We are Young We are Free

.............keep our teeth nice and clean, are words from a song we liked a few years back and are pretty relevant in the way we are beginning to feel on this trip! We've knocked up a lot of miles now and a fair few campsites and the one thing that has come clear, is that we are at least 10 years younger than most of the folk we meet doing the same thing. But that's OK as well, means we can be doing this travelling stuff for a while yet.

So back to matters at hand and where were we. Benidorm. Dad was coming out for a week, which he did and we all checked into the Hotel Nereo for some family time. All went well and dad was on his usual form, making folk laugh with his jokes and enjoying the singing at the many karaoke bars we visited.

The weather has been excellent since we hit the coast and this week with dad was no different. The sun shone continuously and not a sign of rain anywhere. All too soon we drove dad back to Alicante airport and once again, started our next trip North. To Benicassim.

Which in the summer, is famous for its House Music Dance Festival, with most of the worlds top DJ's giving it some toons. In October it's much more laid back and the campsite mirrors that. Great bar and restaurant on site and friendly staff.

Again, the beach at Benicassim is beautiful.

Quiet ain't it?


We stayed five days here and as the sun was still shining every day, we decided to go further North to Salou. This is a summer holiday resort favoured by the Brits, but with an obvious Russian encroachment taking place. It is evident that new Russian wealth is creeping into the Costas and that in a few years, they could be the main toursists in this part of Spain.

The campsite we wanted to stay in was closed for the season, so we moved up a wee bit to Camping Sanguli, which is the first 5* site we've stopped at.

This place is class and is massive, favoured by the Spanish at this time of year. In fact, the first few days of our stay, the place was full of kids and mums and dads, all weekending in their residential caravans. These are the professional Spanish, no worries about unemployment with these folk. Designer everything! But good on them. It was refreshing to be in among younger people after so long with the zimmer team. (joke)

This campsite has one drawback. Trees. Hundreds of the bloody things and as I sit writing this, I don't know how I'm gonna get the van out without ripping something off the camper or the branches of these trees. And they're not willowy things either. They're horrible stunted, gnarled and thick branched. The sounds of wood against fibreglass is a regularly heard thing.

To wrap, we head to Sitges on Wednesday. The Gay capital of Europe. We will also use this stop off as a base to explore Barcelona. Could be mental.

OMG

We are the neighbours from hell.

The Long Termers

So what is it with this. It's a strange one because I never gave any thought to the fact that living on a campsite for some is what they do! I knew there were people who stayed for a few weeks, but we are now in the realm of the Long Termer. These folk have given it all up wherever they came from and have set up, lock stock and lounge chair in the sun in Benidorm.

As a wee aside here, I can't wait to get to Vegas, as I hope it will outshine Beni. I have my doubts, but we will see.

Back to the matter at hand. We have real 'trailer' folk here, salt of the earth, wine for breakfast kinda people. Not that there's anything wrong with wine for breakfast you understand, but for me it's a holiday thing rather than a way of life!

Then there's the gossip. It's fun being a newbie. One of those vanners that pop into everyone's life for a short period of time, so that they can offload all the dirt in the comfort of knowing you'll be gone soon. Peyton Place eat your heart out!

Reg came back from hospital today. Unexpected to all and sundry. He was greeted like a war warrior, where in reality, he had been away to dry out!!

I can see a hundred reasons why life on the road is an experience and an education, but I can also see that living in a place like 'The Camp' in the sun, where wine is cheaper than water and the sun shines almost every day, can be detrimental to one's health.

Benidorm

We hit Beni from the wrong road. I'd been down it a few years before in a taxi and marvelled at the fact you could get a car through there. We turned right according to the Google map, at a sign that said buses and coaches and 100 yards later were on a one way street to mental breakdown.

The van is 7.5 meters long and 2.3 meters wide. This road is 2.4 meters wide and twists and turns like a corkscrew. Not just that, at every bend is a wall, or a tree, or both.

I was bricking it! I was down to 0.1 mph, with at least 20 cars behind me and could only go forward. There is noway I can put on record the terror that I felt for the 15 minutes it took to get to the end of this alleyway. But we did it, and the relief I felt that I hadn't ripped the sides of the van out at least ten times was amazing.

For the unknowing, Benidorm is Europes answer to Vegas. OK, it's not built around gambling, but the lights are as bright, the buildings are much taller and the best and the worse people meet side by side to enjoy everything that is on offer. And trust me, everything is on offer! We love it. It's an adult playground, in the sun, where being broad minded and accepting of all the bad things in life, where no one shakes their head and tut tuts at what is going on around them.

And above all, it's bloody cheap. The cheapest place in Spain for drink and food and just going out. It's cheaper than anywhere in France and anywhere in the UK. One Euro will buy you a good sized glass of wine, or a pint of beer or a coffee. That's in the bars. In the supermarkets, one Euro will buy you a bottle of wine, 2 Euro's will get you a six pack of beer and 4 Euros a bottle of Vodka!

Menu del Dia ( Google it) can be anything from 4 Euro's for a three course meal, with wine or beer for gods sake.

And people watching is just The Best! You couldn't pay to see some of the sights here. Fact, there are more mobility buggy's hired in Benidorm than anywhere in the world. In fact, there are Limo buggy's here that seat three people! There's stag party's of blokes, twenty or more, all on mobility buggy's hammering along the boardwalks. And Beni is built for this. There are ramps into everywhere and everything. It means you can get paralytic and go from bar to bar, without ever leaving your seat. Just brilliant.

Of course it's not all good. The only three hangovers we've had since leaving the UK have been here in the past four days! But if you can't stand the heat an all that.........

Getting one of my tattoo's expanded whilst we are here. Darren runs cobra Tattoo and he's done work for me before and he's a great guy to have in Beni.

Some pics

At the moment we have brilliant internet, so it's a good time to stick some photo's up.

The beach at Mazarron.

The town of Bolneuvo.

So this is us and how our next door neighbors see us.

 So we get to Benidorm and there is a celebration of the Christians kicking the moors out of Spain.

And then we saw a really great rock band called Pablo Bloom. Ian Monkman on lead and Jack Black on drums..................

And then the back window fell out...........

Time, where does it go? There's never enough of it and it's mostly wrong. Of all the commodities available, time is the one thing that slips away.

So where we're we? Going to drive to Tordesillas which is near to Valladolid and get the ipad repaired or replaced. Which we duly did, although a 15 minute appointment slid into a three hour jaunt between Apple and Orange, getting the 3G sim set up. Time......... Half a day almost. Anyway, the campsite at Tordesillas was very nice, with a moated town atop a hill as it's backdrop. there are loads of these towns throughout the country. Must've been amazing back in the day when land was fought over by men on horses and attempting to take one of these hill fortresses was the norm.

Spain is an amazing country. It has it's own regional opening and closing hours. Some places are open from 10 in the morning till 2 pm, others start at 8.30 till midday, then there's the re-opening times. Some start at 4, some at 5 and some not at all in the afternoon. Mondays most shops are shut all day, unless it's a Tuesday, when they could be shut as well!!

So each new town has us frustrated as we mostly seem to keep getting the timing wrong.

Only stayed in Tordesillas for a couple of days as the weather forecast was looking gloomy. Three to five days of rain and storms sweeping in from the Atlantic. The drive down to Caceres was amazing. Hundreds of miles of olive trees as far as the eye could see in all directions. No towns, no other trees, just olives! This region of Spain, Extremadura, is famous for it's food and hospitality. Didn't get to see much of it sad to say, as the storm front hit as we arrived. It stormed and rained and the days were black as night! The rain in Spain falls mainly on the campervan.

Before the storm arrived it was hot, bloody hot! All the windows of the van were open to let the air through. As the sky turned black, it was a panic to get everything closed and away before the rain hit. Jake shouted to me that one of the back windows was stuck half open. Running to the back of the van, I pushed the window to it's maximum and the bloody thing fell out. The whole window crashed to the ground, hinges and brackets waving in the wind like beached fish. Now what do I do? It's best said that my patience, temper and bodging ability were all put to the test in the next 15 minutes. I apologised to Jake afterwards for my anger and use of the F word so much, however, the window was replaced before Mother Nature let rip!!

Gritting teeth, we decide to head further South and see if we can leave the bad weather behind. The next stage of the journey from Caceres to Seville allowed us to see sights that can only be viewed with eyes and not cameras. Imagine roads that are almost empty, sweeping through mountains and valleys and then, after a long dark tunnel that cut through a range of craggy mountains, we emerged blinking in the bright sunlight and the wine growing area of Spain was reached.

It's hard to describe what it's like to drive through 80 miles of vines where the land is flat and all you can see to both horizons on each side is bloody grapes. We Googled that there are 215,000 acres of vineyards in Extremadura and I'm sure we saw most of them!!

So reaching Dos Hermanas, which is the closest campsite to Seville, we duly prepared for a couple of city days in one of Spain's oldest. Of course, it's that time thing again. The storm followed us. It rained non stop. Stepping outside the van was impossible. The rain was that heavy, the sand and mud was splashed two feet up the sides of the camper! So we sat and watched the rain for a day and made the decision to head to the coast. The sun was shining there and it's why we came on the trip in the first place. Sadly, like Bordeaux, our trip to Seville didn't happen this time, but there will be others.

Ah the Costa's. our first stop was at Torre Del Mar, just North of Malaga. A small coastal town, frequented mainly by Spanish tourists.

Jake examining her Gin & Tonic

Obviously it was fine...........

I would like to say that I don't really know much Spanish, and three quarters of Spain don't know much English. So the trip from top to bottom has been difficult to say the least. And the variations in regional accents doesn't help either. Take the number 6. I pronounce it 'says'. But in the middle of the country, it's pronounced 'sayes'! So the chance of anyone having a clue what I was trying to say most of the time was remote.

At least the coastal towns are used to us 'shouty pointy' people and its easier to get away with my Spanglish.

From Torre we journeyed to La Garrofer. This campsite is in it's own private cove and the vans park on the beach.

There's nothing to do other than chill and that was good as well. One of the highlights of the trip so far for me. Although Jake didn't like it too much as there were squillions of flies and the wind was blowing a bit.

Moving along the coast, we are now encamped at Puerto de Mazarron, where the temperature is a warm 95f. This is the largest site we have stayed on so far and is the complete opposite to La Garoffer which was so small.

We are now in Long Termer territory. The site is full of French, German and Dutch who set up camp for at least six months. Their camping pitches are homes away from home. It's obvious that they return year after year to the same spot and just spend the winter months in the sun.

We've been away five weeks now, so almost half way. It's going so quick, it's that time thing again!

A the weekend we move up to Benidorm. My dad is flying out to meet up with us and we are going to stay in the same hotel for 6 days. It will be nice to have our own shower!