Bit Like A Busman’s Holiday !

The ‘Forrest Gump’ method of weather prediction once again proved to be much more accurate than the official ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast, why should that no longer come as any surprise to us 🤷‍♂️ We departed ‘Lorca’ on a bright and sunny morning, with not one grey, or black, rain cloud in sight. Our next destination would entail another longish drive, around 270 miles and it should again take us a little over 4 hours, we shared the driving and anticipated making a couple of stops along the route so, all things being equal it would once again end up being around another 5 hour journey.

The first part of our journey would see us remain inland but, after skirting around the city of Murcia we would gradually start to weave our way across to the East Coast towards Valencia, when we would then follow the A7/AP7 Coastal route to our intended destination, normally the AP roads are generally toll routes, but the particular stretch that we would be using would not incur any such costs 👍

Initially, the scenery and landscapes were very much similar to what they had been driving through the Andalucia landscapes, mainly green and lush, however, we noticed the visual change around the outskirts of Valencia, where in parts it became much more arid and certainly very much more Industrial, large quarries that had, and still were, scarring the landscapes, rocky grey granite mountains and miles upon miles of Poly Tunnels, essential for protecting the delicate fruits and vegetables from the harsh heat of the unforgiving sunshine, and the large row on row of factory outlets, the fruit co-operatives that we had often seen as a common place agricultural necessity, and convenience, for the surrounding farms, replaced here by car and truck manufactures, large scale furniture manufacturers and large freight distribution centres, another necessity in today’s modern world. Yes, we had entered twenty first century Spain, but don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bleak, there were some nice areas, it was just a very noticeable landscape from those that we had witnessed only a day or so earlier. I guess we should consider ourselves still lucky to have the lush greenery that surround the areas where we live, although we are not certain how much longer even that may continue to be the case ? Even the demands of today’s more modern world are racing rapidly South towards us, from the city of Malaga 😲

Another significant observation that we both made was the increased intensity of the traffic, which kept our minds and eye’s very firmly focused, as they were coming at us from all sides, and it appears that modern cars and trucks these days are sold without operational indicator lights, although the brake light’s and accelerator pedals seem to be in good working order 😲 Perhaps we should have chosen to use the less crowded roads, rather than the much faster Motorway routes, but this would have increased our journey time even more and, as we were already discovering, finding short notice accommodation availability, even the ‘Casa Rurals’, was not going to be easy, those that we had looked at beforehand were either fully booked, or only offered rentals of the complete houses, not just a room.

Although the Tourist Season down our neck of the woods appeared to be beginning to slow down, here, further North, it still appears to be in full swing but more so with the Spanish domestic tourism, so finding an ad-hoc room for a night or two was not going to be quite as simple as we had imagined that it was going to be, what was I saying in my last ramble about missing the freedom of our former Motorhome 🙄 However, we did have the forethought to pre-book our next accommodation and after a brief, but very welcome, lunch stop we knocked the remaining miles off in the knowledge that there would actually be a very nice reward at the end of it 🤗 Fortunately, I had smuggled my OCD Buddy into my suitcase, we would certainly need to work together as a team once again to try and plan our following weeks road trip accommodations, although, as yet, we still hadn’t selected a direction of travel 🤔

Our destination today though was the seaside resort of ‘Peniscola’, located on the ‘Costa del Azahar’ (Orange Blossom Coast) in the Province of Castellón, positioned some 90 miles North of Valencia, and 180 miles South of Barcelona. At the end of this particular leg of the journey we would park the car and we certainly had no intention of using it again for the next five days.

One of Shazza’s earlier options, when considering our holiday choice, was an ‘All Inclusive’ 5* Beach Hotel holiday, however, she had been thinking more on the lines of a Caribbean Resort Beach but, as she didn’t want the hassle of Airports and 8-10 hour flights, this was the best we could get here in Spain at such short notice 🤷‍♂️ It was however a 4* Hotel, and we had booked on a ‘Full Board’ Basis, (Breakfast, with both Lunch and Dinner including wine so, Anti-Covid Vaccines provided too, now there’s a bonus 😁) We had a Double Room with two separate large double beds and our allocated room on the 4th floor had a Large Balcony with a lovely uninterrupted Seaview. Their was a Large Hotel Pool and literally just across the Promenade, at the front of the hotel, a golden sand beach with the most amazing coloured green turquoise looking sea, so it still looked very tropical, even if we weren’t in the Caribbean. The hotel itself though, was located on the North side of the resort town, which was quite a decent walk away, ‘Google Maps’ indicated some 45 minutes, with the ‘Old Town’, located on a bit of a peninsular, with quite an impressive Castle sat atop it, perhaps a further fifteen minutes walk beyond that, and of course, it was on a hill, where else would you put a Castle, unless it was like the one where we lived which was virtually on the beach 🤷‍♂️ At some point during our stay we would do the walk into the main resort, and also visit the castle, well we must keep the exercise regime up if we are to attain that ‘Blue Zone’ age group 😉

Now to me, in all honesty, this resort did sound rather like us going on ‘A Bit Of A Busman’s Holiday’ 🤔 I mean come on, we already owned our own very nice accommodation, in a holiday location, indeed it was more on par with a luxury suite in comparison with even this very nice en-suite hotel room, and our home had a large balcony, bigger than this one, and we had a sea-view too, a swimming pool and okay, I will admit that our golden sandy beach is a five minute drive away but, even we had a castle in our small seafront village so, what was the difference between home, and here ? Other than here, we were actually paying for the privilege of having these amenities and views 🤷‍♂️ Although okay, yes, stop shouting at me, as I do concede that this was probably more the part of the road trip holiday for Shazza, she could take a break from grocery shopping, no preparing of meals, or cooking them and no clearing up afterwards, no domestic cleaning or making the bed, so yes I could fully appreciate why it would feel more of a holiday from her perspective than mine, although to be honest, I also do my fair share at home, apart perhaps from the majority of the cooking of evening meals, the ‘placing’ of the laundry into the washing machine and of course the ironing 🤔

As for the weather, we’ll all I can say is that it is as hot here, both day and night, as it was back at home, not one day so far has been less than 32 degrees(c), or the night’s less than 25 degrees(c) and it is already nearly the middle of September, should it really still be this hot at this time of year 🥵🥵

Our first day at our seaside resort was a very relaxed one, although the journey, and the heat, had begun to take it’s toll on us, so we were grateful to just be able to sit on the balcony of our room with a nice hot cuppa (Yes, a hot cup of tea in the afternoon, come rain or shine, it’s a British thing 😂). We were happy to relax and just sit watching the people in and around the pool, sunbathing on the sun beds and also at those across the promenade on the beach and swimming in the sea, this was going to be a great ‘People Watching’ and ‘Boat Watching’ observation point 😉 We went down to the ‘Buffet Dinner’ in the evening, our first meal in the hotel, we expected to be served only a glass of wine, then perhaps topped up if required, but no, we sat down and a waiter immediately brought us an ice-cold bottle of water before asking whether we preferred ‘Blanco’, ‘Rose’ or ‘Tinto’ vino, we selected ‘Tinto’ and were delivered, not a glass, but a full bottle of our selected flavoured ‘Anti-Covid Vaccine’ 😁 This was to be the pattern at all of the ‘Lunches’ and ‘Dinners’, however, we declined the lunch time bottle of vino, otherwise we would have just slept the ‘whole’ of every afternoon away 😵‍💫😵‍💫 Just worth clarifying though, in case you were wondering, we could not take any unfinished bottles, water or vino, away from the restaurant and back to our room to perhaps enjoy on our balcony later 🤷‍♂️

The following morning we went to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast, although it was wasted on us really as I don’t generally eat breakfast and Shazza only toast or croissant, but there was plenty available, even the ‘Spanish version’ of a ‘Full English’ if that was your thing 🤷‍♂️ However, we learnt very quickly that if you want a poolside Sun Lounger you needed to get there by 10:00am, at the latest 😲 and there was no trying to reserve one in advance by placing towels, magazines or other objects on them before disappearing off to breakfast, the pool attendant would remove them, but to be honest we did not witness any of that kind of behaviour anyway 👍 However, when the ‘boom, boom, boom’ of what they described as music started at 10:00am on the dot, which lasted until 1:00pm, only stopping for the Siesta period before re-commencing and going on until midnight, when thankfully it came to an abrupt end, leaving us thinking that we had suddenly gone stone deaf 😲 On top of that, the pool was taken over at 11:30am, every single day, for the ‘thirty minute’ Aqua Aerobics’ sessions 😳 This may have been a 4* Hotel, but Shazza and I both agreed that this was no ‘RIU’ Hotel, the standard of which we had become accustomed to, “Do you think we are turning into right snobs ?” Shazza commented, “What do you mean ‘turning into’ snobs ?” I replied, followed by a loud laugh, then I qualified the statement with, “There is nothing wrong with enjoying a little more luxury and refinement in our more senior year’s , we have both earned it” I said. This time she laughed, “What do you mean in our more senior years, you have always been a snob from the first day I met you” 😲

We agreed that the pool, as nice as it looked, was not for us, so we elected to walk the 20-30 metres to the much more tranquil beach, the loudest noise there, coming from the waves as they broke on to the shoreline, perfect. The cost of a day’s hire for two Sun loungers, underneath a wooden poled sun shade, which of course came with the tropical looking woven straw umbrella hat, was a mere €13, although in a more tropical resort location the hotel would have probably provided them free of charge, however, we had saved on the cost of the flights so it was worth every penny (or cent 🤔) Just to top that off for near perfection, the sea was warm, not cold or even slightly chilly, neither was it boiling hot or uncomfortable, let’s just say that you didn’t have to wait for the more usual initial Arctic shock, to numb your ‘nether regions’, when that first wave hit you 😂 Another thing that we both observed about this long stretch of golden beach was the absence of any beach traders, the ‘Looky, Looky’ variety and additionally, on our stretch of beach, there was not one Chiringuito, although the numerous Cafe/Bars were not that far away, spread out along the very long Promenade. I for one certainly needed the protection of the sun brolly, otherwise I would have fried to a crisp in a matter of minutes, so needless to say we both spent a lot of time dashing to and from the shade into the warm, but very refreshing, salty water, now this was more like it, it looked like we could have been in the Caribbean, but without all the physical inconvenience of actually getting there, or back again 😁

That evening, after having dinner in the hotel buffet restaurant, where we still couldn’t manage to polish off the whole bottle of ‘Anti-Covid Vaccine’ between us, although we did somehow still manage to drink a cheeky couple of iced cocktails on the outside terrace of the hotel bar, whilst listening to the racket they advertised as music by the ‘Entertainment Team’, it was enough to turn us to drink I can tell you ! We didn’t wait until the end of the ‘show’, which is what ‘they’ called it and not us, as we had a bit of an early start the next morning, well that was our excuse anyway 😂

It was far too early for me to even think about eating anything, but I went to the restaurant in the morning with Shazza, where with my glass of orange juice, I sat and watched her eat her ‘Tostado con Mermelede’ (Toast with Jam). We had decided that we would attempt the walk into the town and then on to the Castle, there was never going to be a good day to do this, every day was a scorcher, but we hoped that by leaving early we would miss the worst of the heat. Yes, of course we could have caught a bus, but neither of us wanted to succumb to that, stupid perhaps, and if we had ended up in the local hospital with heatstroke we probably would have called ourselves that, but for some inexplicable reason, we still ‘enjoy’ (I use that terminology very loosely), these walking challenges and it is amazing at just how good, personally speaking, we both feel after the event once we have made it back in one piece. We both agreed that the heat had made it tough going, although it wasn’t so much the heat that got to us, more the high humidity, we also had no idea what gauge ‘Google’ was using to measure the time it would take, they had estimated that it would take 45 minutes, we did it in 30, and to be honest, we were not actually walking that fast, well not by our own usual standard anyway, perhaps we are just fitter than we give ourselves credit for. Once we had reached the far end of the town, at the base of the hill that led up into the ‘Old Town’, we stopped at a small Cafe/Bar for a much needed refreshment break, in the shade, and to try and let our clothing dry out a little before the hill climbs to the ‘Old Town’, and then up to the ‘Castle’ we knew that that was going to be a whole different challenge 😲

To say that we were disappointed with the ‘Old Town’ would be a grave understatement, they had simply used this area as a complete tourist trap, over inflated prices everywhere, even in the small Cafe/Bars and Eateries, yes there were very nice sea views, but you were expected to pay for them. We were not optimistic about what we would get to see on finally reaching the Castle, with signage pointing to the ‘Ticket Office’. However, we were to be completely taken by surprise, the normal entry fee was quite cheap, but even better when we discovered that even Shazza met the reduced ‘Seniors’ admission price of only €3.50, which included the entry to the Lower Gardens (Former Battlements Area). It was quite apparent that a lot of renovation work had been completed, but this meant that several rooms, nooks, crannies and stone stairways had been made accessible, and there were lots of different rooms to explore, along with several turrets to climb, well worth it for the 360 degree views. So just for those of you that may be interested in some of the history of this castle, here is a taster and it actually turns out to be something of an unexpected coincidence for myself 🤔

‘Peniscola’ had been under the control of the Arab Nation since the year 718, but under the period of the Christian uprising it was eventually handed over to King James I. Between 1294-1307, the ‘Templar’s’ (You may remember my mention of them during our road trip last year) it appears built this castle and what was also a monastery, their last great fortress before ‘disappearing’ from the historical map and becoming nothing more than just a legend 🤔 In 1411, Pope Benedict XIII (Papa Luna) made the castle his political seat until his death in 1423.

I am still quite interested in the ‘Knights Templar’ but there is little ‘authenticated’ evidence of whether, and what form, they may now exist in the shadows of today’s modern world 🤔 There are modern day groups who claim to be descendants from the ‘Knight’s Templar’ but their origins often conflict with known historical facts and, the fact that these numerous global groups advertise themselves publicly, on Social Media, contradicts the original ethos of the origin and purpose of this secretive order. I personally find it interesting that there are certain ‘historical symbols’ that are still present today on ancient buildings, primarily throughout all corners of Europe, Western and Eastern, not all buildings necessarily being of any religious significance, as these ‘Knights’ derived from all backgrounds, from Religious Orders, Military Soldiers, Carpenters, Blacksmiths etc. but these symbols, which you may see, but not know what they are, only bear any actual relevance to those privileged enough to be ‘In the know’ 😉 There is some ‘unfounded’ speculation that today’s group known as the ‘Masons’ may have some association with the historical ‘Knight’s Templar’, but with no actual evidence to support this assumption, but then, you wouldn’t expect there to be would you 🤔 Anyway, back to our visit of the ‘Peniscola’ Castle and grounds…………….

Needless to say, I was in my element exploring every room, stairway and turret in this very impressive Castle, certainly worth a visit in my humble opinion, and to my surprise, Shazza explored everywhere with me, which was superb considering she is not really into these sort of historical structures. Now the little matter of getting down again, which can sometimes be as hard on the knee’s as going up 😲

Once back down at sea level, and in the more modern area of the resort, we sought shade in the back streets and discovered a maze of Cafe/Bars, Restaurant’s and vast array of shops. Yup, this was the more modern tourist side of Peniscola, and it was very busy with ‘Menu Del Dia’ signage everywhere, and not unreasonably priced either, between €14-€18 for three-courses including a drink, however, we were only interested in finding some much needed shade in a hostelry that could provide us with an ice cold Cervesa, we had plenty of choices 😁 By the time we were ready to head back to the hotel, the temperature had already risen enormously, to around 28 degrees(c) and still not at its peak, it was certainly much hotter now, although less humid, since we had set out earlier that morning and we already knew that it was going to be a primarily unshaded walk back 😲🥵 Did we consider getting a taxi, or a bus, back to the hotel, of course we didn’t, did it take us longer to get back, of course it did, we were already both knackered before we even started the walk back !! When we did get back, just before collapsing on the bed, Shazza informed me that we had walked a distance of some 6.2 miles and very nearly 20,000 steps, which to be completely honest, was not really that much further than our normal daily walks when we were back at home, however, it did feel longer, probably because at home, we wouldn’t even have considered venturing out further than our swimming pool in such temperatures, strange the things you are willing to put yourself through when you are on holiday 🙄 She also informed me that on our day out in Lorca, a few days earlier, we had walked a little over 5 miles, I just haven’t quite decided whether she is trying to get hold of her inheritance early, or trying to ensure that we both stay healthy and fit enough to reach those all important ‘Blue Zone’ age groups 🤔

After dinner that evening, where once again we didn’t manage to finish the whole bottle of Anti-Covid Vaccine (Lightweights, I know 🤷‍♂️) we decided to just go back to the room, however, an early night would not be an option, as they had a show on around the pool which would go on until midnight, and it just happened to be right below our balcony. However, we both watched it and actually, quite surprisingly, we found it quite entertaining, although we blamed that enjoyment on us both suffering from diminished mental capacity due to heatstroke from our day’s walk 🤭 The hotel ‘Entertainment Team’ performed dances associated to different countries from around the globe, traditional and modern and, somewhat reluctantly, I have to admit that they did quite a good job, we felt a bit like those two old geezers on the ‘Muppet Show’, ‘Terrible ! Get Off ! Hoorah ! Brilliant ! Enchore !’ 😂

Our last couple of days, between Lunch and Dinner, were spent on the beach. The sea was still the gorgeous turquoise-green colour, however, the swells were very much larger than they had been on our second day here, whilst this made them great to play in, it made it much more difficult trying to get in and out as the strength and height of these swells, as they crashed on to the shoreline could easily knock you off your feet. On one such attempt to get in, Shazza got knocked down by a large breaking wave and, as she attempted to get up she was knocked down again by a second, and then a third, leaving her with a cut to her knee and a bruised nose, but she didn’t give up and kept going back in and out for even more punishment, but she wore her battle scars with pride 😁 I do have to confess that after the first day, when I had enjoyed the much more gentler swells, and apart from the odd paddle thereafter, I remained fixed firmly on my sun-bed under my sun umbrella, you may call me a ‘Wuss’ but I’m not the one with a sore knee and sporting a purple nose 😉 She wasn’t the only daredevil though, their were plenty of other women, and men, taking on the challenge with the sea, and certainly none of them were spring-chickens, but I take my hat off to them all, for they all provided me, and other’s who were watching from the comfort of their sun loungers, with hour’s of entertainment and laughter, watching them all get bowled over in the surf and scrambling to get back to their feet before the next wave came, some more successfully than other’s, not many came out of the water unscathed, they all bore their ‘Gravel Rash’ scars on various parts of their bodies but like Shazza, they did not let it deter them 😂😂 I do have to compliment Shazza though, she learnt the knack very quickly, of timing both her entry and exit, even being complimented by many of her fellow daredevils when she exited gracefully from the surf, well as gracefully as you can looking like a drowned rat 😂

Before going for our last Dinner we visited the small bar outside, but next to, the hotel complex, we had discovered the evening before that they served proper Spanish ‘Vermut’, not the Tourist stuff from Italy (Martini Rossi) that costs twice the price for half the measure 😉 then, after our pre-dinner aperitif, at Dinner, we finally succeeded in consuming our whole bottle of Anti-COVID Vaccine, the previous four night’s where we hadn’t were obviously just training sessions for this final event 😂 Then, as it was our last night, we went to the terrace bar and had another couple of cheeky cocktails, well we were on holiday after all. It had been a good decision to pack our suitcases prior to going for Dinner, as we were in no fit state to do it once we had got from having our cocktails, oh yes, and the wine and the Vermut’s 😲 Needless to say that we both slept well and somewhat surprisingly I still awoke at 7:00am feeling totally refreshed, perhaps all this sea air is good for me 😉 I let Shazza have another hour before shoving a hot coffee under her nose, and yes, it was still purple 🤭

So, a new day and time to hit the road once again, but to where ?

Until the next ramble……………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena