Jaunting and Jollies

I've finally been away this year - and to two places in Europe in two weeks
The dh and I wizzed off to Valenca to visit our old friends from the pub in Benington who moved to Spain earlier this year. They now live in an aincent hill village an hour or so from Valencia and it was so emotional seeing them waitng at the airport for us. Their house is a typical village house and hundreds of years old, all nooks and crannies and hidden courtyards, as a designer I loved it. We were taken all over the area, to mountain viewpoints a castle topped hill town where the houses were built into the hillside (literally - when the owners wanted more rooms they tunnelled back into the mountain!) We ate really well - since Barb was the pub's chef! and had a fab tapas meal at a bar on the dh's birthday, with battered calamari to die for! Another visit was to the local Bodega/Cooperativa to buy wine and local honey. 'Oh', I said after we got back to the house. 'We can't take it back to the UK it's a liquid!' And we had 10 litres of wine in boxes. 'No problem,' said the dh. He took all the shoes out of the case and packed the lot. Needless to say I gave dire threats about what would happen if my clothes were covered with wine, but despite being JUST on the weight we made it back. The wine is great and the honey the best I've ever tasted!