I woke up later than I wanted this morning, but it didn't matter as we hadn't any plans apart from soaking up the sun, swimming and reading.
We had the muffins Sophie bought yesterday for breakfast with coffee, and then it was out to the pool to relax. We are still being bitten, especially from around the seating area, and we're all a bit fed up with it, to be honest. I estimate I have about twenty bites all over me, the most I've ever been bitten on any holiday. Nothing we do seems to make a difference. We burn citronella candles, spirals of green things that make the villa smell like smoke, and use the Avon Skin So Soft. At some point today, Keith wants to go to the nearby pharmacy to buy repellent and more after-bite cream.
The weather was a mixture of clouds and hot sun in the morning, but it clouded over in the afternoon. We have a weather warning here for rain and thunderstorms until early tomorrow morning, so it looks like we'll get some bad weather later in the day.
We ate lunch on the terrace and enjoyed pizza and boiled eggs served with yesterday's bread which was a bit stale! Sophie prepared the lunch and cleared away, bless her. We all have our jobs and mine is mainly looking after the laundry, and we're lucky we have both a washer and a dryer to make life easier!
I fell asleep in the afternoon and the wind became stronger, waking me up from my nap. We had planned on going to the nearby town of Begur at about 5pm, walking around and then having dinner, and we kept to this plan, even though it started to rain shortly before we left.
Begur isn't far away but the rain was coming down hard, and as we reached the outskirts, Sophie suggested going home as there was no point in walking about in such terrible weather. We turned around and I said we could pop into the supermarket and stock up for the next few days and then go back to the villa, have a drink and try Pals for dinner later. On the way we spotted a pharmacy that was open, so we called in and bought insect repellent and an ammonia-based anti-bite solution. The pharmacist was totally grumpy, maybe because it was Friday night and he was at work!
The supermarket, predictably, was busy and we had to park in the small car park above, accessing the store by walking down some iron-grid steps, which was a bit hairy and made Sophie and I squeal a bit!
In the supermarket, we bought more milk, breakfast and lunch foods, and more of the green spiral things to burn. We returned to the villa, unpacked everything, poured some drinks and sat on the terrace. The rain became heavier and we were glad we hadn't stayed in Begur!
A beautiful restaurant
We decided to wait until 7pm and see what the weather was doing before setting out for Pals. It cleared a bit and stopped raining, so we risked going. Instead of driving into the village in our usual way, we went in by another entrance and spotted two restaurants which looked promising and were away from the centre. We parked nearby and walked to Antic Casino, a restaurant Sophie had already looked at and which had great reviews. The food was very reasonably priced so we went in to see if they had a table, and they did! Fabulous!
We were seated in a beautiful old dining room where two English couples were already sitting.
We ordered drinks - beer for Keith, a bottle of local Rosé for Sophie and me - and had a good look at the menu. Sophie suggested two tapas dishes to start, garlic prawns and fried squid with a curry mayonnaise, followed by paella shared between my daughter and I, and veal sirloin for Keith.
The staff were lovely and friendly and the atmosphere was charming. It reminded me of a Pollenca restaurant and I likened the building to the now-closed Clivia, a place where I'd always wanted to eat but had never managed to.
Gradually, the restaurant filled up with people of all different nationalities and our starters were served. The prawns were delicious and were served in garlic butter, while the squid came in a paper cone with a pot of the delicious mayonnaise.
Our main courses were equally good, with our paella tasting earthy, due to the pork, mushrooms and Rosemary aioli. Keith said his veal was the best he'd ever eaten. I think we made a good choice, and we agreed to return next Tuesday for another meal.
It had rained again during the evening and the outside seating area was drenched. We ordered desserts - figs with vanilla ice cream for Keith, Tiramisu for Sophie and Tarte Tatin for me, all beautifully presented and cooked.
The bill for the three courses, plus bread, water and drinks came to 140 euros, which we thought was very good value. Before we left we booked a table for Tuesday night, and hoped that we would be able to sit outside next time!
Back at the villa, we watched another two episodes of Only Murders in the Building, and then it was time for bed!
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