Bienvenido do Nuevo!
(Welcome Back!)

It’s been 3 months since we’ve been in out in the Motorhome, lots has been going on including moving to Wool in Dorset. But its January and the sunshine in Spain beckoned us away from cold wintry temperatures of Dorset despite loving it here and still settling into the house.

So, on a bleak January day after a lot of faffing around getting the van ready including radically reducing what we take with us we finally headed off around lunchtime to Folkstone to catch the Eurotunnel to Calais.

What we weren’t prepared for was the next couple of days of freezing cold temperatures in France.

We’d decided this time to stick to the Autoroutes through France to hopefully speed up the journey to the south as we had a lot of miles to cover. Calais was our first stopover after the Channel Tunnel to an Aire we’ve used before. It was where we saw the Giant Robotic Dragon that breathed real fire near Calas quay. It was late and dark when we arrived and the Aire was deserted apart from 1 other van.

That night there was a clear sky and temperatures of around -4/5. Of course, the van’s diesel heater decided not to work and we had no electric at the Aire. Even our waste pipe froze that night and there was ice inside the windows in the morning…..not a great start. So early to bed with plenty of blankets and a hot water bottle.

Next morning, we had an early start no point hanging about in the freezing cold and we had 5/6 hours of driving ahead. We drove with only a couple of stops until around 4pm and stayed in the heart of the Côte D’Or vineyards of Burgundy. Beaune is very pretty medieval walled town with cobbled streets and Tudor buildings. Beaune is famous as the setting for one of Frances primary annual wine auction held in the Hotel Dieu which was once a 15th century hospital but now a museum.

We had enough daylight to take a walk around the town before joining about 20 other motor homers settle for the night in a central Aire in the town with water and emptying facilities. If only the UK had more of these…..

Day 2 we manged to fill up with LPG for gas bottle in a fuel station opposite the site which was very handy as we had been refused it several times the previous day on the Autoroutes – apparently after a fire a few years ago a lot of the French motorways refuse to let you fill up your gas bottles using their LPG pumps.

Another long day of driving bought us past Montpellier in South of France to what was once a fishing village called Palavas-Les-Flots but is now a popular resort built on sand dunes that separate two lakes from the sea. The centre of the village is based around a canalised section of the river that flows into the sea.

Palavas is one of the most popular areas in this part of the French coast and its main economy is based around tourism. Local fishermen still display their catch (mainly oysters) every morning along the central canal for restaurants and locals to buy. We took a stroll in the evening and enjoyed a stunning sunset from the beach. I can see the appeal of this area. The drive along the lakes that divided the town from Montpellier were awash with bird life including some magnificent pink flamingos.

That night we stopped at a fabulous up market Aire right in the centre of the town which was also extremely busy with motorhomes, some of them were huge too. Lovely clean toilets and a very hot shower. These things become very important when you are on the road!

By now the temperature was beginning to rise …. And on day 3 we reached Spain and once we were beyond the Pyrenees mountains the temperature was a respectable 15 degrees.

Another 4 hours of driving our first stop in Spain was Sitges, a large town south of Barcelona along the coast. We know Sitges well, in fact it felt like coming home as my lovely dad and step- mother Lin lived here for 25 years.

Sadly, dad passed away last July so this was a pilgrimage for me to revisit where we spent many hot summers with plenty of happy memories visiting them.

We stopped here for 2 nights in a free parking spot I found on the App Park4Night as all campsites were closed. Sitges is a party town, it’s quite up market and cosmopolitan and there is always something going on and on this weekend there was a half marathon so the town was heaving with runners and their families.

Luckily the race was finished by 1pm and they did a fantastic job of clearing up everything so quickly and efficiently that you would never have known that a few hours ago hundreds of runners were discarding bottles and orange skins all over the place.

After a walk along the Paseda to where dad used to have his apartment and a trip down memory lane we met up with close family friends of my nieces and nephew who recently moved and coincidentally live in Sitges. Kim, Baz and little Otto spent the afternoon with us which was as good as being with family.
Two lovely days in Sitges it was time to move further south. The weather was warming up nicely, we were both in shorts now and had ditched any heaters and extra blankets at night.

Our route is taking us down the East coast of Spain. We’ve had 3 long days of driving so decided to slow down and just do a few hours in the morning.

We stopped at Peniscola 150km north of Valencia around lunchtime and found an Aire 2 mins walk to a long sandy beach.

Peniscola is a busy tourist resort as all along the roads leading to our Aire were huge apartment blocks all with their shutters closed. But also, along the route there were about 3 or 4 Motorhome Parks all full up with long stay visitors. The place was bustling with retirees on electric bikes! This is where we started to realise how many other Motor homers from other cold parts of Europe also had the same idea…..
Here we slipped into our old routine – Bob metal detected along the beach for a few hours whilst I walked 4/5 miles to the old town, castle and port and back. It felt good to be back exploring again.

At the heart of Peniscola is an ancient castle and old town built on a rock. During an excavation of the castle evidence from Roman-Iberon in 1st & 2nd BC was uncovered but an Arab Fortress was installed during Moorish times. The castle passed to James II of Aragon who peacefully took the Arab fortress and gave it to the Order of the Knights Templars. The Templars were in charge of protecting pilgrims on their route to Jerusalem and they built up a lot of wealth over two centuries. They then lent their support to the Catholic Church and participated in the Crusades.

When they took over Peniscola they totally rebuilt the castle to their own specifications. It engaged in a number of military conflicts before it was converted to become a Papal residence for Popes Benedict XIII & Clement XII.

Now it has been restored and it is lovely to walk the steps around the castle with breathtaking views, the old town streets are narrow, steep and cobbled with flowers draping from window boxes and many streets and plazas taken up with cafes and bars.

One of the info boards I read described how beneath the castle there are natural springs from which flow ‘sweet water’ – these same waters have for centuries served the local population in a number of ways from washing the fishing nets to drinking water as is still done to this day.

Bob and I were now in shorts so when I got back from my walk I thought I might take a dip in the sea….. but that did not happen after 2 attempts into the ice cold sea and my legs nearly froze, maybe we need to go further south!

Day 7 and we had one more 2 hour drive. It’s taken us a week to get this far and we have spent an eye watering €200 on French Tolls, I worked out to get to Sitges including channel crossing all fuel etc,. we’ve spent £600. Fuel in France was very expensive whether you were on the motorway of not, the difference in Spain was almost 50cents a litre. Shocking !!

We arrived at a little resort called Daimus south of Valencia and very close to another part of the country we are familiar with. Rio & Hamish used to own a Spanish town house in this area and we spent a couple of summers helping to renovate the property. It was here that we had our family reunion. Rio Hamish Bear and Nely were staying 40 mins away for a month and we were joining them for a week.

Once we eventually found a campsite that had a space – everywhere is full in this area of long term stayers…. we were squeezed into a spot with no electric, we met up with Rio Hamish Bear and Nely for a reunion before settling in for the night. I liked the site we were in, it was a campsite so had hot showers and clean toilets and friendly staff and it was very cheap at 10 euros a night.

The next day was Bobs birthday – a milestone as he’s now officially a pensioner! So, after a lazy breakfast we walked into Gandia the nearest big town with a huge long beach that we know well and met up with family for the day revisiting favourite hot spots and cafes.