Hola - it's market day

Saturday is market day in Spain

I love markets - especially food markets. I love the smell of the fruit and veggies, the colours, the taste and the atmosphere with locals & tourists alike jostling to reach the fruits of their choice. We had been told there was an open air market in Calpe and set off this morning to find it - it was, by all accounts "just up at the top of the road".  So.......off we went with the nice rustic basket I bought last week for the princely sum of 4 euros

"do you speak English" we had to ask a few times. "poco English" were the replies - luckily the local people are very modest and their English was, in fact, good enough to point us in the right direction. We eventually found the market at the top of the town - approximately 2 miles away!

Spanish markets, like the ones in France  are a veritable feast for the eyes.

The first stall we stopped at sold beautiful plants at great prices. Bearing in mind that we are travelling in a motorhome we resisted the olive trees for sale and settled for a pink lavender plant.  It will join the aloe vera and rosemary plants we place at the door and will eventually be planted in our garden at home.

The selection of olives was amazing & they tasted wonderful. The stallholders offer a sample of everything and they tasted so different to any I have tasted before.

.............on to the fruit and vegetable stalls oooooooooh everything was so ripe and fresh. We couldn't resist buying avocados, fennel, cauliflower, dried figs and much more.

If you like crystalized fruit  this is the place to come, the selection includes strawberries, cranberries, apple, orange, pineapple, mango and even aloe vera.

There were nuts galore & we bought  pino, cashew and almonds

We were full up and happy after our day at the Spanish market and, after sampling so many  of these delights, we had no room left for lunch and settled for cafe con leche at a pavement cafe.

Roll on next Saturday - we will go back with big bags and empty stomachs lol