Valencia - and beyond!

Thursday 12/11/2009
Heading down from Barcelona it was like walking into a warm room. As we moved south the weather improved and slowly but surely the main crop became oranges - acres and acres of them. The picking is getting underway and I remember my grandmother waiting for the Spanish oranges to come in and then making marmalade which was about Christmas or a little later. Well there plenty of oranges for everyone now.
Finally arrived at our new base which is about 10 minutes from Valencias' City of Arts and Sciences but very rural amongst the rice fields. The site has two drawbacks - the mosquitos which bite for Spain and the new bypass for the village which runs around the back of the site. Still we are here for only a few nights. Also here is another Brit with an American RV and a horror story. They had been burgled on one of the motorway services despite being among the lorries. Not lost a lot - camera and the mess as well as the disruption was the worst part. But they are clear crime magnets as they had almost been robbed in Madrid on the underground as well. He was telling me how his superior locks had been defeated and then looked at our older ones and pronounced them better!
The site has no internet so this will be up when we get somewhere modern.
Friday 13/11/2009
After a bad nights sleep with the traffic we slept in - fitfully! Still supplies were low and we went to the very large shopping centre on the edge of Valencia whch boasted an enormous Carrefour "Hipermarket". It should come with a map on every trolley with sat-nav so you don't get too lost. Still it had everything you could wish for including PG Tips at €2.40 for 40! Then there's C5A and a host of shops and restaurants. Tha Spanish know how to do a good shopping centre.
Saturday 14/11/2009
Slept slightly better but still had a lazy morning as the parking isn't free until 14:00 at the shopping centre which is across the road - all 12 lanes of dual carriageway that is between it and the City of Arts and Sciences. Arrived with perfect timing at 2:00pm on the dot and went across to the Oceanografico which is "one of the worlds largest acquariums" housed in some very modern buildings. Spent almost 4 hours wandering around the enormous rooms with tunnels in the tanks, Beluga whales in one of the "biggest tanks" in the world and bizarrely for somewhere that boasts green credentials a Dolphin show. We missed that but went o see what we could see after the show was over and it was brilliant. The staff were checking the dolphins over, taking blood samples as well as inspecting them as well as "playing" with them. We also got to watch a new member of staff trying to learn the human end of the performances. Not sure what it feels like to fall flat on your back into water having been tossed up about 15 feet by two dolphins but he walked ginerly at first. Still he kept at it till he got it almost right and then the old hand showed him how again. The dolphins followed their trainers around the pool like well behaved dogs - most peculiar but great fun. The rest of the site is some of the best modern architecture and some of the most daring I've seen. Prince Charles would not approve and it was all publicly funded.
Sunday 15/11/2009
From the sublime to the ridiculous.We drove down the coast to Cullera home to a Moorish castle next door to a Catholic shrine. Both were closed but the viewpoint shows what a mess the tourist business has made of the coast. It is trully awful.
Came home and packed up ready to go tomorrow to find LPG in Alicante and a camp site in Crevillent.
Monday 16/11/2009
Got away cleanly and before 10:30 so the day was going to be longish but bearable. Once more acres of orange groves shimmered away to the horizon as we headed south towards Alicante.I have never been to Benidorm but seeing it again reminds me of what hell must be like. The location is great but the buildings are awful. And the temperature was rising to about 31C.
As we approached Alicante we stopped for lunch at the services but heeding our last neighbours experience we decided to shop separately. As I got down a Dutch guy from the only other camper van in the emptyish car park came across and asked if we used LPG and if so did we know where he could get some as he was running very short. So short he was worried he might have to back to France or Holland to fill up and it was cold up there. He was impressed by my guide to the LPG sites in Spain and delighted there was one just down the road. He sped off as we sat down to lunch waving madly.
We had lunch watching an elderly Muslim couple say their 1 o'clock prayers in the car park, which given Spain's history was interesting.
Well having directions and a GPS fix is not a lot of help when the locals change the roads and dig them up willy nilly. We had reached the point where we found the road we needed for the campsite and the LPG site and decided as the gas is not critical if we did not find it then OK. Just then I saw signs for the Repsol depot and hey presto we found it - complete with our new best friend the Dutchman. The Spanish guy was most impressed by my book but gave me a Repsol map showing a host of new sites. I don't know how many campervans he gets but two foreign ones in sequence seemed unusual. Continued on down the road for what seemed like forever but wasn't - just getting hot and tired I guess. Found our site but the entrance was blocked - by the local cops tow truck as they had lunch in the bar/restaurant at the front. They were happy to move it and let us through. Still glad we are here for one night only as tomorrow we head to Cabo de Gata - home for the next 8 weeks or so! Still the local supermarket sells what we need so that;s OK as well.