welcome and all seemed well until…………
Next morning
around 10 am there was a knock on the gate.
Himself answered the door as usual and was greeted by the resident
Paying Guest who complained that our dogs had not stopped barking yesterday,
all day long and then all night!
Himself promised
that it would not happen again.
.
Now, if we want to
go out anywhere together, we will have to take Layla & Dobby along with us. Our resident Paying Guests are here for the
next eleven weeks so, no more ' Days Out'
for us for a while!
