Down the Spanish Mediterranean coast to our Christmas and New Year stop in Altea-La-Vella, Costa Blanca

We headed south from Creixell to Peniscola a place I’d read about on the motorhome forums and somewhere recommended by my father (campsite location: 40°22'42.7"N 0°24'21.5"E). It’s been used in many movies from El Cid with Charlton Heston in 1961 to Game of Thrones in 2015. There is a fabulous castle and a lovely beach. We walked along the seafront the 1.5 km to the castle and went for a good look round. We stopped for a light lunch, chiperones, fried baby squid, but were quite taken with the menu, so promised to be back tomorrow for the full lunch. Just as well as we were happy with their offerings as they were the only place open (Venecia restaurant). See a short 'Relive' video with photos of our walk: click here

Peniscola from the top of the castle

To earn our lunch we got the bikes out and cycled to Benicarlo for a look round. An interesting enough town, but nothing particularly exciting. We got our few bits of shopping which we dropped off back at Ted before cycling back into Peniscola, much quicker than walking and it’s all lovely and flat. Lunch was fabulous, mussels and fried fish followed by a paella. A bottle of wine to wash it all down while sitting outside in the sunshine. Fabulous. Here's another short 'Relive' video with photos of our bike ride: click here

And here's the castle from Peniscola beach. The castle was built by The Knights Templar between the years 1294 and 1307 and, since then has withstood all manner of sieges, attacks and bombardments over the centuries, including the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century, the Peninsular war against the French in the 19th and, more recently the Spanish Civil War in the 20th

The afternoon sun picks out the battle scarred castle walls

We moved on from Peniscola towards Valencia, an easy journey now that the old toll motorway, is no longer chargeable. A new Aire, fortunately we’d booked as we got talking to another English couple who had arrived moments after us, to find no room for Friday night (Aire location: 39°32'54.6"N 0°20'39.0"W). They could park up outside and move in the next day which was fine, but there was an awful lot of noise and activity from the Sports Bar opposite, till the early hours. We had a long chat with them by the ticket machine for the metro into Valencia where we all bought our tickets for the following day.

Our fabulous paella at Venecia restaurant at the foot of the castle walls in Peniscola 

The Serrans Gate in the north

We went in, bright and early on Saturday, us, not the weather, which was grey and gloomy and threatening rain. We got off the metro and walked in the dry river bed around to the gate in the north of the city. This was open, with free admission, which seemed to be unusual, but gave great views over the city. Not quite as good as the view from the bell tower of the cathedral, but with 207 steps that was a lot higher. Obviously we had to do that as well! All sorts of city buildings appeared to be open to the public, unusually, either to look at the buildings themselves or to see the nativity scenes that had installed. We took full advantage of this and had a really good city visit. By the time we had looked at Christmas markets, and walked the other way down the river walk to the centre for Arts and Sciences, three amazing buildings, we’d walked 13km and our little feet ached. Back on the metro to the Aire, just in time to beat the rain. Hurrah. See our 'Relive' video with photos of our walk round Valencia: click here. We should perhaps have stayed another night and gone back into the city, but we’d thought one day would be enough and were expected at the folks, in Altea. Sunday roast beef was being cooked to welcome us, so off we went, and here we are. Ted is parked up, and it really doesn’t feel like three years since we were last here. We are making the most of today, Dad and Elizabeth have gone to bridge, and tomorrow our jobs start!

And on our visit the Serrans gate was open so we could climb to the top and get this great view over the old river bed that was drained after the river was diverted to the west of the city after a devastating flood in 1957. It was decided to retain the bed as a huge green corridor through the city. All the old bridges are still there and the bed has been transformed into a web of parks, sports facilities and the hugely impressive modern architecture of the Arts and Sciences buildings at the southern end

Here's the view the other way, on the left is the tower of the cathedral

This is a bit closer, the cathedral is in front and we're in the Placa de la Mare de Deu

So we had to climb the 207 steps of the cathedral tower to get the expansive 360 degree panorama of the city. Down there is the Plaza the above photo was taken from and, if you look carefully, the Serrans gate

In another direction in the far distance (centre) is the impressive modern architecture of the Arts and Science buildings

Another impressive bit of architecture, this is the main train station and, disappearing off on the left is the bullring

The Colon market building, another impressive building  (there are so many of them in this city!)

What about this for an amazing building - it's just awesome!

The Hemisphere and Arts buildings

This panorama doesn't do these building justice, you have to see them. Valencia is a mix of very old, old and very modern architectural styles and it all goes together to form a vibrant, exciting city with a fabulous mix of excellent restaurants and bars, one of the best cities we've been to

And so finally to our Christmas and New Year stop at Richard (Jackies dad) and Elizabeths fabulous house in Altea-La-Vella on the Costa Blanca. Not a blue sky day on the day we arrived, but that's the exception, it's mainly sunny all year. Big Ted is there parked on the drive after getting up the narrow (Big Ted sizewise) and steep driveway. I'd been having nightmares about getting in there again after a big stress the first time I did it three years ago and getting a very hot and smelly clutch by the time I'd got up the slope stopping and starting to make sure I didn't hit anything. This time, no problem, in and straight up. Very happy with that, maybe I'm a bit more experienced at driving him and knowing the size of him now 

The classic view of their house at the base of the impressive Bernia Ridge. Just a pity it was in cloud. I'll get a better one for the next blog entry

Viva España

Finishing off in Alvechurch before heading to Spain:

Brian got up early on Saturday to join a Parkrun in Solihull, his first in five years. It went quite well, came 7th in age class with a time of 30 minutes  19 sec. This was at the start and notice the lady in  the pale blue top with a wheeled frame. She has done 360+ Parkruns, is in the 85-89 age category and, although not running, she was quickly walking aided by her wheeled frame and did a time of 56 minutes. That's the attitude to have!

His flu jab was fine, as was my Covid booster, though having bumped into John that morning for him to complain he’d got ‘Moderna arm’ I wasn’t happy to be told that’s what I was getting. “It’ll be the big needle” comforted the vaccinator, not! The injection point was a bit sore, but the following day I had about 8 hours where everything, including my skin, ached. Small price to pay though.

On the ferry to Santander, hang on, it's blustery!

Friday was quite a ‘John’ day, I bumped into him in Barnt Green, Brian went up to the motorhome storage with him, to introduce him. He is leaving his car in Ted’s space for two months while we are away and he is in China doing the Winter Olympics. What Brian thought would be a quick visit took a bit longer as John was very excited not just by the old BBC Eagle towers that I used to use, but by the old Scanners that he used to work on. We then collected him to take him in to Birmingham for my ‘works’ Christmas balti. 15 people, 9 used to work there, 2 still do and 4 ‘hangers on’. I think a good evening was had by all.

We had quite a nice inside cabin with en-suite

Saturday I spent the day with mum, first to Webb’s garden centre, midway between us and Droitwich, where we met Jan, Liv and Kelly for coffee and chat. Had a bit of a shop and went off to the craft centre where her hairdresser is to get her all ship shaped. Saturday evening was with Rob and Alex, which was lovely. Alex had suggested getting a take out, but when I explained we were going to be a bit curried out, she said she’d cook, which was lovely. It was a no work day, which was not what had been planned, but Rob had had an operation on his back on Thursday, so was meant to be resting.

Jackie tries out the exercise machines on deck

Sunday I had a haircut, mum and I went to look at a very cold craft fair at Forge Mill. They were brave and hardy souls. Then out for our second curry, train to Erdington to meet Manu, Crystal and Pete at their local Indian in the working men’s club, which really didn’t look anything special. Along with Helen and Ian we had a lovely meal, all selected by Crystal, even though it wasn’t in Chinatown. While on the train I’d been looking at Facebook where someone had posted that their ferry, Santander to Portsmouth had been cancelled due to the impending storm. What did this mean for us? Apparently the boat was making its way back, early, so we might be ok. Still keeping everything crossed, that we still didn’t need any tests to enter Spain so just the paperwork to do 48 hours before arrival.

Our campsite in Bilbao. High on a hill, it has amazing views over Bilbao city - except today. We backed in, away from the (no) view as all the pitches were very waterlogged and we were a bit afraid of getting stuck in mud. Big Ted is not good at grip on mud, as all the weight is in the back, making it a bit light on the driving wheels at the front (at least we have snow chains to get us out of trouble - we've used them twice before when stuck in mud). The wheels were as close to tarmac as we could manage and we got off OK. Torrential rain and high winds overnight made us want to head to the Mediterranean pronto!

Monday beginning the final preparations, for us, shopping for Elizabeth and getting mum sorted as much as we can. Just to keep us topped up, another curry, with the Monday Club boys, and Jill. Another lovely evening.

To the Portsmouth to Santander ferry:

This was  the view next morning, there's Bilbao!

Then, finally, it’s Thursday. The sailing is at 22.15 so plenty of time for paperwork and getting it printed at the library which didn’t open till 14.00. Not a bad journey, though the last bit was dark, wet and windy. Pretty much what we were expecting for the crossing. Two nights, arriving at 08.00 on Saturday morning. We took seasickness pills, just in case, but felt absolutely fine, at the very least, they helped us sleep. I really enjoyed the crossing, breakfast and dinner were included on the Friday, there were lots of new movies to watch, space to sit and chill with a crossword, fab. The roughest bit was actually the first night, through the Channel, once on the Bay of Biscay we were absolutely fine, much, much better than expected.

Into Spain:

We headed to Jaca, nice in the sun but very cold at night

We’d booked an Aire near to Bilbao, that we’d been to before (location: 43°15'35.6"N 2°57'51.4"W). We just wanted to have somewhere booked, as our previous experience in Spain was that everywhere filled up on Friday night for the weekend. We knew we would have to shop as, since Brexit we are not allowed to bring any meat, dairy, fruit or veg, not that we were checked, but people were, both before and after the ferry, for what, we don’t know. It was pouring with rain and the fabulous view over Bilbao completely non existent due to the fog, it was far enough. Whether we would get off the waterlogged ground we’d worry about tomorrow. Having been out the previous Saturday and Sunday Brian had downloaded Strictly and the results show, so we had a confusing time, watching them, while mum updated us on this weeks dances.

This is the citadel in Jaca, the only surviving star fortress

Cold and wet, we’ve come to get away from that, we’ll make a dash for the Med then. Two long, for us, 4 hour driving days took us first to Jaca (Aire location: 42°34'04.2"N 0°32'42.8"W), where it was sunny and we enjoyed lunch sitting in the town square, looking at piles of snow, until the sun went behind a building. Zero degrees overnight, but clear blue sky. A minor dither as to whether to try and ski, the nearest resort (Formigal) 50km away only had 5 of 16 lifts open. According to the lady in the petrol station it snowed last weekend, it will snow next weekend, so we’ve hit the sweet spot in the middle. The journey to Jaca would have been entirely different if the rain in Bilbao had fallen as snow as we got higher and higher towards the Pyrenees. Carry on then to Creixell, just north of Tarragona (Aire location: 41°09'59.8"N 1°27'24.4"E ). An interesting journey, some fabulous roads with amazing viaducts and tunnels, and some rubbish bits of road. Clear blue sky, and then pea soup fog. Fortunately not on the wiggly windy section.

This is the Aire in Jaca and is fairly typical of continental Aires. They are dedicated motorhome areas for parking only (caravans and other vehicles not allowed). You are not allowed 'camping behavior' which means you can't get out chairs, put out your awning or even (technically) go up on ramps if it's not level (although people do). This one was free, most are although some charge, and it's a short (10 minute) walk into town. There is no electric hookup but free drinking water tap is available to refill tanks and they have a chemical toilet disposal point and this one has a drive over grey water emptying area, all for free. The thinking is you'll walk into town and spend money there, which we did, we went and had lunch at a restaurant. When we arrived it was almost empty so we parked away from everyone. When we returned we were surrounded. There were still lots of empty spaces but, for some reason, people find it necessary to park close to others rather than spread out. We've never worked out why. It means we look out of our windows straight into someone elses motorhome. You can see the people on the right parked their motorhome closer to us in their allocated space, perhaps they didn't want to feel lonely. Anyway, it's safe, free and convenient.

We were pleased to arrive though, blue skies and 17 degrees make for very pleasant days, so we’ll stay two nights then. An interesting village to look round, walks along the beach, and a 3 course Menu Del Dia with drink for €9.60. Just to decide where we are going tomorrow then.....

We did a couple of walks, here's a couple of short videos with photos: walk 1, along the seafront at Creixell; walk 2, up into Creixell old town

This is the view the other way in the Aire in Jaca. The buildings up there are in the old medieval city and were splendid to walk round with lots of things to see and lots of restaurants to choose from. We arrived from Bilbao just after 2:00pm and headed off straight into the town to find some lunch

And so to the Mediterranean and here we are in a campsite in Creixell, which is south of Barcelona and just north of Tarragona. There's few other motorhomes here and it's about 200m from a lovely beach, about 2km from the old town, we've got clear blue skies and about 16C daytime and 8C nighttime. Not that warm, but it feels quite warm and almost T shirt weather in the sun (but not in the shade!). It's €12 a night here and we have electric hookup, wifi (quite slow), a toilet and couple of showers that cost €1 for 5 minutes. There's a cold water washing up area and a laundry for €4  

The beach at Creixell

The bay and beach at Creixell from a little headland we walked to

We  walked into the old town today, lots to see and some very old medieval buildings

Including this one, it's Creixell castle first built in 1088. However only the lower bit is from that era, the bit on top, now a private house, was built much later. There were also many bars and restaurants and a couple of supermarkets. We had coffee in one bar and a three course lunch with beer at another, after having done a bit of shopping at the Mercadona supermarket. 

Another brief trip to Alvechurch & then Cirencester (Roman Corinium Dobunnorum)

St John The Baptist Church, Cirencester

Another dash up the motorway back to Alvechurch, quick hello and in to Specsavers in Redditch to get my glasses. They are not perfect, the prescription is correct, it’s the positions that’s weird, but she has made them just about wearable, so the second pair are being changed, and I’m having some reading glasses.

We’d got back to mum in time to avoid the forecast wind and snow which I think was just as well reading other people’s Facebook postings. We spent Friday and Saturday taking mum Christmas shopping and meeting up with Helen and Richard, who had come to stay with John and go to the village play, performed by the drama group that was such a big part of Sarah’s life.

Worst of the weather over we headed back south, to Cirencester. It was obviously still cold as when we came to fill Ted with water, the frost ‘dump’ valve on the heater wouldn’t stay closed. This is a valve that operates at 3degrees or so to dump the water out of the heater so preventing frost damage. Turning the heater on, and putting a hot water bottle in the locker finally enabled us to put water into the heater, so off we set.

Big Ted on site in Cirencester

A pleasant site about a 20 minute walk into Cirencester, through the Bathurst estate, a lovely bit of parkland has provided us with a good base for a few days (campsite location: 51°42'51.9"N 1°59'04.3"W).

We’ve decided we like Cirencester too, it’s compact, has lots of interesting buildings, nice places to eat, and a good museum. Guided town walks are off in the winter but you can buy a guide to do it yourself, for £1.20, which we did. Probably better at our own pace as it was extremely cold, but crisp and clear is good. 

The lovely old barrack building in Cirencester. A Grade II listed building built in 1857 originally as an armoury, now offices

Cecily Road entrance to Cirencester Park

Tuesday was quite a lot warmer, and not nearly as damp as predicted, so we walked a bit further afield and went to the museum which heavily featured the Romans who had been very big in Cirencester and named it Corinium Dobonnorum. They had some very good mosaics, which I would say knocked St. Albans into a cocked hat. The small section of wall and the amphitheater however were not nearly as impressive as St. Albans.

Ancient monument of St John the Baptist Hospital & Chantry

Yesterday was a chilling day, but we did walk back into town, but just for lunch and a couple of pints. How very civilised!

And today? Back at mums, tomorrow he has his flu jab and I have my Covid booster and then the first of three curries, in four days... too much of a good thing? All whilst catching up with people and doing our final bits and pieces before our ferry to Spain next week. Will it happen?

Can you make out the rows of stones marking out the old abbey of Cirencester? You'll be able to see it better by looking at the Google Maps: click here. It was founded in 1117 and was a large medeval abbey razed to the ground on the orders of Henry VIII during the reformation

Part of the inside of St John The Baptist parish church (outside photo at the start of this blog), built next to the old abbey. The ceiling here is said to have been taken from the ruins of the abbey

This is the Norman Gate and is the only surviving part of the abbey. It originally formed part of the wall round the abbey grounds, everything else was completely destroyed on the orders of Henry VIII

These bumps here were originally the Roman amphitheatre in Cirencester. It was built just outside the Roman city of Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester) and is thought to have been the largest in England, estimated to have had a capacity of 8000 people. The Roman city was the third largest in England and, at one point the capital of the West and South-West part of England and on the junction of three major Roman roads: Akerman Street linking the town to Verulamium (St Albans) in the east, Ermin Street linking the town to Glevum (Gloucester) to the north and Calleva (Silchester) in the south and Fosse Way linking the town to Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the south west and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) in the north-east via a number of other important Roman towns. It was very important to Roman Britain and remained that way until around 400 AD when troops were withdrawn following attacks in Gaul (France) by the Huns (Germany), cutting off Britain from the rest of the empire. Following the withdrawal of Rome and raids by the Vikings the town was abandoned and by around 450 AD had fallen into ruins. The amphitheatre was identified as such in around 1750 after being buried for 1300 years