Thank you, Nicky for a great title…..
We must be getting older, or something has changed. We checked in to Peniscola and couldn’t really decide when to check out. We got comfy. The plots were nice, the swimming pool lovely, the showers were fine and the toilet paper descended from heaven in the loos. Maybe it was the delicious prawns cooked by Nicky on the first night that hooked us in. Or maybe it was having such good company to chat about this and that, exchange mad stories and to laugh away the hours that made our stopover in Peniscola so very nice.
So what quirky little titbits can I write about this week?
Problems? There always has to be problems…… The only problem with spending time with other campers is that you can struggle with ‘van envy’. David and Nicky’s new caravan is lovely and stylish. It has a swish kitchen, lots of amazing storage areas, mood lighting, snazzy loo, an enclosed awning, big comfy seats and an outdoor kitchen. It’s a fabulous home away from home. Our little home is more of a compact, eclectic mix of outdated, well loved, hand-made, jumble of styles. We’ll call it ‘retro homely’. Don’t panic, we still love Eileen dearly and we’re definitely not trading her in after all these years together.
We do feel a little bit upper class at this campsite; we had our laundry done for us! There is no laundrette here, no machines to put coins in, but there is a lady in a room who does it all for you. She curiously charges more for a 40°C wash than a 30°C, but our sheets, towels, beach-towels, etc., all came back smelling nice and were still lovely and warm. One could get used to this ! Only problem was that despite a 9am drop off, with the Spanish afternoon siesta, you can’t get them back until they re-open at 5pm and we needed our beach towels ! Ah the first-world problems that we have to deal with…..
On the third day in Peniscola Rodney declared war on the Germans behind us. They have a small dog that constantly yaps at everything and anything and the owners don’t seem to notice or even care. When Rodney suggested they try to control it, they suggested he went home!! But don’t worry, we have the support of the Belgians next to us and now we also have an Anglo-French alliance. We were going to call in the Spanish management, but the dog has calmed enough for us to cope with it. Is this a detente?
Thursday May 14th was forecast to be very windy, but it turned out to be yet another perfect day. All day we laughed about how the forecast can be consistently so incorrect. Then at 10:30pm the wind blew up with a vengeance. Not since Scotland, have we have slept in Eileen with such horrible gusty winds blowing us about and making the awning rattle and flap. By 11:15pm Rodney was obviously not going to get any sleep, so he got up, got dressed again and scrambled outside. He’d previously tied four guy-ropes to the ground and also tied the awning to a tree, so there was a lot to undo and then the awning had to be wound in; it wasn’t a quick job, but, hey, it wasn’t raining! All night we rocked and rolled in our bed and the wind howled outside. At 4:30am I got up and rescued the footstep which had started rolling around and was noisily banging against our table outside The next morning everyone looked tired as they dawdled around the campsite. None of us laughed about the weather forecast being wrong, it was just a bit later than expected….
On Friday David and Nicky took us out in their car for a drive around the hills inland from Peniscola, El Maestrat and the Sierra de Vallivana. The wind was still gusting to gale force, so we were very glad we weren’t driving Eileen, and David was glad he wasn’t towing their caravan around the undulating landscape. It was very picturesque scenery and the view as you approach the town of Morella is brilliant. The castle seems to literally grow out of the rock above the houses.
Getting out of the car was fun, we were blown about and without my hair tied back, I was having a problem seeing where I was going! It was a little bit more sheltered inside the city walls, but very chilly, especially after the weather we’ve been having, I was glad I took a cardigan and a wrap. The four of us wandered about to various viewpoints and noted that most of the shops were selling jumpers and knitted ponchos, which definitely seemed strange after the weather we’ve got used to, but I have to say I was close to buying one on such a cool day. It was a bit early for lunch, so we jumped back in the car and David drove us south to Ares del Maestrat.
Maybe we should have investigated the village a little more, but it was hard to stand up in the wind, so we all dived in to the nearest hotel that looked open for lunch and assumed that because there were other people eating in there, that it must be okay. We stared at the menu and after much scratching of heads, we all ordered “what they’re having” and pointed to the diners behind David and Nicky. We thought it might be some sort of soup with lamb, but then the waiter came back to advise us “no lamb”. We assumed that meant no soup either? He pointed to the chalkboard and we sussed out that we could only order the few things left that had stars next to them. Everyone else around us seemed to be eating good food, but we were definitely lost in translation. So after eight mixed croquettes and two plates of undercooked potatoes covered in a pink seafood sauce, we really weren’t impressed with the Hotel D’Ares as a lunch spot.
We took a different route back via Albocásser, Tirig and Sant Mateau and took in the scenery while the wind continued to blow the car around. As we all felt we’d missed out on a much-anticipated delicious lunch, we decided to eat dinner at the campsite restaurant and use our vouchers for two free bottles of local wine…. The meal wasn’t that great, typical campsite restaurant food, and then to make us all laugh, David announced that he had done a bit more research and discovered that one of the villages we had passed, Cati, was described thus: ‘The gastronomy of Cati has an international reputation with its cheeses, meats and nougat and marzipan, which can be tasted in its many restaurants’. Why didn’t we research that before, rather than after our tour?!!!
Peniscola turned in to a rather expensive place. I went mad in the shops and market, coming away with three new dresses, one white blouse and a bikini; all of them bargain necessities, of course, though I’m not sure if I can squeeze any more in to our miniature wardrobe. Then to add to my expenditure I had to visit a dentist. Whilst having drinks and nibbles with David and Nicky pre-dinner on Sunday, I managed to crack off a bit of tooth along with a bit of a filling. There was no pain, just a jagged edge that irritated the side of my tongue all day on Monday. So, after a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find a dentist that the campsite pointed us to, I gave up and went to the tourist information office. Thank goodness for Spanish trading hours, they were still open at 5:15pm and the lovely young man found a few dentists, phoned a couple of them for me and booked me in for treatment…..”right now, today”!!! So we cycled round to Dr Aparici and were greeted by a friendly receptionist who talked me through the procedure, helped fill out a form, took an X-ray and then led me in to the treatment room. So, one rather sexy dentist (he trained in Bristol, England), a bit of drilling and one emergency filling later, we stood in reception terrified of what the cost would be. I think my face nearly cracked with the size of my smile when we were presented with a bill for only €50. He even gave me a small gift of some temporary filler, for future tooth incidents while travelling. I didn’t count how many times I said gracias, muchos gracias, thankyou, etc., but I really was so very grateful for such a brilliant service.
Rodney and I celebrated with a visit to Peniscola Castle at 6.30pm, before drinks and dinner on the seafront. As castles go this one has a fabulous location being up on a rock sticking out in to the blue Mediterranean Sea. The views are fabulous from every side and it’s a bit of a warren, up and down steps and through arches, but not very many rooms. The most famous occupant seems to have been Pope Benedict XIII, Papa Luna, who died here in 1394. He must have been a brilliant bricklayer, because legend has it that he built the steps from the sea to access the castle in just one night !!! The second most famous occupant was Charlton Heston as the castle was featured in the 1961 movie ‘El Cid’.
On Tuesday, with all teeth still intact, David and Nicky took us along for another assault on the hills, in search of an elusive restaurant for lunch. We took the road south, turning off at Santa Magdalena de Pulpis onto a minor twisting road over the hills to La Salzadella and on to Sant Mateau. It took us a bit of a tour of the town to find the road we were looking for, but between us we managed to find our way up to the Santuari de la Mare de Dèu dels Angels. It was a pretty, peaceful spot and when we wandered in to the church, a little man appeared from nowhere to turn the lights on for us and then he turned them off again as we left. We were probably the only visitors for the day. There was no restaurant there, so we drove back down in to Sant Mateau for coffees and a selection of cakes before heading off on our hunt around the hills and fertile valleys.
David and Nicky were pretty positive this was the one that had a nice restaurant that they have visited on a previous trip. The Real Santuario de la Virgen de la Fuente de la Salud (sounds like a busy lady) was rather pretty and, just as helpful Mr Tourist Office had said, there was a restaurant there. But it wasn’t the right one and it did look rather expensive. It also looked like it was closed….
So back in the car we climbed and headed west again to Cati, remembering David’s research that ‘The gastronomy of Cati has an international reputation with its cheeses, meats and nougat and marzipan, which can be tasted in its many restaurants’. We drove past one restaurant, through town, parked in town, walked around a bit, gave up and drove back to the first restaurant we had passed on the way in to Cati. There were cars and white vans parked outside; a good sign, and inside there were quite a few diners. The waitress passed us menus and then plonked two large fresh, unrequested plates of salad and a basket of bread in the middle of the table. We ordered two beers, an iced tea and a glass of wine; the wine turned out to be a whole bottle. We checked the menus, which didn’t seem to have any prices marked, ah well the selection of food was quite extensive. We all had starters, which were the size of main courses, followed by main courses which were delicious and then a dessert order was taken; couldn’t fault the chocolate mousse. We then had coffees and finally requested the bill. This was good gastronomy and the total bill came to only €12 ($18 Aus / £9) per person. A bargain!!! I don’t know how they could supply, cook and serve so much food and drinks for so little. El Prigo may still not have been the restaurant that David and Nicky were looking for, but at least they now have another one that they can visit, next time they’re in the area.
It rained all Tuesday evening, everyone stayed tucked up in their vans and we crossed our fingers that Wednesday would turn back to good dry warm weather. Which, thank goodness, it did. But then arose another problem, our internet ran out again; it had only lasted less than 15 days. Nicky and David checked where the nearest Orange Telecommunications shop might be and then offered us a lift to the big Carrefour supermarket, where there was an Orange store. The four of us piled into the shop and despite trying English and French, we resorted to sign language and writing things down. It seems that our sim card is now out of date and we need to buy a new one to be able to top up with the current plans. So with the price sorted, we started to make our purchase only to realise that we hadn’t brought the passports with us. Dang! Never mind, we bought a day’s worth of internet from the campsite reception and Rodney and I will go back to Orange tomorrow on our route north. Yes, we are actually planning to move after more than a week in one place.
For our last meal together, David and Nicky took us directly, no wandering around the countryside, directly to a restaurant on the hill at the top of the town. We would never have known it was there or found it, if they hadn’t taken us there. The food was spectacular, the view brilliant and the price still so very reasonable. We spent all afternoon there and agreed that this was definitely the life of happy retirees.
So after discussions that ranged from the need to match coloured clothes pegs, getting older, recipes, and the variety of fellow campers, we finally packed up and moved towards Barcelona. Thank you, David and Nicky for so much laughter and we will miss you in all of our future sites. Australia here you come; but just check that we’ll be there.
