Where's Bertie? He's in a large car park in the town of Dénia. Exact location: 38.84452, 0.10344.
Weather: Sunny. 7 degrees first thing this morning warming up to mid-teens by this afternoon.
It's been a busy day doing unnoteworthy things, such that bedtime is almost upon us and I'm only just now finding time to tap away at the keyboard. Let's see if I can manage to be brief (my guess: unlikely).
Leaving Simat bright and early this morning we had two route choices for getting to Gandia: into the hills and over the pass, or back out to the coast the same way as we had come in. Both being about the same distance, we went for ease and fuel efficiency over scenery.
With much ignoring of the SatNav, our first stop was a Decathlon store. Yep, always at least one Decathlon visit on every trip! We emerged an hour and a half later with this haul:
Mick and I had spent a prolonged period in adjacent aisles. We both emerged with the same model of shoes, but thanks to the colour difference, I don't think they'll make us 'Howard & Hilda'. Our lack of swimming costumes was also resolved.
Having multi-tasked whilst in the store, using their fast wifi to download some podcasts and an audiobook, once back at Bertie I dug out the wifi booster aerial and logged on again, in the hope of downloading some crosswords. An hour later we'd had coffee and first lunch and I'd only managed to download one paper. The retail park had become significantly busier since we'd first arrived and I think the pressure on the wifi had overwhelmed it.
Via a big shop at a Lidl, our next stop was a beachside car park at Daimús. There we had second and third lunch, followed by a stroll along the beach...
The damage caused by Storm Gloria was plain to see, although I'm not sure much of it comes across in this snap.
...before we decided to move on. It was another absolutely dead beach resort and the car park, whilst quiet and level, didn't have a view.
Having spent lunchtime noting places we might visit nearby (some hot springs, a natural park), that planning went out the window when I decided we would bypass them all and instead head to Oliva, just 8km down the road, so as to resolve the laundry pile.
We duly parked up in a huge car park just 300m away from the laundrette, stripped the bed, found all of the washing from all its nooks and crannies, stuffed everything into two rucksacks and set off. Surprisingly soon after, we were back, having found this:
Closed for renovation from 3 to 14 February. What bad luck!
The town looked like it might be worth a poke around, but with our focus now being firmly on laundry (I didn't want to unpack and sort through both bags on Saturday morning looking for the least smelly bits of running gear) we returned to Bertie and I checked out where the next nearest laundrette was to be found.
That's how we found ourselves in Dénia at around 1630 this afternoon.
Fancying a leg-stretch, we headed straight out and made our way over to the laundry (just over 1km away) to check it out ready for our assault on it tomorrow morning. Finding it all present and correct (and open!) our return route was a little more meandering, taking us through the town and through a tunnel that runs under the castle.
This street is full of eateries, almost all of which have a menu in English and some of which are offering the likes of fish & chips. Popular with British holiday makers or an ex-pat community here? I'm guessing the latter.
A small part of the castle atop a rock above some street art. The castle looks to be huge. We'll investigate futher tomorrow.
It looks a nice town where I expect we can happily spend a couple of days.
Back at Bertie once again, I was just setting about making tea when another motorhome pulled into the car park. It's a huge car park, grit-surfaced without marked bays, and it's currently not in great demand. I would think you could probably fit around 100 vehicles more into the space available. As I'm sure you've guessed, the new arrival decided the most appropriate place to park was next to us - so close that if I open Bertie's door and stand on his step, I can touch it. It turns out to be a single woman (French), so maybe she feels safer being almost in bed with her neighbours?
The castle as viewed from our car park. You now wouldn't be able to see Bertie from this vantage point, due out our close neighbour. Two of the other vans in the snap left before night fell.
I'll finish with a couple of notable points from today's driving:
1) The hills just inland along this section of coast look most worthy of closer investigation.
2) It was because I was busy looking at a particularly appealing ridge that I missed Mick pointing out the first road-side-in-broad-daylight prostitute we've seen on this trip. There were more later, including one in a comfy armchair on a roundabout. I'd forgotten this strange feature of the warmer parts of Spain.
3) We crossed the Greenwich Meridian during our final journey today. Thankfully I noticed that the SatNav wasn't taking us to the right place before we blindly followed it. I've been so accustomed lately to hitting 'W' before the longitutinal value that I didn't even check it was right. It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that I make such an error.
Weather: Sunny. 7 degrees first thing this morning warming up to mid-teens by this afternoon.
It's been a busy day doing unnoteworthy things, such that bedtime is almost upon us and I'm only just now finding time to tap away at the keyboard. Let's see if I can manage to be brief (my guess: unlikely).
Leaving Simat bright and early this morning we had two route choices for getting to Gandia: into the hills and over the pass, or back out to the coast the same way as we had come in. Both being about the same distance, we went for ease and fuel efficiency over scenery.
With much ignoring of the SatNav, our first stop was a Decathlon store. Yep, always at least one Decathlon visit on every trip! We emerged an hour and a half later with this haul:
Having multi-tasked whilst in the store, using their fast wifi to download some podcasts and an audiobook, once back at Bertie I dug out the wifi booster aerial and logged on again, in the hope of downloading some crosswords. An hour later we'd had coffee and first lunch and I'd only managed to download one paper. The retail park had become significantly busier since we'd first arrived and I think the pressure on the wifi had overwhelmed it.
Via a big shop at a Lidl, our next stop was a beachside car park at Daimús. There we had second and third lunch, followed by a stroll along the beach...
...before we decided to move on. It was another absolutely dead beach resort and the car park, whilst quiet and level, didn't have a view.
Having spent lunchtime noting places we might visit nearby (some hot springs, a natural park), that planning went out the window when I decided we would bypass them all and instead head to Oliva, just 8km down the road, so as to resolve the laundry pile.
We duly parked up in a huge car park just 300m away from the laundrette, stripped the bed, found all of the washing from all its nooks and crannies, stuffed everything into two rucksacks and set off. Surprisingly soon after, we were back, having found this:
Closed for renovation from 3 to 14 February. What bad luck!
The town looked like it might be worth a poke around, but with our focus now being firmly on laundry (I didn't want to unpack and sort through both bags on Saturday morning looking for the least smelly bits of running gear) we returned to Bertie and I checked out where the next nearest laundrette was to be found.
That's how we found ourselves in Dénia at around 1630 this afternoon.
Fancying a leg-stretch, we headed straight out and made our way over to the laundry (just over 1km away) to check it out ready for our assault on it tomorrow morning. Finding it all present and correct (and open!) our return route was a little more meandering, taking us through the town and through a tunnel that runs under the castle.
It looks a nice town where I expect we can happily spend a couple of days.
Back at Bertie once again, I was just setting about making tea when another motorhome pulled into the car park. It's a huge car park, grit-surfaced without marked bays, and it's currently not in great demand. I would think you could probably fit around 100 vehicles more into the space available. As I'm sure you've guessed, the new arrival decided the most appropriate place to park was next to us - so close that if I open Bertie's door and stand on his step, I can touch it. It turns out to be a single woman (French), so maybe she feels safer being almost in bed with her neighbours?
I'll finish with a couple of notable points from today's driving:
1) The hills just inland along this section of coast look most worthy of closer investigation.
2) It was because I was busy looking at a particularly appealing ridge that I missed Mick pointing out the first road-side-in-broad-daylight prostitute we've seen on this trip. There were more later, including one in a comfy armchair on a roundabout. I'd forgotten this strange feature of the warmer parts of Spain.
3) We crossed the Greenwich Meridian during our final journey today. Thankfully I noticed that the SatNav wasn't taking us to the right place before we blindly followed it. I've been so accustomed lately to hitting 'W' before the longitutinal value that I didn't even check it was right. It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that I make such an error.
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