Xmas and New Year in Javea

We settled onto the campsite in Xavia (Havia) called El Naranjal just 10 mins walk from the Arenal beach quite close to a wild parking spot, just to the rear of the WOK (all you can eat for ten euros and take your chances with food poisoning) which regularly had eighteen to twenty motorcaravans parked up.  We had considered parking on here but wanted to have hot showers and laundry washing facilities over the festive period. The campsite was hosting the Motorcaravan Club Christmas meeting and was quite busy. We found a great spot towards the back and set up camp, making sure the door of the motorhome was south facing. We ended up staying for thirteen nights and had an unusual but lively Christmas and New Year, getting involved with the Motorcaravan Club, joining them for Christmas Eve and a day trip to Denia, which included a meal and a trip to view point.  We celebrated New Year at a nearby bar (Quo Vadis) with several couples we met from the campsite, we celebrated it twice, firstly in Spanish time, where you have a drink of Cava and eat one grape for every chime of the clock at  midnight this is for good luck and again one hour later for English time, watching Big Ben and the fireworks over London, which looked spectacular, clearly a build up to the Olympics in August.

Xmas Day, we cooked for starters Calamari, followed by steaks, salad and jacket spuds (very traditional) and of course Cava, later we got invited to a friends for cheese and biscuit’s, along with a sing song ‘Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad’.

Si cooking up a storm - Calamarie

One for Facebook!!

Look whats cooking good looking

Cheers!

Nature watch - our morning visitor (not sure whose watching who!)

We went on our traditional boxing day walk around Xavia and along the promenade, stopping to have a picnic  lunch of cheese and chorizo butties along with a couple of cold beers from the Spar shop.

Playing Boules with the Motor Caravanners Club

 One our day out with the Motorcaravanners we stopped at a viewpoint Cabo de Nao

We wanted to stay in the area for the Festival of the Three Kings, a very important festival in Spain more so than Christmas Day.  So on the 2^nd of January, we headed off for a mini break to Oliva for two days, we felt that we had stayed too long on the campsite, and were starting to take root.  Many people stay on the campsites over the winter, only heading home in March.  We tried to wild camp in Oliva but we couldn’t find anywhere suitable and ended up on another campsite called Kiko Park.  Kiko Park was right on a beautiful golden beach, it was a great place to camp and a very quiet area, but just a short walk along a natural river to the busy Spanish town. 

Si trying out his new BBQ - late xmas pressie at Oliva

 After a couple of days we headed back to Xabia for the Three Kings Festival on the eve of the fifth. We drove down to the old town of Xabia parked on the beach and walked in to town near to the port area and waited. The three kings arrived by boat to huge firework explosions then made up a precession  which slowly marched into the town square distributing sweets to the waiting children, we never got a look in with the sweets. They eventually mounted a stage in the square to more fireworks and celebration. 

Parking on the beach

Three Kings Procession



Wild Camping in Javea - theres a whole community out here!



Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

Si and Jo would like to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year



North of Valencia and moving on South for Xmas and New Year



'Living the Dream'

 We followed the long and winding run back down to the coast from Morella, its was starting to get late, so we searched for a place to stay the night, unfortunatley it was getting dark. so we eventually spotted 4 other motorhomes parked at the side of the road in Bennicassim, outside the Police Station and decided to join them - safety in numbers.  In the morning we went into town for breakfast - Jamon Bocadillo and coffee, shopped in Lidl and went round the market.  Our next stop was Moncofa a small town about an half an hour from Valencia, we stayed here two nights, one night to keep us entertained we found a jigsaw puzzle, it took 4.5 hours to complete, not bad for beginners, although abit disappointed to find that eight pieces were missing. We drove through Valencia (visited here last year - well worth spending a few days) and the national park, wetlands and wildlife area, staying in Gandia and onto Javea.



Si with Javea coastline behind him



Javea - We made Javea our stop for the Xmas and New Year, it is a busy tourist town, although fairly quiet in the winter months, there are restaurants and bars open, promenade, seafront, harbour and old town.  In the old town, there is a procession on the 6th January where the children recieve their presents from Father Xmas at the church.



 

Church build to look like ship



Street where the procession is on the 5th January

Day Trip to Denia under our own steam



Denia Harbour



Look at the temperature 'Scorcheo'

Morella - day 47 & 48

 
    
 



A shot of the paddy fields

 

The road thru the delta




Following on from Tarragona, we travelled through the Delta de L’ Ebre, a national park with wetlands, paddy fields where they produce the famous Arborio rice originally brought over with the Moors and lots of wild birds visiting for the winter, we travelled along raised roads to a town called Les Muntells on the outer tip of the Delta we stayed for a couple of hours and moved on to our next stop.



 Moving on we stayed overnight in Peniscola and went exploring the town on our bicycles up towards the old town where they filmed some of the film El Cid. We stayed in a high fenced camp area behind a hotel. The next morning we  left for Morella in the interior. The 65km journey up to Morella at 1000 metres was like a ride at Alton Towers only going up and up, round and round.  Eventually we arrived and parked on the camping aire and walked into town, it was a beautiful walled city with a medieval castle on top and a fourteenth century gothic church. We stayed for Menu Del Dia in a little bar on the main street, and we found them very friendly also. I think they were just glad to see somebody as the customers nudged each other when we said we wanted to order food. We may have been their only customers that day.



A view from the town wall down to the terraced fields




 town with adequate comunications poles



Another view of the surrounding fields







Church Santa Maria La Mayor (& a tourist walking away)





Tarragona and Plaja Llarga

Another beautiful sunset in Tarragona

We had no intention on stopping in Tarragona, however we put the co-ordinates in for a wild camping spot given to us by a lovely Dutch couple called Minne and Walter, thinking we would stop there for lunch, however when we arrived it was much better than we imagined and ended up staying four nights on the beach. We met a number of travelling couples of mixed age groups and away for various lengths of time. everybody was very friendly and always keen to offer information of other wild campsites 

The freight tankers queuing up to unload in Tarragona



Plaja Llarga is a popular spot for campers to meet up









Yet another sunset (you never get fed up of them)

Me holding in my double chin with a view of the commercial harbour

 One day we decided to get the bus into Tarragona but it was a half an hour wait so we walked the 4 kms in.  We walked down the Rambles through a Christmas market selling the same stuff as every other xmas market does. we walked down to the produce market to purchase some fresh fruit and veg. On the Sunday we ate in the restaurant nearby along with lots of the local Spaniards and ordered the seafood paella, we somehow managed to scoff the lot! and then strolled along the beach to walk off lunch.

The end of the balcon in Tarragona





Si walking from the Rambles onto the Balcon



The Sunday paella restaurant in the distance

Barcelona and Sitges

Calella (well just outside)
We arrived at campsite just south of Calella, to get there we followed the N11, it was quite a journey, along the the curd side dotted at about every hundred metre intervals were ladies dressed very scantily, one had no knickers on, all sat on white plastic chairs waiting for business,  we did spot one that was clearly passed her sell by date (Si locked the van doors).  We arrived at the campsite which was on a steep hillside and setup base, then suddenly surrounded by cats…we gave them a few scraps…big mistake we now have a full extended family of cats they won’t go away, from Calella we walked into St Pol about 1 km away and realised that we have been here before on one of our day trips from Barcelona.

Setting up camp at Calella

Its the 1st December and Si's getting into the Xmas spirit

 Barcelona

We got the train into Barcelona from Calella for the day, we have been there several times before and visited most of the sights.  Barcelona is a great city so much to see and do, we just wanted to soak up some of the atmosphere and have a change of scenery from the smaller coastal towns we have been visiting.  The train ride took about an hour and we arrive at the Plaza Cataluny.  Today is the first of December and all the xmas decoration were out and there was a big ice ring in the centre.  Walking down the famous Rambles we made our way to the indoor market ‘Mercat de la Boqueria’. This is Simon's favourite place, we walked around the market for about an hour, he wanted to buy a big leg of Jamon to hang up in the RV, but the voice to reason spoke , "150 euro's a kilo" and "what about the flies" he settled for a punnet of figs and hot and sweet pimento spice, for making spanish dishes like homemade rabbit stew yummy !!.  We had menu del dia in a little bohemium cafe' bar around the market place. Walked off lunch , went to the harbour area, and headed back to the train station.

Waiting for the train

Si practising his Spanish

All this food is making me hungry - time for lunch

Lunch time



At the Mirado de Colon



Sitges

Arrived in Sitges after a better than expected journey, we managed to avoid the toll road, theives and bandits (everyone we have spoken to has warmed us that motorhomes are targetted by theives in and around Barcelona - we didn't notice anything usual at a cruising speed of 65 mph) - Sitges is a lovely town, long sweeping promenade and fish restaurants on the front. Tomorrow is Sunday and the spanish families come out on mass and walk the promenade, then settled in a restaurant for the afternoon. 





Busy Sitges on a Sunday afternoon

Si tried out his fishing rod on the sea front in Sitges, he got bored very quickly and give up after about 30 mins, he’s not sure how fishermen manage to stand still longer enough to catch a fish.

We moved from the campsite onto a side road just off the end of the promenade after spotting a number of motorhomes camping wild, it wasn’t quite wild as the houses on the street were closed up for the winter, and looked very expensive (1 million plus).  We stayed there for 4 nights and were finally moved on by the street cleaner and leave blower guy at 7 in the morning.

One day we pulled onto a coast road the catch up on laundry and chill out, it was a great spot but decided not to stay overnight as it looked a bit hairy being the access road to a nightclub.

Si.