Day 21: 4 Seasons in One Day

Date: Friday 18th April
Staying: Devesa Gardens – Valencia, Spain
Distance Travelled: 243.3 Miles
Song of the day: 4 Seasons in One Day – Crowded House

This was actually quite an eventful day. The previous night, in the camp bar, we meet an English couple and got discussing camp sites, amongst other things. We had nowhere lined up in Valencia, so they gave us an idea, as well as Barcelona. Problem was, and with my apparent lack of navigation skills, we didn’t have a map. So first thing in the morning, we had a made dash into Madrid centre, to the internet cafe we knew to organise a place to stay. Whilst I got the instructions, Laurie went to the English Language bookshop to get some more camping books. Unsurprisingly, it was closed.

No stress, we had the instructions. Well, we thought we did. The drive to Valencia was as eventful as ever with mad Spanish drivers showing us exactly why we think they are mad (Laurie has a new phrase, ‘Passing like a Spaniard’. Hair-raising to see.) , and with some torrential rain and gale force winds giving Jarno (the van) an extra 10km uphill, we practically flew to Valencia. Problem; turns out, www.viamichelin.com, the doyen of driving sights, doesn’t understand the need to include roundabouts in it’s instructions, and when it does, can often forget to tell you which exit to take. After getting the wrong exit at 2 roundabouts that weren’t listed, and again using some choice words to describe said website, we eventually found our campsite.

I was ecstatic to learn that our camp site had its own zoo, Awesome. Nothing scary in there mind, but cool none the less. We were less happy when we discovered that the restaurant we were told was open, wasn’t, and the bar that we were going to eat in, closed when we were having our first beer. HHMMMMMM!!!!!! Still, we had a place to sleep (luckily), and tomorrow is Valencia. Bring it on.