I’m writing this early as we will start our long drive home tomorrow and I don’t know when we will next have Internet access. We could certainly get to Santander in a few days but we have decided to take the little white roads on the map and head back slowly, admiring parts of Spain that are a little off the beaten track. Now we are more confident with the van, it seems daft not to exploit it to its full potential.
We are currently on a site on the outskirts of Valencia, a metro ride into the centre. It is currently blowing a hoolie, whatever that is, any ideas? I’ve never known a wind like it. I think it is the same depression as the one hitting the UK with all the bad weather. The difference is, here it seems to be mixed with winds from the Sahara so it is incredibly warm. So imagine hot and windy…it’s actually really wearing as it is so fierce. We bobbed around in our bed last night over the Land Rover cab as if we were at sea, quite dramatic. As I write this, the van rocks occasionally, even with its little back feet down!
We left Alicante earlier in the week and said goodbye to its wonderful wide promenades dotted with palm trees and beautiful sandy beaches. You wouldn’t want to walk on the proms with a hangover though, they are designed with a wavy pattern which makes you feel slightly ill if you look at it too much! We’d had another squawky day on the campsite on Sunday with families of Spaniards visiting each other and making loud exclamations, don’t I sound bad tempered?! Well, perhaps I was since I had already had a close encounter with boy who almost got smacko round heado as he narrowly missed me with his football as I was carrying stuff to the van…..
So off we went into the hills before heading up to Valencia. We found a beautiful spot with absolutely no traffic where we stopped for the night. It was so quiet, the silence was almost solid if you know what I mean…Then on the next day to a municipal site where we were met by the mayor, I kid you not. No we weren’t the 5000th van to visit, it was simply the normal lady’s day off and he was a hands on sort of guy who thought nothing of welcoming strange people to his town. Mind you, I don’t think we were as strange as the British couple we met who had decided to live there, it was the back of beyond with a couple of bars and an energetic mayor but other than that, not a lot. It was a great site though and the mayor is clearly enterprising and trying to attract tourists to his town – El Palomar.
Onwards then to Xativa. We are now in Valencia region so the language becomes Valencian which is a form of Catalan, hence the ‘x’s…..OK, back to where we were, in Xativa, a lovely old town and the birthplace of the Borgias or Borjas as they are known here. I had no idea that they were a Spanish family, I’d always thought of them as Italian but then maybe I didn’t watch the TV series too closely although who can forget Jeremy Irons as the Pope?! Xativa …..full of little squares, promenades, fountains, parks and a local delicacy known as ‘fanadi’ a sort of pumpkin pie made with spices, orange, almonds, eggs etc. Delicious.
Talking of local delicacies, here in Valencia, they have ‘horchata’ which is a cold drink made from tiger nuts, which you drink while dunking a ‘farton’ (tee hee yes really) in it. The ‘farton’ is in fact like a sweet submarine roll, quite tasty. I tried this combination in the Mercado Central in Valencia. Joy of joys, I had found one of the biggest markets in Europe with over 1000 stalls. Anyone who knows me well will know how much I love markets so I was in my element. In fact you can see from the photo that I have moved here permanently…….
Like much of Valencia the market is a beautiful modernist building, influenced by the likes of Gaudi and his pals. It is topped by a huge weathervane with a large parrot on it.
Valencia itself is a great town: sun, sand, sea, culture. I think it was known as the city that never sleeps well before New York. So we are heading back off there this afternoon…….
Toodle pip