After leaving Barcelona, we went to Valencia for one night. When we arrived, the woman we stayed quite graciously helped us with our bags, but then told us we needed to leave the next morning about 9:30 a.m. because she does not leave people alone in her apartment when she is gone and that she had to leave for appointments to teach English. I negotiated with her to allow us to stay until 9:45 a.m. She then showed us where we could buy our fruit for our next morning’s breakfast. After purchasing our fruit from the Indian grocer, whose wife had a beautiful dress, she then took us to a lovely small restaurant near her apartment, where we could eat dinner. We ate some grilled vegetables, water, and I can’t remember what else. We then walked back to her apartment and went to bed.
Before falling asleep, Marlene speculated reason why the woman we were staying with wanted us out so early was because she had read the rather short, negative review by Isabel from Madrid. I suggested we confront the situation, which we did. It turned out the woman had read the review but had read some of the positive reviews, so she did not take the negative and false criticisms seriously. The next morning, I cut up our fruit and an extra banana the woman gave us, ate our breakfast with the woman and another roommate of hers us and then the woman helped us with our bags back to the car. We were out of the apartment by 9 a.m.
We were now on our way to a bed and breakfast near Cartagena for another one night’s stay, before driving to Granada. Marlene told me the proprietor of the bed and breakfast we were to stay at told her that he was not going to bed home until 2 p.m. We arrived about noon which was probably Cartagena, but we could not verify it. We used the GPS to find a restaurant and parked the car. Unfortunately, the restaurant no longer existed, however, we saw an English Court store across the way, a bank also, and another restaurant, so we stayed. I first got some cash out of the ATM and then we walked over to the restaurant, where we ate. For the first time I ate some Imprador (This spelling may be incorrect and I don’t know the English translation.) fish. It was an off-white fish, which reminded me of albacore tuna. It was absolutely delicious. The restaurant we ate at had a covered outside patio near the street corner. It was a delightful lunch outside, but a little windy. Besides the fish, I had some water and some of Marlene’s potatoes and a sampling of her desert. The desert was custard with vanilla and a cookie on top. We then walked over the English Court, found the grocery story down below, just like in Madrid, and bought our groceries. I needed to urinate, so I found the bathroom in the store. Walking through the store, I found a bakery, a restaurant, and pet supplies. This is one stop shopping! After urinating, I stopped at the bakery and bought a loaf of bread.
We drove to where the GPS told us where the Perez Guest Houses were. No entrance existed. The GPS was incorrect. We called the owner. He found us we then followed him to his residence. The owner and his wife were what I called authentic without airs. They were themselves without any façade. They were British, more particularly from York. We were the only guests. We had a large spacious room with the bathroom a short distance down the hall. The place during our short stay reminded me of a place for writers to go to write their great American novel, because it was so quiet and peaceful. Of course, that notion is a myth, because good writers write everyday regardless of the circumstances. After breakfast, we left for Granada.
Barry Saks 
Leave a Reply