On Saturday morning we left Martins home in Holland and started on the long drive to Southern Spain. We decided to get as far as we could quickly so that we would be there on time to meet with our tour group on the 2nd of May. It’s about 2,400 kms to drive and as we didn’t want to travel on the toll roads it would take a bit longer so we needed to allow ourselves plenty of time. We also wanted to be able to see a couple of places on the way and allow ourselves some time to shop and get organised before the ferry trip to Morocco.
The drive through France was very pleasant, past green fields and golden canola and surprisingly being the Easter weekend quite easy on the roads.
We made a couple of overnights stops in small villages, had our dinner and went to bed too tired to do anything else.
We crossed over into Spain on the Easter Monday, deciding in the end to take the toll road as the traffic had got a lot worse and the road was meandering through one town after the next along a hilly coast. This ended up being a good decision and made the travel a lot easier for this part of the trip.
We arrived at Toledo on the Tuesday and booked into campsite El Greco, which is quite close to the old City. First thing we had to do was some washing and being directly opposite the laundry we made use of the machine which ended up being quite reasonably priced, quick and efficient. A nice change from hand washing.
On Wednesday we caught the local bus into the city, Toledo is an interesting old city situated on a hill with commanding views over the surrounding countryside. It is full of interesting winding streets, monuments and the usual tourist shops etc. We ended up having a nice lunch at a local café where we were served well by a very friendly owner who spoke good English. After a few hours on wandering the winding streets we made our way down the hill to the bus stop and back to camp. The evening was spent having tea and conversation with an English couple who invited us to visit them in their caravan and we stayed quite late. They were heading in the opposite direction from us, back up through Spain to catch the ferry back to England on the Monday, but they gave us an invitation to visit them if we decided to make the trip with the motorhome.
After leaving Toledo we headed south for Granada, but we didn’t want to miss the famous windmills looking over the town of Consuegra that are associated with the famous story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, so we had to stop and take some photos.
Another days drive and we are now at Granada, a camping ground quite close to the city called Reina Isabel, it’s not too bad, good facilities, small sites and is quite busy. Hate to see it when it’s the busy tourist season. We got here late as we stopped by a big Carrefour’s supermarket and did some shopping, and then got sent through some inaccessible streets which were dug up or changed because of train track work. Still with a bit of persistence and a general idea of the direction we should head in we got here. After setting up and having dinner we sat down to read our books when we were visited by a Dutch couple that Ewout had met at the last campsite, he came armed with a small bottle of whiskey and some stroopwafels (syrup waffels) which we enjoyed while exchanging our credentials and various travel information and stories. A nice end to the day, it certainly the people you meet on your travels that make a lasting impression.
Up until now we have had excellent weather, but all good things can’t last and during the early hours of the morning it started to rain, we had left our chairs outside and hastily got up to put them away, me in my nightie, luckily no one was about. So today it has rained steadily and so we have made the most of it by paying our €3 for 24 hours of internet wifi and catching up with emails, news, skype and the blog.
Tonight we are booked in for traditional Gypsy flamenco dancing and a dinner set in “caves” or cellars. Then tomorrow we are booked to visit the world heritage site of the Alhambra palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada. I’m very exited about that as it is something I have wanted to see for a long time and hope that the weather improves in the afternoon so we can enjoy the experience.
Today we had some news that there was a bombing in Marrakesh, Morocco. I know it may be of concern that we are planning to travel to Morocco in a few days time, but we have phoned the Tour operators and they assure us that they will not take us anywhere that would be a risk, we should not be anywhere near Marrakesh for a couple of weeks at least and if there is still a problem they have a plan B for such times. They have many contacts in different areas who keep them constantly informed about local issues and they seek to make the tours as safe as possible.
So until we hear anything else… we take the ferry to Cueta on Tuesday.
