Spain 2012 Part 4

As we were only an hour away from Barcelona, Steve, Nicola, Kate and Dan took a day trip to the city where they were entertained by street performers, delighted by the markets and wowed by the Gaudi Cathedral. Mike and I decided not to go as the trains from our resort were completely in accessible but he’s promised me a weekend there soon (you’re all my witnesses!)

Mike booked a 24km bike ride on the mountains surrounding our resort aptly named the Downhill Bike Ride; he says the views were amazing and his tour guides Sean and Rob made the whole trip humorous and a must do in Salou.

So while our travellers were out exploring I had lunch with my Mum and the kids followed by a couple of hours in the indoor pool. By this point of the trip Spains’ weather had started to match England’s so a heated pool was just what we needed, in those couple of hours Charley and Koran who I’d hardly seen all week due to their love of the kids club got over their fear of going under water and every two minutes I’d hear “Lynsey....Lynsey.... LYNSEY!!! Watch!!” as they swam and occasionally sank lol!!

Charley - not drowning!

The evening was a quiet affair since most of our group were tired from their days out.

The following day we went back to Aquapolis attempting to get tans and this time trying not to hurt myself; I managed 4 slides before doing so – an incredible feat I think, I whacked my back on the way down a lethal yellow beast this time (such a delicate flower – I know!).

In the evening I was medicated up to the eye balls but we thought it a great idea to go on a night out with our hotel reps!!

After dinner and tarting ourselves up; we headed to Chaplins where we were greeted with cherry shots and Jamie from Channel 4’s Seven Dwarfs who was comparing in the club. I had a little chat with him about the show and his work at Chaplins and found out they’re filming a second series of Seven Dwarfs – cannot wait!

The evenings first drinking game involved Mike, Steve, Dan and a guy who is now known as Random Ginger, with their tops off, pints in their hands when they were told they’d have to lick armpits and kiss each other (pecks!) – I almost choked on my drink at this point! To be fair that was the most tame of the drinking games of the night; I didn’t participate – just took the photo’s muhahahahahahaha <- evil laugh!

Oh dear

From Chaplins we went to four other pubs/clubs called; Christy’s Irish Bar, Kiss, Bus Stop and 007 – where Mike started another conga line which this time headed out of the club and I, at one point was left on my tod waiting for them all to come back!!

In the moment.....

Being typically English we had chips on the way home and I was tucked in bed by 2am.

L x

Spain 2012 Part 3

Aquapolis

As part of our package in Spain we had unlimited entry into the water park next door called Aquapolis. With numerous pools, tons of slides, waterfalls, fountains and kids toys, not to mention the dolphins and seal enclosure it’s a fun place to be!

The pools were initially freezing, but once you got used to them you were fine, most of the slides have a lot of stairs to get to top so I avoided those to play with my nieces in the kids pool but what did I do? Fell over in 20 inches of water, bruising, my arm, hips and breaking a toe (crushing my dignity at the same time with a major wedgie implanting itself firmly where the sun doesn’t shine!).

So after de-wedgie-ing myself I sat by pool side munching on pain medication whilst watching the others swam, slipped, slid and most importantly not killing themselves!

R-L: Mike, Dan, Steve & Kate

(Saving ourselves a fortune having the Aquapolis in our package was slightly marred when each of our sun loungers were 5 euro’s each and lockers were 9 Euros each so be warned!)

House of Illusions

Mike, Steven, Nicola, Kate, Dan and I had booked ourselves tickets to the House of Illusions, a spectacular magic show that had me completely speechless and dumbfounded.

When we arrived the hostess’ told us that if we each paid an extra 5 Euro’s we had a front row table with unlimited champagne, beer and wine; well, it would have been rude not to! Plus if you ask your taxi driver for a receipt from Estival Park everyone gets a free drink on arrival – boozy bonus!

Going into the venue we were greeted by Matt Wright – I think possibly one of the best magicians I have ever seen (including those on TV). Whilst waiting to go into the main room he treated us to a session of close up magic. I can’t even begin explain the tricks to you, I suppose that’s the point!!

Along with Matt Wright we saw David Taylor, Matthew Fraser, Dan Allam, Luke Cook and Glenn Bonnar doing some of the most amazing tricks we had all seen including;

My brother being called up and come on to by a gay Wizard Puppet who proceed to read his and Kate’s minds.

A woman being cut in half but there was no box or saws only lasers across middle then suddenly her legs were on one side of the stage and her unfazed head and body were on the other!

Matt Fraser hammered a nail into his nose!

And at one point there was a lady floating mid air!

I don’t want to give too much away in case any of you are lucky enough to go see this truly spectacular show (so no pictures – sorry!) it’s well worth every penny and I would go back a million times to try work out how it’s all done!

Back at the Hotel....

After the show we got a taxi back to the hotel where the hotel night club was still open; I can’t work out if the staff loved or hated us when we have the entire club do a conga line and a huge (Mike lead) gathering of the Cha Cha slide!

Very much worse for wear (sometimes I’m thankful for my wheelchair!) we got into bed around 4am!

L x

Spain 2012 Part 2

On day two of our holiday Charley and Koran were dying to go to the kids club where today’s theme was pirates (I think the rest of us wanted to join in too, sadly the club was for 12yrs and under, although my 22yr old sister might just have passed for that!) the rest of us took a lovely accessible bus to the town of Tarragona.

Tarragona is south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, famous for the Roman ruins held under the care of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and it’s beautiful cathedral.

Tarragona Cathedral

We.... ok I, took a lot of photo’s in Tarragona as there a beautiful authentic Spanish buildings and houses surrounding the cathedral, although Mike and Steve were more amazed that you could buy all the flavours of Cheeto’s from a shop there – it’s like travelling with monkeys.

Streets of Tarragona

Collecting our wannabe Pirates from kids club we headed for dinner where I feasted on sea snails, octopus and shell fish; my nieces and nephews are so good with their food they happily tried octopus tentacle salad and loved it!

We took the kids to the onsite disco where they boogied to their hearts content, as did us adults doing an action perfect rendition of the Superman song you know the one; sneeze, ring the bell, kiss.............SUPERMAN!

Sleep!

Once my Mum and the kids had gone to bed we headed to park 2 (we were staying in No. 1) were we saw a frickin awesome cover band called Reservoir Rocks; queue an evening of green cocktails, Beatles/Kings of Leon/Rolling Stones etc covers and some hot moved from us lot! The night ended with Dan in a huge terracotta pot... as you do! 

Dan in a Pot

L x