January 10, 2011

La Manga Revisited

So it was back to Monday and we had to get back to our normal grind.  After a visit to the gym Larry and I went off to school and worked on the classroom for a while before class started.  We have hit a steady stride of working about 45 minutes between trips to the hardware store.  I don’t want to suffer career burn out.

After class we went off to La Manga for another grand lunch.  Dolores wanted to take some supplies out to the school there.  We also had taken all of the candy canes off of our Christmas tree to give to the kids out there.  (Thank you Ray and Liz. I am getting good mileage out of that tree).  The school in La Manga is one of Dolores’s projects.  Those kids have so little it is amazing that any of them get any education at all.

La Maestra Isabel with one of her studetns

The Student at the chalk board

The school room for 16 students

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The computer room

The entire school room

After our visit we went on to the restaurant for lunch.  La Manga does do the fresh sea food very well.  After raw oysters I had a toasted pregnant which they call “The Embarrassment” It is shrimp and crab piled on top of a tostado.  Then I had a shrimp cocktail that was out of this world.  Everyone else had dishes that were ever bit as good as mine.

We got back to the casa and I studied a little.  At sundown we went off to Froggy’s to watch the NCAA championship game. Congrats to the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks for putting on a good show.   Froggy’s is a sports bar and there was one other person besides the three of us watching the game.  The staff there was waiting for us to leave so they could close up.  Things are very quiet in San Carlos on a Monday night.

Froggy's

The best thing about taking your children, family, and friends on holiday and staying the week in our La Manga apartments is that you will have no end of fun. Let the kids play in the pool whilst you sunbathe at the pool side with your friends. Let all of your stresses drain away in the knowledge that you have chosen our La Manga apartments for your holiday this year La Manga Strip Mar Menor offers adventure, culture and entertainment in one exciting trip. The famous la manga strip along the southeastern coast of Spain offers activities that appeal to young and old. Family holidays in La Manga del Mar Menor offer adventure, culture and entertainment in one exciting trip.

The famous strip along the southeastern coast of Spain offers activities that appeal to young and old. The region kitchen, hot water and recreational activities make it the perfect place for a family holiday. La Manga del Mar Menor is a 22 km strip of land between Spain and the Mediterranean. Due to its unique location, the largest saltwater lake in Europe comprises’s Lake, Mar Menor. The temperature is much warmer than its larger cousin, the Mediterranean Sea. The strip is a few kilometers with the widest and 300 meters at its narrowest point. It gives visitors a choice of two different sizes of water for swimming and where to play.

♬ Aware of Thorns

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It can | It is

We can | We can be

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100412-181426 7D48 La Manga walk [Tr2]

Spain is located in south-western Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar, the capital is Madrid. France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay are north and to the west is the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France.

For those looking for a beach holiday, there are excellent beaches to be found near Malaga, Huelva and Almería in the south and near the coasts of La Manga, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Euskadi. For the livelier there are plenty of crowded beaches on the Costa de la Luz and the Costa del Sol.

For those who want to soak up some culture, unique architecture can be found in Córdoba, Salamanca, Granada, Toledo, Madrid. Antoni Gaudí’s architecture can be found in Barcelona, along with the Picasso museum, and Madrid is home to Spain’s top three art museums.

Spain holidays will cater to many different tastes including walking in the fabulous countryside, especially around the Aragón area. Andalucía has the Sierra Nevada mountain chain and offers skiing resorts near Granada. Between Guadix and Baza cave-dwellings can be found, cave hotels, and beautiful natural parks.

The hottest times to visit Spain are between May and September as well as April and October in the south. High season begins during Holy Week (Semana Santa) and includes festival days. Summer is the obvious high season for coastal and interior regions in Spain when tourism reaches its height.

There is always something for everyone in Spain and if you just want to wander the streets of the main cities, the locals are very welcoming, receiving up to 30 million tourists every year. Spain is also a popular choice for those who wish to move abroad as the climate is excellent but not too hot and there are numerous ex-pat communities full of British citizens who have relocated to the country.

We presently require quality 2 and 3 bedroom apartments at Las Gondolas

2 bedroom Apartments Villas De Frente

1 bedroom , 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom apartments Marinesco 2

3 and 4 bedroom Villas La Manga Strip

Then contact us to find out how to join and get listed for FREE !! …. Contact Us

The North and South Courses at La Manga are located in a valley surrounded by mountains where you can experience stunning views of the Mar Menor. Palm trees abound in these two courses, while the West course, sited in a mountain was carved out of a pine forest.

The Club offers an excellent golf shop, caddies and one of the best practice areas to be found in Spain, with 90 driving range bays, 3 putting greens, short game area and practice bunker. The La Manga Club Golf Academy organises comprehensive training courses for players of all levels and also private tuition.

A fantastic location for a property investment in Spain regardless of it being  a holiday home or to actually relocate to Spain on a permanent basis.

Because it is between two seas, the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean, La Manga is ideal for every type of nautical sport in its marinas including swimming, sailing and wind surfing with classes available for beginners and up to advanced levels.

If you are looking to buy a property in Spain and love golf, then La Manga is the place for you. There is a first-class championship golf course which is the haunt of many famous celebrities. Here there is a green haven where it is possible to play tennis or bowls or even go horse-riding;  in fact there is an opportunity to develop your skills in many sports. Many international entertainers have performed in the five-star hotel or in the casino.

 La Manga Luxury 3 Bedroom – 3 Bathroom Private Villa with Pool

.3 Bedroom -3 Bathroom holiday villa with swimming pool  set in its own gardens,

This is the ideal holiday home for the discerning traveller, who far from the noisy tourist spots is looking for peace, serenity and independence without compromising  La Manga Strip (Veniciola) Murcia  Spain The villa is located in a very peaceful area of La Manga (Veneziola) offering complete privacy, yet only five minutes away from the excitement of the holidaymakers on the La Manga strip, ideally situated just 2 minutes walk walking distance to the beach and a 5 minutes drive or bus ride to Tomas Maestre marina that offers an excellent range of bars and restaurants offering many type of cuisine with its ‘café lifestyle’, bars and restaurants around the exciting Marina and flanked by many restaurants including French, Greek, Mexican and of course Spanish restaurants have contributed to the areas cosmopolitan reputation

Just a short walk brings you the new Veneziola Golf a 9 hole par 3 Golf course,

The villa is approx. 2 minutes walking distance to the beach, shops and restaurants. Activities include water sports, sailing, diving, fishing, tennis, horse riding, golf and much more….

Large lounge with lovely terrace overlooking the pool area and surrounding area. Large fully fitted, well equipped kitchen/dining room with spacious terrace for al fresco dining (large fridge/freezer, microwave, toaster, …all mod cons Large gardens comprising wonderful terraces, pathways around the flowering plants, fruit trees and palms. Private swimming pool with night lights, outdoor shower and traditionally BBQ and dining area the patio terrace has furniture for al fresco dining Utility room washing machine

• Satellite TV and stereo
• All rooms Air Conditioning 
• Books, Games and Toys (for beach and pool)
• Ample pool furniture
• Water Park & Animal Park (Opened summer 2007) The New Water park (Terra Aqua Murcia) and Animal park (Terra Natura Murcia) provide a wonderful family day out, with something for all ages just 40 minutes from the resort

3 Bedrooms, Sleeps 6, Private Garden & Pool , Beach Resort
3 Bedroom -3 Bathroom holiday villa with swimming pool  set in its own gardens,This is the ideal holiday home for the discerning traveller, who far from the noisy tourist spots is looking for peace, serenity and independence without compromising  La Manga Strip (Veniciola) Murcia  Spain

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The villa is located in a very peaceful area of La Manga (Veneziola) offering complete privacy, yet only five minutes away from the excitement of the holidaymakers on the La Manga strip, ideally situated just 2 minutes walk walking distance to the beach and a 5 minutes drive or bus ride to Tomas Maestre marina that offers an excellent range of bars and restaurants offering many type of cuisine with its ‘café lifestyle’, bars and restaurants around the exciting Marina and flanked by many restaurants including French, Greek, Mexican and of course Spanish restaurants have contributed to the areas cosmopolitan reputation

Just a short walk brings you the new Veneziola Golf a 9 hole par 3 Golf course,

This private villa with swimming pool  set in its own gardens, shadowed by tropical plants and flowers offers: Three double bedrooms, two with en-suite and a further bathroom. Two of the bedrooms are ground floor; one has French doors leading to the veranda. The master bedroom is upstairs with doors to a very large sunny terrace, where the views are of the Mar Menor. The lounge is spacious with a fireplace, and there is under-floor heating should it ever be required in winter. There is a separate dining area and a well-equipped kitchen with French doors leading to a terrace.

The villa is approx. 2 minutes walking distance to the beach, shops and restaurants. Activities include water sports, sailing, diving, fishing, tennis, horse riding, golf and much more….

Las Gondolas spectacular themed communal swimming pool with feature fountain, Jacuzzi area, shower room Tintoretto Las Gondolas Apartment To Rent In Veneziola, La Manga Strip.

1 Bedrooms, Sleeps 4, Gardens, Spectacular Swimming Pool.
2nd floor 1 Bedroom apartment with Air Conditioning and Sea views over the Mar Menor ,The balcony has wonderful views of both the sea and the famous Mar Menor (little sea), great for relaxing with a glass of wine after a hard days sunbathing!! on the Mar Menor’s beaches

1 bedroom -1 bathroom 6c Vaporetto-id80    Las Gondolas, La Manga Strip,Costa Calida, holiday home, apartment rentals, apartment rental, holiday rentals, self catering accommodation, self catering, accommodation, holiday accommodation, acommodation, accomodation, Self catering Spain

1 bedroom-1 bathroom 4c Tinturetto-id83    Las Gondolas, La Manga Strip,Costa Calida, holiday home, apartment rentals, apartment rental, holiday rentals, self catering accommodation, self catering, accommodation, holiday accommodation, acommodation, accomodation, Self catering Spain

For Other Holiday Homes in La Manga Strip – Las Gondolas please click here

The resort is not only a great luxury holiday resort known all over the world, but it is also home to the largest salt water lake in Europe known as the Mar Menor.

Because La Manga is kind of between two seas, it really makes it a terrific place to practice water sports. That’s obviously not the only thing you can do there!

Because of its situation, the resort gets a lot of sun and a great weather most of the year.

This luxury apartment boasts a Double Bedroom with full en- suite facilities, Bath, WC, Wash hand basin, Bidet and Shower and a private balcony.

Bedroom 2 has two single beds and patio doors leading onto a small viewing balcony, with beautiful views over the marina to the Mediterranean beyond.

Leading off the hallway is a further fully equipped bathroom with all the facilities of the en-suite.

The dining and lounge area has a balcony that can accommodate 6 to eat, again with views of the Marina but this time the Mar Menor (little sea) beyond, Whereas inside, the accommodation affords a separate dining area for six.

The lounge area is tastefully furnished with leather suites, and Spanish pine furniture, complete with Sony TV, DVD, and Playstation, a Music system and Digital TV receiver.

A fully equipped Kitchen complete with Hob and oven,
Toaster , kettle, microwave, fridge freezer and all the cooking and eating utensils you’ll need and of course a corkscrew.

A small utility with Washing machine, tumble dryer and sluice sink, Iron and ironing board and clothes horse.

Externally the apartment has the use of 2 pools, (Kiddies and Adults) with showers and a racket court, with the entire entrance area being gardened and paved.

Los Miradores del Puerto development is located in a prime spot on the popular La Manga strip; overlooking the Thomas Maestre marina & with views out across the Mar Menor & Mediterranean seas. The apartment is just a short walk to the beach & is conveniently located for access to shops & other amenities. There are outstanding and fabulous views overlooking the Marina & Mar Menor.

Bathroom towels and bed linen is provided but you should bring your own beach / pool towels.

There are 3 supermarkets within walking distance of the apartment ,one at the entrance to the apartments.

Food and drink Welcome packs delivered to the apartment prior to your arrival are available at an extra cost; please ask at time of booking for current prices.

Calblanque

Today’s picture is of Calblanque, an area of great natural beauty located between La Manga and Cartagena in the Murcia region of Spain (Costa Calida). A complete contrast to La Manga and the over developed Costa Blanca to the north, Calblanque is well worth visiting if only to see what this part of Spain used to look like before the invasion of tourism.

Autumn Colors in Conejos Canyon

We had been going to drive over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs but got started too late so had to do a shorter drive.  We drove from our home in La Jara to Chama, NM over Cumbres/La Managa Pass – the color on the Antonito (east) side of the pass was really pretty, very vivid.  The trees on the Chama (west) side of Cumbres/La Manga Pass had barely started to change color.  Sometimes, the fall color on that side of the pass is really striking – it probably will be gorgeous there in two weeks.

Autumn Colors Near Horca

After stopping in Chama for a bit, we continued on to Tierra Amarilla and then turned there to go over the Los Brazos Mountains to Tres Piedras.  For some reason, a lot of  the aspen trees in those mountains are dying – there are large areas of trees that are just standing sticks with no leaves at all.  We read an article in the Taos paper about it the next day – it’s called SAD, Sudden Aspen Death, and no one is sure what causes it.  I hope someone finds out soon so it doesn’t spread.

Autumn Colors Near Horca

Even the trees that weren’t dead didn’t have much color, their leaves were smaller and less abundant and were just kind of curling up and turning brown instead of becoming a nice bright, golden yellow color.  The scrub oak along that road was changing to a  bright red which was pretty.

Autumn Colors Near Cumbres Pass

By the time we arrived in Tres Piedras is was dusk but there was still some lovely color to see as we drove on to Taos for dinner and a bit of grocery shopping!  As the sun was setting, the whole sky was the most striking, vibrant shade of orange – everything was bathed in this wonderful orange glow.  I tried to capture it with a picture but somehow the camera just wouldn’t pick up the orange glow that was everywhere.  There had been a lot of haze (probably from a distant forest fire)  in the air all day which most likely caused the orange glow as the sun set.

Autumn Colors In Los Brazos Mountains

You can click on any of the pictures in this post for a larger version.  Most of them were taken through the windshield of the car as it was driving down the road, I could have gotten better ones if we had stopped and I’d used my big camera but, sometimes, it’s just fun to take pictures on the fly.

Even though the colors weren’t really at their peak, it was a beautiful and relaxing drive.  I got a lot of knitting done, too – worked on the felted cat bed while we were driving.  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of this world, I’m so grateful that we do.

Fiesta del Turismo La Manga del Mar Menor….a tourist fiesta in La Manga by the mediterranean sea, south of Spain. Andalusian horses and men in hats (smoking all the time and that seemed to be culture in Spain, both the horses, the hats and the smoking).

På lördagen var det dags för bröllop då. Och nu kom solen och värmen…..det var säkert runt +30 på eftermiddagen och vi satt ute på hotellets terass! Som tur var blåste det en del och jag lyckades hitta en plats med lite skugga.  Tyckte mest synd om best man och brudgum och ushers som var klädda i full mundering – bröllops frack med väst och bred slips och ylle kostymer! Snacka om kokta. Det var en formell vigsel med präst och hela baletten men det tog inte så hemskt lång tid som tur var. Efteråt var det drink reception där middagen skulle vara senare på kvällen.

Bruden Melanie med sin far.

Brudparet Mel och James.

Allt var mycket väl organiserat och färg koordinerat. Blombuketterna var jättefina.

Flower girl..

Lyckligt gifta.

Utsikt från terassen där vigseln var.  Väldigt vackert.

Usikt över La Manga Club resort. Det ser ju väldigt pittorskt ut eller hur.

När vi landade i Madrid på torsdagen vräkte regnet ner och det var bara ungefär +12 grader. Madrids flygplats var lite trist.

Vi flög med Spanair ner (de samarbetar med SAS så även om man bokar SAS hamnar man på deras plan) inget jag vill rekommendera. Det var trångt i planet, till och med jag som är kort, bara 155 cm i strumplästen tyckte det var dåligt benutrymme. Servicen ombord ner var dålig. De fyllde tydligen inte på med mat och dryck i Stockholm så när vi kom ombord fanns det bara rester kvar så att säga. Inga mackor, bara torra muffins och pulverkaffe. Många passagerare blev sura och flygvärdinnorna hanterade inte det så bra. På hemvägen var det trevligare flygvärdinnor och det fanns till och med mackor.

Det här är utsikten från vårt hotell, från terassen utanför sovrummet på sen eftermiddag när vi kommit fram. Nere i södra Spanien var det ganska varmt, runt 24 grader och lite mulet.

Hus numren var på såhär fina kakelplattor med olika djur på.

På fredagen åkte vi ner till kusten (medelhavet alltså) och kom till en liten stad som jag har för mig hette Cabo san palos eller nåt liknande. Där hittade vi ett kafé nere vid båthamnen. Ser inte ut som om det är några fattiglappar som har båtar där precis. Fredag var soligt och temperaturen gick snabbt upp till 28 grader ungefär.

Det var båt tema även i fönstren…

från parkeringen såg man alla dessa hotell….

Inne på ett torg var det någon sorts turist fiesta på gång och tre gubbar på Andalusiska hästar stolpade omkring på cementen. Jag säger stolpade för mycket mer kunde de inte göra på det stenhårda underlaget.

och rökte gjorde de hela tiden också….

Vi hittade ner till en strand också för att se medelhavet.

Kakel är stort i Spanien och man såg många sådana här kakel på husen.

Runt omkring på La Manga Club där vi bodde fanns många vackra hibiskusar i olika färger och även en rosa Bouganvilla (plus de vanliga röda förståss)

Och många buskar med dessa blommor fanns i olika färgkombinationer. Är det en Verbana månne? Kanske någon vet.

Palmer som blommade såg vi också en hel del av.

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Aquí podeis ver el nivel de contaminación de las aguas del Mar Menor:

http://objetivomurcia.laverdad.es/fotos-angel-garcia-izquierdo/suciedad-malos-olores-playa-estrella-209763.html

¡¡¡Que alguien actúe YA!!!