Nottingham to Moraira

We'd been up all night, finishing a bunch of chores, letters, paying bills, filling the pond (!). So we were exhausted by the time we reached the airport. And Ralph was hatching a cold.

We flew BMI Baby to Alicante, then drove a rented car to our villa, calling in at a Carrefour superstore on the fringe of Benidorm on the way to stock up with essentials. Ralph was on the point of common cold collapse when we arrived, and, being male, he spent the rest of the evening groaning and sipping beer and catching up with three days' worth of newspapers.

The villa is great — spacious and clean and well-appointed. It is in a Mediterranean suburb of second homes, most of them empty at this time of year, and looks out over the curve of a bay.

For both of us it is an early night...

sunset from our balcony