Update from Spain (or rather Spanish update from Italy)

Oh dear – we’re in Italy and I still haven’t yet written about Spain.  Definitely time for an update!

Our Spanish journey started in the north at San Sabastian where I was thrilled to dig out the bathers from deep within our van so that the kids could have a dip in the ocean.  It was the first time we had got the bathers out, and the first time in a long long (long) time that the kids had been to the beach and they loved it.  Here’s the proof!

We then headed straight for Madrid and proceeded to spend several days enjoying the sites and sounds of our campsite.  As I mentioned last time I posted we were well and truly exhausted after a huge month of travelling and needed some time out.  We did manage to make our way into Madrid on our last day there and do the bus trip we do when we need a quick tour of the major sites and haven’t the time/energy to do it ourselves.  It’s kind of like reading the annotated version of a great novel, but that double decker has served us well on more than one occasion (and Richard managed to stay awake for the whole tour this time!).

After Madrid we made our way to the south coast to try to recreate the magic of the beach at San Sebastian.  Unfortunately we hadn’t factored in the grey rocky nature of the beaches in the area, and the first beach we went to was so rocky we could drive our car all the way up to the water.

Needless to say we didn’t get our bathers out again that day.

We did however get the camera out to snap this rather bizarre sight.  See if you can recognise these trees:

That’s right, they’re our very own gum tree made nude by an over zealous Spanish pruner.  Apparently it was to let the winter sun into the campsite, but it all felt a bit wrong, and we left the rocky beach and naked gum trees the next morning in search for a sandy beach.

With the help of Google satellite photos Richard led us to Marbella which he told me was not only where the rich and famous hang out, but has white sand.  If I were creating a tourist website I’d add this photo:

And probably leave out this one (which was taken just a few metres from the first one):

As you can see the beach was rocky and grey, but luckily we’ve hardly ever taken our kids to Australian beaches so they didn’t know any better.  You’re also probably wondering whether the famous people are all living in that lovely building. Well unfortunately they weren’t staying at the campsite end of Marbella, and apparently it’s all a bit has-been since Sean Connery moved out in the 90s anyway. We went soft and stayed in a bungalow at Marbella and were very lucky to meet up with the lovely Rose and Victor from Northern Ireland who very kindly gave us a tour of their ‘rig’ and gave us some much appreciated adult conversation.

On our way down to the south of Spain we had driven through Granada, hoping to see Alhambra, the Moorish palace dating back to the 13th Century. Unfortunately we made a bit of a wrong turn along the way…and if you can picture a van making it’s way along an old goat’s track on a cliff top dodging pedestrian, motorcycles and the occasional oncoming bus then you will get a good idea of our visit (by the way you can also picture a screeching wife swearing at her navigator for an hour or so after the event if you want the spirited version). After 5 nights at Marbella we felt strong enough to try it all again and we did finally manage to see Alhambra before spending a night in Valencia on our way to BARCELONA.

I put BARCELONA in capitals because really only capitals can do it justice. We abandoned our van for my brother’s most wonderful apartment in the middle of Barcelona and we were completely smitten by the city (and the apartment!). We went to art galleries, parks, shops, cafes, and at every turn some amazing piece of art/architecture/landscape would jump out at us. Here’s just one example of our Hamish in front of a site we stumbled across when putting our van into a long term car park.

My little man also turned 7 in Barcelona and although he had spent the whole trip worried that a birthday in Europe would not be as good as one at home, he proudly declared this birthday the ‘best birthday ever’. A mum’s gotta love hearing that. Here he is with his cake:

And here’s a cute shot of Zoe just because I love her:

We’ve seen a lot since we left Spain so I must update again very soon to catch up. But for now I’m going to go to sleep to the sound of rain on the van roof in Pompei.