Up and packed and ready to transfer to the Ibis. I go to check out of La Tablas and what a lovely surprise - because I was with Vaughan yesterday I only got charged E48 for the room not $69 that I was quoted. That's good - that will pay for the taxi.

The taxi driver tells me, in very broken English that he can drive me to the plaza but I will probably have to walk to the hotel. Well that's what I think he is saying. Woops - that was not mentioned in the hotel details, nor did anyone talk about that on TripAdvisor. There were lots of negative comments on Trip Advisor, but personally I have never been unhappy about an Accor Hotel, and if this one is not up to standard I will certainly be in touch with Accor when I get home and let them know.

So, at 10am on a Sunday morning I head off in the taxi. Not too much traffic about, and before long we turn into Calle de Prado and - lookee here- we are right outside the hotel. Yes, it is in a tiny alley but there are cars and taxis all around. I guess it depends on the time of day and how busy it is. So I get right to the door and only have to manouvre my luggage in the through the self-opening doors. I had warned the hotel that I would be arriving early and arranged to have my luggage stored until my room was ready - but it was all ready for me and I could go straight to my room. Great service. And the room is lovely - certainly not 5 star, but very clean and comfortable and in a nice part of the city. The one thing I am really missing is the electric jug and supply of tea and coffee in my room. First thing I pack on my next European adventure is a wee travel jug. I miss being able to just make a hot drink when I want one.

And so out to explore - I first headed to a cafe for a coffee and pastry (coffee is good and cheap, ranging from E1.50 to E2.80, and then I set off to just wander about. A lot of people were heading in a direction which looked like a park - so I followed. But then I discovered they were all congregating for some sort of demonstration. WOOPS. It all looked pretty peaceful and there were lots of families with children carrying placards (which I could not read of course) so I decided to play safe and head well away. When I got down to the end of the street there were quite a number of police gathering - on foot, on motor bikes and on horses. Yep time to get out of here. I tried asking the police what it was all about, but of course they couldn't speak English.

So, shopping it was. Lots of little shops to explore, and I found the two shops I had been looking for. One was La Violeta - it was closed dam it. It is here that you can buy the purple-colored candies or hand-made chocolates wrapped in pretty little boxes and ribbon. The second shop I wanted to find was Guantes Luque, a 100 year old glove shop nestled between the streets of Sol and Sevila. - but this was shut too, complete with a roller grill and no lights in the window so it was hard to even see the gloves on display. And I think, if my Spanish is correct, it is not open during the months of November and December. I was really disappointed as I had set my heart on buying some gloves here. Thank goodness the 100 year old beret shop was open the other day and I got my red beret. At least La Violeta had lights on so maybe it will be open during the day tomorrow.

But I managed to fill in the day just mingling with the people - not understanding one single word that was spoken, and miraculously I found my way back to my hotel, stopping along the way to buy some bread and ham and cheese and a can of Mahou for my tea (total cost about E5)

After all that walking I was quite tired, and as the day closes in early here - it's dark by 7pm - I was happy to just settle in and watch a bit of TV, the first time I've turned it on. Of course it was in Spanish but I could pretty much follow the actions in the film Pearl Harbour. And then I turned on the BBC news, but that was all bad news which I don't want to hear about, so turned it off and read for a while.