A weekend away

Last weekend Rich and I decided to use the voucher I'd been given my class at Christmas and have a night away.  We stayed in a tiny little village called Benissoda which was beautiful, quiet and very welcoming.  I didn't take any pictures of the hotel for some reason but here you have some of us on the terrace before and after dinner.

   

Dinner and breakfast were included and the food was pretty nice so it made for a very cheap stay.

Ooh look, I did take 1 hotel picture.  It was all very nice, very simple and modern and I loved it. 

Last weekend was particularly amazing weather (summer really has hit here) so we decided that while we had a rental car, to head to Denia (on the coast) as well to explore.  I'm so glad we did, it was a lovely place.

We stayed at the 4* Daniya Spa and Business Hotel for only €71 and it was the perfect night away of total holiday relaxation.  I mean, just look at our view from our room.

We really treated it like a mini holiday,as I badly needed to relax and unwind.  Lots of nice food, lots of wine and a few mojitos and G&Ts too....

Saturday was spent drinking and sunbathing by the lovely pool and then out for dinner while on Sunday we headed to the local beach, just across the road before a delicious Italian late lunch and the trip home.

I practically had to be dragged away from Denia as I could have quite happily spent a week relaxing at the lovely hotel and on that beach.  

We do have the next holiday to look forward to though as we have now booked Rome in July!  Roll on summer....

Party Time

Last night we headed down to the beach for dinner and drinks as Kirstie from work was turning 30.  I loved the restaurant, Atuaire, which serves amazing salads, delicious burgers and scrummy puddings as well as delicious cocktails. I recommend the Bellinis!

Rich's rum and coke was epic!

We then headed down to the port and danced our socks off at Lay Down.

We crawled into bed at 4am, early by Valencian standards, but after a mega busy week, it was definitely late enough for me!

Visitors!

Last Friday saw the arrival of Rich's parents for 6 days, all of which absolutely flew by, and also the arrival of our summer weather.

We spent a lot of time in the sunshine, at the beach, in the park and in town and even more time eating and drinking.  It was a great trip!

I took a few pictures so here we are...

We went to Xativa on the Saturday in glorious sunshine .

The walk up to the castle is such a beautiful one but it was hot so we took our time and enjoyed the churches on the way.  They have some statutes set up for their local celebrations through the summer.

The huge G&T was very welcome after such a long walk!

We visited in October for the first time but I was thrilled to be back, it's such a lovely town and the view from the top of the castle is stunning. 

After a siesta we headed to dinner at Bacco (an Italian restaurant that sort of looks like a beautiful cave) and then for G&Ts at doce Gin Club where Jan, Les and I had to choose from a menu of 250 gins.  Tough work I'm sure you'll agree!

On Sunday we headed to the Bioparc for Jan and Les' first visit.  We managed to be there in time to see the gorillas being fed, which in all our 10 or so visits, Rich and I hadn't seen before.

I'm always fascinated to see what's new and the baby gorilla is certainly an adorable addition to the park!

I think they both really enjoyed the visit.  We  then headed to the beach for paella where I forgot to take any pictures and then in the evening (after another much needed siesta) we headed to the international Festival in the park for mojitos and a light dinner.

After our mojitos, pizza, crepes and sausages (not all together) we enjoyed the dancers from around the world.

It seems I only took pictures of the weekend, but we saw out the week by eating at some delicious restaurants and drinking more mojitos.  They really were the drink of the holiday!

I absolutely love planning for when people come to stay and then seeing how much they enjoy all of the great things we have here.  I'm so glad they enjoyed their week and now I'm starting to think of the things that we can do with my parents in 2 weeks and my friends Lucy and Olly in 3 weeks.  There's always something going on here!