7. Spain.

Love this song, such happy memories,
do you still have this record mom?

Barcelona, Alicante, Granada, Seville

19th July – 27^th July 

Camping Barcelona was like a miniature holiday camp, daily activities for kids, entertainment every night and a great big non-boring pool!! The first day was spent at the pool, we also needed to get the laptop fixed, Neil took it into the local repair shop but unfortunately it would take about a week to get the part needed and we were only there for 3 nights, this could be a problem.

Non boring pool at Camping Barcelona.

The compulsory trip to Barcelona was next, after only just visiting Rome we were not really up for this. Public transport had proved a good choice, more relaxing and the boys enjoy the train rides but here it was not going to be as kind to our pocket, the train tickets were 16 Euro each and the boys paid full price - shocking!! With the day out slightly tainted by the cost of getting there (with hind sight maybe we should have taken the car) we set off. A train and metro journey took us to Le Rambles, nice here, lovely architecture and as many souvenirs stalls as flower stalls, not quite as colourful and spectacular as you would probably imagine, we had high expectations too as the last time we visited it was on the evening for Tapas and we were told ‘oooh you should have gone during the day’…

Feeding the birds... Or waiting for a bus?!

Heading on foot to the cathedral we stopped to feed the birds and top ourselves up with an extremely tasty traditional lunch complete with Sangria at a super restaurant. 

Sangria, lush!!!

Lunch at restaurant Qu Qu.

Scaffolding.

The Cathedral was still scaffolded (it was when we first visited 11 yrs ago) I am guessing there is a reason for this but it does somewhat spoil the overall effect of this magnificent piece of work, we didn’t go in due to budget limitations. For Neil and I this was our second visit to Barcelona and the boys were not at all interested so it seemed to all just pass us by really, almost felt like we had to do this day out as we were so close it would be rude not to.

Colour, light and music = MAGIC!!!

From here it was slow as Ryan fell from a climbing frame and hurt his ankle, we cut the sightseeing down and had an ice cream by which time it was almost time to be heading to the Magic Fountains, Neil thought this would make us really late getting back and was not keen to do it, the kids by now were showing signs of exhaustion and really needed a few early nights but boy were we glad we made the effort. From a distance it was superb and we got right up close which was even better, the music, the lights, the spray, it was truly amazing, the best part of the day! 

Looking back from the fountain.

As we walked back to the Metro we came across a street dance/hip hop crew who were very impressive and put on a great little show which mesmerised the boys. It was late but luckily the connections between Metro and train were pretty much spot on and we were sleeping soundly in no time at all.

Another day at the pool before what was going to be a very long drive to stay with Lorraine and David near Alicante an early start would be beneficial, we don’t usually drive much more than five hours mainly as the boys can’t cope in the car for that amount of time, to get to our next stop could easily be eight so we decided to see how the drive went.

Beach breakfast.

The early start didn’t happen, it rarely does, so we set of mid morning and it was soon clear that we needed to stop half way, Camping Didota was on the beach in Oropesa De Mar with a great pool and great food, we only needed to eat, swim and sleep, it was ideal and we really had a lovely relaxing time, Neil took the boys go karting nearby before tea so I had a couple of quiet hours - bliss!! 

Oropesa De Mar.

A relaxing breakfast of croissants on the lovely beach and we were on the road again. We stopped for Ice cream and the loo and Neil noticed that the caravan was splattered with oil which could only mean one thing; an oil leak, out came the overalls and under the car he went, it was the transfer gear box and we had no idea how long it had been leaking or how much oil was lost, the only thing we did know was that if its actually leaking there was still oil in which was a good sign, Neil topped everything up and we were heading for a house! With a bedroom! And...  a bathroom!!

Overalls on!!

The stunning view from the pool and garden.

Arriving at Lorraine and David’s was joyous, what a lovely welcome, what a lovely home in stunning surrounding. A few guests had come and gone to say the least and I know how tired you can be after having visitors back to back so for me it was important to make this as simple as possible for our lovely hosts. We had a real bed for a few nights and a shower we didn’t have to walk to, what more could we ask for, oh yeah the TV and a sofa which the boys were glued to for the rest of the afternoon, usually they would have made a dash for the pool but they hadn’t sat on a sofa in front of the TV for a few weeks now so the pool was taking second place.

Beer, good food and good company made for a relaxed evening in the village, a few hours chatting and back home to bed. I know Lorraine was keen for us to shower but this was not to happen as quickly as we had hoped - the water went off, the other thing Lorraine wanted us to do was our washing which was quite a heap by now and this also had to wait. 

After dinner entertainment.

The lack of water made things a little tricky but my love of a Sunday lunch and David’s willingness to find a place for us to get one meant that we ate out, it was just what I needed (the boys too, this was evident as they ate the most they had in days without complaint, veggies and all). The boys had a quick kick around while Lorraine and I had a good catch up, its been a few years to say the least, it was great to get up to speed and hear all about the expanding family. The water did come back on before we left, we got that shower and also got through the washing, all five loads of it, not bad going at all.

Breakfast in the summer kitchen.

The final leg...

Almost time to set off again, another relaxed and enjoyable breakfast and we were soon hooked up and ready for the off, with a teary goodbye (from me) and a promise to meet up sooner rather than later, we left with still quite a way to go and two overnights stops at least. 






This stop did me the world of good, I for sure had been a little up and down emotionally for a few days at least and these few days helped me regain some positivity and confidence, its normal not to always be on top of the world so to say and when on such a journey many emotions and feelings come and go, (not all I like or want) but it’s a fact that we can’t experience joy without sadness, sitting around and chatting with familiar faces made me feel grounded again and helped bring back a little normality, its odd thinking you are not going home!!

Living trees are helpful and two steps or a ramp just in case :)

First was Camping Granada, this was going to be longest drive so far, it went quite well really which I can only say was a residual effect of a very comfortable stay at Lorraine and David’s lovely home. The site was on the top of a hill just outside the city, we found it along a single lane track approaching between fields of grapevines coming from totally the wrong way thanks again to the GPS, the pitch was slightly sloped and we felt a couple of tips regarding choosing a good spot for your caravan or camper would be helpful right now (see photo), the pool overlooked the city and was surrounded by grass which was heavenly to walk on. Unfortunately, we really didn’t have the motivation or enthusiasm to sightsee on foot so we had a cheeky drive around instead, I have never before smelt perfume floating in the breeze from a department store when driving by. A lovely city I must say, and to be honest somewhere an enjoyable few days and nights could be had.  

Pool side essentials.

Our next stop was Seville, the journey was the worst so far in the way of temperate, it had to be 40 degrees plus and the wind coming into the car felt like it was from a blow torch, we were all dripping in sweat so the thought of the pine forest location that we choose for our last stop could not come soon enough. We passed by Seville which was massive, initially I was really keen to spend a little time here but what was in my minds eye was not what we saw, I was thinking small traditional town, well village actually, filled with fans and flamenco, I have no idea why I thought this as you can usually tell how big a place is by the size of the writing on the map and this was in CAPITALS!!

Pine forest camping.

Leaving the city limits to get to the pine forest campsite Dehesa Nueva we spotted signs for Portugal, Neil and I looked at each other with a twinkle in our eye, should we push on? We ask the boys who shouted ‘yes’ in unison but after quite a discussion we thought we were too hot, way too hot to carry on not knowing where we would be stopping for the night once across the border and it would be dark by then, pine forest still winning. 

More Sangria!!

This site had a lovely big pool, to be honest thats the best thing we could say about it and even this was not as inviting as it could have been with dozens of dead bugs floating in it, the whole area had Dragonfly’s swarming around, some yellow and some red, they were stunning and more luscious grass, we got our towels on the ground and headed to take a cool drink from the bar, it didn’t register but the bar area was enclosed with netting, it soon became clear why – mosquitos, loads on them, we were slapping ourselves and the boys silly and heading back to the sundrenched ‘mosquito free’ poolside before we could take our change from the barmaid. A swim and a cool off and time for food and a cool evening in the pine trees, yeah right!! Within minutes of getting back to the caravan we were surrounded by not only mosquitos but flys too, I had a teeny beetle bite my neck so hard I let out a scream, knocked it off only to find out seconds after it had fallen into the back of my top, a crazy little dance and a few curses later I got the sucker out… This really was too much,

we gathered up our tea and sat on our bed in the caravan, it was going to be an early night. 

Caravan graveyard.

The site was pretty full and loads of caravans had gazebos or awnings (all netted!!) but very few people, it was quite like a caravan graveyard. It turns out Seville is way too hot in the Summer and its likely that this site is busier in the cooler seasons, personally I could not stand the biting things whatever time of year it was. We were almost ready to get to sleep and we heard a car turn up, without making it obvious we peeked out to see a couple of young guys pulling out tents, Neil and I didn’t envy them at all with the amount of mosquitoes around getting those tents up, well, they didn’t, they tried, in the dark, for pretty much two hours then packed them up and put the seats down in the car to settle for the night, I can only imagine the car too was full of the biting little buggers as it wasn’t too long before we could see them winding the seats back up to leave… NOTE put your tent up in the daylight at least once before heading off on a camping trip, seriously though it really came across as though they had pitched up straight from Decathalon.

Playing in the dirt with ants and the girl next door.

I have to say really I enjoyed Spain, it holds a lot of wonderful happy childhood memories for me, toy donkeys my size (back then), water slides, medieval nights, cheese toasties and cold chocolate milk stand out, some of which are still popular now. I really underestimated the distance we had to cover for this leg of our journey and the long drives and short stays meant we could not make the most of it. However, the terrain we crossed was stunning, I never tired of the golds, greens, reds and browns of the plains, mountains, rocks and fields and the never ending rows of olive trees were a sight to behold, E Viva Espana!! I would definitely recommend touring the inner landscapes of Spain, there are for sure some treasures to be found, just do not do it during July or August you will BAKE!!!

Spain!

Morning arrived and instead of a day sweating in Seville we headed straight to Portugal, we just could not wait any longer...