Barcelona

Monday 11^th March - dawned sunny and we spent the morning catching up with a few chores, such as finding the washing machines and figuring out how they worked.   We also met two of our leaders for the tour, Ann and Steve who were very welcoming and friendly.

During the afternoon we explored our nearest town – Vilanova and had a very bracing walk along the sea front, though sat outside a café for a café con leche in the sunshine.

Tuesday 12^th March saw most of the group arriving during the course of the day.   We helped out with couple of vans struggling to get over the kerbs of the pitches.   A good way to bond and meet your fellow travellers.   In the evening we enjoyed a welcome meal in the site restaurant.  One of the dessert offerings was fried milk, which Sarah ordered out of curiosity.   Not sure she is any the wiser!!   The nearest description she could give was deep fried condensed milk.  We won’t be having it again.

Wednesday 13^th March started wet with the thunder and only proceeded to get wetter.   We had a coach tour of Barcelona planned which was not a great success.

We couldn’t see much and got extraordinarily wet!!!   It took 2 days for our shoes to dry out.  Mid-afternoon we cut the trip short and came back to the site.   In recognition of an unsuccessful day our leaders organised a drink for everyone in the bar at 6.30pm, which was very welcome and enjoyable.

Thursday 14^th was a free day and the weather was glorious, not a cloud in the sky.   We decided to drive back to Barcelona on our own and have another ago.   We walked the length of Las Ramblas, stopping at a tapas bar for a coffee and to explore the amazing market.  

 

The displays of fruit, veg, sweets and meats were quite something.   Though sampling the delights turned out to be expensive.   We then walked right along the front past the marina to an area known as Barcelonetta.  This is a very old area of the City where the streets are much narrower.  We had a wander and some lunch and then took the metro to see the Sagrada Familia – Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral.  

 

 

What a sight for sore eyes.  It is quite an absurd and fanciful building in many ways but the intricacy and attention to detail is beautiful.  The design of the columns and the roof inside are intended to give the feeling of a being a forest and it works.   The colours of the stained glass windows and the effect of the sun streaming through them was stunning.  

The building is still unfinished though they have continued to work on it since Gaudi died in 1926 and it is said it will take another 100 years work. 

We then went up to Parc Guell, another Gaudi masterpiece with a number of buildings which looked like they were designed for gnomes to live in or as part of a Star Wars set.  There were some beautiful mosaic tile patterns on the buildings and a panoramic view of the City.

Friday 15^th March saw us take a tour of the Torres vineyard and the chance to sample a little tipple.  Though we have been aware of Torres wines for years we did not appreciate the size of the business and range of wines that they make.  

We then travelled up into the mountains to the visit the monastery at Monserrat and appreciate the far reaching views.    We understand there is also some good walking to be done from here if you have the time.

 

Saturday 16^th March. We flew back from Barcelona to the UK due to the fact that my mum was terminally ill. She died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

We will continue the blog when we return to Spain.

 

 

 

 

Introduction to our 4 Month Trip

Introduction

This is a journal covering our caravan tour of Classical Spain.  We will travel through France to Sitges in Northern Spain where we join fellow members of the Caravan Club for a 4 week trip along the East Coast.  The tour ends just outside Malaga from where we will go off route.  We plan to see all we can in Andalusia before heading North via Madrid to the Picos de Europa.

Our trip will last about 4 months.  This isn’t the first time we have done this – we toured Italy in 2009.

We think everything is now ready.  The various insurance policies are in place, we have out route.  I have just synchronized the Samsung Tab with the PC so we have all the electronic files we need.

Our main problem has been ensuring that we do not overload our Bailey Unicorn Valencia Van.  When we visited a weighbridge a couple of weeks ago I was shocked to see that it was 40kg over the maximum permitted technical load.  So, we stripped out the microwave, free standing table, gas bottle and lots of other stuff.  We are now under so we can put the clothes and food inside the van but carry the heavy stuff eg gas bottle, awning and chairs in the car.

Monday 11 March 2013

Here is the first edition our travel blog from sunny Spain.  

We left home on Tuesday 5 March 2013 and spent our first night at Chatsworth Caravan Club Site to check that everything worked and we have not forgotten anything vital.   Everything seemed to work ok and so far we haven’t forgotten anything vital.   

We drove down to Dover on Wednesday and took the ferry on Thursday morning.   Just about had time for a coffee and we have arrived in France.   Thankfully the Channel was like a mill Pond.

We spent the next few days driving down through France and some terrible weather.  The first site we stayed at was just a mud bath.   The second night we stayed on a very pretty little site on a farm but were a little lonely as we were the only people there.  Our final stopover in France was in a town called Touron sur Rhone where we had a view of the river from the caravan, watching the huge cargo barges going up and down. 

 

As we drove South of Lyon we started to notice signs of spring with Almond blossom on the trees.

We arrived in Spain on Sunday evening, a day earlier than planned.  We covered 1,201 miles from Chatsworth to our site in Spain.  Camping Vilanova Park  is just South of Barcelona.   It is a huge site and we have been surprised at how busy it is.   There are many nationalities here including quite a few from Denmark and Sweden which must have involved quite a drive.  I presume they come for the daylight and the warmth.   The weather has been warm and sunny today, though quite breezy.   We have already met up with a few people on the Caravan Club Tour but many more yet to arrive.  The tour officially starts tomorrow (Tuesday) evening with a welcome meal.