All posts by Ray

Spain

Kiko Camping

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Saturday 2nd December 2017

On Wednesday evening we decided that we would not spend the planned 10 nights at Kiko Camping.

The Beach, Kiko Camping
Kiko Camping Restaurant

Although the beach and facilities are good, we felt a little hemmed in on our pitch and the need to watch electricity consumption was annoying.

The main reason for our decision to move however was that all the on-site roads were being block paved, which made it feel like a building site with associated noise and dust.

Our Pitch (circled)

We looked in the Camping Card book and noticed a couple of sites a few kilometres south and decided to cycle over and take a look on Thursday.

The second site, Ole Camping, seemed to suit our needs, was €6.50 a night cheaper and included electricity. The beach was of the same standard too. We booked six nights and cycled back to camp.

Yesterday, Friday,  we prepared the caravan for the move and slowly started to tow out of the site only to be delayed by a 40 tonne load of gravel being dumped in the only road out!

To be fair the way was made passable for us as quickly as they could but confirmed to me that our decision to move was a right one.

01.12.17 Route

Towing Kilometres – Today: 8 Cumulative: 5,222

The short tow over here went without incident and Kim chose a pitch that gets the sun all day. The beach & restaurant are a short walk away. The shower & toilet facilities are clean and tidy, so should mean we remain here until heading north on Thursday. We have Eurotunnel booked for Thursday the 15th.

Today was extremely windy! Kim took a short video on the beach of the larger than usual Mediterranean waves and the blowing sand and tumble weeds. At one point the phone was almost blown out of her hands!

We even witnessed Neptune’s balls rolling down the beach 🙂

Spain

South To Find Sand

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Monday 27th November 2017

Last evening we had accepted a kind invitation over to New Forest residents Phil & Jenny’s van to share a bottle, eh-em, and a good chat session went on for some time. Thank you both. This morning we packed up and readied the van for our next leg of the trip. We said our goodbyes to  P & J and also to Tomás before carefully making our way out of the sites gate to get on our way.

Continue reading South To Find Sand →

Spain

Towards Valencia

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Thursday 16th November 2017

As much as we enjoyed staying at Vilanova Park, except maybe at the weekends when the locals are a little on the loud side, it was time to move south in search for more sunshine.

We had chosen to move down towards Valencia and had chosen a site about 40km north of the city. A quick scan of the Camping Card book introduced us to Camping Monmar, a €17 per night site with the added bonus that if we stayed 10 nights we only have to pay for 8.

The route was almost entirely on the AP-7 toll road. It cost us about €30 in tolls, but was stress free towing for the 258km route. We could have saved a few euros by moving over to the often running parallel A-7, but the amount of trucks on that road made me think the tolls were worth paying.

I’m still really impressed with the way the Kuga tows. Usually set the adaptive cruise at an indicated 94kph and the car averages 26 to 28 mpg.

16.11.17 Route

Towing Kilometres – Today: 258 Cumulative: 5,068

We were met on arrival by Tomás, who invited us to choose from a number of available pitches. All were a little on the snug size for our van, awning, car combination but we managed to get comfortable with a number of motor mover manoeuvres.

Camping Monmar Pitch

The facilities are very clean with ample hot water. There is a bar and café/restaurant, and a swimming pool which unfortunately has been closed for maintenance. The local town is about a mile away, with supermarkets, bars, and an excellent bakery.

The beach is about 300yds away. The surrounding area is not the most picturesque we have seen on our travels but there are many things to visit relatively nearby. A train to Valencia costs €8.70 return, a bargain.

Tomás provided us with a map and took the time to mark out many of the places nearby that he recommended we visit. We intend to stay here for at least 10 nights, and we will receive our first visitor of the trip, Kims’ sister Carol is flying out on Monday.

Spain

Scammed In Barcelona

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Tuesday 14th November 2017

Disappointed that we had barely scratched the surface of the things we wanted to visit in Barcelona last week, we rose earlier than usual and boarded the handy bus just outside the gate to visit the city again. Kim had researched the Metro system and knew exactly which stations to use to visit our first attraction of the day, Tibidabo, a 512 metre ‘mountain’ which affords excellent views over the city and the Mediterranean Sea. There is a Blue Tram & a funicular railway that takes you up to the summit, where stands the magnificent Sagret Cor church, and a funfair.

Sagret Cor Church

The Torre de Collserola, a communication tower designed by Sir Norman Foster is also located on the mountain.

Torre de Collserola

Unfortunately the Blue Tram was out of service on the day of our visit. We decided to walk the decidedly uphill 650 metres to the funicular station. This, in hindsight, is where our day took a  turn for the worse.

As we approached the funicular station, walking on the shady side of the road, we both got sprayed with a foul smelling liquid down our backs. Bloody birds!!, we thought.

God knows what sprayed on our backs 🙁

 

As we were inspecting the mess down each others backs, a man and a women, with a very large pack of baby wipes, approached and commenced to help us clean up the mess. Very handy & helpful we thought. Totally out of character, Kim put down her bag on the floor. The couple were pointing out to me where Kim had this stuff in her hair, and I continued to clean. We thanked them for their kindness and they walked away, back down the hill.

Twenty minutes later, after we had taken the funicular to the summit, Kim discovers that the €50 note that was in her purse had gone. Upshot is, these kind people sprayed us with god knows what, robbed us, and we thanked them for doing it! Scum.

Why didn’t we notice them lurking in the shadows? Why didn’t I pick up on the fact she had baby wipes in abundance, but no baby? Why did Kim put down her bag, she never puts down her bag? Why are we so bloody trusting? 🙁

We have been told we were lucky, most people lose their cards, driving license, passports etc., we were only deprived of cash.

After discovering the loss, we continued to look around for a while, but we were both acutely aware that we smelt not very pleasant and were extremely distraught about what had happened and with our own stupidity for allowing it.

We returned to the campground to shower and wash our clothing.

A little later we were approached by our on-site neighbour asking if we would like to join him and another nearby camper for a bottle of wine later that evening. Not being ones to turn down wine, we gratefully accepted 🙂

We had a wonderful evening with Lutz, from Germany, & Ed, from Holland. The chatting went on for some hours and raised our spirits again. We also managed to consume 4 bottles of red wine, & a bottle on Limoncello between us!! Thank you gentlemen, we hope to meet again on the road.

Lutz was flying back home the next morning. I hope his head was feeling better than mine.