0131 447 8613 hello@39steps.co.uk

My family and I usually go to France to get some sun, but this year we were offered a gorgeous house with a pool, its own lemon tree, and an amazing view in an idyllic whitewashed village in southern Spain for FREE. I have nice friends.

Wow it was hot, reaching 40 degrees centigrade some days. I’d like to say we took in all the culture and sights, but frankly my two boys weren’t that keen and after a very hot walk around Granada, we decided to focus on staying poolside. We celebrated my youngest wee boy Milo’s 6th birthday and er… drank red wine and ate quite a lot.

An exception to the poolside rule was made to visit Fort Bravo http://fortbravooficial.com/en/ where various lesser-known Spaghetti Westerns were filmed. I would recommend checking out TripAdvisor before going because it’s not for everyone. It’s a bit down at heel, and run on a shoe string. Having said that, we had a fun afternoon there and when we look at the photos, the inescapable heat is forgotten. The highlight for me was seeing these two dressed as cowboys.

Note to self: learn some basic Spanish when going off the tourist track, in order to avoid blank irritated stares.