Week 52

Day 358 – Friday 1st March 2019

A lovely sunny morning.

We want to spend April & May on the French Riviera and I’ve spent the best part of two days emailing a French campsite about a booking. You can’t book with them online or over the phone. Everything has to be printed out, photographed and emailed back to them. Quel putain de palabre!

This morning I finally managed to extract a confirmation of booking out of them! What’s more we are very nearly on the pitch we requested!!

It seems I’m not the only one fed up of negotiating with Europeans

Unless you like all day shirtless drinking in the sun with dreadful karaoke thrown in there’s not too much to do in Benidorm during the day so I spent the afternoon relaxing on the site.

As did Cfor

Day 359 – Saturday 2nd March 2019

A sunny day in Benidorm.

After lunch we ventured into town for Benidorm Classic in the Sun 2019.

I dressed especially for the occasion

Julie’s game was much improved….

but there can only ever be one winner at crazy golf!

While we were here we couldn’t leave town without a go on the Bucking Bull, I lasted about 8 seconds.

Julie struggled to even get on the damned thing….

Has she been drinking?

Finally after a leg up Julie poses for the camera.

Saturday afternoon in town and there are groups of shirtless Brits on the front flaunting their fat and bad tatts and being generally yobbish. Embarrassing really.

I pity their kids.

To Sinatra’s for the United game.

Benidorm is a little stuck in the 80s. You hear Tears For Fears, OMD & Wet Wet Wet during the day in every bar & café. 80’s music is the soundtrack to their customer’s lives but the real crimes against music happen at night with the tribute acts…..

The addition of Shaky makes this a little frightening

It gets worse…

The Rodfather, a favourite at Sinatra’s on a Saturday night

You think it couldn’t get much worse

but you’d be wrong.

very wrong!

Day 360 – Sunday 3rd March 2019

A lovely sunny morning as we packed up and headed to Valencia. For some reason Doris didn’t send us via the simple coastal road she routed us back to Alicante and then inland.

Camping Devesa Gardens is set in the parc Natural de Albufera and is surrounded by paddy fields. I bet from April onwards this is mosquito hell.

It was a banging hot afternoon and we needed to put the aircon on. Was reading about Storm Freya closing the M4 back in the UK!

Later I had a little explore on Zippy, Valencia town centre only 15 minutes down a straight road.

Day 361 – Monday 4th March 2019

An overcast morning with strong winds. After an early lunch we set off on Zippy for Valencia town centre.

Valencia is a very nice town.

Of course our first stop was the Hard Rock Café to satisfy Julie’s addiction.

The girl behind the counter asked if we were here for Las Fallas, Valencia’s near 3 week fire festival and suggested we go to the Mascleta, a firework display about to start just across the way.

So we joined the crowds in the square outside the Town Hall for the Mascleta

I was surprised there were so many first aiders knocking about. This was one of about 8 stations.

It started at 2pm and lasted just under 7 minutes. These weren’t the showy fireworks you see at New Year’s Eve or bonfire night, these were all about noise and what a noise.

They started off loud and gradually got louder and louder till you hoped something hadn’t gone wrong. The ground shook, you could feel the sound waves on your chest and it was all a little disorienting.

Below is a video of the last minute and a half of the Mascleta. It would have been better if they’d have been a blue sky but  you get a fair idea of the noise.

Later I had a tool around the coast south of the campsite on Zippy.

Everyday you ride a motorbike in Spain you come across a new idiocy, it’s like they are in a competition and the winner gets a trip to a bodyshop/hospital. Today on a country road another motorbike undertook me using the cycle lane and when he tried to do the same to the car in front of me it moved over to squeeze him towards the dirt. It was just senseless on both their parts.

Day 362 – Tuesday 5th March 2019

An overcast day but at least the wind had died down.

In Benidorm we had been given a pitch with a large Pine tree on it so it was time to clean the roof of the van.

4 days worth of Collar Dove shit; I’m glad we didn’t stay for a week.

There were Red Squirrels in the tree too. The joys of owning a motorhome.

Roof clean we hopped on Zippy and went into Valencia. While we were trying to get to the Torres de Quart a car clipped Julie’s leg as it squeezed past us try to fill up my breaking space. Just senseless.

Naturally Julie was upset so we parked up and had a stroll along part of the 7 km Turia park which runs right through the town along a former river bed. It’s one of Valencia’s biggest tourist attractions.

To the south of the park they have their City of Arts and Sciences

It’s all very futuristic

I was unsure how much fun these’d be so gave them a miss.

the Umbracle

The Opera House, the roof ‘thing’ doesn’t actually make contact with the main building. It’s just hangs there

Day 363 – Wednesday 6th March 2019

An overcast morning and it was quite cold. Spent a couple of hours trying to contact Lily. She’d changed her phone number and not thought to tell me or her sister which is just so Lily.

Into Valencia on Zippy. Naturally I was very cautious but Spanish city traffic is still a little unnerving for Julie sat on the back.

Today we visited the old part of town, the area around the Central Market and cathedral. It’s full of old stuff

The Torre de Quart

And of course tapas bars

You can always tell a good tapas bar by the number of people spilling out onto the street.

The Turia fountain in the Plaza de la Virgen

I couldn’t visit Valencia and not have a paella.

They take their paella very seriously in Valencia.

Day 364 – Thursday 7th March 2019

There was a bit of a storm during the night but it was dry this morning. We packed up and set off for Peñíscola.

No idea how this French owner gets this Yamaha Wave Rider off the back of his pickup but he told me it does 116 km/h that’s 72mph. I want one!

Camping  Sol D’Or is a little run down but the pitches are big and Cfor has his own tree to explore.

I went for a ride into the local town…

I think I might know the mayor!

Tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of me retiring 😀

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