Monday morning saw us up and out heading to another one of Gaudi’s more prolific works -Park Guell. This time we had booked our slot to avoid failure and disappointment as happened on Saturday. It did not disappoint, but yet again lead me, more than David wondering just how much ‘stuff’ could that man have produced in his time on this planet. Or did he have a band of merry helpers who just assisted him with his outlandish if not fairly predictable style. Either way his work doesn’t go unnoticed, love or hate it, and adds to the many, many charms of Barcelona.
Tuesday, we left Camping Barcelona and we have to say that this site is one of our favourites and it doesn’t Costa Fortune. With an ACSI card, it’s €24 per night for a good size pitch with a sea view. Aqua potable at every other pitch, a lovely café/restaurant and transport into the local town which has a lovely beach, shops etc. Plus, there is a regular service into central Barcelona. This was free, but obviously that was not sustainable and now costs about €8 return-an absolute steal taking all the effort out of getting to and from the main city.
Having spent over a year travelling Spain in our previous Elddis Encore- Nikki, we have realised that it’s quite hard not to do repeats in this country, as when we looked back we did actually cover a lot of Spain, and so we have now decided to embrace the repeats and visit old friends and places. So that said we headed to Valencia and another favourite site- Camping Nomadic, but on the way we stopped off on the coast at a free aire at Castellon. The reviews on Park for Night were very good, painting a delightful picture of a seaside spot near a marina, restaurants etc nearby. When we got there, we realised that we had been to this spot before, but at the time it was a bank holiday and everywhere was rammed and we couldn’t get onto the spot at all, along with many others we tried. This led us to Camping Nomadic which had literally just opened, popping up on Park for Night at that precise moment and so at a great speed we headed to it in October 2020 and were their first paying customers, saving us from a night literally on the streets somewhere.
This time however, although busy we squeezed Buster into a spot. Not an ideal one as near the poo pot but hey, we have smelly candles!. Free, obviously is excellent and so when this does happen we like to contribute to the local economy. We did this in style with a wonderful fish lunch at Casa Lola’s. Costa Fortune, maybe a little €84, but this was for delicious fresh halibut, baby clams which turned out to be mussels- a lost-in-translation moment, dessert and of course a bottle of wine. So overall, not a Costa Fortune. At the end of the day, good food now days does costa money.
At Castellon, we met a delightful scouser (yes, they do exist) by the name of Gary Rimmer, who unlike us is a ‘proper’ blogger, so David and Gary exchanged tips etc on the various merits of social media. Gary gives a full detailed description on his blog of Castellon (plus others of his travels) and we have to agree with him, it’s a lovely spot, with a beautiful coastline and lots of free seafront facilities, which D and I tried our feet at.
Valencia is a big popular city and therefore you pay the price for that. Camping Nomadic is not a Costa Fortune though at €16 for the night. Over the two years it has developed into a super lovely spot, with everything literally bedding in well. There is no coach into Valencia, but there is a metro nearby and the cycle lanes into the city are good. Safe and clearly signed, running along the amazing Valencian beachfront and then into the city.
We did the short cycle to the beach front and here as you might expect prices are slightly higher, with tapas costing about €10 per portion and beers around €5, so a little more budgeting is needed and dinner in.
Unfortunately, we could only stop one night here as we had found a person in Murcia to take a look at our battery, solar issues in Murcia on Friday.
However, we could not leave Valencia without having paella at the holy grail of rice El Palmar. It’s quite hard to describe El Palmar. It is a nature reserve as well as a rice growing region. It is a small town still occupied by locals who I guess farm the rice or work in the many, many paella restaurants that have sprung up as the area has become more and more popular. Of course, at lunchtime and on the weekend the footfall of the small town multiplies enormously. The roads into the town are tiny and there are 3 small bridges to cross, but over the years we have learnt how to deal with these, knowing that many coaches also make the journey to the holy grail and the thankfully large parking spot on the outskirts of the town, where Buster sits quite happily while D and I stuff ourselves full of fish and paella. What did lunch Costa?? €63 for baby clams (got it right this time) mixed paella, a bottle of wine, plus a couple of beers.
For those who have read the blog over the years (hopefully there’s a couple out there) will know that Los Alcazares is very well known to us, with D’s Aunt and Uncle living in the area. Camping Los Narejos is like a very comfortable shoe that we just pop on our feet, made easy by the lovely, friendly and efficient staff here. Great size pitches, shade, good restaurant and the beach are just a few mins walk down the road. The cost I’m not completely sure of as it decreases the longer you stay, and after an initial investigation by the local solar/battery specialists Costa Caravans we will be here till next Friday as more work needs to be done on our recently installed battery, solar system.
It would appear to put it in simple terms, talking about the battery system – it’s like we are trying to drive a Ferrari with a Ford engine. Not impossible, but you’re never going to get the best out of the Ferrari.
So, Costa Fortune Yes, but on this occasion it’s worth it.
Spends Sun 16/4 to Sat 22/4/23: Sustenance £416. Accom £88. Petrol/tolls etc £154. Entertainment £32.