We left Barcelona on a Sunday morning – they’ll be no cars on the road we said and how right we were. Instead there were thousands of people doing the marathon and the roads had been closed in some very devious Mobious strip like affair where we just kept ending up back at the same place. Clever but very frustrating. We even considered just going back to Stalag 14 but for some reason we could no longer get there from here.
The runners were only outnumbered by spectators and in turn by Police who weren’t standing on street corners as the corners just wern’t big enough to accommodate them all. Naturally they did nothing to help the traffic apart from leave their cars parked blocking a few lanes here and there.
The police here are everywhere, we’ve literally never seen so many. It does make you feel safe as they seem very friendly but as I’ve mentioned before tourists and Spanish alike repeatedly warn us about crime here. I’m not sure the Daily Mail would like the implication that more police on the streets has little effect on crime.
But we’ve seen no evidence of crime, we’ve felt as safe as we do anywhere and the people have been lovely and helpful too and to be honest if they can get the 7 locks off Tilly and manage to cycle it away with only one person on then I think they’d be very talented.
So, after managing to navigate our way out of Barcelona (we went back to Calais and started again) we headed toward Peniscola.
We’d thought that Spain should be empty at this time of year, the locals are wrapped up so much that captain Scott would have felt under dressed and the hotels and restaurants are mainly shut, we’ve seen dozens of Motorhomes heading north and back to Holland and Germany but we got to Peniscola and tried to get into the huge Aire and we’re greeted by an arm waiving owner telling us they were full. Fortunately the other aire in the town wasn’t but most of the Aires here are full every night and vehicles are turned away.
We’ve actually found the weather perfect for us really though often we look right plonkers walking through a town in shorts, sandals and a T shirt past people in Their polar explorer gear. It’s cool but sunny and great for cycling and the facilities for bikes are excellent especially along the coast where there seems to be an endless cycle path.
Peniscola itself is a picturesque walled town sticking out into the sea a bit like Mont St Michel and we arrived on Tilly to find the cobbled streets lined with kids doing school trips and tourists on guided tours. When you’ve started cycling up a hill and everyone’s watching you can’t just get off as it looks like you’ve been beaten by the hill, and we’re not having a group of 40 French teenagers jeering our lack of fitness, so we cycled right to the top, got some encouraging cheers from the locals on the way, found a cafe on the wall and ordered 2 litres of Sangria to celebrate whilst watching the sunset over the mountains before our somewhat wobbly roll home…
Next we head to Valencia, where they do their best to blow the city up for a week with an orgy of fireworks and bonfires. Sounds right up our street!
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