Category Archives: Spain

Day 14 – Finally some rest

Having travelled for almost two weeks straight without any rest day, we were really craving a bit of doing nothing. Even when we spent two nights at the same camp ground (which happened twice so far), we still explored cities on those days. One can hardly call those “days off”, especially for Flo who usually carries Number 3 in the carrier backpack.

So today, was going to be a day of sweet nothingness. Of lazy lounging on the camp ground and of idle wandering towards the pool. We had exactly the right camp ground for this. And we had picked a good day for it as well: Not only was it Sunday (cough) but it was Election Day in Spain and we wanted to get out of any of the shenanigans that might come with it. It was a lovely sunny day to boot.

So we woke up to a sunrise over olive trees while camping underneath one. Between 9 and 11 our camp ground provide breakfast and it was divine. Nothing special but it came made for us, no work involved. Also breakfast is the best meal of the day. 🙂

“Doing nothing” turned into “slowly doing some chores” which included washing and drying our big pile of dirty laundry. Then we had the usual lunch with bread, cheese and the ton of ham and sausage that Flo had bought yesterday. An afternoon nap marked the time between lunch and the pool.

Number 3 was very keen on getting into the pool. His mind changed after he had his legs in the very refreshing water. Instead, he played a bit with the water jets while we took turns going for a short and rather hectic swim.

Flo prepared a lovely, mushroom risotto for dinner with a local sherry as the secret ingredient. Cordoba is in the sherry triangle of Spain apparently. Since the recipe only uses one glass, we had almost a whole bottle of sherry left…Flo can only drink so much. So he traded with our neighbours and was gifted with a glass of their sweeter sherry in return, which even I kinda liked.

Number 3’s bedtime had to be pushed to 30 minutes to an hour later than usual after yesterday’s disaster of trying to get a baby to sleep in a hot tent while the sun is still shining. On it. Just to be clear. Now, at about 8pm, dusk had already begun and Number 3 had no qualms with going to bed.

It left enough time to get a cold drink from the bar and sit quietly under an old olive tree for a while, watching the world turn pink, purple and blue. A generally great rest day was had. 🙂

Good morning olive trees
and good morning to you, blossoming old olive tree.
free entertainment in form of the lot barrierers
looking a lot more traveling vagabonde with a weeks worth of washing out
too much work, nap time
wanna play ball?
that is just about enough cold water
better to play with the round thing once more
technically we started here …
… and travelled all the way to the other side. With a bit of a break in between, maybe
looks good, but the little one learned his lesson around hot things about a minite from here
coulourful pastoral landscape all around

Day 13 – Fusion delight

Almost … we are so close to this not being enjoyable anymore that we seriously considered taking the off day right here. But then, it was more of a cheap stopover than a place to linger. More importantly, we found a place that seem just right to relax. The timing would be perfect, too. It makes everything that much easier when you both know that it is going to be just a short day on the road and where exactly you are going.

Three things to do: Go see Málaga, get groceries to get us over the Sunday and go just 170 km north to our designated camp. Spoilers: It worked out pretty smoothly, too.

Málaga had a great vibe. We meandered about for a while before going into the Alcazaba. Another fortress palace from the Muslim era. We took a liking, even more so when we tried to stop treating it as the Alhambra consolation prise. We just had enough time for a brief meander around the cathedral before heading for a place to have lunch. I must confess, a little more time would have been nice. The Cathedral felt mountainous from the outside and I would have loved to get a feel for it from the interior.

Lucky for us, our alternative program held up to any attraction. Following the Lonely Planet advice we opted for fusion tapas this time and oh my, was that delicious. Once again, we were pretty much the first lunch guests at Uvedoble Taberna (even though 12:30 am is already way past our usual). There are no pictures for once, but believe me – the food was amazing. Number 3 had all eyes on him when he happily shared my tapa of black noodles with baby squid and aioli with me. Nina squirmed a bit – they were delicious. Bonus point for me – a lot of the places we go to have a non-alcoholic craft beer on the menu, perfect for me without spoiling the great meal by lack of appropriate beverage.

Shopping was hindered a bit by everyone but me conveniently falling asleep in the car on our way. So I had to herd my sleep drunken family through the ridiculously enormous Carrefour. The ham section remains an attraction for me in every supermarket. Even though we have been on the road only two weeks, we are back at the point were huge walmart like box stores seem like a spaceship from outer space to us. We live on a different scale while on the road.

The campground, once again chosen from Rustiek Kamperen turned out 100% to spec. Super quiet, out in the sticks nested in between olive groves with great hosts to boot. The weather was perfect, too. Sunny but at reasonable temperatures. Another pool will surely tempt us tomorrow. For now, it was time to sample the spoils of our supermarket visit (non-alcoholic beers and ham for me) and soak in the places atmosphere.

Roman theatre in Málaga
Walkway on the outside of Alcazaba
Over the roofs
Staircase detail
“Well…we have those two columns…why not chuck them in here? Nobody will notice.” 😛
Inside Alcazaba
View into the city
Happy baby
Mosaic detail
Giuess who was also tghere
Another detail
Part of the cathedral
Colourful building
Too many hams for my taste…
“First you take a peg”
“Then, you put a string through here”
“And now, put the peg in the ground and attach the string. All done!”

Day 12 – Granada or the Disappointment of sights in Spain

It had been really bloody cold last night. Temperatures dropped to somewhere between 3 to 1 degree and it made for an uncomfortable night. Not because we didn’t have enough blankets to deal with it but because Number 3 refused to sleep in his cold “bed” and decided that mama was the only warm place to sleep upon.

There is a ticket office that has the “no tickets available” sign permanently nailed to it …

Today was the day to visit Granada. Our camp ground was only about a 30km drive away and I had really been looking forward to seeing the Alhambra. However, it turned out (again) that Spain is incompatible with our travelling style. We had the same trouble in Barcelona already when we couldn’t get tickets to see any of the sights I wanted to see. Though back then, we could have remedied it by staying a couple of days longer: No same-day tickets but tickets in a couple of days were available. So we learned from this and had checked out tickets for the Alhambra about 3 days in advance with the option of adding up to 3 days to our stay…just to make sure we actually get to see it this time. De nada. Online tickets to visit the Alhambra are sold out until the middle of June. There is a small number of same-day tickets but people start queueing for them from 2am onwards…nothing that is at all feasible with a baby.

So there we had it. Physically in Granada, unable to see Alhambra. Didn’t make for the best of mornings or city visits. I understand the necessity of regulating the number of visitors…didn’t lessen the disappointment though.

We still drove into Granada and checked out the outside of the Alhambra but it isn’t that much fun. Also, there is not much to see except for a wall and a bit of garden. It’s a good time to go as all the orange trees have fruits upon fruits hanging on them and just look lovely.

With that little sightseeing done, we drove into the city center of Granada. Eating traditional tapas helped a little to get over the disappointment. We picked a traditional tapas place instead of fusion one to get a taste of southern Spain. Flo loved it! He ordered the “warm plate” for two people, even if the menu suggested that only one thing on there was vegetarian. So I had Spanish potato and egg omelette from the plate and a spinach empanada that I ordered. Not feeling quite as filled as Flo I continued to order “Queso a la plancha” which turned out to be three big pieces of grilled cheese with orange marmalade and…fish eggs…*shudder*. Luckily, everything was piled up neatly and I could eat around the fish eggs.

A stroll through the inner city showed us some great architecture and an impressively clean and rich looking city. For our actual sightseeing, we went into the museum next to the cathedral; the place where Isabella and Ferdinand are buried and some of their personal things and art is exhibited. So I got to see some Memlings and Van der Weydens as well as a Botticelli up close.

Worn out from walking around and spending that much time in the sun, we continued on a short while towards Malaga. A very affordable little camp ground right before the city was our stop for the night.

The team checking out the spectacular early morning views
that is what they found
Top view on the reservoir and the mointains from the campground
There is a ticket office that has the “no tickets available” sign permanently nailed to it …
beggars at the door
peeking in like a commoner
Would have been a nice walk down to the city
garden between the walls
A little orange grove in the parking lot. Funny to see fruit bearing trees as decoration
heading down to the city. Our front view with the tent up there 😉
TAPAS!
He manages to scrounge treats wherever we go …
building decoration
The mausoleum / tempel of Isabella and Ferdinand
Heading for the Costa del Sol

Day 11 – Drizzle, dragons and disappointment

Wow – I think we have to seriously slow down our pace. There is a certain flow while traveling that seems like it can be maintained, but in fact slowly drains your reserves. Even though we already had two double stays – that is still only about half of the rest days we did on Home to Home. We were not really resting either, but packing these extra days full of sightseeing. Within a week, we need a proper rest day – just hanging around the camp and doing not much of anything. Or more likely, doing whatever we feel like. But not today …

Today started great, with a solid breakfast and a kind fellow camper offering to pick up a fresh bread for us from the bakery. But catastrophe is never far away. In this case, it came with the very last touch of breaking camp for us: the last clasp of the roof tent. It is sort of a normal leaver lock thingy, with a latch affixed to the base hooking into the lock and then leveraged shut to keep it all good and tight. Too tight this time, as it appeared. We had issues with closing the tent before, but we thought were past it. Right when the lock shut, the latch, which is a riveted band of steel, broke at the point where it is was attached to the base plate. One lock is not enough for safe travel, obviously. One again, the kindness of strangers helped to soften the blow immensely. The Dutch travellers next to us had his motorbike with him and carried a bunch of spare tie downs. With a colour matched botch job in place of a front lock. We called the distributor in Germany and they promised to find out what they can do for us, but in the meantime ensured us the tie down will do.

It did not really quite show yesterday, but the village and the national park surrounding us was absolutely stunning. Sierra Espuña is the first of a bunch of these alpine national parks that seem almost too inviting to just pass through. On a longer trip, we would definitively want to spend 2-4 days on some hikes in the area. But not this time. It would immediately go against the bare bones of a plan that we have started to formulate.

Our idea now is to travel just slow enough to get a taste of southern Spain but fast enough to be in Portugal before May. That should give us four weeks to really take our time and do exactly these things we are now skimping on a bit and leave us with two weeks to get back via the Netherlands at a reasonable pace.

That meant skipping a whole bunch of national parks now, and even just cruising past the Sierra Nevada in a single day. We did, for the most part. Even though, we still managed to have a great lunch break in a romantically drizzly national park called Sierra de Baza.

We had a very specific goal in mind: We needed a camp ground within striking distance of Granada with good WiFi and at a reasonable price. We managed the first, but the mobile data speeds were at least good enough to save our plan a bit. The thing is: We are not as untethered as on our last trip. We did not want to leave our weekly gaming group hanging, so we agreed to try out playing online via web and skype. It actually worked out reasonably well, with some minor hiccups that were to be expected.

The only thing that we did not fully take into consideration for the choice of camp was altitude. And so we ended up at almost 1000 m, with a cold evening turning into an even colder, since cleare night. The thermometer dropped all the way down to 1° C for the second time on out trip …

I wonder how those pebbles feel on my hair …
… or how they sound
improvised tent lock … grumble
Views from the …
… Sierra Espuna
the road down the hill
first look
of more mountains
park road where …
… we stopped for lunch
excited, but very cold
first glimps at the snowy Sierra Nevada peaks
all sorts of dramatic views
even in the rain, a monster appeared
another shortcut to a campoground
and a final quick foto stop
road ahead, far on the right is Granada
note the professional tent power line …
continued obsession with gravel
There is always another level, as with this french couple on a fiat panda
beautifully set up, they are starting a 6 month trip … maybe

Day 10 – Southwards

It sure feels as if we’re getting better at this now. This morning we took it slow (again) but it was just so beautiful. Number 3 woke us up at 7am which is his normal time and when we opened the “window” the morning sun came in. Lovely views onto the camp ground, the old olive trees and the still red sunrise … couldn’t ask for more.

Flo even managed to post one more blog entry before we hit the road. Number 3 dutifully fell asleep and we had a smooth ride until lunch time. By this time, we had made it half way around Valencia and needed fuel as well as bread for lunch.

Both were available. Fuel right next to the motorway and bread in a town just a little of the motorway. It was a proper bakery with amazing looking treats, so I had to buy some extras: A spinach-filled empanada and five tiny croissants con chocolate. Flo decided to sample some local craft beer and got a bottle of something (Mahou Barrica).

All my extras turned out to be smart buys as finding a good lunch spot, where Baby could roam around for a while, proved hard to come by. Given that we were on a motorway around a big city, it isn’t even a surprise in hindsight.

So we had a late lunch around 2pm, somewhere tucked away underneath trees to avoid the direct sun, which was up now quite mercilessly.

Getting back onto the road and into the driving groove turned out to be a little bit difficult as Number 3 wasn’t keen on more sleep. We coaxed him through most of the hard bits and, finally, he decided to have a late afternoon nap. With this morale boost, we made it to the designated camp ground in the Sierra Espuñas. The last bit of the road wound in and out the national park. Lots of tight curves rising up to almost 700m for the camp.

Actual Orange Plantations all around us
good roads, towards more hills
Spain turnes out rather more mountainous than we would have expected
finally
Number 3 enjoyed the up and down at our hilly lunch stop
ready for sleep, no awning today
Flo’s side
Number 3’s side
everything neatly within reach
tag
Jeah-na bro, ’tis empty. Daddy drank it all …

Day 9 – Orange Sky

Even though we still suffered a bit through a little fatigue from the day before, we managed to get a quick shower in and wrap everything up by 10:30 am. Number 3 agreed and keeled over almost right away. That made for a good progress.

I hopped into a supermarket along the way to sort out the essentials for lunch. You would think there is not much to surprise us in a European supermarket, but the in-store stall with 50 or so hams (still on the leg) and a professional ham-slicer to serve you straight from the leg were definitively unusual 😉

We briefly debated going for the mountains to hop by a couple of monasteries recommended by the Lonely Planet but the weather was still a bit dreary. No point putting Number 3 through an extra hour of driving to go on curvy roads in the rain. Instead, we decided to keep our eyes on the campground selected and spend an hour or two catching up on things.

That also left plenty of time to look a bit about for a lunch spot. We chose a beach 10 minutes from the highway. That way, Number 3 got his first picnic on the beach. He was a bit undecided about the sand situation, but we all enjoyed the sun finally breaking through.

As it turned out going for an early camp, that was an excellent choice. Even avoiding the motorway, we made excellent time. In most places the road was a perfectly good motorway right next to the toll road.

The campground was the first one we picked from a site recommended by Dutch traveller friends of ours. https://www.rustiekkamperen.com/ It roughly translates to rustic, or better romantic campsites and focuses a lot on things that we like in our stops. This time, we went for a larger one on there – a converted Orange Orchard a bit off in the hills. It was an amazing choice! Perfect, clean facilities, super quiet and cheap to boot. The pool looked like something out of a travel magazine – we had to try, but it was waaaay to bloody cold. After almost freezing Number 3 in the kiddie pool, he got to have a hot bath instead!

We topped it all off with another great dinner and got to see a beautifully lit sky for sunset. All was quiet, except for the bunches of overly excitable birds all around in the old and gnarly olive trees.

Beach lunch at El Mora
Food and sand don’t mix well, Number 3!
Vege and cheese
Number 3 learning how to balance
With floaties?
Camp at an old orange plantation
Father and son
Pool @ camp ground
Hot bath for the little one
Dusk through the olive trees

Day 8 – One day in Bangk….Barcelona!

We were really happy with our spot at the camp ground in El Masnou as it got super full in the evening. Which, in turn, meant that the bathrooms were really full in the morning. What felt like busloads of Italian tourists were getting ready and we picked up a new bit of cultural information…at least for us: Italians bring their super light, quite short bath robes to camp grounds; hairy, white maschio legs all around.

And then, we found out that the camera had been left on overnight and the battery was flat. Of course, today was the day I didn’t pack an extra battery. No fancy pictures of Barcelona, no selfie in front of the Sagrada Familia….I could have cried. To come up with a plan to save the day, Flo wanted to look at the map of Barcelona only to find that we had left it in the tent…back in El Masnou. Super sigh of annoyance!

Number 3 didn’t have the best of nights and I felt rather ill (Flo thinks it’s an allergic reaction to the gazillion of pollen flying around), but we managed to get ready to catch a train to Barcelona. That’s the beauty of El Masnou, you’re in the city center within half an hour. A bit of panic on my side and a train ride later, we popped up in Placa Catalunya, right in the middle of Barcelona.

Well, with no “pics or it didn’t happen” to feed this day, we started our walking tour with a stroll down la Rambla. Despite leaving the map, we still had the guide book to make the best of this day. La Rambla was very cool, even on an Easter Monday. It was cloudy, which was a bit of a pity, but just this hour or so walking down la Rambla made me want to come back for a 5 day city holiday sometime. Cool architecture, cozy cafes and great placas to get food…what’s not to love?

To calm down a bit and get over our early lunch hunger, we stopped in Le café de l’opera for a tea and croissant. Well, Flo decided to go more Spanish and got a xocamokka with churros. The churros were freshly made and delicious! Dipped in sugar, still warm…mhhhh! 🙂

Thus feeling better, at least in my case, we finished our stroll down la Rambla and went on to zigzag through Barri Gotik, the whole quarter. Little alleys with stately mansions opened up to placas with churches or governmental buildings, just to go back to winding alleys. I’m pretty sure you can spend days just in this one quarter.

I looked up a restaurant in the guide book which didn’t actually open on Easter Monday. Not too bad as everything is quite close together. We just walked to a different place, Ocaña this time, and sat down. Number 3 charmed customers and waiters alike while I devoured bravas and tempura-fried veggies. It was 2pm by the time we left the restaurant. I was already tired and quite done for today. However, we did not want to waste half a day that we could have spent in Barcelona. There were two things I really wanted to do: The Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. Both were a bit removed from the city center and tickets weren’t available any more for today. So I abandoned the idea of seeing Park Guell, or rather postponed it to the 5 day city trip that I already started planning, as well as knowing that I could only see Gaudi’s church from the outside. A city trip needs to be better planned with tickets obtained way before you arrive…nothing we can do on this trip.

Instead, we spent the afternoon in a museum to Flo’s liking: The history of Barcelona museum. Museums are a unique challenge with a baby, especially since we couldn’t take Number 3’s carrying backpack inside. We managed to do okay though and Flo and I enjoyed seeing and walking through the remains of Barcelona’s roman and early history…right underground its current historic buildings. We can highly recommend it if you’re interested in history at all.

After the museum Number 3 and I were completely knackered. Luckily, Flo had some drive left so we took the subway where he dragged us in and out at the correct stop to see the Sagrada Familia from the outside. I was close to falling asleep on my feet and Number 3 looked like hell but we made it and I am glad we did. With this highlight at the end of the visit, we took the train back to El Masnou.

A short, cold muesli dinner later, Baby and I collapsed into bed. It was a hell of a day. And definitely not the last one we’ll spend in Barcelona. Just the last one on this trip!

typical view off la rambla
I like these kind of artful anarchy bits
best 2nd breakfast!
he is looking … in a weird direction
random side street
more impressions
Another line … thanks no thanks
*thunk*
more protest signs, still all over the place
hmm, great lunch
Passion facade of the sagrada familia
Nativity facade of the sagrada familia

Day 7 – Hola España

Second rainy morning on the trip. As it was on the bike, everything is just that bit harder when you are doing it in the wet. It effects the mood as well, and any bad vibe gets supercharged in the echo chamber that is the nuclear family. Somehow, we still manged to get off our camp site just in time to avoid late departure fees. It “helped” that Number 3 decided it was getting up time at about 6:30 am.

Plan of attack for today was to do a bit of light culture at the Dalí theatre museum on our way to get into striking distance of Barcelona. We archived the second part all right, at least. Oh, and we also archived the “no more bodily fluids in the car” milestone. Just a tiny bit apprehensive here …

The road was uneventful. We decided to indulge a little to be in Figueres by lunchtime – have the break, lunch and then tackle the museum. We had lunch atop a little hill next to an old fort. It definitely seemed like everyone and their aunt were out and about on this Easter Sunday.

Europe makes us war and fuzzy inside. Next country …

Same held true about an hour later, when we encountered the enormous line in front of the museum. A handy sign informed us that at that time (1 pm), entry slots around 3 pm were sold. Well, we tried. Since the parking was charged by the minute (odd?), we felt no rush to get back to the car and took at least a little stroll. It was also the first time we took our wrap for a spin since leaving. Felt like a good idea to have Number 3 in a wrap in a museum. Turned out, I kind of missed it – it was a real treat having him cuddle up close for a while.

Early check in and some housekeeping then – which tuned out to be a good idea. That way we got a nice and quiet spot before the park got packed jam full. It’s expensive, but a great platform for a full day in Barcelona tomorrow.

A thought about the housekeeping: I guess that is one of the differences between travel and holiday. A holiday is an indulgence for us – where you shed the responsibilities of everyday life for a couple of days. Traveling is more like everyday life for us. You cook, you wash and tidy the house. But it’s a different life – one where we are just a bit more free. But an attainable and sustainable freedom (apart from the money thing, of course) compared to the beautiful illusion that is a holiday.

Speaking of chores: I whipped up a delicious dinner from fresh asparagus from the market and a bunch of leftovers we still had in our pantry …