Tuesday 28 January - Peñíscola

Bertie is parked in a sheltered spot here at Camping Los Pinos, but such was the wind on Sunday night that he rocked and rolled, disturbing our sleep.

Yesterday was warm, at 22 degrees, but it continued to be so windy for most of the day that it wasn't inviting to go outside - so I didn't, at least not until a lull late in the afternoon.

All was forecast to calm down at 1900 last night, and so it did, only for us to be woken by a reinvigoration of the winds overnight.

It was, however, pretty calm again by morning, with a clear sky, which worked out nicely for me as I was off for a foray into the local hills.

Route - just over 11km

Almost none of it enticed me to run, being very stony and rough underfoot, but it was a good walk with the only slight disappointment being that I couldn't find a way (other than bloodying my shins through spikey scrub) to reach the actual summit of Vistahermosa, thus I had to make do with standing within sight of the summit.

View on the way back down

I wasn't going to wade through that to get to the summit!

Another view

Not a cloud when I set out.

I was back and changed in good enough time for a cup of tea and a crossword before we headed out for lunch.

Restaurante El Cañar was my chosen location, being one of the closest eateries (2.2km) and with excellent reviews. There we failed to even glance at the Menu del Dia price before we went in - something we didn't think about until after we had ordered (there was no written menu; the owner read it into Google Translate then showed us the result. I understood much of the Spanish, and we all had a giggle when Google misheard one of the dishes and offered us 'bald men'). 

I'm out of practice at photographing our food, so you'll have to imagine the toast topped with caramelised onion, ham and cheese for the first starter. We were then part way through the second starter and then the tomato & cheese salad (which was a set course) before I snapped those. I did a better job with the main and pudding. 

My main course was most disappointing! More disappointing than any I've had in Spain before. It was a goujon of fish, topped with a few prawns, in a toasted wrap on a meagre swoosh of pureed vegetable. 

Mick's was good and big enough for me to share after I'd eaten my goujon. 

Both puddings were superb (as had been the starters and tomato salad). 

The menu turned out to be €17 each, but didn't include Mick's wine which came in at a very reasonable €2 per glass. 

I'm used to being so stuffed after a Menu del Día that I don't need anything else to eat for the rest of the day, but that's not the case today.

Almost opposite the restaurant was a path into the nature reserve, so we took a longer route (2.8k) for the nicer surroundings, rather than walking back up the road.