Places

14
Jun
2023

Peñíscola & Parque de La Serra D’Irta

The usual recommendations from ourtour.co.uk came good yet again. I was ultimately aiming for the Costa Brava, and Tossa de Mar in the first instance, as I will be spending a week with a friend who’s flying from Leeds/Bradford to Girona in a couple of days. I didn’t want to do another long drive from the Denia region to there and so researched places north of Valencia to break the journey. The decision was finally made to visit the above town, and as with Nerja, the same campsite used by ‘ourtour’- Camping Ferrer.

In the end I stayed for 3 nights, and got quite used to the place. It’s only a small campsite, and not the most ‘beautiful’ in terms of the 4/5 star ones I’ve booked for when my guest arrives :), but everyone was friendly, the price was very reasonable and It’s location was great. It’s walkable to the beautiful beaches, the old town and castle, many restaurants and cafes and then yesterday my discovery of the Parque Serra de Irta. I realised that this protected area of mediterranean coast is between Peniscola and the town of Alcossebre, which I stayed at in 2019 and it’s possible to cycle on the dirt tracks in the Irta from one to the other.

I just went looking for the Alcossebre post, and remembered (thankfully) that I hadn’t got going with the blog in 2019 until I got to Olvera, thereby missing out recording travels to Carcassonne, Calella de Palafrugell , Cuenca, Granada, and the first part of my journey through France and Spain in that year with my sister. I do remember, and Google maps confirms, that there is another campsite in the Parque at the Alcossebre side called La Ribera, which I will have to stay at in the future, I loved this unspoilt area, of beautiful hills and coves, clear blue water and not too many humans. It would be interesting to know how busy it would get in July/August, as there are mostly only bumpy dirt roads and tracks through the landscape.

My bike is great for getting me to these places, and rides well with its thick 20-inch tyres over these sorts of tracks. It’s motor of course means that hills are not a blocker to exploring. The third picture conveys everything I enjoy about travels by campervan and bike (electric preferably now!) – access to beautiful places, in beautiful weather and hearing snapshots of different peoples’ stories along the way. Two bikes in the picture, meaning the presence of an adventures companion, would be the icing on the cake.

Peniscola is, I would imagine, a significant holiday town, with more large hotels, beach-front accommodation etc than Denia or Nerja. The beach goes on for miles, so one of the days I cycled along its length north to Benicarlo. It seems that this whole area is not geared up to British tourists or ex-pats. I mostly heard Spanish with quite alot of French and some German, and these were the majority on the campsite also.

It was great to spend an evening chatting with Valentina, a Ukrainian refugee living in Poland but on a ‘working’ holiday with her French partner, Jean-Francois, who’s from near the town of Foix. They met a year ago online, and then in-person when Jean-Francois brought his son to Warsaw because he was going to spend some time studying there. Valentina is from Kyiv, and left with her two daughters 3 days after the Russians invaded. She was able to stay with a sister in Poland, and get herself established – she is a languages teacher, so is now teaching remotely, with her elder daughter deciding to study Psychology in English in Vilnius, and her 11-year old daughter attending school in Poland. I think they are currently living in Gdansk. I’m writing all this down because i’m always interested in the ‘international’ lives that people lead, whether by choice or not. Valentina seems a very positive person and as with the family I hosted, determined to make the most of the changes forced upon them.

Am now near Tossa de Mar, preparing to pick up tomorrow morning my adventures companion for this week. Looking forward to it.

Posted by admin in Places, Spain
09
Jun
2023

Denia/Javea Casita via Mojacar

Decided to do another long stretch from Nerja to the house of long-standing university friends in the above area.

The landscape through Almeria, and into the Murcia regions is very arid and the word ‘brutalist’ sums it up for me. Lots of agriculture under plastic poly-tunnels. I do like a tree, or many, and there aren’t any unless veering off into the towns and cities.

As Mojacar was only 10km off the motorway at one point, I went there for a lunch stop and to have a think about Mum. This was one of her happy places which her partner had introduced into her life, and I had also joined them on two occasions in March with the last one in 2019. I wanted to see whether any half-built apartment blocks had been completed, and whether it was still as beautiful and welcoming in June. It was, and some of the buildings had been completed.

Some of Mojacar Playa

The motorway journey was great and only really got busy around Alicante. The landscape suddenly changed at Ca;lpe and became green with trees, and it felt as though I had driven all the way to the Cote d’Azur.

When I finally found my friends’ house in the La Sella area, I spent a geat 4 days with them, staying in their annex, enjoying the beautiful location and having them as tour guides around Denia, Javea and into the mountains for a paella. Hopefully I’ll have other times in the future to visit. They haven’t aged a day 🙂

Ultimately heading for the Costa Brava, I decided to stay at a small site at the medieval town of Bocairent, passing Ontinyent inland from Valencia. Very beautiful wide valleys here with vineyards, and surrounded by hills/low mountains. The Beach Boys accompanied some of the rising temperature to more than 30 degrees. Most unfortunately the little campsite of 6 pitches was fully booked, and so I drove on, stopping at a site at another medieval town, Xativa.

On final arrival I was shattered from some of the drive taking me through very narrow residential streets in towns along the way, and having to do more than one u-turn due to the lack of signs for the campsites. And how could I almost forget another of my most hated episodes: trying to navigate to a gas station which had LPG, and then trying to get some out of the pump and into the vehicle, in this case from what seemed to be a completely un-‘personned’ station.

After about 10 mins in the heat of the midday of repeatedly reading the destructions on the pump (another sign of madness) and trying to get the pump to clamp onto one of my 4 or so adaptors, there suddenly appeared a hero-type with his polo-shirt indicating he was a gas station attendant. Between his Spanish and my English, and my obvious welcome at his appearance, he conveyed that I needed to activate my card payment on another machine away from the LPG pump first (not in the instwuctions), He then proceeded to achieve the process with ease, and deal unflinchingly with the explosion on de-clamping the pump. My jubilance lasted all the way until the narrow residential street driving.

After the arrival cup of tea and period of collapse, I forced myself off to walk round the town for a couple of hours, and it was well worth the visit, even though I will not be going upto the castle at the top.

The castle is at the top of the hill behind the town, and is more impressive from different places
Many historic buildings have beautiful courtyards, and still being used for current purposes; this one is a music conservatory
One historic building being used for an art exhibition of an artist ‘Boix’?

Going to go for another long journey tomorrow.

Posted by admin in Musings, Places, Spain, The Good
04
Jun
2023

Loved Nerja, Andalucia

It’s the last day of 5 days at the Camping San Miguel Aula de Naturaleza for which I have ‘Ourtours’ couple to thank. A lovely campsite, 200 yards across the road from one of Nerja’s beautiful beaches. My only downer would be that this road is the main coast road, so particularly at commuting time, is reasonably busy and therefore somewhat noisy.

It’s possible to cycle along the beach on a dirt track which then brings you to the built-up part of the town from where it’s easy to cycle/walk to the centre, the Balcon de Europa, and other beaches. This time of year seems perfect to visit, as the temperature perhaps goes up to the mid twenties, the cafes and restaurants are open and the beaches are not over busy. There are many nationalities around in addition to Spanish, perhaps Dutch people in the majority, then Germans and Brits, and a sprinkling of other vehicle number plates.

I love the beaches as many of them are in large coves, the water is beautiful and clear, and I have been able to use my SUP board. In fact for my kayaking along the beach this afternoon, Google has classed me as being on a ferry. I’ll take that. The mountains are the beautiful backdrop for this area, and the motorway I arrived on, wends it way impressively across viaducts and in tunnels through them.

The view from my ‘ferry’

The bike continues to enable me to leave the van in place and explore, and I’ve cycled on the dirt tracks that go under the motorway and into the hills/mountains. Frigliana is worth a visit, and today I walked up the Rio Chillar path which in effect from a certain point is walking up a stream. A magical walk which reminded me of ‘Puck’s Glen’ near Dunoon in Scotland, although of course completely different in landscape (& weather when I was there, which was winter, but I know that area has had some similar summer weather around now).

In typical fashion, I was just musing to myself that even the rocks in the water were not slippy, (unlike most streams in the UK) when sure enough I slipped, and fortunately only ended up with scratches and 50% of my shorts wet from falling into the undergrowth at the side! 🙂 It was early enough in the day for the hordes not yet to be in attendance, so one’s pride was not a problem. I don’t seem as yet to have any longer-term effects from the vegetation. The higher they climb ……

This picture captures my sentiments to Nerja and its environs

I’m looking forward to a glass of wine and conversation this evening with Gabrielle, a german, fellow solo traveller, and then long drive up to Denia tomorrow.

Posted by admin in Meetings - the non-work sort, Spain, The Good
30
May
2023

Madrid (& Copenhagen)

Stayed for 3 nights at the very pleasant Camping Osuna, 10 minutes walk from a metro station and from there 25 mins into the centre. Yesterday and today have seen many miles covered on foot here there and everywhere including free entry to the Museum of Madrid History, and the Royal Botanical Gardens. My overall impressions confirmed the opinion of others – that it is a very beautiful city in terms of beautiful historic buildings, parks, plazas, boulevards and avenues, cafe’s everywhere, both independent and global chains. Other observations included that in general people providing all this hospitality to endless tourists were helpful and pleasant, the prices were very reasonable, not too diverse a population in comparison with London, but many people to my eyes of seemingly latin-american origin.

I should have done a post on my trip to Copenhagen, and that too would have included ‘diversity not very much in evidence’, or better described by my travelling companion daughter as “where are the people with pink hair?”. We loved our visit to that city, its cycling provision, friendly people, good food and cafe culture. Being a fan, and it being my source of learning bits of Danish, I did feel as though I was on the set of my highly recommended ‘Borgen’ political drama. I can recommend the 3-hour cycling tour from City Bike Adventures Copenhagen and our immigrant North American guide made the tour so interesting, bringing his own observations as an outsider who chose to move there.

Below is Madrid, not Copenhagen

Posted by admin in Cities-Towns, Places, Spain
28
May
2023

Avila & Arrival at Madrid

It was an easy drive from La Granja to the historic town of Avila, with its main fame being its intact medieval walls. I stayed at a paying campervan stop just outside them, for a relaxing 2 nights which enabled me to pay to walk round them, and then the next day do a half a day exploring the very nearby reservoir and rest of the town by bike.

Real life goes on inside these walls, with a mixture of old and newer housing and the whole is very understated re tourism.

The town within the walls
View from the camperstop

Today, after another 2 hour drive I arrived at a campsite 11km from the centre of Madrid, very near one of the motorways round and through. As ever a complete change from the rural but school childrens’ noise, and then the tarmac car park small town setting of the last 4 days and nights.

I put my trust totally in two satnavs to get here, and mused to myself as we were steadily guided across complex motorway intersections, helped no doubt by the fact it was Sunday, that I could just sail on by and out of Madrid, for all I knew of where I was going. In previous times, I would have written down a list of all the junctions and then main road numbers, and in studying the map, I would have had a good idea of where exactly the campsite was relative to suburbs, other towns etc, so then seeing these on signs would have been reassuring. Nevertheless, Via Michelin and my lorry one both got me to my destination, and the non-toll route did involve a very high climb into the drizzling clouds with thankfully low visibility, and a 50km/hr speed limit, to get across the mountains. Google maps continues to shut down when I press ‘Start’ for a car journey, although it doesn’t for cycling??, and only disabling/enabling, then restarting my phone, seems to do the trick for a session.

So I’m finally here to do a second much wanted city visit, after being fortunate to spend a long weekend in Copenhagen last month. My trusty steed and google satnav took me this afternoon to the centre briefly, then back out again, just so that I could get an initial ‘feel’ of the city. Much of the route in was on good, marked, cycling track provision, athough on the way back, heading up a 6-lane long avenue, I was told by a bus driver in the bus/taxi-only lane to my right within about 2 feet of me, (there were plastic road divider things between his lane and mine) that I should get into the middle of the lane I was in, rather than be on its right. At least this is what I very quickly understood from his “Medio, medio…” gesticulation from a glance out of the corner of my right eye. Indeed the markings on the road did indicate that this whole lane was for bikes (and cars!). This caused me to expect hostility from the car drivers behind, to be mitigated by me putting on the motor at its top setting, so that I could zoom off and reach tremendous speeds of 15mph in only a few seconds from the many, many red traffic lights. And bear in mind, there’s no ‘preparation’ amber, and this was uphill for several kilometers. Ah well, it’s all in the good cause of exercise and staving off dementia 🤣.

I’m going to treat myself tomorrow, travel in by metro and spend the day exploring on foot. It’s a shame the weather isn’t quite what I was expecting – showers, some sunshine, then showers. I haven’t been out of jeans and jumpers since I left the UK, But I am enjoying being on the road again without the pressure of a turn-around time within a couple of weeks, loving Blue’s home from home comforts, and thankful to continue to have such opportunities to explore the setups of different countries and hear bits of other people’s stories.

Just to prove I did get somewhere stately in Madrid today
Memory prompting for someone …. campsite is near this building

Posted by admin in Musings, Places, Spain
25
May
2023

Two lovely days

The idea for this trip had settled on shaping the initial part of it around a first visit to Madrid, and the unexpected Christmas present of the michelin guidebook ‘L’Europe en camping-car’ from my sister and brother in-laws provided exactly the itinerary for this with Burgos as the first stop.

Yesterday I decided that I would visit its Museo de Evolucion Humana, on the way to my next destination of La Granja/Sitio Real de San Ildefonso. For 6 euros entry and 1.40 eu parking I spent a really interesting 2 hours learning about what was discovered from the prehistoric human species sites in the local Atapuerca region as well as my own personal evolution 🙂.

In the afternoon 2-3 hours easy driving on the toll-free, empty A-1 motorway between Burgos and Madrid went through beautiful countryside, climbed to higher uplands and skirted the mountains of the Sierra Guadarrama, arriving at my current camper stop 3km from La Granja and 11km from Segovia.

This is a park-up without electricity but with a toilet and shower for 10eu in the grounds of an outward-bound/farm residential centre for schools from Madrid and roundabout. There are animals just over the wall and a resident peacock, which is regularly calling the shots. I was given 5 eggs from one of the wardens and information about the location, namely that we are already at about 1200m, and the mountain within 16km has a ski station at more than 2000m.

Having got the van battery warning sound last night from watching too much TV when I cut short my intended evening walk because it felt too remote, I was debating not staying for a second night in favour of moving to a campsite with hook-up and more people around. This would have meant missing a visit to the Spanish royalty Versailles equivalent in La Granja, and visiting the old town.

But waking up to sunshine, I found the motivation to get on the bike without any further procrastination such as breakfast, and visit the gardens, free entry is always attractive. It was a great decision. The photos don’t really do it justice and don’t capture the mountain backdrop. Another piece of information I was given about this area was that it only has 4 weeks of summer, and by summer, Hassan the warden meant reaching 38 degrees (he is originally from Morocco!), whereas in winter it can be -15. So I could easily imagine the hoi polloi of the Madrid court needing to move outside of these 4 weeks to this fresher mountain air, and do their aristocratic sauntering up and down the beautiful shady ‘calles’, interspersed with their gorgeous fountains. The fountains are switched on every Saturday in late spring/summer these days.

So I got back, had some of the eggs which were delicious and then debated with myself whether to up sticks and move the van to Segovia, or cycle there. In the meantime, I paid for my stay to another worker at the centre, and found out that she had spent a couple of years working at Wath, a village in the middle of nowhere in North Yorkshire. Who would have believed it! I felt surprisingly encouraged by this conversation to stay another night – still no other company turning up – and therefore use the bike again.

I wish I was able to express just how delighted I was to find myself cycling on part of an official Santiago camino trail, as I took the risk and headed off the road onto a bumpy track, past a field of bulls, with no sight in the distance of my medieval town on a hilltop destination. But thankfully I passed another solitary human and a quick question to him about whether this track would eventually end up there, resulted in reassurance as I determined that this American was walking part of the camino to there, before getting a flight back to his Chicago home. I should have asked whether he wanted any conversation – as I would have been up for some – and through his sunglasses and hiking attire I didn’t detect an axe-murderer, but instead zoomed off with my new-found confidence in the route. The track went across moorland, with a bridge over a significant high-speed rail line, and then under the A-1 motorway, and indeed eventually took me straight into the centre of Segovia, famous for its Roman aqueduct and other sites, medieval old town, walls and churches. Well worth the visit, and the bike ride. I was fortunately able to re-trace the return journey at speed, driven by the anxiety of a phone without battery. Alls well that ends well, and I have been joined by 3 other vans.

Time and again, the moral of the story for me is get out and do it. Avila and then Madrid here I come.

Posted by admin in Meetings - the non-work sort, Places, Spain, The Good