Having already spent a month here in February, we settled back into the villa at Benidoleig very quickly and this time no worries about keeping warm.  The spring weather is lovely with temperatures around 25 degrees – the scent of orange blossom is everywhere and Derek is back in his shorts – all is well!

Derek catches up with work!

Supper outside

We’ve slipped into a nice easy pattern of spending the mornings catching up with website work and housekeeping, lunch on the terrace and out for a walk, cycle or a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon.  We’re really seeing the house at its best at this time of year – it’s a lovely, cool retreat inside with the sun getting quite hot during the day.

It’s warm enough to eat all meals outside and to stay on the terrace until it gets dark – the long, sunny days are just lovely.

Pockets full of flapjacks!

Derek has been out cycling every day conquering the hill climbs including Col de Rates again.  This is partly in preparation for meeting up with Shipston Cycling Club in Mallorca over Easter for a training week.  During a stroll around the nearby little town of Xalo, we discovered a bike shop getting ready to open at the weekend – Derek bought some new bib shorts and got 10% discount for being their first customer!

Cycling is incredibly popular in this area and Derek’s bike rides have the added bonus that he spots potential walks.  We did quite an elevated circular route today out of a pretty village called Castell de Castells.

We’ve also sampled tea and carrot cake at Citrus Cafe and met up with Carl at La Marina shopping centre to pick up our ‘package’ of new bank cards which Martin sent to Danny and then the good folks at AlwaysRiding sent out to Carl’s office in Spain for us.  Thanks to all involved – we can now keep on top of matters financial.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of cooking again and even made some flapjacks for Derek to use as sustenance on long bike rides – the first baking I’ve done since last October!  Also had another culinary disaster with bony lamb – cuts of meat are very different here and I got it wrong again.  Had a nice lunch out today at Citrus Cafe sitting outside watching the world go by and listening to the many English voices.

Tomorrow is packing up day.  We are leaving the roof box and some of our more wintery clothes here at the villa while we are in Mallorca for 10 days.  The ferry goes from Denia which is about 20 mins drive so we will pick it all up on the way back.  We’ve really enjoyed the week here and the cycling in this area has been a revelation for Derek – calm, warm weather, smooth roads, great scenery, respect from motorists,  loads of other cyclists around and a real sense of a cycling culture.

Next stop – Mallorca – another cycling adventure!