Month: November 2018

The Fiesta is finally over now, the British Fancy Dress Parade is done and dusted, the last firework has been banged, hopefully, and most of the tourists have gone home. As last week went on, Benidorm just got busier and busier and everywhere had a party atmosphere from lunchtime right through till……well we don’t know cos we’re never up that late!

It is unbelievable how many British people come to Benidorm just for the Fancy dress, and keep coming back for the same week, year after year. Somewhere between 30 – 40 thousand people took part. For each individual, it’s not so much a parade as a walk around the pubs and stopping for a beer every now and then. There is so many people it just looks like a Parade. And it’s all ages. It was great fun to watch and in reality you were the odd one out if you didn’t have fancy dress on. People were still heading for the parade in fancy dress when we were on our way back to the campsite.

Talking to our friends who have been coming back to Benidorm for years, this has been the worst winter for weather that they have experienced. Certainly in the 2 weeks we have been here the weather has not been as good as it has been. It’s been variable, a lot of cloud, a fair bit of rain and the weather forecasters just can’t get it right.

Despite this we’ve still managed to get out on the bikes and done a fair bit of walking. On Sunday morning we did the obligatory walk to the Cross. It is possible to walk from the Cross over the hills to Albir, the next town northwards. It’s about 5 miles and looked tough going so we walked the first couple of kilometres just to check it out. The path is really rocky and it’s slow progress picking your way over the hill but it’s a challenge we’ll definitely pick up before we come home.

As well as all the excercise, we have managed to get around the bars a little bit. Well it is Benidorm, it would be rude not to. We managed to take in the Scotland games, dabble in a bit of tapas and were confronted with the biggest Cowboy Grill ever!

Oh and we met some new and interesting people!

So it’s a week since we arrived in Benidorm, it’s obviously great to be here and it’s been a really nice change putting down some roots. We’ve so far resisted getting sucked up in the mayhem that is Benidorm and eased ourselves in gently. There were very few pitches left once again, when we arrived at Villasol but we are very happy with the one we have. It’s a bit quirky but we have a good outlook across the swimming pool to the clubhouse and the hills beyond and if we move the chairs around the van as the day goes on we can usually find some sun to sit in. The best thing about the pitch is the neighbours. It turns out that Ray and Bob are behind the hedge immediately behind us, Graeme and Diane next to them and Arthur and Gillian, a really nice couple from Leeds who we didn’t know previously, are right next to us.

Until now the weathers been excellent and we’ve spent most of our time divided between reorienting ourselves to our old haunts in Benidorm, cycling in the surrounding mountains and reading. As usual we walked miles already but in Benidorm it never seems to feel like that.

We’ve already cycled 150 miles and it’s clear we are the fittest we have been since we started coming to Benidorm. We are going faster and further than we would normally expect so we must be doing something right I guess. Our first outing was a loop up to and through Guadalest which we would normally have to build up to and on Sunday we managed a 50 mile loop through the Jalón Valley which we haven’t done before. Tomorrow we attempt another first heading to Sella and returning via Relleu. We need to get the miles in as the weather deteriorates after that, possibly until the start of next week. Doh! We didn’t come to Benidorm for bad weather.

In a town that’s all about excess, it is perhaps no surprise that Benidorm has not one but two patron saints: La Virgen del Sufrage and St Jaime and 55 fiestas over the course of the year. Since we arrived, Benidorm has been building up to the fiesta celebrating St Jaime, a 5 day festival which started on Saturday and ends this Wednesday. The streets are decorated with illuminations and flags and there is a full programme of processions, parades, marching bands, dancing and fireworks. Lots and lots of firework, mainly bangers going off all day, every day.

The Brits join in with the fun with a fancy dress after party on the Thursday. Over 30,000 took part last year and it is believed to be the biggest fancy dress parade in the world. We can only wait and see what carnage results from this massive event on Thursday.

Certainly Benidorm is in really busy with British people at the moment, much busier than we have seen and the pubs and absolutely heaving and of the fiesta the bars have all made an effort with decoration, deals on drink and all day entertainment.

Interesting times ahead…….

The Silver Machine has been sitting in a car park in the Port of Almería all week end. There no services and its 6.55 a day, but it’s close to the city centre, you get to watch 2 or 3 ferries a day come and go, and has some nice sunsets thrown in.

The journey here from Granada was mostly quite spectacular. There was a choice of two routes, each skirting different sides of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We chose the route which took us directly to the sea and then followed the coast to Almería. The mountains were really dramatic, helped by the decent dusting of snow on the mountain tops.

When I say mostly quite spectacular, we learned during the drive that farming in Almería Provence has changed radically in recent years and growing vegetables all year, particularly tomatoes and courgettes, has become very lucrative. The down side is that the crops are grown in huge polythene greenhouses, and for large areas of land, where one greenhouse stops the next starts. The overall effect I have to say is gastly and I can’t see us wanting to come back to that particular part of the coastline again.

Almería itself is an attractive city with a population of about 200,000 but it doesn’t really feel that big. The historic centre, the shopping areas and main attractions are all within easy walking distance and linked with a network of narrow, one way streets.

Like most Spanish cities, Almería has a rich history dating back to the Romans, but it is when under Moorish control that it really flourished as a port. The impressive Alcazaba is the second biggest fortress in Andalucía, after the Alhambra, and it really dominates the town. Entry is free, which is astonishing, and we had a very pleasant time wondering around inside the massive walls. The Alcazaba survived two sieges by the Christians, yes the dynamic duo, Ferdinand and Isobella, before eventually surrendering after running out of food and water.

The cathedral is also interesting and it’s architecture tells us something else about Almeria’s past. Rebuilt beginning in 1524 following an earthquake, the Cathedral looks more like a fortress than a place of worship. At the time it was being built, Almería was prone to being attacked by Berber Pirates who regarded churches as easy targets. It may not look like a cathedral from the outside but in the inside there is no mistaking what it is. It’s perhaps plainer than most, but I think the contrast between the inside and outside, makes it seem all the more spectacular.

From the Alcazaba you could see a huge statue of Jesus up on the hill opposite. We headed up there on Sunday morning, and although it was a pleasant enough walk in the sunshine, it took us through some very poor areas. It occurred to us that there could be a lot of unemployment here, but we have not confirmed this.

Overall Almería has been a great stop. As well as the sights we managed to get out on the bikes a couple of times, there are some nice tapas bars to explore and we met a nice couple from Bearsden in one of the neighbouring motorhomes.

Almería is the furthest south we will have stopped on this adventure and at approximately 2000 miles it is the furthest we have been from home. It is also the end of our stories about the Romans and Moors, Isobella and Ferdinand, Castles and Cathedrals. Yes friends it’s time to head for Benidorm.

Bring it on!

As we drove in to Granada on Tuesday it was pouring rain, only 9 degrees and there was a good covering of snow on the Sierra Navada Mountains off to the east of the city. We could have stayed in Scotland for this we thought! Although the rain continued through Wednesday, it stayed dry long enough to allow us to orientate ourselves to the city and visit the Cathedral and the Capilla Real. Luckily Thursday turned out to be a really nice day which helped make our guided tour of the Alhambra really memorable and allowed us to explore the historic areas of Granada in a way we had been unable to the day before.

The Silver Machine is parked up in Camping Reina Isobella, a lovely little Campsite about 4 kms from the city centre, but with a good bus service which takes you from entrance to within walking distance of the historic areas. At 17€ per night it’s good value and has a reasonably stocked shop, bar and restaurant.

We stayed in Ubeda on Monday night to break up the journey from Toledo to Granada. Ubeda is only 5 miles from Baeza, where we stayed on our way to Toleda, and like Baeza, is build on a hill, still has parts of the defensive wall remaining and has a wealth of Renaissance buildings. We managed to have a walk around to see the sights, but it was really cold with a bitter wind and to be honest wasn’t much fun. The aire is very good however, beside a Police Academy, free and with a good service point.

We had booked our tour of the Alhambra about a month ago and were really looking forward to it. The Alhambra is a massive Palace/ Fortress built by the Moors in the mid 1200s, when Granada became their capital. This remained the home of the Nasrids, the ruling dynasty, until the Boabdil, the last Sultan surrendered the keys to the Alhambra to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isobella in 1492.

It really is a magnificent, awe inspiring place. There are two palaces and extensive gardens within the complex much of which was built to create a vision of heaven on earth. We are not qualified to say whether they succeeded in this but the end result is wonderful. Built on a massive scale, each room is covered in intricate and complex carvings. Each courtyard is beautifully laid out with plants, trees, waterways and fountains. Built on a hill, this fantasy is framed by great views over the city and surrounding mountains.

The Alhambra did not disappoint and neither did the rest of Granada. After our tour we spend the rest of the day happily wandering around the Albaicin, a network of narrow streets which rise steeply up the hill opposite the Alhambra. It is a very old and fascinating area and a real reminder of the city’s Moorish past. We headed for the Plaza de San Nicholas, with near legendary views of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada Mountains behind. When we got there, the views was spectacular, lots of other people had make the effort to get there and as a special bonus there was a real party atmosphere.

The Capilla Real, or Royal Chapel is the final resting place of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isobella, and perhaps a good end point to our journey south through Spain. We have learned a lot about them, particularly once we started travelling through Castilla Y Leon and Castilla-La Mancha to Cordoba and finally Granada. They are widely regarded as uniting Spain before leading a 10 year campaign against the Moors to gain control of the whole of the Iberian peninsula.

This impressive chapel was build at their request. Although they both came from much further north, victory against the Moors and their love of the Alhambra was such that they wished to lie here, in Granada, together for eternity. Their tombs are beautifully sculpted in marble with their remains in lead coffins, available for public viewing, n the Crypt underneath.

The cathedral was built after the Capilla Real and adjoining it, again at the orders of Ferdinand and Isobel. It is bigger and higher than most cathedrals and just as grand.

We could have stayed longer in Granada, but we had a hankering get get to the coast and of course the warmer and sunnier climes. Can you blame us?