Little Britain!!!

Friday 9th November 2018 - Benidorm to Mazarron 

We have spent two nights at a site in Benidorm.  We felt compelled to come and see the place for ourselves.  I have commented that the resorts we have visited so far have been deserted....Benidorm is bustling, positively heaving in comparison.

The site we are on seems well organised but it obviously a site that has a lot of long term residents in caravans, motorhomes and cabins, most of them seem to be older British people although there are some other nationalities as well.  We have met up again with Andy and Heather who we had met at the site in Valencia.  I gave them a surname of Frankia as that is the make of their motorhome and I didn't know their proper surname.  They seem to be doing the same style of motorhoming and travelling as us and we have enjoyed their company.

We didn't waste much time before cycling down into Benidorm to see what it was like.  It seems that the tv programme  'Benidorm' is very much based on the real thing.  The nearest of the two large beaches was full and the bars and restaurants were doing plenty of trade.  There were lots of English voices and the bars etc were certainly catering for the Brits with English Pubs dotted around.

We have  reliably been told that Benidorm is third in the league table of European cities with the highest number of skyscrapers.  This photo is of the smaller beach!  The clientele seemed to be a little on the elderly and obese side!  There is a roaring trade in the hire of motability scooters with at least one parked outside every bar.  We even saw plenty of double/tandem scooters.......

Think of this photo as a glimpse into the future!!  Imagine that is Janice driving and me  as the passenger...( Madge and Mel)?.scary isn't it? We/They are even being stalked by a clown!

Back to the present.....Janice is getting a 4 gun salute.

All humanity seems to be here and there must be services for all the needs of the British abroad.  We even listed to a radio station that was in English with English news.  Don't get me wrong, Benidorm itself is not tacky.  Everything seems to be well maintained the promenades and beaches are fantastic and the bars seem to be good with reasonable prices.  Competition must be fierce.  Benidorm appeals to its target audience and it does it well.  The more we saw the more we liked it.....but probably only for a limited period.

Yesterday, we went for a big walk with Andy and Heather up to a large Cross and along a ridge to L'Alfas, just north of Benidorm with stunning views.

We climbed to only 436 metres but the route was up and down so many times that we could hardly remember and the hills were sometimes scrambles.  We must have climbed that height at least 5 times over....in other words it was like climbing a very tall mountain.  The views were stunning in every direction.  It was also probably the hottest day so far and we worked up a good sweat (well at least me and Andy did, the girls were too ladylike).  We descended into L'Alfas for beers and sangria and we caught the bus back to Benidorm.  Andy had to sneak their dog onto the bus in his ruck sac which gave us some amusement as dogs were prohibited from the buses.

We made a major decision to go to a cabaret show at the Benidorm Palace in the evening.  Our tickets included a four course dinner and wine before the show and they cost 52 euro each.  We were told to dress in 'smart casuals' so I put on my best trainers, jeans and T shirt.  We didn't know quite what to expect but it turned out to be a great night of entertainment of high quality.  The food was pretty good too...not so sure about the wine as I had a bad head this morning....maybe it was the free cava they served in addition to the free wine!

The caberet included a good band, singer, bike stunt rider, fantastic juggler, big magical tricks (with fire sometimes), acrobatics and a really professional large group of dancers.

The place was really busy and as we left we saw that a long line of coaches were transporting the audience back to hotels in the area.  I can't imagine getting a better cabaret performance anywhere outside Las Vegas.  We got back to the motorhome after 1am, we had a good 5-6 hours of entertainment, well worth our ticket price.

Benidorm is a Little Britain but it is a little bit like the comedy series 'Little Britain' because of the combination of parody characters that stay and holiday here.  We loved it......will we come back?  Maybe in a tandem motability scooter......I just need to buy my Union Jack bandana!

We had a slow start this morning...due to my head!  We said our goodbyes to Andy and Heather, you never know we may meet up again further south.  If our fridge breaks down I will drive straight to where they are staying because Andy has a method of getting them to work...it sounds drastic but he takes them out, turns them upside down for a few minutes and then puts them back in the right way around.  A sure fire method.

We have driven further south to visit some friends Alison (nickname Daisy) and Helen who have a house in Murcia near a town called Mazarron.