I can’t believe where the last ten days has gone and how the temperature has changed …..

To finish off our stay in Alicante, ensuring that we got a well-rounded view of the different parts of Playa San Juan we walked out to the Cabo de las huertas (the point), the wealthy part where from one side the houses look out over Alicante town, and the other onto Playa San Juan and into the mountains ….

We were a little sad to leave Alicante having spent 10 nights there and despite trying to be good and get a reasonably early night on Friday still didn´t make it back to the motorhome until gone 3am… a good night was had by all 🙂

Although we had originally planned a few stops between Alicante and Valencia we were now out of time, so headed straight to Betera, just outside Valencia where we had booked in at Valencia CamperPark (basic pitch 6 euros a night). The campsite is 500m from a metro station which took us into the center of Valencia where we met up with Steve and Sharon (Keiths’ sister and brother in law) who stayed from Sunday through to Wednesday.

Together we explored Valencia, wandering the streets of the old town, taking in the enormous market and walking the ample promenade along the beach whilst also enjoying a lot of Paella and good tapas. For those of you who didn’t know Valencia is the home of Paella and the traditional Paella is rabbit and chicken …. Yum 🙂 We found one particular restaurant on Sunday afternoon which was so good we ended going back on Tuesday for lunch … if you are ever in the area, I recommend lunch, but if it is the weekend make a reservation or be prepared to wait as we had to wait a good hour and a half for a table. Restaurant El Forca, Roteros 12, Valencia.

Valencia is famous for its ‘Falles’ which is a festival at this time of year where different communities construct models made out of wood and cork (and polystyrene), set off very loud fireworks at 2pm every day and then burn the models ….. a bit of an odd concept when they cost 370,000 euros each to build and look like this…..

We went to the main square to watch/listen/feel the fireworks and managed to find a couple of the models which were mostly constructed, although most won’t be on show until the 16th.

After a lovely few days with Steve and Sharon we also moved on on Wednesday to find some friends (Dave, Violet and Connie) we met in Saumur last year who have been spending the winter in Benicassim. Although we were a little apprehensive about staying on a large campsite full of northern Europeans, Bonterra Park (18 euros inc per night) is actually really well set up and it doesn’t feel like you are on top of each other. It feels a bit like a very sociable village where you walk down the street and know most of the people you pass and the location is ideal as it has everything including the beach, supermarket, local bars and restaurants within half a mile – I can definitely see why people like it here…. Although still wouldn’t do it ourselves.

We only planned on staying one night as we have itchy feet to get to Italy now, but after a Bar B Q and a catch up with Dave and Violet we headed to the bar to join in with their quiz team and bumped into Bill and Angela who we met in Bergerac….. it is a small world. We knew they were in the area, but with technology bouncing our emails we hadn’t managed to catch up and assumed that they would be further north by now travelling home, none the less we decided that it would be rude to head off in the morning and agreed to meet for lunch and a catch up.

The extended stay was obviously fate as Villa Real were playing Sevilla in the Europa cup last night, so Keith tagged along with Dave and another friend to watch the game and despite it ending 3-1 the wrong way it was still a good atmosphere and enjoyable. Meanwhile the girls headed out into town to sample some local vino…. A good time was had by all…. And somehow we are still here tonight having agreed to stay ONE more night 🙂