It's that time of year again......

Moros y Cristianos
Or, in English, Moors and Christians is a specular celebration held in many different Spanish towns and villages. This festival acts out a part of Spanish history demonstrating the battles between the Arabs and the Christians that took place in the region centuries ago.

Soldiers march, sergeants wave to the crowds and horsemen show off their skills.

Just one example of subjects for a photography holiday in Spain.

We visited our neighbouring village of Benicolet last evening....























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To the top!!!

Today we climbed a mountain! Well, to be precise we walked up a mountain. Benicadell rises to over 3000ft and has a very sheer side that involves special climbing skills and a more gently sloping side that has become our top walk!

Keith, Alison and Sandra are visiting their home-from-home in Montichelvo this week and they love walking as much as we do. In fact it was Keith and Ali that first showed us a track up into the mountains of the Penyes Albas behind our village last year. So we decided to tackle Benicadell as a group, Caroline and I had made the summit before, in January, but it was to be a first for our friends.



We drove up to a refuge on the side of the mountain and started our walk from there. Moderate to hard going would be an honest description of the tracks that lead to the top but after an hour and a half of good healthy exercise we made it!





The scenery is truly breathtaking with 100 km views in all directions. We sat and ate our packed lunches at a comfortable spot just below the summit.



We were then treated to a fantastic display of ridge-soaring by two large eagles who came into view at a height lower than us, but soon swirled round and round in the gentle up-currents and moved away into the distance high above us – a very special moment and a great time to share with friends. (Click to photo for a larger view, although you may still not be able to make out the eagles – they are right in the centre, honest!)





When we got bored with the scenery (NOT!) we made our descent via a “Nevera” which is an igloo-like building built of stone for storing ice centuries ago.

Back in the car we called in at Beniatjar for a much deserved cold beer – a real “Ice Cold in Alex” moment, and the locals, not used to seeing strangers in their village, were entertaining to say the least…..

There is a wealth of information about Benicadell and the towns that surround it here http://www.valldalbaida.com/rutes/benicadell_en.php (this should show as a link that you can click on but,for some reason you will have to copy and paste the webaddress into your browser window to get to the website)

How quickly Spring heads towards Summer!

To make the most of some quiet time between guests and the lovely weather we popped into Gandia and then spent a relaxing afternoon at a beach side restaurant and then onto the beach at Daimus which is about 20 minutes from Casa Blanca Rural. In Gandia the temperature was an impressive 29 degrees


and the wonderful scent from the roadside orange blossom was almost overpowering.

Daimus is a small town just south of Gandia. There are numerous bars and restaurants serving traditional tapas and main meal dishes, not quite as cheap as inland prices but very good value nonetheless. We enjoyed a couple of ice cold beers and tapas for two for the equivalent of about £10 at Tapas Rigo sitting outside at a table on the promenade watching the sea and the world passing by.

With a light breeze, sitting on the beach was a real pleasure. The beach is very clean, well maintained and has as much personal space as anyone could want. In fact when we left at about 4 o'clock ours were the only footprints to be seen.