Home, sweet home after a GREAT vacation !!!

The rain in Spain seems to indeed fall mainly in the plains, because I just enjoyed two weeks of wonderful sunshine by the Costa Blanca. We were staying in a sommer house just outside the town Torrevieja, courtesy of Ragnar's parents (my sister's boyfriend). It was simply wonderful. The house itself was great, there was a small swimmingpool that kept the girls occupied for hours and lots of opportunities and activities in the surrounding area. We travelled around a lot, we visited the cities Benidorm, Alicante, Murcia, Alcoi, Orihuela (very briefly when we got lost the first night :)) and Cartagena. We drove through many small villages, saw a lot of the countryside and the mountains. We visited a small mountain village called Guadalest, famed for its castle fortress built on a rock. It was very nice, but we only got to see half of it, cause the villagers close the castle area at 19:00 ! Mrrrd. We also visited a magnificent dropstone cave, Coves del Canelobre. It was great, only the coloured artificial lightning and classical music played by tape was a little too cloying. One of the first things we did was to sail to a small island called Tabarca. The sea around the island is a natural park, in the sea-grass a lot of fish species can be found. Hilda and Guðlaug went snorkeling and saw a lot of fish, but us grown-ups were rather miffed because of the horrible toilet accomodation. Hello, nobody told those islanders that the toiletpaper has been invented ??? We took the girls to a great park called Terra Mitica, where they happily enjoyed sometimes scary (according to me) rides all day. A great family park with something for everyone. My favourite excursion of all was to a place not so much visited by tourists. Under a cliff hanging at La Sarga, 10 km from Alcoi, we climbed up a steep hill to see some faded rock paintings some 7000 years old. It was so amazing to see these pictures, drawn by prehistoric men so long gone. Not by far the greatest site of its kind in a country awash with prehistoric paintings and remains of human settlement, but very modest and altogether very satisfying in a way I can't begin to describe. The biologist Svava also enjoyed some nice sights in this trip. I saw the following birds for the first time: Flamengo (flæmingi), Collared dove (tyrkjadúfa), Whiskered tern (skeggþerna), Black-winged stilt (háleggur), Avocet (bjúgnefja) and last but not least Hoopoe (herfugl). I also got to see a cockroach for the first time, albeit a little too close for comfort, since it was inside our house ! Yes, a great great holiday ! My wonderful nephew Ólafur Steinar also made every day great, high high cuteness factor ! Almost 10 months old, blue eyes and blond hair, he also made quite an impression on the spaniards, everywere we went people just loved him and gave him presents even ! Wunderbar :-) Yet still, it is great to be back. So, now to sleep to relax after a long journey. Tah dah !