Porto (Portugal) to Barcelona (Spain)

  Barcelona, Spain
Monday, July 2, 2007

Ok, so its been awhile since the last entry so weīve gots lots to write about...

Left Porto and travelled down to Sintra where we stayed the night next to a cemetery and had a look around the town. Itīs well known for it stunning palaces and a 8th century castle up on the hill.  We pushed on to Largos and found a cool camp site inside the city. The next few days involved lots of beach time and one very boozey night out to celebrate Susieīs birthday - a few bottles of wine at dinner, various cocktails and somehow we made it back to the campsite. 

A few days later and with clear heads we headed for Seville with a stop at a sand sculpture exhibition. It was amazing what these artists could do - scultpures of buildings, people, animals all in incredible detail. 

sand sculptures

The trip into Seville was not as enjoyable - trying to find parking was a nightmare! Lovely city though, full of beauitiful architecture. We free camped in a university parking lot which turned into an unofficial discotheque at night so a bit of a lousy sleep. Some of us also headed out that night to try and see some flamenco dancing but no joy there either.. The next day we walked into town to look around Alcazar Fort, a muslim fortress from 913 and the cathedral which towers over the city with gargoyle out the side.  Left the city with Mads and Kim towards the coast to meet up with Zeko and Jen at Barcosse. Another frustrating drive as the signage was crap and I discovered how much our road map differs from reality.  Finally made it to a beach where I didnīt actually swim but had a free shower instead - bonus. Then we headed to Barbate and parked across from the beach. Headed into town for some drinks and back to the vans for a well earned sleep. Then the boyracers turned up and we had another lousy night. I hate boyracers.

On to Gibraltor the next day. Gibrater is a British coloney in the Costa del Sol region (Spain ceded Gibraltor to the english in 1713 but keep trying to gain it back. Then in 1969 the citizens of Gibraltor voted overwhelming in support of British rule over Spanish.) So we crossed the Spanish border, got our passports stamped and walked into a mini-Britain complete with red telephone boxes and British policmen wandering the st's. Very cheap alcohol meant we all stocked up our bars.

Next priority was to find a place to watch the All Blacks game. We stopped at an Irish pub in Malaga and watched the ABs shows the Boks how to win the match in the last 20 minutes. From there we headed Lanjaron where every year they have a water festival which involes a massive water fight at midnight. We were all packing heat with water ballons and pistols. The locals had brought in a truck filled with water and there were a few fire hoses as well. Just before 12 everyone opened fire and the next thing water was flooding the streets We were completely soaked but Iīm proud to say we held our own and sent some of the enemy running down the street. The walk back to the vans was a mission as well as we tried to avoid the locals throwing buckets of water at us and aiming hoses at us from their balconies.

Next day we had a bit of a drama with Frank the Tank (Mads and Kimīs van) not wanting to start but thanks to some good old kiwi advice (smash the starter motor with a wench) Frank pulled through. Off to the beach for some r&r and then back up to a campsite just outisde of Granada. 

alhambra

Up early the next morning to drive into Granada to the Alhambra which is a huge fortress from 9th century. The place is amazing with the Palacio Nazaries (palace) and Generalife (summer palace) being the highlights for me. The detail and layout is stunning.
After 4 hours of sightseeing we headed back to the carpark and a 25 euro fee for parking in high season, fantastic, weīre on baked beans for the next few days. Back on the road to find a place to camp, headed towards coastline for some more beach action (and tan lines) on a hot day eventually found a town called Aguilas and camped in another beach carpark, no boyracers this time, yay, solid sleep.

Drove to Alicante next day and spent day by the beach. We foudn out the town was having a fireworks display so we found a great campsite by the beach on a cliff to watch and were joined but what seemed like half the locals. The display started at midnight and it was pretty spectaular, a nice way to spend a night.

From Alicante we headed to La Saler just outside of Valencia and found a campsite there. Mads, Kim Cy and I headed into the Americaīs Cup Village to check out the scene. Wow, what an amazing place. Gotta hand it to Valencia, it is very well set up. We were just in time to see the end of the 3rd NZ vs Alinghi race which unfortunately we lost.

ants and cy valencia Americas cup

Spent the next 3 days camping in the car park, watchng the racing and swimming at the beach. Amazing kiwi support but all to no avail so we left and headed up to Barcelona. Van has been running fine and we are all in good spirits despite the racng and the rugby.

team nz

Write again soon.