As well as eating and drinking and generally celebrating Nik’s half century, we have had a couple of days out as well, some which didn’t even involve going to a supermarket. Yesterday we went to the seaside resort of Tossa de Mar (Tossa by the Sea) and it didn’t matter how long we were there, dad and I never got sick of muttering “he’s a tossa” or such like.  Its name is a bit of a shame as it is actually the more refined, less commercial of the two main resorts on the Costa Brava, the other being Lloret del Mar. It’s a bit like Southport is to Blackpool; Cromer is to Great Yarmouth; Poole is to Bournemouth; Llandudno is to Rhyl or….or….sorry, desperately trying to think of a Scottish equivalent…nope…no good…drawn a blank…hold on….got it…what Ballamory is to Loch Ness. (I think I got away with that.)

The reason why fewer people visit Tossa compared to Lloret is probably the road. It’s a main road, but a real “curvy, wurvy, sicky, icky” road with lots of bends and changes in height. Somewhat light-headed, you arrive in Tossa to be greeted by the car parks which charge you 3 Euros an hour to park. Tossas. There is an old medieval part and and a modern part which looks like any other Spanish resort, minus the high rises. The old part is really lovely, unless you are a bit iffy on your knees. The Spanish do seem to like paving very steep narrow alleyways with pebbles on their sides which get shinier and smoother over time to create a wonderful ski slope effect. They look pretty, but are also just an episode of Casualty waiting to happen.

I think mum is getting used to us challenging her. The other day, we went to Girona and walked around the ancient city walls. Again if you think about it, ancient walls are not known for their escalators and so mum scrambled up stone steps, used dad as a rest coming down steps and if the steps were too big she literally just jumped down from one to the next. At one point she was like a human slinky.  I really hope her knees aren’t like the hire car and have some sort of maximum mileage or fair usage policy as I think she might be out of warranty after this holiday.

As I write this,we are virtually packed (well most of us are…Nik’s got bored halfway through and has come down for a beer). This is our last night, as tomorrow we return home. We are now eating up all the food that is left over (whilst wondering whether doubling up was such a good idea). By this time tomorrow I’ll see if Storm Aileen has turned my fence panels into kindling. It’s been fun for us here, I hope it has been for you reading it. Mine and Karen’s next trip is to Copenhagen in December. Expect a lot of blogging as we won’t be able to afford to go out.

El fin