Today was our first full day in Gandia and we are working out the kinks, figuratively and literally.

Vicki Buholz and I had a leisurely 11am start. Jet lag wasn’t too bad for me…Vicki on the other hand bought the wrong coffee (with milk) so didn’t have any till AFTER our hit, though that didn’t stop her from hitting well. We practiced for nearly two hours today and it was quite windy at the start, though by the end it had abated. The courts are pretty nice, despite having been battered by heavy rains last week, and the club is nice, with a good restaurant, lots of red clay courts plus many padel courts (and players who understand panel playing on them) and a small gym with a nice outdoor area.

After hitting we managed to reserve a court for tomorrow, so headed back to our apartment, a mere 5 minutes walk from the apartment (though google maps thinks it is 19 minutes away via some convoluted route.

I had lunch when we returned while Vicki took a quick nap. Then we headed off to Aldi…I wanted to buy some macrona style almonds and we had a list. This time we took my carryon roller bag for water and took the bus which is 2 euros (cash is ok) anywhere on the route. Aldi was next to a huge grocery and more store (it also sold washers and dryers for example), and we started there before going to Aldi. We bought fish, fizzy water, fruit and vegetables and more before heading to Aldi. They sold the biggest paella pans I’ve ever seen in a store. The Aldi was a small one but it had my nuts and oatmeal, sunscreen and more lambs lettuce. It also sold pistachio creme (20% pistachios…think Nutella with pistachios instead of hazelnuts). That took up most of the afternoon. On the way back we missed our stop by 2 stops (stop 23 was our stop and we overshot to stop 21), so walked back 15 minutes.

Vicki was starving and now knows how to cook a whole seabass and heat up a cup of cooked rice! I did my exercises and had a salad as I had eaten lunch rather late. Seabass for breakfast with rice will be nice though.

The sea view from our apartment takes a zoom lens to see but we are close to the beach.

Tomorrow after practice we plan to take the bus to the old town and look around. The tournament starts Monday but for ITF draws only have to be published 1 hour before matches start…so no