After a late start we
drove 250km along the coast to Santa Pola, another beach town. We diverted at
Fuente Alamo, a small town that very rarely saw tourists by the looks of things
and at a tasty lunch of tapas and a set menu. The tapas were the most tasty to
date and included squid in a rich red wine and tomato sauce, prawns with
mushrooms and ham, a plate that tasted like bacon and egg pie minus the pastry,
pork in a tomato sauce and more empanadas. Unfortunately the set menu did not impress as much as the
tapas but I did get to try the thicker version of Gazpatcho soup (cold tomato
soup) after thinking I was ordering salmon! The joys of not understanding
Spanish. The highlight was when the lovely waitress gave us a free shot of
Limonchello, which knocked the socks off us. A great cultural experience we had
all been seeking after many days in the tourist zone. Before arriving at Santa Pola we took a detour to Mamina, a
22km lagoon which was nothing to write home about.
At Santa Polo we
arrived to a welcome greeting at the campground. A lovely man served us and
escorted us to our pitch at the back of the long campground. Emma and I joined
the man on his golf buggy, a very zippy electric buggy. The campsite had new
bathroom facilities and it was very tidy-the best campground to date. And at a
cost of 36 euro for four people, it was the best value for money. The man also
informed us it was a fiesta day today-a public holiday for the locals and
mentioned fireworks. After a picnic dinner of bread, cured meats, cheese,
olives and tortilla, we walked 20 minutes into town at 11pm to see the town
buzzing with families and many elderly. Although not the best we had seen we
all agreed the fireworks display was fairly good for a small beach town. James
made a purchase of bombitas; small bombs that explode with impact which all the
children had and had fun terrorising us all with them. Good harmless fun.
After a sleep in we
headed for the beach and had a swim. We found a good emporium store beside the
beach and managed to purchase a padder tennis set (really popular in Spain) and
also some number 9 wire (so James could fix the latch on Dusty’s bonnet). The
boys played for ages in the water with their padder tennis bats while Emma and
I sunbathed. With many a topless lady, an obligatory stroll up the beach was in
order before driving on towards Valencia.
Given Coll Vert, the
camping ground on the outskirts of Valencia had a beach 5 minutes walk away we
headed straight for a swim to be slightly bamboozled by many stark men and the
odd naked woman on the beach. Turns out if you went left, it was a nudist area
and also popular with the gay community. We headed back to the van where
Maneesh and Emma had been chilling their champagne (a gift from us) which we
drank before Emma and Maneesh shouted us a thank you dinner of Paella-the
region most famous for it. After a couple of jugs of the best Sangria I have
tasted, we had a midnight swim before calling it a night.
We caught the bus into
Valencia and headed straight for the old town. With such beautiful apartment
blocks, designer stores and flash cars you could definitely see the wealth of
this city. We stumbled on the bull fighting ring and I saw a poster advertising
the bull fighting for the month which I fell in love with. Intent on finding
it, I had no such luck in any store. We also viewed the cathedral in the old
town, which hosts a couple of interesting artefacts; Saint Vincent the Martar’s
right arm (which looked really blackened and shrivelled, sealed in a glass
cabinet) and the Holy Grail-the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper. We found a great food market not far
from here and collected a few supplies, olives, pimentos, empanadillas etc
before walking to Gulliver, a giant sized brightly sculpted playground and then
onto the impressive entertainment based cultural and architectural complex, containing
the opera house, a science museum, an Imax theatre, an aquarium and a sports
arena. It was an amazing stamp on modern architecture and a definite must see.
Tired, we headed back to the camping ground and had a swim and another paella
before bed.
We decided to spend a
little more time in Valencia so the boys and girls parted ways for the morning.
James and Maneesh headed to the Science Musuem and Emma and I went back into
town to do some shopping. Unfortunately for the boys the museum did not open
early enough to go through it so they headed back to camp to wait for us. Emma
and I were more successful, with Emma purchasing a nice leather handbag and we
sampled some breakfast tostada (toasted baguette with diced blanched tomato on
top) and a coffee and red tea. I was on the hunt for the bullfighter artwork so
we tried the bullfighting museum behind the stadium but no luck. We happened to
then walk past their administration office and admire the poster once more.
Within a minute a lady walked out and said, un momento, and came back with a
copy of the poster for me. I was stoked! We headed back to camp and then
returned to the city in the afternoon, the boys attending the science museum
and Emma and I viewing the wharf which hosted the 2007 America’s Cup (and the
small museum there) and relaxed on the beach. Given the Science museum was
quite new the boys were well impressed with it.
After leaving Valencia
to head closer to Barcelona, we saw dusty look a like who beeped at us which
was cool. We were beginning to find people were recognising us by the New
Zealand sticker we have on the back window, including Mario, the camping ground
owner at a small town called St Carles de la rapita on the Catalyn Coast. Turns
out Mario had spent three weeks in New Zealand last year so we automatically
hit it off and he gave us the best position in the camp ground-right on the
waterfront. Fantastic! He also told us of a fiesta the town was having the next
day, with a parade and the main feature being a type of bull fight where the
bull is involved in a tug of war with people and they tie flaming ….to it’s
head. Aparently this is still allowed (as bullfighting is banned in Catalona
region) because it does not harm the bull and the bull lives.
Due to time
constraints we could not stay for the fiesta, catching the parade which was
very small and then drove out to the wetlands to see our first flamengo’s in
the wild. Such a pretty bird.
We drove to Barcelona
(going through our first toll roads) and checked Emma and Maneesh into their
hotel. We decided to free camp outside which meant we could all sightsee
together that evening. We spent our last night together walking to the Segranda
Familia ( a church designed by Antonio Guadi) and watching the magic
fountain-both of which James and I had seen on our first trip to Europe three
years ago and had recommended. It was nice being back to see the developments
on the church and we topped it off with a nice meal out together.
After a restless and
hot nights sleep free camping outside Emma and Maneesh’s Barcelona Hotel, we
all had breakfast together in the van and drove out to Montserrat and took a
train up into the hills, 800 metres above sea level. The monastery was
beautiful but rather developed into a tourist attraction, with roads, cars,
cafes and souvenir stores abundant. We visited the basilica which was in the
middle of mass, and then headed for a 20 minute walk to view the monastery
perched on the cliffs. We also saw these moths in the garden that looked like
miniature humming birds, you could easily have mistaken them they were quite
amazing. After lunch we headed back down the hill and said farewell to our
mates who were Barcelona bound. We drove off with a toot and arrived in
Perpignan four hours later and settled in at a quiet and dark campsite-made for
a good nights sleep.
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