Can you believe that we left the UK on March 27^th 2014 …. which means we have been away for more than a year now, although only 7.5 months in the motorhome. I am sure you will pleased to hear that we are still keeping up with the slightly odd ‘Keith and Gail-isms’ including baking our own fresh rolls, homemade Brownies and muesli as well as occasionally making American pancakes for breakfast, we have also continued with our daily exercise routine either running or Tabata….. and amazingly we are still talking to each other.

We are now completely settled into true Italian life and are quite enjoying it, I think I have even used the horn on the motorhome for the first time – see what the Italian passion does to you! We have moved on from the Italian Riviera, finding ourselves last weekend in Lucca which is an ancient medieval city with a beautiful (and intact) wall surrounding it. For those of you into your music it is also the birthplace of a number of composers including Giacomo Puccini (Madame Butterfly…. I am sure even the less musical of you have heard of that one!)   The city is made up of cobbled streets and plazas lined with beautiful old buildings including a disproportionate number of towers – all however full of character. The city had a lovely ‘buzz’ about the place and although there were a fair few, it didn’t feel full of tourists, or too busy and in fact it was very tranquil overnight.

We parked up in ‘Area Sosta Lucca’ (10 euros during the week in low season and 14 euros in high season, weekends and festivals) just under a kilometre from the wall which was clean and quiet and had all the facilities we required.   Having spent a week in Italy without a pizza, we felt obliged to search out a decent restaurant to go to and were not disappointed. Ten minutes’ walk from the Aire we found a little local Italian pizzeria called ‘Al Pirate’, which was conveniently located just along the road from an amazing ice-cream shop. So, having eaten more pizza (and calzone) than required, we stumbled out the door and waddled 50 yards to the ice-cream shop where for once I had to hold back as I would have popped – Keith however managed to wolf down three spatulas worth of ice-cream 🙂

Obviously not being one to miss out on a good ice-cream, on Sunday afternoon after a bit more exploring of Lucca we headed back to our ‘local’ and decided we have found a bit of a gem … the ice-cream marker point has definitely been raised.

Although Keith was keen to stay a bit longer and go back to the Pizzeria to try the Foccacia Pizza, we figured that a) there is plenty more pizza to be had in Italy and b) if we continued our Pizza and Ice Cream consumption at this rate we may push Mika over her weight limit, so we moved on on Monday. The plan – as much as there ever is a plan – was to stop in Pisa for one or two nights however, we arrived at the Aire ‘Parcheggio Camper’ just after lunch and after a couple of hours walking we had pretty much seen everything …. well the tower, the cathedral and lots of road works, so decided to head on to somewhere a bit quieter for the night.

Our overnight stop wasn’t too far up the road in Montopoli in Val D’Arno and it was a free Aire with services where there were 20 odd Italian motorhomes but over the 20 odd hours we were there we only saw two people…. So, all a bit odd especially considering that rather sadly, Montopoli in Val D’Arno is a medieval village/town which obviously used to be thriving, but has now been left with lots of empty shops and looks a little unloved and grey. So, although we planned to stay a couple of nights we decided to move on to Florence after a quick visit to the Laundrette.

We thought we would try our luck with a free Aire on the outskirts of Florence in Sesto Fiorentina, however we lucked out as the Lidl it was in front of had closed and the services had been removed. The lack of services probably worked in our favour as we ended up in Gelsomino SCAF Aire (15 euros per night) which was 2kms from ‘Puerta Romana’, so fairly central to Florence.

We wandered into Florence yesterday afternoon to stretch the legs and have a quick look around and it was buzzing – we have never seen so many ice-cream shops. Then today after a run round the edge of Florence looking down from the hills – me and Keith’s 100 burpee monthly challenge, we headed back into town to take in the markets and the rest….

The architecture is beautiful varying through the centuries whilst using different materials – several of the churches and the cathedral built in white, green and red marble, other buildings with old timber beams and of course stone and brick from different periods. The different coloured marble really stood out making the cathedral one of the more unusual, and attractive buildings we have seen.

We have been really lucky with the weather over the last few days as it has been mostly blue skies and hovering around 15-20 degrees during the day … someone obviously felt guilty about giving us too much rain in our first week here. Unfortunately, it is set to rain over the weekend so we may just have to buy lots of chocolate eggs and sit in the motorhome 🙂

Happy Easter and/or Pesach …

After a small diversion as our Sat Nav pointed us to a bridge that I barely fit through, let alone Mika

we finally made it to our first ‘Fattore Amico’ site ‘Al Roseto’, a garden centre which stocked local produce which had a nice tranquil campsite attached to it just outside Diano Marina. We didn’t have to pay for the first night as it was part of the ‘Fattore Amico’ deal, but as we ended up staying two nights the second was 15 euros including electricity.

Whilst exploring the Diano Marina we managed to find several lovely deli’s and bakery’s – purchasing some Biscotti and a couple of bottles of local wine before stopping for a more reasonably priced glass of wine (1 euro 50) in a bar on the way back home…. Italy is definitely going up in our estimations!  The following day was market day so we ventured back into town to experience our first Italian market and despite it mostly consisting of clothes, they had a good selection of local produce including pesto, meats, cheeses and fruit and veg…. however, unlike France, Portugal and Spain though they were pretty much shut by 12:30 which surprised us but at least we know for next time.

Later in the afternoon, taking advantage of a break in the weather, we walked to Cervo another village slightly further along the coast. Cervo is perched on the side of a hill and is made up of lots of tiny alleyways wiggling in between – and in some circumstances underneath – the houses as the village climbs up to the castle at the top…. Absolutely stunning in a ‘shabby chic’ kind of way.

We left Diano Marina and travelled towards Levanto, stopping overnight at an ACSI campsite (Camping La Vesima – 16 euros) on route in Arenzano. The campsite was ‘cosy’ to say the least as it was set up to cram in as many caravans/motorhomes as possible, so even in quiet times like now, we had to move the motorhome in the morning to let someone else get out as they wanted to leave before us …. A slightly odd arrangement, but the staff were more than helpful and we needed to catch up with the washing so it suited the purpose. The journey between Arenzano and Levanto was only 90km, but it twisted up and down between the mountains and the coast, rising and falling, taking in every town and village it can find, high or low. It was a shame that it was raining and the cloud was very low as I am sure that the scenery would have been stunning, but we arrived in one piece, which if you saw some of the roads we travelled on you would appreciate why I won’t ask for more than that!

Levanto is another pretty seaside town on the edge of Cinque Terres, a national park containing five coastal villages which until recently were only accessible by foot or sea. Unfortunately two years ago the torrential rain and flooding destroyed many of the paths through the area and they haven’t re-constructed them so we decided to only spend a day in the park this time, catching the train between all but the last two villages, where we were able to walk the path. It is fairly difficult to find a good place at a reasonable price to park the motorhome, but we found an Aire (another car park with services) next to the station which costs 24 euros for 36 hours – a little more expensive than normal, but they have a bit of a captive market….

The area is beautiful despite the huge number of tourists and each village has a slightly different personality

Riomaggiore, which sits between two hills with lots of tall houses all in different colours

Manerola, surrounded by vinyards layered up the sides of the hills

Corniglia, a small village which sits 100m up on top of a hill rather than meeting the sea… although very picturesque not quite as beautiful as the others so I will save the photo 🙂

Vernazza, Stunning village situated around the harbour. Unfortunately it was heaving with people, so although it looked beautiful from afar, it wasn’t quite as tranquil whilst there ….

Monterosso, the flattest of all the villages spreading along the seafront in two coves

All in all, it was a lovely day out and as it has rained a fair amount since we arrived in Italy, we were obviously pretty pleased that the sun decide to make a show today. We will definitely look to come back and see more of the area when the weather has been dryer for a longer period and more paths are open.

Having now been in Italy for nearly a week we have decided that it isn’t really designed for motorhomes. The roads are too narrow, the train lines are all built too low so, you either need to be under 2m to get to the other side, or go the very long way round and despite the fact that Italians just dump their car as close to their destination as possible no matter if it is on a roundabout or zebra crossing, there is no parking for the slightly larger vehicle … Mika is a bit sensitive about her size 😦

So far however, the scenery is stunning and the ice-creams aren’t too bad either!

After a quick run in the morning and a mad rush to send numerous emails to ensure that we were as up to date as possible before losing internet connection for a few days, we finally said our goodbyes to Emma, Paul, Ozzie and Roo (the dogs) just before mid-day and fled the country……

After entering France, we passed through Fitou (if I was going to choose a French wine it would be a Fitou) – which I never knew was in this area of France (to be fair I hadn’t really thought about it much), but was surprised that the ‘village’ itself was so small.  However, we managed to make it through the area without stopping at a single vinyard … an accomplishment in itself as there were field after field of vine.

We stopped for the night on an Aire (which would have been better described as a station car park) by the beach about 6km outside Séte.  It apparently should have cost 10 euros a night, but no-one came round to collect any money, so it was free 🙂 The location was idyllic if you ignored the mosquitoes which were the size of the average household fly and the trains that ran every ten minutes or so, slowing down to possibly every half an hour over night…. the van didn’t rock each time a train passed, but it was definitely the main line going across the south of France – my mum will remember the one that kept her awake all week when we spent a school holiday in Nice when I was younger 🙂

Despite the mixed feelings about the car park, we did like the fact that there was a bicycle path on our doorstep that appeared to run for miles, so not knowing what tomorrow was going to bring, we both fought off the mosquitoes and went for a run before we moved on.

Séte is very industrial and is home to a massive port, however the town itself is built on canals and it looked like it would have been interesting to explore further.  However, with Italy in mind we kept our focus and passed through even more vinyard … although I wasn’t quite so anxious this time as it was mostly rosé until we arrived at Les Arcs sur Argens.

Once again, we had selected a free Aire (yesterday should have been free in my mind as I didn’t quite read all the details and missed the price…oops) and this one was supposedly attached to a vinyard.  The Aire was a bit grotty and neglected and it looked like a number of the French motorhomes lived there rather than were passing through, they were however all friendly.  It suited the purpose for a stop over as there was also a Hypermarket just down the road enabling us to stock up before we crossed over into the unknown land of Italy…. we also managed to get all the things that are more difficult to buy in Spain and Portugal …. i.e. good jam, barley and taramaslata ….. not forgetting fulfilling the need for a bit of brie and camembert indulgence!

We bought ‘Fattore Amico’ which is the Italian equivalent of ‘France Passion’ containing 500+ farms and restaurants that in theory we should be able to stay at and sample local produce in Italy, so as we didn’t want to cross into Italy and arrive too late on our first day we decided to stay one more night in France stopping at St Laurent du Var just outside Nice….obviously we glanced over towards the sea whilst passing through Cannes to choose an appropriate boat, but decided that they were all lacking in that er…. je ne sais quoi 🙂

The Aire in St Laurent du Var was again free and suited the purpose enabling us to get on the road at a reasonable time in the morning – ok, not really that reasonable, but when you take into consideration the run/exercise, shower, porridge, making sarnies, etc 11am is pretty good isn’t it?

After a busy 20km through to the other side of Nice we wiggled our way through the slightly more mountainous part of the French Riviera, dodging the parked cars, into Monaco and then as quickly back out again, until we crossed the Italian border….. I can’t believe that we have now crossed 7 borders and somehow each time Keith has been driving??? He seems to have it rigged despite us driving on alternate days.  The journey was a very pretty, but a high stress journey due to the route the sat nav took us, we made it in one piece though, so won’t complain.

We had planned to stay on a farm near Diano Castello but as we were passing through SanRemo got distracted by seeing an Aire (10 euros per 24 hours) by the stadium and decided to do a U Turn and stop for the night… or two.  It was very tranquil except for the waves that broke about ten meters behind us and there is a cycle path that runs for roughly 24km passing in front of the Stadium, into SanRemo and along the coast, so a nice traffic free walk into town.

The town itself is split into two, a newer modern plush part with the casino and the older walled town that is made up of rabbit warren alleyways climbing up the side of the hill – all in all an interesting place.

For research purposes (obviously), we stopped for a glass of wine and a beer and despite being given a large basket of crisps and a bowl of nuts to go with our 100ml of wine and 125ml of beer, we were a little taken a back by the 8 euro price tag.  As we can’t be sure whether it is just because we are on the Italian Riviera (although in a more local cafe), we will obviously need to continue the research as we progress through the country 🙂   We were however more pleasantly surprised when the sun finally came out on Sunday afternoon and we had our first Ice Cream of the year costing 2 euros for three flavours …. yum.  We may just have to switch wine for ice cream 🙂

We finally left Benicassim and headed north towards an Aire near a vineyard …. Sounded perfect as we needed some more wine, however when we arrived the Aire wasn’t where the GPS said it should be so, as it was only 4pm we thought we could either search around a bit further, or head on to Palamos. Palamos is where we had originally planned on going but thought 400km was a bit far to drive in one day, however faced with the dilemma we called ahead to ensure that they had space and following a positive response, decided to hit the road again.

As we drove north the skies got darker, the temperature started to drop and just as we passed Barcelona it started to hail, then sleet – dropping the temperature down to 4 degrees….. a lovely welcome to the area, we knew it would be colder, but ouch….

The sleet was sitting on the road and there was snow up in the hills….. we were both wondering why we left the sunshine in Alicante!!

However as we got closer to Palamos we did come out the other side, and although it was only 7 degrees it had at least stopped sleeting. The Aire (Empordarea – 10 euros a night inc. elec) is fairly new, has good clean facilities and is located 1km from the beach…. Not bad at all.

Sunday was Keith’s Birthday …. So it was quite nice that we didn’t have to drive anywhere. We had a mooch around town in the morning to check out the patisseries – which are of a pretty high standard for Spain – just a shame that we decided to wait until the afternoon to buy something as they were all shut by then …. I am a rubbish wife, not a birthday cake (or anything that resembled one) in sight L … we settled for a bit of Turron (Nougat) instead. We did head out to a local bar watch the Madrid game after dinner … so apparently all was not lost 🙂

Keith has also started to diversify in his skills, my brother had kindly ordered me a new laptop battery as the old one is now only lasting 2 hours so, with the help of a couple of videos on YOUTUBE he managed to take the laptop apart, replace the battery and put it together again with no screws to spare …… I think he may have hidden them somewhere. It appeared to be working yesterday… although I have just realised that it isn’t taking the charge ….. hmmmm, not going to help when we don’t have electricity – time for a new plan, looks like the battery is faulty 😦

We woke to heavy rain on Monday morning which continued until about 4:30 in the afternoon … proper wet stuff, although you would be proud, I did manage to still go for a run despite coming back looking like a soggy dog. For once, we weren’t too disappointed about spending slightly more time inside the motorhome whilst the rain continued to fall as we had so much catching up to do with finances, research and emails having spent the last few weeks out and about a bit more than normal.

Our neighbours (Emma and Paul) had invited us over for a late afternoon drink so we could catch up on some places in Italy ….. I wouldn’t mind, but we didn’t go into much detail on Italy, so not quite sure where the the time went and how it suddenly become 1:30am????

What a lovely impromptu evening with a little too much wine, sherry and port. Nice to meet another couple who are roughly the same age and also into walking, cycling and running …. Apparently we aren’t the only mad ones out here 🙂

So, this is our farewell to Spain for now, tomorrow we plan to cross over into France in transit to Italy. Yet again we have had a great time and despite the last couple of days, we have been really lucky with the weather. We will miss the tapas, Rioja and extra-large gin and tonics …. but are ready to take on a bit of Chianti, Pizza, Pasta and antipasti 🙂

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 🙂

Apologies for being a bit slack over the last week … apparently it has been noted 😦

Since leaving Murcia we stopped off for a couple of nights in Santa Pola before arriving in Playa San Juan where we are still parked up.

In Santa Pola we parked by the beach, just near the marina which was very tranquil, enabling Mika to sunbathe until her solar panels with full …which took until approximately 10am each day – the sun has definitely decided that Spring is here.

Santa Pola at this time of year is a quiet, normal town with a very long stretch of promenade providing good running and walking territory and if you want to venture slightly further, pretty good cycling too.  It was nice to relax for a few days before arriving in Alicante when we knew it would be pretty full on!

We have been to Alicante (and Playa San Juan) a few times before as we have friends who live here that Keith met in 1998 when he spent a couple of months in Alicante.  Some may say he was studying Spanish culture via night school (ahem), others would interpret it as watching the football (World Cup, France), drinking beer and living in a cave …. yes, he really did live in a little cave just below Alicante Castle!

Anyway, I digress – when we were in Barcelona (2008) Miguel (one of the old friends) and Elisa (the new girlfriend, now wife) came up for a few days …. the rest is history – it is home from home!

As we knew we would be staying a few nights we booked into a new Aire (Camper Aire Campello Beach 9-12 euros a night) which is two roads back from Muchavista beach near San Juan.  It only opened back in November and isn’t very big (40 spaces) but is in great location for the beach as well as having the bus and tram stops on the doorstep to get into Alicante should you want to go further afield.

We spent Wednesday through to Sunday enjoying good food, good drink and great company – we have been well looked after and on Saturday not only did Keith get a game of Squash in, we also managed to consume more meat than most carnivorous animals would eat in a week at Miguel and Lisa’s house in the form of a Bar B Q… not complaining though.

The weather has also changed in the last week, the sun is shining, the wind has died down and the shorts have been dug out of the cupboards – it reached 30 degrees in the middle of the day on Monday…. no wonder I had such a bad run in the morning!  Needless to say the temperature has now dropped back down to slightly more normal levels …. it was around 20 degrees yesterday although dropped off sharply in the afternoon and over night.

Playa San Juan is a beautiful long beach with mountains in the backdrop.  At this time of year it is perfect as it is still very quiet, although I am sure that the quantity of people will start to ramp up after Easter.  Unlike Alicante, Playa San Juan (and San Joan D’Alacant, the local town) is mostly made up of second homes for families from Madrid, so it has quite a different, more Spanish feel to it than a lot of touristy beach resorts …. we have been talking about coming back for the winter in the future and our eyes have even strayed into the odd estate agent window!

Having got over the weekend, despite planning on moving on last Monday, we have spent a few extra days here walking and relaxing. We popped into Alicante yesterday to have a look around and I am still always mesmorised by the size of the rubber trees over here …. I am obviously doing something wrong when pruning mine… although I am sure that if they ended up like these, the neighbours may complain 😦

I just love the way that the trunks and branches grow – it makes you feel like you are looking up at an Ent (one of the very large talking trees from the lord of the rings)

We plan to move on at the end of the week so that we can meet up with Keith’s sister and brother in Law who are flying out to meet us in Valencia … fingers crossed the weather will be as good as it has been recently.

It’s a bit depressing really as we are surrounded by hundreds and thousands of little (and some not quite so little) yellow blobs hanging off of trees in every direction we look, but we can’t make a tarte au citron as despite Mika’s comfort and array of utilities, her oven is just not quite hot enough.  I wouldn’t mind, but they don’t even appear to make them in the patisseries …. suddenly Spain has gone down in my estimations 😦

Having left Tomato country we moved into Murcia – ‘the land of the Allotment’ as they call it in Spain, or ‘Europes Orchard’ in Wikipedia’s words.  Murcia is one of the smallest autonomies in Spain but it is known for its food and drink… although I am guessing that they must export the lemons as from what we have seen they have more than enough to share with at least Europe, possible the rest of the world!

Our first stop in Murcia was Vera which is slightly in land from a very british and touristy coastline.  The Aire (Area Auto caravanas Indalo 9 euros a night inc. elec.) was roughly 4km outside Vera itself down a dirt track, nestled in the hills looking up at the mountains  – a beautiful tranquil setting which oddly, the Aire shares with a Padel and Tennis center.  The town itself was far more peaceful and normal than those we had passed through on the coast and as the weather was reasonable when we arrived and we found a nice butcher we even managed to have a bar b q!

After a couple of restful nights in Vera we moved on to Categena where we stopped at an Aire (Dolores 10 euros a night inc. elec.) which was roughly 7km from the center and 1km from the nearest town which had a handful of decent bars for tapas and football….I have to remember the important things in life.  Despite not arriving particularly late, we were lucky to find a space as four French motorhomes travelling together arrived just before us causing a bit of a commotion as it wasn’t a big place.  In the morning, after a trip to the market to stock up on fruit and veg we headed into Cartegena and were suprisingly disappointed, perhaps we were having a bad day – although it is odd that we both felt the same – it just didn’t feel like the city had any soul.

Despite it not giving either of us any reason to want to come back, it did however have a rather spectacular roman theatre which was worth a look….

Leaving Cartegena we thought we would head towards a campsite in a natural cove south of San Pedro del Pinatar, an area that we had been told about by a couple we met in Toledo a few months ago.  The cove is enormous and looked very pretty, although in parts we could see that it was very built up.  As we started to get close it became evident that it wasn’t our kind of place …. the campsite was enormous with hundreds of static homes, caravans and motorhomes, so we quickly decided to bypass it and move on to Murcia.

We arrived at the Aire (Camper Park Huerta de Murcia 12 euros inc. elec.) mid afternoon and followed the same 4 French motorhomes in, yet again thankfully there was one space left for us 🙂 The Aire is roughly 9km from the center of Murcia, just outside a little town called Alquerias which has ample bars and restaurants and it also has a cycle path into the center of Murcia nearby…. most importantly it is surrounded by lemon trees.  I would almost go so far as to say that they possibly had to dig up some lemon trees to squeeze the Aire in…. it isn’t a bad spot!

We jumped on the bikes on Saturday morning and headed into Murcia to find the market (what a surprise) and for a wander around.  In complete contrast to Cartegena, Murcia has a lovely old town with lots of tiny streets and boutique shops.  Having walked the streets of the old town and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere in one of the main squares as there was a concert/show on, we wandered over to the western side of town and found another market surrounded by lots of restaurants and bars heaving with people.  Nice for a drink, but definitely a lunch / tapas stop for next time we visit – it looked great.

On Sunday, with the sun shining and the wind blowing a gale we thought we would head out to explore the lemon groves and local towns a little today falling upon a little bar where we managed to get a bottle of beer and a glass of wine for 1 euro 60 – all quite pleasant 🙂

Having left the snowy mountains behind us, we headed back down to the coast to thaw out stopping in what you could call a summer coastal resort called Almayate for a night at an Aire (AMR – 4 euros a night excl. electricity). I describe it as a summer coastal resort as there is a long coastal road which has a number of ‘secure parking areas’ for motorhomes, a handful of bars/restaurants, several campsites and a lot of beach but not much else. To be fair, the little towns along the road all seemed fairly nice, it was just the concept of the secure car parks dotted between the towns on the main road with no pathway to walk along which bothered me – if you are inviting tourists to the area, at least invest a little in their safety 🙂

Anyway, getting off my high horse …..although the people running the Aire were lovely and full of suggestions of where we could go in the area, we only stayed one night before heading back up into the mountains to explore Granada!

Like Ronda, we weren’t sure if we would make it this year as there has been a huge amount of snow in the Sierra Nevada but we struck it lucky with a couple of clear days and a bit of rain. We parked up at a campsite (Camping Maria Eugenia, 17 euros excl. electricity) which was roughly 5km from the center and headed into town for to have a look around and try out some of their tapas. The camping was nothing to write home about, but it was a safe place to park in the city, the owner was friendly and it had a bus stop outside the entrance if you wanted to use it (naturally we walked everywhere :)). As we don’t use the campsites for much more than emptying and filling up the 17 euros was more attractive than 27 euros which was the other alternative.

Granada is obviously famous for the Alhambra, the Sierra Nevada … and if you are foodies like us, for its tapas 🙂  Every drink that you buy comes with a ‘free’ tapa, but instead of the usual nuts and crisps that you get in other parts of the country, you can choose from a menu of delicacies. Obviously the quality/ingredients vary hugely depending on the type of establishment you are in but we were lucky in all but one bar where they over-did the grease a little. (Note: Some bars do charge a bit extra for the tapa with a drink, rather than a drink on its own).

We spent three days in Granada, one (more late afternoon/evening) exploring the bars and cafes, one walking the Alhambra and the last (rainy) day wandering the streets of the old city – all of which were hugely interesting.

Despite having visited many a Chateau in France, the Alhambra is a class of its own. It isn’t as refined or regal as some of the Chateaux we have visited, but the setting and views are amazing

and the detail in the carving of the ceilings and walls is incredible and some of the courtyards quite beautiful.

Although the skies had clouded over and the sun had disappeared the views from the Alhambra out to the Sierra Nevada were still pretty spectacular

I am sure we will be back, if nothing else to get a baked potato (oddly also served as a Tapas in some bars) as there are some things you just can’t do in a motorhome 🙂

After leaving Granada we unintentionally climbed further into the mountains (1300+m) to get back down to the coast, thankfully although there was still a bit of snow by the side of the road the real white stuff was still a couple of hundred meters above us ….. looking very beautiful, and very thick!

Over the last couple of months we have predominantly been in ‘Orange’ and ‘Olive’ country – where at points we could buy 5kg of the most enormous, succulent Oranges for 2 euros….. what a treat, we have now moved to ‘Tomato’ land…. Almeria is apparently the largest tomato producer in the world…. and very tasty they are too.

We parked in a car park next to the beach roughly 4km from the center of Almeria as the service area we had planned to stay at apparently shut last year. The location however was stunning and it was half way along a cycle path/promenade – perfect for us for a couple of nights enabling us to visit the market on Saturday (where they had the most enormous variety of tomatoes ranging from 1 euro a kilo up to 13 euros a kilo), have a good walk exploring the town and soak up a bit of sunshine and sea air.

When we left Almeria this afternoon and headed to Aguas Amargas (Bitter Waters) the temperature was 19 degrees …. A proper summers day for us Brits… we almost dug out the shorts!

Aguas Amargas is a little town in a national park just along the coast from Almeria. We parked up in the river mouth and walked up into the hills above the town to take in the views…. Tranquil.

We have now been on the road in the motorhome for 6 months …. strange as it doesn’t seem that long ago when we left Bagnoles De L’Orne – not sure if that is a good sign or a bad one!

Distance Walked / Cycled 2915km

Distance Driven just under 6000 miles

After much debating we decided to head inland and up into the mountains to Ronda, a place we have wanted to come to for a long time but never made it.

Concerned about the forecasted snow, we researched all the routes into Ronda – all of them are apparently stunning, none of them an easy drive – finally we opted for a smaller road which turned out to mean that it wasn’t very well kept, dissolving slightly at the edges (a bit disconcerting when you are nearly 800m up the side of a mountain) and rather bouncy in parts, but beautiful all the same.  We were heading for an Aire which was supposed to be 12 euros a night, but ended up at the campsite ‘Camping el Sur’ (18 euros 52 per night exc elect with 5% disc.).  The Aire is owned by the campsite, but currently closed due to it flooding, so we had no choice except to opt for the slightly more costly option.

After a quick wander into Ronda to stretch the legs, take in the beautiful views and get a map we settled in for the evening in a cold, but very tranquil location.

We had been keeping our eye on the weather forecast and knew that there were chances of snow on Saturday night however, we woke at about 6am to rain…. which turned into snow and looked like it was going to hang around for a while.

Having waited a couple of hours until it slowed (and plugged Mika into electricity as the solar panel was covered in snow), we set off into town to explore and were not disappointed by the added ‘charm’ the snow added …. although, like the locals, we were a little nervous as to what may be coming later in the afternoon as it looked like we were in for a good few days here ….

That said, despite the weather forecast and the colour of the sky, it didn’t snow or rain on Saturday, nor Sunday – so, although not beautiful bright blue skies, we were still able to enjoy some of the walks and sights.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Ronda you can read up on it here – it is a beautiful old town built around a canyon with three bridges joining the two sides and a lovely walk through the valley below enabling you to look up and admire the main bridge on one side and the mountains on the other.

the views from the bridge down into the other side of the canyon weren’t too bad either ….

Ronda is set in the most beautiful location, every direction you look in leads you to a mountain encrusted with snow in the distance with beautiful old buildings balancing on the edge of a cliff looking like they are about to fall over – it is stunning.  The area not only has lots of walking and mountain biking but it also has its fair share of good bars, restaurants, a decent market and lots of patisseries …..so we will definitely be back when the weather is a little warmer.

I am afraid it will only mean something to you if you are familiar with the TV series ‘On the Up’ from the 1990’s

We worked our way cross country from Sanluca to arrive at Puerto Santa Maria which is a pretty town on the coast across the river from Cadiz. Not having been able to find any cheap/free Aires nearby, we decided to opt for a campsite ‘Camping Playa de las Dunas de San Anton’ (16 euros inc elec. with ACSI) which was almost on the beach, but most importantly had easy access to both Cadiz and Jerez. The campsite was fairly busy with a mixture of French, English and German predominantly, some staying for a couple of nights and some for the winter months, but all seemed to be very friendly and welcoming.

We were concerned that Puerto Santa Maria would be a bit industrial, but quite the opposite, it has a really nice old town complete with its own castle as well as a very plush newer addition in the form of the marina ‘Port Sherry’ and town called ‘Pueblo Sherry’ where the wealthy business people obviously live, commuting into Cadiz each day… an all-round nice place to be.

We took the catamaran over to Cadiz to explore a little further on Monday and although we had been here before and had good memories of the endless cobbled lanes, we wanted to see how it had evolved over the years. It has had a fair amount of investment and is still a really interesting place to visit with lots of little boutique-type shops, two castles (his and hers), as well and a lovely promenade all the round the edge of the town….definitely worth a day trip at least.

On Tuesday we ventured out on the train to Jerez (Sherry – for the English) mixing our cultural visit in with a little sherry tasting …. 🙂

The town of Jerez itself is an inland version of Cadiz – lots of beautiful buildings, cobbled lanes and interesting areas to explore. It is famous for its horses, is the birthplace of flamenco (for some reason I thought that it was Seville) in addition to being where sherry comes from – I am sure that the town comes alive at night, but we didn’t stay late enough to sample the evening entertainment.

From what we could see there appear to be 5+ different types of Sherry – Fino (similar to a very dry, white wine), Oloroso (Slightly less dry, but with a bitter after taste), Oloroso Dulce (Didn’t get to try this one, but I imagine a sweeter version of the Oloroso), Crema (Smooth, sweet and tawny port-like) and Amontillada (again didn’t try this one) … all quite interesting though. As with Porto in Portugal, the town itself has the distilleries dotted around it and offer tastings and tours however, having done quite a few vineyard tours we decided to opt for the ‘bodega’ option which meant visiting one of the 6 ‘Sherry’ bars around town and paying 1 euro for a ‘home-made’ version of one of the above. All the bars / cafes in Jerez served Sherry, but these bodegas offered a bit more of an atmosphere and a ‘tasting’ option if you wanted to partake.

We both decided that the ‘Crèma’ Sherry was more to our taste and found a little place where the guy persuaded us to try a ‘farmers’ version – I think that just means it was a little less refined, no certification and cheaper – but nevertheless it was as nice as the others we had tried, so we bought a bottle (ok – 2 litres) to take home with us.

Moving on from Puerto Santa Maria, we decided that as we were in the area we would take a trip to Gibraltar so headed along the coast, through some beautiful hilly countryside down to Linea de Conception which is the Spanish town which joins with Gibraltar. We parked up in the Aire (9 euros per night) and looked out at the big rock sticking out of the water …. Quite impressive

After a peaceful night, with passports and £ Sterling in hand we walked across to Gibraltar, stopping briefly while the Easyjet plan landed on the runway which crosses the road blocking anyone from entering or leaving the country …. Slightly quirky 🙂

The sun was shining, although it was bitter with the wind, so we walked up to the ‘Upper Rock’ through the national park, first taking in the views out to Algeria …

And then catching up with the locals…

Although we were oddly quite excited by the concept of being in Gibraltar I don’t think either of us knew what to expect and despite finding the very expensive camera lens that I have just bought for £50 less, we both had a bit of a reality shock on prices. As we still had some M&S vouchers, Keith bought some boxers in Marks and Spencers (can’t go wrong with M&S underwear) and oddly, Gibraltar apparently has the largest Morrisons’ store in the portfolio …. they even have large jars of marmite (Thank you Gonzo 🙂 )… we managed to hold back though and didn’t buy anything else.

Needless to say that we enjoyed the visit, but it won’t be one of the places that we would be rushing back to as there isn’t a huge amount to do there apart from eat in English style bars and restaurants and shopping…..