If valencia oranges come from Valencia and seville oranges come from Seville, where do navel oranges come from?
Wednesday 18th May 2022
I started the day early with another yoga session with the sparrows. One sparrow in particular was very inquisitive, hopping about around me, but he flew off when I did the eagle pose!
Check-out at Benicassim Butlins By The Sea (Bontera Resort) wasn’t until 5pm, so there was no rush to leave and we still hadn’t seen the town of Benicassim. So we walked down to the beach front, turned right and kept walking for an hour. I correctly guessed that we had missed the town by checking google maps. Yep, we were nearly in the next beach resort and had missed the town completely. It took us a full half-hour back and slightly inland to find a café for a drink.
At 12:30pm we paid 40c for excess electricity used (we should have checked that darn email about rules and regulations), checked out and waved our wristbands in the air as we drove out through the gates and headed north. We then pulled into Camping Eden in Peniscola at 1:30pm. It took us an hour to walk around half of the site to choose a pitch, do the paperwork, get Reggie up on to his levellers, open up all the windows and hatches, pull the awning out, get the table, chairs and stools out, plug in the electrics, turn on the gas, pull all the blinds down, find the fan, get the bikes down and finally sit down to lunch at the Spanish lunchtime of 2:30pm!
We had a quick swim in the pool, a quick shower and at 5pm we sat down with our friends Nicky and David, Sue and Mike. It was so good to see them all after so long and Nicky made sure we didn’t go hungry or thirsty……what a host! It was almost 9pm by the time we got back to Reggie and all we could squeeze in was a bit of salad before bedtime.
Thursday 19th May 2022
A nice lazy morning was spent doing not a lot, before the six of us gathered with our bicycles (five E-bikes and Rodney on pedal power) for the ride along the beachfront into Peniscola. Around 1pm we sat down for a long lunch at Hogar del Jubilado, a special place in retirees’ hearts. It does a darn good lunch for only €7 and a bottle of wine costs only €4. We sat in the shade, chatting about this and that, reflecting on what a privilege it is for us to travel like this. We all appreciate so much everything that we are able to do each day. I think we’re emerging from the pandemic with a new-found desire to create fresh meaningful memories wherever we can. Our lives are more laid-back, but never dull.
Before heading back to the campsite Rodney and I went for a bit of a wander and a reminisce, before convening together for early evening nibbles again, this time at Sue and Mike’s motorhome. Yet again it was hard to halt the flow of conversation before 8:30pm!
Friday 20th May 2022
There were no sparrows joining me in my short yoga session in Peniscola this morning; seemed a bit lonely on my own. Rodney and I cycled into town and, joy of joys, we finally found churros served with a thick sticky chocolate….yum!!! To burn off the much-enjoyed calories we dawdled around the lanes and lookouts of the castle mound, which turned into a very successful shopping trip. We bought a ceramic spoon rest for Mike to give to Sue on their anniversary. Another spoon rest to replace one that Kath bought here some years ago and recently broke. And an exact same white blouse to replace one that I bought here in 2015 and have worn into holes, cos I liked it so much. Oh and another top that I took a fancy to. As I said, a very successful dawdle.
We cycled back to the campsite via the supermarket, dropped everything off and then cycled back up to the castle for the most enormous lunch at brizza Restaurante. The entrée was the size of three main courses: a plate of mussels, a plate of calamari and a big salad with ham and goats’ cheese. The paella for two would have easily fed four and when the waiter took the left-over third away and looked at our bloated bellies, he asked if we needed a break before he served dessert. Yep, we needed a halt to proceedings. For dessert we both opted for one ball of ice cream as it seemed the lightest thing on the menu! We cycled back from town again and proceeded to plate up nibbles and cool down drinks for tonight’s gathering at our place. That was hard when we were still stuffed from lunch and not in the least bit hungry! But it was another lovely evening with non-stop funny stories and good conversation.
Saturday 21st May 2022
We farewelled Sue and Mike who were now heading north back to England before their 90-day allowance in Europe ended. Then spent the slow morning pfaffing about catching up on life and washing. At lunchtime, suitably smartened up a little, Nicky and David drove us inland to Casa dels Capillans Restaurant, which is set in a beautiful old building, El Santuario de la Mare de Déu (the Royal Sanctuary of the Virgin of Health) near Traiguera. They took us out there in 2015, but the restaurant was closed that time, so it was lovely to have a meal there, this time. I should say “more than a meal”, it was enormous. We ate (or tried to eat) a nine-course degustation meal, of which none of the courses was particularly small. Needless to say, when we got back to the campsite, the 2 of us fell asleep for half an hour, before dragging ourselves on to our bikes to burn off some more calories by riding into town. One heaven sent pedicure and one new swimsuit later, we rolled back to the campsite for an early night with absolutely no dinner. Our bellies were still full.
Sunday 22nd May 2022
It seemed like another good day for doing things, stuff that needed doing, and then we went to the beach. Both of us managed to get into the sea, even at a rather chilly 21.2c which was a rather goose bumpy endurance test in that water. Then we promptly fell asleep on the sand to recover. The evening began with drinks on the Meadowcrofts’ patio again and the two of us followed that with our last stroll along the promenade with ice creams in hand before an early night.
Motorhomes and caravans constantly arrived and departed beside us and in front of us. That will be us tomorrow, after a good five nights settled in one place. And in all those days we managed to avoid feeding any cats. At this campsite we had read the rules because one of them had made us a bit nervous: “To feeding cats is forbiden (sic). Anyone doing it shall be expulsed from the campsite”. Neither of us fancied being ‘expulsed’……
1 want to be expulsed if it’s free