Landing in Lliber

This holiday has been coming for so long! As the time drew nearer, we hardly dared to believe it would actually go ahead and we’d get to Spain. The week arrived and, thankfully, there were no lockdowns in the UK or Spain, and we managed to stay Covid free, despite the media constantly talking about how high the infection rate was and suggesting measures should be reintroduced. We finally checked in online, booked airport parking, printed our vaccine passports and completed our Health Control Forms, and ordered Covid tests for our return. However, even as we drove to the airport, we still didn’t feel as though we were going on holiday abroad. It wasn’t until we sat in the airport with overpriced food and drinks, watching planes take off, that it finally sank in… we were off to cycle in the sunshine with Velo Tours Spain!

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The flight went well and two and a half hours passed quickly. As we watched a couple of episodes of Chernobyl, the landscape changed from cloudy UK, to sunny green France, the mountains of the Pyrenees, then the dryer landscape of Spain. Despite horror stories in the media, we quickly went through passport then health controls in Alicante airport and, as we were waiting for our baggage, I received texts from both our hosts, David and Tiffany, to say David would meet us outside. When we left the airport building, we were delighted to see how hot and sunny it was!

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The villa where we’re staying is about an hour from Alicante in Lliber in the Xalo Valley. The journey passed quickly as David told us a bit about the area and the plans for our stay, and we enjoyed the scenery. The villa is in the hills inland of the Costa Blanca and is beautiful. We have a bedroom, living area and two bathrooms, and our door opens out onto the pool area and the mountains beyond. Tiffany showed us around then we had a very welcome pot of tea before going out to dinner.

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By now, it was pretty dark, as we walked downhill to the restaurant. We were surprised to be greeted in English by the waitress, and at the number of English-speaking people inside. The food was delicious. I had wagu beef carpaccio followed by sea bass, and John had salchichon followed by a big hunk of Iberico pork… and of course we had a bottle of delicious local wine and desserts!

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We were tucked up in bed by 10.15, tired from our long day travelling, and looking forward to our first bike ride in Spain tomorrow. I have a lovely matt blue Willier ebike to use 😊