On May 12th we flew to UK and stayed initially with friends Ken & Shirley Pickering near Barnsley. The Thomas Cook flight to EMA was delayed by 90 minutes at PFO, so we arrived after midnight. It was raining - and apart from to odd decent day, rainfall was to occur regularly during our stay in UK. After experiencing a lot of rain on our last trip in August, perhaps we should be given free flights by the government as we attract rain on every visit when there's droughts on. Meeting old client Ian Richardson in Newcastle, we had a great Chinese buffet and a drink in Chinatown for less that £10 each, and reminisced over the many different tours we have been on together. I managed to catch a cold the next day, and by the weekend it was threatening to stop our trip to Spain the following Tuesday. Having received the OK to fly from doctor on 18th., we flew from EMA to Almeria on 19th, where we met an old friend, Dave Greaves, and his wife Ann. Most of the time we relaxed and visited some good (inexpensive) restaurants, and I walked their dog Henry each morning. The area seemed full of British retirees, much more so than Cyprus, and it's easy to see why, with apartments from €30,000 and detached houses from around €70,000. Not our sort of place, though we may visit again to walk on some trails which were formerly railway lines.
Late on night of 26th we arrived back at EMA to be met by rain again, and friend Paul Edgar, who has a holiday apartment in Episkopi. Trips to Bridlington, Leeds and Bradford followed, and we had a very nice stay in the Lister Mansion Hotel there, overlooking the Park. Some sunny spells were spoilt by rain of course. We spent some money at Castleford Outlet Centre on the way back to Barnsley, and managed to arrive back in Cyprus midnight on Saturday 9th June, both suffering from food poisoning. Happy to be home and near the toilet!