N 36.506191 W 4.682320 - CALA DE MIJAS, MIJAS - FREE

Up and off to Aldi's this morning, thought for a minute they hadn't got the flasks in but they had. I'm happy now as long as we don't get home and find it goes 'burp, burp'! So pleased was I that I forgot to have my breakfast.

We've come to Mijas, here it is free parking. Been passed a few times but never stopped but Sheila and Barry stopped here last year and liked it so we thought we'd give it a try.

I got a bit of a negative vibe when we arrived - it was market day! I thought we wouldn't find a space but once we'd actually got in we found there were a lot.

We got talking to an Irish couple who'd just come back from registering their van at the police station, they told us what documentation to take (we already knew we needed to do this from Sheila and Barry). Trotted off to the police station, gave 'the man' the paperwork and both passports. He took mine and picked up the telephone, I don't know what he was doing but he didn't utter a word. After a while he put it back down again and gave the passport back to me. He then proceeded to enter Mike's details onto the computer. Mike said he obviously thought I wasn't important enough to put mine in!

The English chap next to us said that most people didn't bother registering and no-one appeared to have been fined. Just before we went to the Police station though a patrol car went past photographing the registration plates.

Market shopping took place but like the market in Los Alcazares it was mostly clothes.

We've been in Spain now for four weeks and I had my first paddle in the sea.

Mijas is very nice. It has a lovely beach with a promenade alongside it. The only trouble is you have to walk - you can only cycle after 6:00 pm and not at all on Sundays so we had our beach walk, looking out for somewhere we fancied to eat in the evening. Unfortunately, we didn't find anywhere that reached out and grabbed us not that a couple of the waiters didn't try! Cooking at home again!