Spring Break

There nothing we like better than a bit of a road trip. We have done quite a few in Australia, France, UK and of course Spain. We still have a lot of Spain to see and whenever we do plan a trip we always look for hotels in Spain online. its such a great way to find what you want. its so easy to search via location, facilities and price. We have found that Hotels in Spain have been pretty bang to rights with online descriptions and if you google map the address and but the wee man on the map you can also see exactly what the local area is like. That can be very helpful when you are arriving too as you have a clear picture of what the place looks like from the outside. Whether we are looking for a simple hostel or a little bit of luxury we have always found it via an online search. We also look at places to eat near the hotel and places of interest in the town we are going to stay in. Often hotels will serve good food too and not to over the top on price either. So excuse me the sun is shining and I think I will just do a bit of surfing, the web that is.

A Brit In Spain to Oz

The beginning of February we are heading of to Australia to visit our family on the outskirts of Melbourne, this is going to be a long stay and we will be having a holiday on the Mornington Peninsular with Emma and having one or two adventures on our own, we have already planned a tour of the west coast of Australia starting in Perth rangeing south for a few days then up to the north of Perth, Arranging car hire and accommodation on the internet makes it so easy.
Bec suggested we carry on writing the Blog from Oz which we certainly will do, the laptop will accompany us this time, as there is plenty of internet access. so it will be “A Brit in Spain” in Oz and hopefully we can keep you up to date with our adventures, with plenty of Pics and maybe one or two videos.

Fire Fire!!

We have been experiencing some seriously hot weather in the last few weeks and everywhere is tinder dry. There seems to be little warning here of what must be a real danger of wild fires. We are very aware of what this can mean, as our eldest daughter lives in the state of Victoria in Australia and last year we all had weeks of anxiety as fires raged all around the area she lives in, evacuation was necessary on one occasion.
However as I say we do not see many signs of official advice on what to do or indeed what not to do. I know some of the public BBQs have police tape around them and notices that they cannot be used so that's one thing at least. It appears that there are less firework displays too though there are some going on.
Other parts of spain are having large forest fires and four Fire fighters were killed near Tarragona with another two injured. There was a fire near Benidorm recently which thankfully was quickly brought under control. It surprises us that towns do not have signs saying total fire ban day etc.
The job of preventing fires is really down to us all though, in Australia property owners constantly make sure that little or no rubbish around that could help a fire spread.
Careless actions like throwing lighted cigarettes from your car or as you are out walking could so easily result in a fire starting. Leaving glass lying around in the sun is another potential hazard.
Like the Health and safety rule says, look in the mirror and you will see the person with the responsibility your health and safety.

Even today in the Vega baja area the skies where full of dark brown smoke so do check you insurance, rural properties are most at risk.

The time has flown

Well here we are with a few days left in Australia, we have had a great time, visited four states and seen a lot of towns, country and wildlife, the weather the last few weeks has been similar to British summer, so when we get back to Spain we will have the hot weather again.
Not had a lot of time to update A Brit In Spain, but have no doubt there will be plenty of local news to comment on and photos as soon as we get back.

A Brit in Australia

Well we have been in Oz now for 11 days, took 2 days to get properly over the jet lag,and it was not too bad. When we first arrived the temperature was in the high 30s for several days, but it has cooled of a bit and there has been some much needed rain, all the family are well and its great to see them all including our new grand daughter, we have just spent a week at Lake Eildon, but did not see much of the lake as it is only at 17% of its capacity, the bird life is fantastic with many different types of parrots around. The Kookaburras are so friendly and inquisative that you can get really close to them. More news soon....