Eastern Spain

Nicky:  The next morning we stayed at the campsite until check out time, making full use of the internet to try and justify the high prices of the site.  The weather was still cold, but the rain was off and on, not constant like the day before.  We headed south using the toll motorways as we know we still have a lot of distance to cover to get to the south of Spain in about 2 weeks time.  We had a nice lunch stop overlooking a Roman aqueduct bridge which we were able to access from the motorway layby, and then had a brief drive through Tarragona, a city with many Roman sights.

We continued on, stopping in the Delta de l' Ebre area for the night.  It is a major rice growing and wetland area for birds.  Neither of us had seen rice fields before, and the next morning we managed to see a flock of 15 or so pink flamingos from the side of the road.

We had a boring day of driving and reached Carcaixent just after night fall.  We had used the 'avoid tolls' function on the Tomtom this time, and the drive was 3.5 hours instead of 3 with the toll roads.  We also suddenly had a disturbing sound in the van, which was like a whirring noise (sounded like a loud bumble bee).  None of the warning lights lit up and the van was running fine, so we worried about it for a while and kept an eye on things, hoping that this wasn't the start of bad things to come.  The noise stopped a day later and it has been fine since.  We are really not sure but have put it down to the wind. We had an amazing overnight stop that night, in a motorhome aire in amongst the orange groves.  We had seen lots of oranges growing since reaching the Valencia area.  We met a friendly Danish couple, and there was also a GB and a French registered motorhomes there.  We woke to sunshine after a peaceful nights sleep in the countryside and decided to embark on 1 of 3 trails that started from the site.  I think we chose the shortest, which was still about 2 hours long.  It took us up into the hills and we had great views of the orange groves and of Carcaixent in the distance.  For once we felt safe leaving the van in the gated aire with other motorhomers around, and took advantage of being able to sight-see together.

That afternoon we put our 'Back roads Spain' guidebook to good use.  Our first stop was Xativa, 30 minutes south of where we had stayed overnight.  Dale did well finding a park on a side street, and I set off to tourist information to pick up a map.  I was lucky to get in 5 minutes before the 2pm closing for the day.  We had reluctantly decided that we would sight-see in towns separately in Spain, so that one of us is always with the van.  I town had many churches and monuments and a castle up on the hill.

  

We next went to Albaina, a small town where not a lot was happening on a Tuesday afternoon.  I had a walk to the main square and the church there, but that was really all of note.  We met up with the tourist buses in Guadalest that evening.  We climbed up into the hills, and even encountered some snow in the road verges!  Guadalest, set in the mountains, is really worth a visit, with a small but lovely old town and castle on the rock.  We each had a pleasant walk around at sunset.

The next morning we headed northeast first to Gata de Gorgos, a small town known for its shops selling basketware, bamboo furniture and a local wine.  It also had interesting Islam buildings in one part of the town.  Dale was able to pick up some maps at the information centre and we next made our way to Xabia.  I was interested in seeing some abandoned windmills, which are set along a ridge and overlook the town.  We made this our lunch stop and we had fantastic views of the town and bay.  That afternoon we bought LPG in Xabia, and made use of the launderette located in the complex.  There was also an Iceland down the road.  Iceland is a supermarket chain in the UK, which as well as stocking the basics, do a lot of frozen food as well.  Going in there was like stepping back into the UK, as the staff and customers all seemed to be English.  There was even the usual trashy UK mags for sale.

Gata de Gorgos

Xabia

We continued on this English theme by heading south past Benidorm, a hotspot for English holidaymakers and to Alicante, where we found a Primark store.  Primark is a cheap mens and womens clothes store in the UK, and they also have 17 branches in Spain.  Dale returned with 4 t shirts, underwear, 2 woollen hats and gloves for 26 euros.  It was my turn the following day when I bought some sneakers to replace my pair that had been stolen.  I hated having to buy them, as the pair I lost was in good condition and would have seen me through the trip.  As I suspected Spanish women have small feet as I couldn't fit any of the womens shoes.  I probably would have opted for the mens anyway as the womens pair was bright pink, and not the colour I was going for.  That afternoon was reasonably uneventful as we drove south for about 3 hours to a town called Agua Amarga, the beginning of another driving route in our guidebook.

Alicante

 Benidorm

Unfortunately i'll have to leave it here for the moment as the photos aren't ready past this point.