Last night

We are now exactly back where we started five weeks ago.
Not in the same room but only three floors lower.
Almost the same temperature, too, 15C but tonight we are wearing our fleeces then we were definitely not.
Then we were fairly ignorant of the ways of the Spanish although we thought otherwise.
Our experiences had been built up over weeks of package holidays over years and years.

Tonight we strolled the Tapas Bars, ate some amazing things, fortunately we have come to recognise some and are brave enough to try the others. Even the black stuff with orange sauce dribbling out from under it with added olives was a delight.

Down in the more fashionable parts we could have paid three or four times as much as we noted earlier in our perambulations through that more fashionable district. As it was a few "pints" and umpteen Tapas and we have dined and drunk for much less than the fish and chips we'll probably have tomorrow night.

Spanish Spain is a delight. And the locals love it when "inglaterras" try to adopt their ways and customs no matter how unsuccessfully. One bonus of being foreigners is that they bring the Tapas tray to you first when it's full so you get first choice. We learnt earlier to look at what goes first but to be honest I don't think there's anything you wouldn't try and I suspect that even the octopus doesn't look like an octopus! Thinking about it the black stuff may well have been squid fried in squid ink!

We still can't speak the language but we get by and would get by better if they would only speak slower but we intend to learn a bit more of it just like we meant to last year, the year before, too and thinking about it, every year before that for at least the last decade. Just as well so many of them speak brilliant English and the ones who don't can still speak English far better than I can speak Spanish.

This whole experience has been most excellent and I could quite easily do it all over again starting from now. However, we're booked on a flight tomorrow and if everything continues to happen as smoothly as it has thus far we'll be getting wet and blown about by mid afternoon.

Can't wait.