We have finally arrived at our Christmas destination of Sophie's parents rented villa in Puerto da Mazarron. The area is surrounded by hills and seems to exist in its own microclimate, there air is warm and dry and the temperature reaching 25c in the early afternoon - hardly feels like Christmas! The area seems popular with motorhomes and there are plenty of Wild Camping locations out and about which we will explore and report back on in the new year.
Guadalest
En route to here we visited Guadalest which is a pretty village but somewhat spoilt by tourist tat and several museums of miniatures touting bible on a pin head and such like, its unsurprising that the area is heavily geared toward day trippers from Barcelona and Benidorm.
Speaking of which, it would be rude not to call in at this notorious Brit hotspot to go 'Madge Spotting' and true to form they were out in force, women in their 70's clad in fur and Leopard print leggings. Out of season the beach is stunning and clear to see why this place has attracted so many people to purchase property here. Parked on the front, our campers caused quite a stir with passers by looking through the windows, it was difficult to resist triggering the alarm to give them a fright!
The journey along the Spanish coast from East to West has been fun and games for us. A lot of towns and cities are heavily populated with apartment blocks and industry and require a great deal of planning in order to navigate to a suitable parking area in order to explore. This is made all the more interesting since we are no longer just navigating our narrow panel van but also for the Autotrail Tracker (affectionately named our 'support vehicle') which seemed permanently fixed to our back bumper and just like a trailer it makes turning around when you've made a wrong turn that bit more interesting!
Castello-de-la-Plana for example yielded hooded youths and industry and so we didn't really feel like stopping, similarly Segunte despite it's promising castle seemed equally uninspiring and we drove on through. Most disappointingly of all was Valencia where the city centre 'aire' had increased from €16 to €25 per day and was sandwiched between a busy motorway flyover and railway station rendering it in our view totally unsuitable for an overnight stay. Unfortunately too late in the day for us to consider parking there for a few hours and with the only campsite closing that very evening we decided that fate was against us and headed for Carcaixent.
Somewhere along the way we picked up a Dutch registered camper which became a temporary addition to our convoy, as the road narrowed with 7ft walls either side he became alarmed when the Autotrail in front of him straddled the middle of the road around blind corners. We let on to him later that we had been a little way in front and had been letting Adam's parents know when the road ahead was clear over the radio so they didn't have to creep around the blind bends. It transpired that he had no GPS at all and simply decided to follow us as it was getting late and thought we must have been heading for an aire that he didn't know about!
As it turned out we couldn't have navigated to a nicer spot, the free parking location (GPS: 39.07027, 0.40889) was sheltered by trees and is the starting point for three 5 mile walks. Given our rotten luck with cities we decided the next day we would rest from driving and attempt the red walk which involved a 300m accent through overgrown paths which provided breathtaking views.
While we try and avoid campsites unless you find a particularly good launderette there really is no alternative to getting your washing done. Calpe Mar in the ACSI discount book was paticually attractive to Adam's mum since the website showed an ironing board in the laundry room! It turned out to be a great little compact campsite with hard standing pitches, new facilities and a bargain laundry at €2 a wash not to mention a fantastic view of Penyal d'Ifac (that's the big rock to you and me). The town itself is relatively pleasant and we enjoyed a lunch of Shellfish Paella and Whitebait in one of the many restaurants touting for business along the seafront. It's warm at 18c and it's hard to believe it's only 8 days until Christmas!
Tarragona yielded a fantastic and well used Wild Camping location right on the beach (GPS: 41.12935, 1.30455) where we stayed for two days to recover from our whirlwind tour of Barcelona. We were reminded of our weeks spent parked up on Greek beaches and were treated to several fantastic sunrises over the sea giving Adam's parents just a taste of what we experienced while we were there and we're pleased to report they have really taken to the concept, no more campsites for them!
We are starting to see a great deal more English registered motorhomes who are "here for the winter", these are on the whole a different type of traveler to those we have been meeting in places that bit further afield and we've had a few faces pulled when we've mentioned Eastern Europe! Perhaps we can educate them, or maybe not.
After tearing ourselves away from the coast we drove inland, navigating many hairpin bends before we arrived at the free aire at Morella (GPS: 40.62398, 0.09141). The town was virtually deserted and the lady in the tourist information office seemed a little surprised to see us but overall the town felt relatively authentic compared to similar walled towns we have visited. The 1000m difference in altitude yielded a 10c drop in temperature which meant highs of just 3c overnight, we couldn't wait to get back to the coast and another great little wild spot on a deserted pebbly beach (GPS: 40.20741, 0.25986) complete with weird rubbish trees with the remnants of summer rubbish made into art worthy of the Turnip Prize.
For more information on the aires / motorhome parking in Barcelona Click Here
We had initially planned to spend a couple of days in Barcelona but the need of the group was to spend some relaxing time on the coast so we opted to try and pack as much as possible into one day. Sophie and I have grown a little tired of large cities on this trip but rest assured this is only a temporary condition!
The first sight on our list was the Sagrada Familia, one of the worlds longest running construction efforts spanning over 130 years and not scheduled for completion until 2026 at the earliest. Needless to say there were cranes and scaffolding from every vantage point so photography was interesting!
The Christmas markets which surrounded the church were packed with stalls selling logs with faces painted on one end and front legs of all different shapes and sizes. We thought they were Yuel Logs but on further enquiry they are in fact called 'Tió de Nadal' a charactor from Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition and often reffered to as 'Caga tió' or.... Shit log! We like this name best. On Christmas day or Christmas Eve, a family puts their tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to "shit". To make him "shit", they beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal. There is more, but that's enough for now!
Back on the Metro we headed for The Rambles, the massive sprawling street which stretches down to the harbour in Barcelona and is famous for its 'living statues' which are all too common in European tourist hotspots.
There was a lively religious procession (we couldn't find out for what, but apparently is a very frequent occurance) and we enjoyed our first Starbucks since Stockholm. Adam's mum had spied her namesake turned into a Restaurant, 'Joan' seems a very popular name here in Spain.
We visited Montjuic to find that the fountains are only operational once or twice a week in season and of course we had missed the day on which to see them. It was now turning to dusk and Barcelona was beginning to take on a much more multi cultural role with markets set out selling Indian snacks and mint tea. It was all too much for us and our intentions of Tapas and Paella faltered and we ended up in an Indian Restaurant and after a mix up with Sophie's 'hot' Khari being delivered as a sickly-sweet hot Korma which was whisked away and replaced we were soon sweating and salivating having missed hot food for so long.
Barcelona in a day is perhaps not to be recommended, it would probably take 3 days at least to do the city justice but was fine on this occasion. There was, for us, one final highlight. On the short walk back to the aire from the metro we stumbled upon a huge Primark with prices that would put even the ones back home to shame, it would have been rude not to top up on clothes!
For more information on our visit to Barcelona itself click here.
There has, certainly for us, been some confusion with regards to Parking and Aires in Barcelona and we wanted to try and clarify where it is that we stayed and what other information regarding taking a motorhome into Barcelona is available.
The site that we stayed at is located on Carrer del Taulat and the GPS Co-Ordinates for the entrance gate is GPS: 41.415589, 2.223723.
The site is able to hold 40 vans and the charge is €30 per 24 hour period so in that respect it is worth planning when you intend to arrive and depart. The cost is high but the proximity to the city is great with no need to get on a bus or train for an hour as with some orbital campsites, with a tram stop and ticket point just outside. The Metro station is just a short walk away passing a huge shopping centre ‘Diagonal’ with a large Primark as well as the Natural History Museum being just outside. In season it is also possible to pick up the Barcelona City Tour bus from just outside the shopping centre, the stop is named ‘The Forum’ Link to Barcelona City Tours depending on how you wish to explore the city.
The best ticket for travel using Metro, Tram or Bus is a T-10 ticket which costs €8.25 for 10 journeys lasting a maximum of 1hr 15. The ticket can be used for multiple passengers provided each passenger validates it in turn (so pass it back behind you before you enter via the gates).
The aire itself is essentially a truck / lorry park with an area in one corner sectioned off for motorhomes. There is electricity available in with the charge and there is a water / waste disposal point at one corner. There are also showers and toilets but the standard of these was average to poor and we didn’t see anyone using them while we were there.
The site does however seem to be very secure with regular high-visibility patrols and a CCTV system which could probably read your book over your shoulder when it was proudly demoed by the friendly guard when we rolled up late that evening.
This is not a campsite, it is fairly close to the road but given that you’ll be spending most of your time outside of your van this shouldn’t ordinarily be a consideration.
If you are approaching Barcelona from the West and are looking for somewhere to stay overnight before arriving early morning at the Aire with a view to visiting the city the same day I can recommend the aire at Sitges – GPS 41.25056, 1.81389: This is €5-7 depending on season but when we stayed nobody came to collect the money and we didn’t leave until 9am. We didn’t find anywhere suitable to stop on the East of Barcelona.
There are a number of other options for Barcelona which we can’t comment on as we didn’t use them personally; these appear to be cheaper at €20/day if booked online. I have listed these below in the Google Map – the large Green logo is where we stayed. The rest of the sites have information available if you click on the P they will give you a link to the relevant information either on Camping Car Infos or the Barcelona booking site.
Finally here is a video of a walk around of the aire at night, the sound is poor until after 1 minute as I had my finger over the microphone but gives you an idea of the noise from the motorway on an evening:
For more information on our visit to Barcelona itself click here.
We got up incredibly early and were on the road by 8am in time to watch an impressive sunrise over the Mediterranean as we headed to Cadaques. The town turned out to be fairly unfriendly for parking and the large out of town car park charged 20c per 6 minutes, we didn't feel like staying as there wasn't anything that we particularly wanted to see there.
Our first proper walkabout on Spanish soil was Girona with its impressive walls and tall pastel coloured buildings rising above the Riu Onyar. The large cathedral stands prominently at the start of the old town and the main street; Rambla de la Llibertat, is lined with shops and busy cafes. The walk along the old walls gives magnificent views of the city and surrounding snow topped mountains in the distance.
The intention had been to try and somewhere to free or wild camp along the seafront on the approach to Barcelona and make the journey into the city in the morning in order to make the most of the city centre aire. As it transpired this was not an easy task made more difficult as the train track runs along the coast effectively cutting the road from the beach in many locations. We exhausted a number of our GPS locations and we decided that, with a new Autotrail in tow, we were going to head straight for Barcelona and spent the night there.
