Dénia

Monday: Ting-ting! 

Oh! It’s a message from Brittany Ferries.

“You know that ferry to Spain you booked for Wednesday? Well there’s a big storm coming in so we’re sailing on Tuesday instead. Just thought we’d let you know.”

Tuesday: Ting-ting!

“You know we said we were sailing on Tuesday? Well we still are, but much later than we said. But we still need you to check in at the original time. Yeah, you can just sit for three or four hours in the queue at the port. Oh, and the café will be closed. Probs a good idea to book a hotel in Santander as we’ll be well late getting there.”

Wednesday: Ting-ting!

“Ha ha! Hope the sea-sickness isn’t too bad folks! You know we said we’d be late into Santander? Well we have to go round this storm which will take us another twelve hours. So that hotel you booked online? Best cancel it as we’ll be arriving at 7 in the morning. Oh, and there’s no internet by the way, soz!”

So welcome to yet another trip full of mayhem and disaster!

How have you been? It’s a looong time since we last spoke. Nothing personal, but we haven’t really been doing much in the way of Vince travels this summer. The odd weekend here, an occasional family visit there. Not the sort of stuff you’d find too interesting I suspect.

Even with this trip I’m talking to you under false pretences. It was supposed to be six weeks-ish travelling down through France to Spain for a little autumn sunshine, good food and a general lazy time of it. But we’d put our apartment up for sale a few weeks earlier, as you do, just to see what the market was like. 

Our estate agent said not to have any unrealistic expectations… slow market… cost of living crisis… may take a while… expect low offers etc. So we thought stuff it, let’s go to Spain and leave them to it. But. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of viewings, and within a couple of weeks we had an offer. 

If you’ve been with us since we started these ramblings, when we sold the forever home of over 20 years to downsize and go travelling, this will be the fourth prospective home we’ve had to find! And that doesn’t include several months living in Vince between houses.

All I can say is that this time it’ll be the last one for a while. Probably.

Anyway, with having to deal with the sale and all the solicitor stuff, not to mention finding a new house pretty quickly and getting things moving on the purchase, we missed our 6 week window for travelling with Vince. We need to be back a couple of weeks before Christmas to fit in with family plans.

What to do?

The way these things often happen, a coincidental email from Brittany Ferries landed in my inbox saying “Fancy four weeks in the sun? Ferries included?”

When we did the arithmetic, taking the car over and staying in an apart-hotel worked out significantly cheaper than Vince’s ferry tickets alone. Sorry old chap; no more Travels With Vince, this time it’s Vacaciones con Juan Tiguan!

So here we are in Denia, on the east coast of Spain just north of Javea and a half hour tram ride from (whisper) Benidorm. You may remember we stayed here briefly some time ago (click here) and liked the area very much. This time at least, we won’t be sleeping in a supermarket car park!

An apart-hotel is a new concept for us. We’re staying at the Ona Ogisaka Garden where we have a teeny-tiny kitchen area, a living area with sofas and a TV (120 channels, all in Spanish) a bedroom and a bathroom. All very civilised. The complex has indoor and outdoor pools, a gym (haha!) a sauna and a restaurant & bar. 

As we speak we’re looking up the various activities and attractions in the area. It’s a trip with a difference; the jury’s out on whether this will be better than a Vince trip, worse, or just different…

We’ll let you know how it’s going soon 🙂

As always, a click or a tap on any image will reveal it in all its glory.