Periana, Spain - Day 1 ✈️

This blog is brought to you by Ellie.

Well well well… Look what we have here!

It's a new Barry & Ellie (& Henning) blog for all to devour.

It's been a while, friends. When we last saw you we were in New York in September and newly engaged. I am pleased to inform you that that is still the case and Barry hasn't tired of my presence yet. The wedding planning is well underway and money is being spent at a terrifying rate, but we are very excited to get married, joined by our closest friends and family in September 2026. Do we blog about the wedding?! Perhaps, as it will be quickly followed by a honeymoon in a dream location.

This year we have two getaways planned and this is the first. A short trip away with my family, which hasn't happened for many years if you don't count Center Parcs. We're spending five nights in Periana, Andalucia, Spain with my parents, brother Samuel and sister-in-law Ruth. It is my turn this time to blog about the travel day, so here goes!

After a week of getting the house clean and tidy (only for the cats to cover it in feathers) for our brave and wonderful friend and cat-sitter, Hannah, we set of at 9am on Sunday. We were flying from Luton Airport today, for a change, and Barry was not excited by this prospect. I had never flown from Luton before so I saw it with fresh eyes and I didn't think it was too bad, as airports go. Bag check and security went without a hitch. The bag was .4kg over weight but the man let it slide and I didn't get stopped by security, as Barry often delights in teasing me about.

After the obligatory stealth spray of perfume in the duty free (dutifully guarded by staff but not quick enough to stop the likes of us) we stopped for an Italian feast at Nolito. Barry has a pizza and I had a traditional Italian burger and fries. It was much tastier than we expected and it was soon time to head to the gate.

We were, tragically, sitting apart on the plane but I could still gaze on Barry from afar without him knowing. Easyjet got us to Malaga safe and sound. I was on the very last row of the lane and was excited to be first off, but luck was not on my side today as they didn't open the rear door, so I was in fact last off the plane! Luckily the airport wasn't busy and, despite our misery at having to go through the non-EU passport section, it was thankfully a quick process and allowed Barry to say his first "Gracias" of the trip!

Passports stamped and luggage collected, we set about collecting our hire car from Goldcar. Key collection was simple enough, despite some confusion over which booking number they wanted. The machine gave us our key and we trundled down to collect our car, which was an Automatic (thankfully, you'll see) Opel Astra. After getting our bearings with the controls it took an age driving back and forth and up & down to get to the exit (Salida). The directions made absolutely no sense.

Out on the open road, Barry began to relax into it and when we left Malaga, the view of the mountains was lovely. The villa that we had booked was up in the hills and we knew the roads were a bit dicey, after receiving a few messages from my family prior to leaving the airport. They were not joking! It was living driving on a rollercoaster track hoping that another car isn't hurtling in your direction. Quite fun as the passenger but perhaps not as the driver, although we laughed our way through it. It occasionally turned into a dirt track covered in loose rocks which meant we were almost there. My mother waved us into the driveway and we could finally relax!  

The villa is an old mill and the owners have preserved some of it's historical charm, including keeping the mill itself, and the huge bread oven that used to feed the whole village. e can’t help thinking it would have been a very inconvenient trek just for bread! There are two resident cats and a little dog around here somewhere, though we are yet to encounter them, but trust Barry will be their best friend soon enough.

We had a tasty dinner of baguette, cheese and meats before washing off the day and jumping in the pool. It's going to be a very hot week and we just missed the 32 degree heat here today. I don't always cope well with heat so we'll see how we go! Barry's report tomorrow may picture me as a puddle on the floor. We hope to do a lot more relaxing this week compared to our usual action-packed journeys, but there's a few outings on the cards, do not fear.

Adios for now, Amigos!