Now in Spain having had a smooth crossing on the ferry to Santander. We drove down the Ebro valley to Zaragosa via a stop at Haro in the Rioja region. Zaragosa was very cold at just above zero with a bitter wind but we enjoyed a trip to the city and we expect, on a nice day, you could spend some time there. The Rio Ebro flows though the city and had time to visit the Aliferia Palace of Moor’s origin. From there we crossed the arid plains south-easterly to the Valencia to find a pleasant campsite Camping Col Vert, on the coast with a good cycle track to the city and the nearby Natural Park l’Albufera , the largest freshwater lake in Spain (according to the Rough Guide anyway). Here we met Brain and Sue and did some cycling through the park to Sollana via El Palmer (look out point for birds, but not a lot apart from egrets and heron), and also took a bus trip into the city and a City Tour with the weather improving. The next day we cycled to a beach on the north side of the harbour on good cycle ways and found the beach that we visited on our backpacking trip a few years ago when we spent the afternoon watching the kites dancing to classical music in a kite festival. This beach was deserted with only a few tourist wandering around the cafes etc.
We’re now in Benidorm at Camping Raco, not far from the centre. Say what you want about Benidorm, in the winter it seems to have the sun, 17 C yesterday. The campsites are almost full and lots of British around. The cafes are catering with British food so home from home really. We’ll be moving south soon but the weather is set to break again so who knows where we’ll go.