Archive - May 2018

Benicàssim

May 30, 2018Dan4 min read

28/05/18 – 30/05/18 – Benicàssim Apart from the annual music festival held there in July, we didn’t really know much about Benicàssim. As it turned out, it was pretty nice. Before that however, we had completely ran out of LPG in Alcossebre (Including the back-up tank) so we took a half our detour using the my.LPG.eu app to find the nearest LPG station. When we brought the van, the previous owners gave us a number of adaptors to use across Europe for filling the tanks, but the one we needed today, we didn’t have. Fortunately, the garage had one that fitted, so €15 late we were refilled and cooking on gas…..literally. We decided to use a free aire again found on searchforsites.co.uk – this place was just outside the main part of town and about 20 minutes walk from the beach – it also had free facilities. As there were no other Moho’s on site, we weren’t entirely sure that we were at the right place, but we pulled over anyway and got...

Alcossebre

May 28, 2018Lorraine Stokes3 min read

27/05/18 – 28/05/18 – Alcossebre About a half hours drive South of Peniscola is the Parc Natural de la Serra d’Irta, part of the Spanish coast line, which has hardly been touched by tourism. Being a nature lover, I really wanted to go and Dan obliged. We found a free overnight stop in Alcossebre (basically a row of parking spaces) next to the sea which was separated by rocks. Being the only ones there, we waited a while, noticed we were getting a few looks from passers by and then thought, sod it lets go anyway. We went off on our bikes on what we believed to be a 5km ride, and I was pretty excited about the mention of a natural thermal spa at our destination point. There were no cycle paths that we could see, and once we reached the start of Parc we saw how rocky and dusty the road was. We already knew about this, which was why we hadn’t taken the Moho. I hadn’t quite planned for how uncomfortable it was, given I have a road bike with narrow wheels and...

Peñiscola – Yes you read it right..

May 27, 2018Lorraine Stokes4 min read

26/05/18 – 27/05/18 – Peñiscola After we stopped giggling about the name (can you see a theme here…) we checked into Els Daus, a very basic overnight stay/car park with facilities and security at a cost of €8.40 per day. There were no free sites close enough and this was the cheapest we could find. We had no problems apart from our anxieties about Marley potentially going crazy at the crowds of cats nearby. He must have been in a funny mood that day, as he was pretty calm on seeing them, which completely surprised us. We settled in, had lunch and after it was a little cooler outside, we set off along the seafront cycle track towards Peñiscola Castle on the hill. In our opinion, this was the main attraction and focal point of Peñiscola. The ride there was 2-3km. It was very pleasant, however quite touristy along the strip that aligns the beach with many English/Spanish restaurants offering paella and tapas alongside fry ups. The old town is situated around the castle...

A Pleasant Surprise – Tarragona

May 26, 2018Dan2 min read

25/05/18 – 26/05/18 – Tarragona After a few restful days in Sitges, we left without really doing any research about Tarragona, so didn’t really know what to expect apart from the Roman Amphitheatre ruins and the fact that we could park relatively close to there in a free overnight stop – A carpark on a hill overlooking ‘miracle beach’ (Although what was so miraculous about it, neither of us were too sure given the industrial backdrop). We headed to the amphitheatre mid afternoon and as luck would have it, it was free entry that day, sadly though we weren’t allowed to take Marley in with us, so we got as close we could, took some photos and headed up the hill into the town. Lorraine had spotted something about ‘Castells’ (The Human Towers) on our way over. As it turns out this is one of the traditions that Tarragona is famous for – they have  schools that compete again each other with teams comprising all ages – the...

Sitges Bitches!

May 25, 2018Dan4 min read

21/05/18 – 25/05/18 – Sitges e have both been to Sitges twice previously for Justin and Brandon’s wedding and Justin’s 40th, both times in quite large groups (Sitges Bitches). So this time around we weren’t sure if it would feel the same with it being just the 3 of us. We found a parking spot to the north of the town centre close to Sitges Port, overlooking a small beach, playa de la Marina Aigudolç that cost the princely sum of €3.60/24 hours. It was such a stunning location, we didn’t want to leave, but after 3 nights we needed our water tank topping up. There were 2 other Mohos parked up – one either side of us and it wasn’t long before one of our neighbours came to introduce himself and give us the low-down on avoiding fines etc – thanks Pablo 🙂 The first night we had a quick walk around the Marina which mainly comprised expensive restaurants (to our budget at least) and a few boat related shops, followed by dinner in the van...

Beautiful Barcelona

May 21, 2018Lorraine Stokes3 min read

18/05/18 – 21/05/18 Barcelona We travelled to Camping Barcelona, which was pretty much the closest campsite to Barcelona that we could find. One of the benefits was that the 20 Euros a night included a free shuttle into Barcelona, which we took advantage of the following day.  Our neighbours were Austrian, and just could not get enough of Marley who they said reminded them of their late dog. They were very sweet, and super friendly. The site itself was well organised and tight, but neat spaces. They gave a massive info. guide which Dan read incorrectly the first day and took us on a bike ride in the wrong direction to Mataro which was a bit scary, as it along a main road and didn’t cater for bikes. Unfortunately, there is a train track running along the edge of the coast and the mainland, which takes it beauty away. That evening we ate at the site restaurant. Dan had lamb chops and was extremely disappointed by the tiny portion for 15 Euros, I was stuck with Pizza again as...

Pineda de Mar

May 18, 2018Lorraine Stokes3 min read

16/05/18 – 18/05/18 – Pineda de Mar We decided to stay at another campsite at Pineda de Mar called Enmar (17 euros using ACSI discount card) including a free sangria each. It was a bit of a change compared to the last campsite in regards to many mohos tightly parked together, but you still had enough outdoor space to eat and sunbathe. The facilities were good and the people pretty friendly. We noticed that we were the youngest residents by at least 20 years. Some of the residents looked like they were there long term and we got quite a few territorial stares when walking around. Our neighbours were lovely and would often pop round to chat, and say hello to Marley. We took a walk to the only dog friendly beach we had been told about, albeit the sign still said “no dogs”. Although this is the law in Spain, there seems to be some tolerance to dogs on beaches depending on the time of year, how busy the beach is and whether or not it has a blue flag status. It...

A Load of Tossa

May 16, 2018Dan3 min read

14/05/18 – 16/05/18 Tossa de Mar & Cala Llevado Having spent some time in the city, we were itching to get to the coast so decided to visit the nearest beach Tossa De Mar – Yes we had a laugh at the name too…..or maybe its just us that are immature still… We arrived just after lunchtime, it was an overcast day and we parked on the closest road we could to the beach. The walk there was somewhat depressing, through dated looking hotel developments catering for the off-season long-termers having their afternoon siesta to the scheduled entertainment… The beach had little more to offer, it was largely empty, partly due to the weather and partly due to the time of year I suppose. The castle at the headland looked mildly interesting but not enough to draw us up there (Perhaps because we had just come from Girona). So, 10 minutes later we were heading back to the van to formulate a plan on where to go next. Out came the ACSI app and we found a campsite with...

Viva España

May 14, 2018Dan3 min read

13/05/18 – 14/05/18 Girona The drive from Carcassonne, France to Girona, Spain varied massively from the scenic to the seedy. Avoiding the toll roads we were taken through lots of small villages with narrow roads not entirely suitable for the Moho however all was made worthwhile when we came to a junction just outside of Ferrals-les-Corbiere  where they had closed off the road to heard sheep through the town – Not something I’ve seen before being a townie. Before long we were moving again and it wasn’t long before the road wound up through the midi Pyrenees – lots of switch-back bends and steep inclines but amazing views (The Scenic) –  The van seemed to handle it pretty well. (I daren’t look down at the MPG however!) This led us on to the border town of Le Perthus (the Seedy) which felt more like some of the border towns we had visited in South America – A busy main road through the town with sex shops, hemp seeds and night club that...

A Lakeside Overnight – Lac de la Cavayère

May 13, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read1 comment

12/05/18 – 13/05/18 –  Lac de la Cavayère, Longuedoc-Roussillon After a 7 hour drive with a 30 minute lunch stop, via several small and pretty villages, we arrived at Lac de la Cavayère at 6pm.  We stopped in the free car park overnight where there were only a couple of other motorhomes present. We took Marley for a stroll down to the lake, and had not realised until we were about 3km into it, just how big it was to walk all the way around due to the hidden bays. It was too late to turn back, but it was fab and Marley was in his element.  It turned out to be a 5km walk, which isn’t much but a lot when it was only going to be a short walk. We hadn’t realised the lake was an adventure park with steep slides into the lake and zip wires over it. Looks like a brilliant place to come back with a group of friends! Time for dinner (picky bits including one of our French favourites Remoulade) and a chilled out evening (an episode of West World) before our next drive to...

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