Lunch, and ... PHEW!

We broke our boring drive with a stop in the pretty village of Nijar. Menu del día, three courses and a drink for 10 euros, featuring this beautiful salmorejo -- a cold soup similar to gazpacho except that it is pretty much only bread, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and vinegar, with a garnish of chopped hardboiled eggs.

We got to Almuñecar in plenty of time for our rendezvous with the keyholder at six. R met us in the car park and because our rented house is so inaccessible, we transferred most of our luggage to his minibus, and he bowled merrily up very steep, very narrow streets in the old town while we tried to memorise the route. The last part of the journey involved reversing about 50 metres up a very narrow street, which he did with aplomb. Then we lugged stuff up the last couple of alleyways that are impassable by car. He then drove us back down and dropped us back at our car so that we could repeat the exercise on our own with the rest of the luggage (memo to self: bring less next time).

Well, eventually we got everything into the house. Did some unpacking, got the wifi working, sat down on the terrace with a bottle of wine ... and had an email from R and A to say they hadn't seen Mystère since Sunday morning. AAARGH. Cue a stressful couple of hours. We thought he might have lost his magnetic collar, so we instructed them on how to wedge the catflap open to ensure he could get in. But I am very happy to report that he's just (10:30 pm) returned home, collar intact, so I can stop tearing my hair out and looking at flights to Toulouse.

Tired and emotional now! More about our new abode tomorrow.