So firstly, sorry we have been busy and enjoying ourselves too much to publish a blog last week, so again this is a double blog!
Monday (29 August) as the Metro was suspended due to work on the tracks, we got the replacement bus service, or correctly we should say we got the two replacement buses, which only got us as far as a working metro line, and then we had to get the Metro into the centre of Valencia, which took about an hour in total, so not too bad. And as some of you are probably shouting at this blog, we have all the time and nothing else to do.
The centre of Valencia has lots of interesting buildings, which are reasonably close together so we walked between them all, the market (the largest covered food market in Europe, so we are told), the silk market, various churches and the Torres de Sarranos (see picture)
Tuesday, we had a quiet day on the campsite with time at the pool.
Wednesday, was Tomato Fight day ! because of the closed Metro, we had to get a taxi at 6:15 am to the outskirts of Valencia (actually the carpark next to the cemetery) to get a 7am bus, to Bunol for the annual ‘Tomatina’ festival (the largest food fight in the world) 22,000 tickets to throw tomatoes at each other. Rest assured the tomatoes were not food quality.
We managed to get a spot in one of the squares on the truck route, so we were close, but not too close to the serious action. We also had a good view of the ham at the top of a greasy pole that you had to climb to claim the ham. Nobody managed it this year!
It was a fun day, we had our first alcoholic drink at 10:30am, in our defence we had been up for hours and did only have two drinks! The citizens of Bunol set the tone, with tables outside houses with wine, tapas and family chatter on the go at 9.30am, watching all the tomato fighters arrive. At around 10am all the tables were cleared away ready for the main event. We enjoyed meeting other tomato fighters and getting involved with the throwing of tomatoes which we scooped off the floor as they landed by our feet. The tomato-y-ist bit was walking out of the village, through where the serious action had happened, the tomatoes and water was ankle deep. We did manage a little hose down before retrieving our bags from the lockers, for a quick change before getting the bus back to Valencia.
Thursday, we left the Valencia Camper Site and heading further south to visit some good friends, who had last year moved from the Isle of Man to just south of Valencia. We parked the motorhome on the road in their estate and slept in the house! On a sofa bed, which was very robust and like a real bed! We also took advantage of the offer of a washing machine by doing 5 loads!
This is when we became too busy enjoying ourselves to write and publish last week’s blog, we spend the week eating, drinking, and catching up. Also other good friends from the Isle of Man flew out for a few days. To celebrate a birthday we went to “Triple Brew’ in a nearby town, which had a menu for the 100’s of beers they served. Rog ordered a taster of 5 different beers (twice!) the most memorable name for a beer was ‘F**k Brunch”. An interesting name and a nice milkshake wheat beer. Thankfully Triple Brew also served really good food.
We stayed with these friends for a week until Thursday, when we started the long drive north, we drove only about 30mins to visit other friends in Elche. After a menu del dia at a local restaurant, lots of food and wine all for 11€. We had a swim in the pool. Later on we got the local bus into town to see the Basilica, the ceiling compartment above the central doors on the bus opened, and the bus driver was trying to lock it back in place, however she could not reach, So Rog fixed the bus, it says something when Rog is the tallest one there! After a brief glimpse into the Basilica as there was a service on, we went to one of the local bars in a quiet square for an Aperitivo. Then back to our friends for tapas to finish the day.
We stayed in the Motorhome on a side road outside their apartment block, which was quieter than we expected.
Friday, after a quick stock at Lidl, we drove for about 2 ½ hours to just above Valencia, it was actually the same motorway junction as the Caves we visited, but this time we headed for the coast and found a campsite for €10 a night, our cheapest paid for site yet, so we stayed 2 nights, just about on the beach. So nice to enjoy a dip in the sea to cool off.
Saturday we visited the local market, about 10 mins walk from the campsite.
Sunday, we started heading for Barcelona, however en route the motorhome developed a noise with the front wheel whilst braking, so we headed for the nearest town, still 100km south of Barcelona and checked into a campsite, La Noria in Torresdembarra, obviously it is Sunday afternoon, so everything is closed, but they say they can help us find a local garage tomorrow to look at the issue! So Garages permitting we still may be able to get to Barcelona tomorrow as planned, by train. Watch this space!
Travurple 