As slade said "Well this is this is Christmas"......



We're lying here an a wind swept beach, the waves are lapping at the shore and all is idyllic....



(Well actually they're crashing at the shore and it's not a sea but the largest river estuary in the world, (it took 3 hours by ferry to cross from BA) it's not salty water but fresh silt filled water....and brown...) But hey, you guys have got cold, wet, damp foggy conditions so I'd swap for this.....



We've been able to turn our visit here from a day trip to a three day beach holiday in Uruguay....including Christmas. We thought we needed some chill out time!! 



The town is like the "The lanes" in Brighton or "whitmar whatmar gate" in York, lovely old houses, cobbled streets and lovely very old cars passing by, Austin Sevens, Plymouth town cars and other amazing ones. Some restuarants even have them outside as private dining cars/tables.



So Christmas eve was spent on the beach, Mel reading, me darning socks and practicing the scene in the Casino Royale when Mel wasn't looking to appear like her " Mr Bond".....

More like Mr Blobby, large, red where the sun had got me and white where the factor 50 cream had landed.



Lunch was a posh picnic with breads, cheeses, parma style ham, olives and little things that we still can't identify but were lovely and expensive...So much so that it all cost more than our meal the night before and that had 1.5L of sangria.... But it was lovely...



We knew, honestly we knew, as in many European countries its the 24th not the 25th that is the big day..... But everything was open on the way to the beach, everything was open on the way back. A couple of places had signs upsaying they were closed, and they were. So, why when we came out after our shower was it like a ghost town...... Tumbleweed blowing down the

streets, the only thing to be seen was frantic tourists running around trying to find a restuarent to eat in.... After about an hour we met all the same tourists in the supermarket before if closed buying bread, cheese, parma style ham..... So our Christmas eve meal was spent sitting in the marina looking over the boats to the town with a picnic, danish pastries and a cold bottle of beer...... Fantastic as the christmas fireworks went off overhead....



So, Christmas morning down to breakfast, and as its christmas, not the usual but sponge cake... with multi-coloured glacia cherries in..... But then the whole point of traveling is to see how things are done in different places.

So you can keep you sausage rolls, sausage and bacon sandwiches, (with butter and tommy K) no we had it Uruguayan style.... Sponge cake with glacia cherries...



And then off we went for our lunch, we'd read about this in the book. Posh hotel, buffet lunch, pool.....and it might have been nice but I think half the town had the same idea and the tranquil pool seemed like a butlins adventure park for dive bombing teenagers.....



So temped by the beach again, we poped into the shop next door and loaded up for picnic...again. Gutted to hear that the hot chickens had just gone on and they were closing so they'd be ready for 9.30 tomorrow morning (well rough spanish translation). Instead we opted for the half a baby pig. (About

a quarter once I got the lady to cut the head off, mel wasn't looking forward to Christmas picnic with babe looking at her!)  And off we headed to the beach.....



Untill the heavens opened.....



Hard to get the smell of roast herb and garlic piglet out of your hotel room......



So, the suns come out again, we're at the beach again. Mel's reading some..... Paulo Coelho.... and I'm just writing to say thanks to everyone so far that has made our holiday so much more special. And hopefully tonight a slap up meal.....



P.S. Well no problems getting food on the 25th.... much like any other day!!!! So we went to the funkest and livelyest place in town, and after previously eating more meat than the Atkins weightloss champions we opted for some amazing pasta dishes.... And with all the Italian immigrants, we can honestly say that it was better than our food in Rome..... Maybe that was also due to the sticky toffee pudding I had for desert and an amazing

coffee.... Oh the jugs of rather nice white wine might of helped

too....