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!