Cabo de la Nao

We rounded off our day's exploration by riding to and walking around the rocky Cabo de la Nao which juts out to the south of Xabia.

Illa del Portixol

We'll spent tonight "wild camping" in the carpark on the Cap de Sant Antoni.
Tomorrow we'll drive south to a campsite near Alicante for three nights so that I can fly back to the UK for work.

Xabia

This morning we left the campsite at Olivia and drove to the Cap de Sant Antoni above Xabia where we parked in a carpark overlooking the bay. We then took our scooter to explore further south through Xabia and on to another beach.

Looking south from the Cap de Sant Antoni where we parked Kiki - the harbour of Xabia is on the right

Xabia town

At the far end of Xabia we found a rocky beach with a natural arch and beautiful clear waters

Who's that through the round window?

Rocks, Blue Water and Sunshine

Leaving Denia we continued south, up and over the rocky headland of Cap de Sant Antoni to Xabia where we found this beach by the harbour.

We found an old wooden walkway round the rocks to a hidden beach

Em enjoys the sunshine

Looking south from the headland above Xabia

Denia

Today we're exploring south from the campsite in Olivia on our scooter. Our first stop was Denia for coffee (or tea in Em's case) and a walk around the old town.

Reflections

We've now left Valencia and are heading south to stay on a campsite at Olivia.

Art Appreciation

 

Old Valencia

In the middle of Valencia are the Jardines del Rio Tuna, an old riverbed which has been converted into a lovely park with fountains, water features and tree lined areas. Walking and cycle paths run along this area connecting the modern and old parts of the city.

The cathedral

Narrow streets in the old town

The government building

The Reason We Came South

Modern Valencia

Today we are visiting Valencia. We're staying on a campsite 6km from the city and there's a nice cycle path along the beachside to the centre.

Cuitat de les Arts i de les Ciencies (City of Arts & Sciences)

Amazing architecture, glass, white mosaics and water

Mediterranean

After spending last night on a campsite in the middle of nowhere we have finally arrived on the Mediterranean coast and the sun is shining!!!

Cuenca

Today we are visiting Cuenca which is famous for its "hanging houses" where the Spanish Royal family used to spend their vacations.

Some of the "hanging houses" can be seen clinging to the cliffs on the left of this picture

Narrow streets wind around the rocky hillside

The cathedral costs €3.50 each to go inside - we thought churches were supposed to be free so didn't bother.

Segovia

After leaving Avila we drove east to Segovia, parked in the coach park (there were only three coaches here today) and climbed the hill to explore the town.

The Roman aqueduct is 728m long and 29m tall - very impressive!

Alcazar - the "fairytale castle" was a royal residence

Avila

Today we're visiting Avila which at 1200m is the highest provincial capital in Spain. It's also freezing and we spent the night in a carpark just below the town.

Avila has the best preserved Medieval walls in Europe - it has over 80 towers!!

Em poses outside the town walls - check out the snow!

The walls were the most impressive feature, unfortunately the walkway around the ramparts was closed so we had to walk around the streets inside which were surrounded by disappointingly modern, ugly grey buildings.

Salamanca

After spending last night in an Aire in Leon we drove further south to the university city of Salamanca.

The university at Salamanca was the first to be built in Spain

The ornately decorated facade of the Patio de las Escuelas

We enjoyed wandering around the old part of the city, unfortunately it was very cold so we only spent an hour or so here.

Em joins the academics working with their charts

Southbound

After some deliberation, we've decided to revise our plans to circumnavigate Spain and Portugal in an anti-clockwise direction and head south to the warmer climes of the Med coast. We're finding the north of Spain too cold to explore properly and feel this is a shame because there are some really nice places so we'll go the other way round, returning to the north in Springtime.

We left the campsite in Luanco and headed south-east climbing up from the coast into the mountainous interior of Spain.

The temperature is dropping and its snowing!

A pause for breath (& pics of the snow)

At 1200m it was icy cold with 8" of snow - is this really Spain???

Caterpillar Snake

Em spotted this rare Caterpillar Snake.... or was it a game of "follow my leader"?!

Luanca

The pretty harbour at Luanca

Luanco

We spent all day today driving around looking for a campsite that's open this time of year so that we can park up whilst Steve goes to Sweden for a few days work. After looking at one that was open but quite expensive and another that was closed we finally found this nice one at Luanco.

Kiki parked amongst pine trees on the cliff edge campsite - miles and miles of stunning sea views again from our lounge. About 10m behind us there's a 100m sheer drop into the sea!