Month: April 2026

Week 4. 20th April – 26th April 2026. Mar Menor to Benidorm, Spain – 90 miles.

Last week, we skimmed along the south coast, where we got lots of cycling in and visited old stomping grounds before turning north. We also had a temporary pet! This week, we have continued north, where some of this week was spent in Benidorm, a lively place that we have visited before. Del went to Benidorm with an old school friend when he was 19, that was 1981…! Blimey.

Monday 20th April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 2)

This morning, we can hear small planes taking off at the military airport next door; there’s a constant flow of quite a few turboprop aircraft taking off, and we think that this is Spain’s new aerial display team to replace their Patrulas Aguilas team, which finished last year after 40 years. Some people here hate the planes and give bad reviews for the campsite, but we quite like it. 

There are a few good, long cycle trips in the surrounding area, but it’s very hot today, so we opt for the shorter one across a boardwalk that cuts through the nature reserve to the nearest town of Los Alcazares. We’re shocked to find that, since we were here just over a year ago, the wooden boardwalk has been destroyed, burnt, and partially removed.

It starts ok then just disappears, and we find ourselves lifting the bikes over missing parts of the walkway and onto the next bit. We’ve come this far, so we might as well carry on, we think, but it gets worse, and we end up cycling through thick foliage. We persevere and make it to the promenade, only to find that it, too, is dug up for works. It’s not going that well. We manage to divert into the town, cut out the disruption and end up having a pleasant cycle along the front and return through town. Despite the broken walkway, we managed a 13km bike ride… Not bad.

Dinner is turkey steaks, fries and salad outside, which starts to be a very pleasant evening, but it’s not long before mosquitoes start biting us, not just one or two, but a few. H has already been bitten badly, so we retire inside soon after.

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Tuesday 21st April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 3)

It was a bad night last night. We both got bitten a few times. They are quite aggressive here at the moment, and there have been complaints about it on reviews for this campsite, so it’s a known thing. We just couldn’t settle; you could hear them buzzing past over your head, loud and fast.

We have a light breakfast as we are going to Kinita, again, for their set lunch today. This Kinita restaurant thing is H’s “favourite restaurant in Spain”. The food is excellent, nice menu and very nice restaurant right on the beach, plus you get the planes at the military airport next door whizzing about, and today they are very busy.

Before lunch, H sets off on her bike and stands at the end of the runway watching them come in low overhead. It’s a great view and a bit disconcerting seeing them coming for you straight on. 

Lunch at KINITA is on the beach and is very civilised, 3 courses plus an amuse bouche, a drink, coffee and bread for €25. An absolute bargain! The sun is shining, and the palm trees are wafting in the breeze. Lovely.

We leave satisfied and relaxed, doing the short walk back to the van. Del does some work, and H maps out the days we have left. We have no campsites booked after the end of April, so it’s good to get an idea of the distances involved to get home. We’re praying for a good sleep tonight as we are both very tired. We’ve been careful with the mosquito nets that all the windows on the van have fitted, and hope that none have got in. They do, though. They can get in through the tiniest of gaps. Buggers…

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Wednesday 22nd April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 4)

It was another terrible night of no sleep again. Del is not happy and is talking about moving on. It is very bad, and we are not in the summer season yet. Several mosquitoes were in the van and were just feeding on us all night. This area here is noted for bad mosquitoes that are small and aggressive; we’ve never suffered here before in the past, as we normally come in the colder months. This calls for a proper solution, so after breakfast, we hop on the bikes and set off for the town to go to a fantastic hardware store here that we know. Nobody does hardware stores better than the Spanish; they stock absolutely everything. Rarely have we been disappointed. We are looking for a plug-in Mozzy killer and a Spanish to UK plug adapter, as all our sockets in Jess are, of course, UK. We get everything we need; hopefully, this will cure a very bad problem. Maybe tonight we will get a good, mozzy-free night…

H decides that since the local restaurant, Kinita, is so good and does a cheap set lunch/dinner menu, we would have an early dinner there, so at 5 pm, Del is dragged off to eat, where we sit inside with a lovely late afternoon sea view.

The food is delicious as usual. Back at Jess, we sit outside and enjoy an early sunset with a drink or two… 

We have been watching a Netflix series called Radioactive Emergency. We have one left, so tonight we finish off the last of the series. It has been a very good watch, a true story. It’s a horrific story of carelessness, total denial and corruption from people that are supposed to be responsible, but never are…

Time for bed, so we plug our deadly mosquito-killing device in. Let’s see how we get on tonight.

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Thursday 23rd April 2026 (Mar Menor to Santa Pola – 48 miles)

Well, that was better… There were no mosquitoes overnight, and we get a good solid 5 hours’ sleep until we hear the awning flogging outside in the wind. It’s tethered down but still makes us nervous that it will be damaged, and it’s noisy, so we get up at 4am to put it away as quietly as we can. This wind is stronger than predicted, so we didn’t expect this. Back in bed, we get a few more hours of sleep. 

We are a bit late setting off this morning, but we are only going an 1 hour north of here to Santa Pola. We do a shop at a Lidl nearby and fill up with diesel, it’s relatively cheap here at €1.64 a litre, we’ve heard that it’s averaging €2.28 a litre in France and only getting worse. The Spanish government has reduced the tax on fuel at the pump to help out. No doubt when this is all over, it will be doubled. time to check the tyres also today…

The drive to Santa Pola is quite interesting as we pass through multicoloured, huge salt pans with lots of wild flamingoes. On the way, we pass one of those Osborne bulls that you see when driving up and down Spain. It’s a large black silhouette of a typical Spanish Bull that was part of a nationwide advertising campaign by Osborne Brandy and this one is actually accessible instead of being behind a fence.

It has been a rather windy day today, so we are glad to be at the Santa Pola campsite, where we get a nice space and tuck ourselves away as best we can from the now quite fierce wind.

We had hoped to cycle to the salt pans and visit their local Osbourne bull, but it will be too much of a slog into the wind to come back. We will walk into town instead and do the salt pans in Jess tomorrow.

This is another place where we once stopped 22 years ago on our boat, and we liked the town. It sure is windy; it takes us 15 minutes to walk into town. The marina is very large and still busy, with many new bars, restaurants, and shops.

We can only spot one UK red ensign flag on a boat. That’s changed a lot since our day, but it’s much harder, if not impossible, to sail here and back in the 3 months allotted time for non-EU countries. We count ourselves lucky that we did it at the best time.

The town is not too bad, with a large castle smack in the centre. We have a little look around and then head back. Neither of us is that hungry tonight, so we just have a snack on Jess before turning in.

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Friday 24th April 2026 (Santa Pola to Benidorm – 44 miles)

For breakfast, we have our first proper bacon sandwiches of the trip! We managed to find some proper back bacon in Palomares. It was where we camped on the beach for a free night. There are a lot of English people living there. Spanish bacon is the streaky American type, and much too fatty for us; the shops manage to supply what the English like in those parts.

Our priority today is to visit the Osbourne bull nearby. It’s very rare to be able to get up close to one; they are normally on hills and fenced off, but this one is right there and accessible on the roadside. We take some pictures together with this Spanish icon and then head towards Benidorm.

Our coffee stop on the way has a jet wash with a gantry for cleaning the roof, so we take advantage of it. The roof is orange from the sandy rains and the dirt from the early part of the trip.

We finally arrive at the campsite in Benidorm, which is huge, with over 500 spaces. This campsite was one of the locations for the hit Channel 5 series called Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun. If you have never seen it, then it is an interesting watch, for one episode at least.

Our pitch is the biggest we have been in at 10m wide and 8m long. The public areas here are very beautiful, a huge green lawn with a bar, 2 pools and another bar and restaurant.

All the connected pathways around the site have colourful flowerbeds. It’s very impressive, and you can understand why people make it their “home”. It’s nice now as it’s not too busy, but it’s probably chaos in summer with potentially over 1000 people staying here. They have a big laundry room, so we get everything washed and dried just before the rain comes. It’s still warm, though, so we sit outside with a drink under our awning and play an UNLOCK escape game.

The rain stops for dinner, so H cooks a fideua outside, which is another winner. 

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Saturday 25th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 2)

We are going into Benidorm’s old town today, which is either a 40-minute walk or a 10-minute cycle. H is having trouble with comfy walking shoes at the moment, so the bikes it is. When we last came a few years ago in January, it was pretty quiet despite being pleasantly warm; today, though, it’s madness.

The bars in town near us are already crammed at noon, blaring loud music, and the number of people here is staggering.

We park the bikes and chain them up in the old town, which is mainly busy with Spanish. It’s a lovely little area with narrow back streets and a viewpoint overlooking the bay on either side. It’s a shame it’s a bit grey and cool today.

There’s a tapas alley here which is heaving with people enjoying beautiful plates of food with a glass of wine. Quite a contrast to the noisy bars in the ‘vibrant’ part of town serving fish and chips and Guinness. There’s something here for everyone.

There’s a sketcher’s shop here, so H sorts herself out with some comfy shoes, puts them straight on and declares she can walk for miles. So we do. She also gets herself a pair of sporty sunglasses. Feeling a bit peckish by now, we decide that Benidorm will probably be a good place to find a good Indian restaurant. We find a nice-looking one with a set menu. It’s empty but gets very good reviews, so we go in. The food is delicious and just the right amount with friendly service, and now the place is filling up despite being 3:30pm. Sometimes restaurants just need the first person to sit down. Satisfied, we walk around some more and head back towards the van. We shall walk down the ‘strip’ on our way back. 

Calle Gerona is the heart of the nightlife here, and despite it only being 4:30 pm, it’s in full swing. People are already visibly drunk, staggering around. One man in the Irish bar is naked apart from a nappy! Another 2 girls are dancing on a podium high up, giving everyone a view of … well, you get the drift. 

We are causing a bit of chaos wheeling our bikes down here, pushing them on the pavement in the wrong direction, so it’s a relief to get back on the road. 

Back at the van, we relax. Del actually beats H at chess. Finally…

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Sunday 26th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 3)

It’s a beautiful day today, and Del whips up a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which we have outside in the warm morning sun. 

Today we plan to walk around the newer, tourist area, having seen and spent some time in the old town yesterday. On the way, we discover a huge market selling everything from fruit and veg to clothing and bags. H needs some new socks to go with her new flashy shoes she got yesterday.

We get to the beach, which is busy, very busy. There is still enough capacity for many, many more people, though. You can see why it’s a popular place; the beaches here are beautiful, with fine white sand.

While myth suggests the sand was imported, the seven kilometres of fine sand are indigenous and actually sometimes exported to other local resorts around Spain. People from all over the world come here, and we have heard many different languages, but the most heard one is the British accent.

Benidorm started as a small fishing village of 3000 people; now the residents total over 77,000, but in the peak season, with visitors, it can reach 350,000 people. It’s clearly doing something right for a lot of people…

We have a small beer in a bar on the front and do some people watching, which is always a good sport here. It’s a sea of pink and red flesh everywhere… Having had enough of that, we walk back and have a late lunch/early dinner of a paella cooked on our stove, Beryl, in the sun.

We intend to go back into town to catch some of the nightlife, but first, there’s the karaoke in our campsite.

In the event the karaoke is a bit low-key, we walk into town again. Surprisingly, it’s quieter than 5pm yesterday. Either everyone’s worn out from yesterday, or we’ve hit a lull where people recover at their hotel before the evening session. To be fair, we are way too early; it’s only 7pm, but we really can’t be bothered to stay up late and do this. Some of the bars here shut at 4:30 am. That’s too much for us now, even for H, who used to go to all-night raves in the late 80s. 

Back at the van, we have a drink. Del mixes up a Calimocho, a combination of red wine and Coke, which was originally a Basque region drink.

Guess what…? It’s not bad at all and tastes a little like Sangria. . A wine glass with ice and 50 -50 of any red wine (not an expensive one, of course) and Coke. Very nice. We play some chess as the sun is fading and the air is cooling before going in. How very civilised, we must be showing our age.

We have done three nights here in Benidorm. We’ve been here before, in January 2024, two years ago! This time it was a lot more lively and busy, so we can’t imagine what the summer will be like when all the schools in Europe are off. We like it here, it’s very chilled and relaxed, and has some nice places in the old town. There is something for everyone here, that’s for sure. There is a stigma attached to Benidorm, but it is really misplaced; you can have all sorts of different types of experience, from partying to chilling out.

Time to continue our journey north now, though. The next stop is a staggering 40 minutes away to the town of Calpe.

Week 3. 13th April – 19th April 2026. Nerja to Mar Menor, Spain – 230 miles.

Last week, we did an almost straight line from just east of Madrid down to Nerja on the south coast, where both the weather and the culture change. Oh, and it’s ever so slightly cheaper… The south is arid in parts, but still rather spectacular. We will hug the coast before turning north. As we move slowly north, we are hoping that the good warm weather we are having will stay with us.

Monday 13th April 2026 (Nerja to Balerma – 67 miles)

After a windy night, the sun is out this morning. This area is renowned for wind; when it blows, it can be quite severe. We are leaving Nerja after a very nice couple of days and going east now – this is as far west along the Spanish coast as we go.

We set out after saying goodbye to our favourite parrot here. A stop at a supermarket for a food stock up, and soon we are on the motorway. We used to live north of Malaga, near the town of Antequera, and kept our boat at the Almerimar marina 20 years ago. Back then, H used to drive between the home and the marina before the motorway was built, and it took 3 hours slogging through towns and villages; it was very fiddly, so the motorway makes a huge difference.  However, the motorway is now being upgraded, so there’s a lot of roadworks and speed restrictions, and it’s much hillier than we remember.

The drive turns into a long, slow one, and it just feels like a bit of a slog. We eventually stop for a coffee after 90 minutes and swap over. We are going to stay at a campsite we’ve been to before at Balerma. Check-in is quick and easy; it’s a lot quieter than the winter months, which is nice.

Before going to our pitch, we visit their cheap, well-designed jet wash as Jess is still quite dirty from the sandy rains. 

The campsite is very quiet; it seems the German campers who love it here have gone home for the spring. We discover the campsite laundry room with 5 empty washers and dryers!

This is a luxury to us. It’s funny how the little things please you when you’re camping, we think nothing of putting a wash on at home! H takes over 3 machines and gets all the washing done, and the bed changed. 

Del gives Jess a good wipe over inside and out, and she looks fabulous again. He also gets a bit of homework done for his next project. Happy days.

We’re so pleased with ourselves that we have to test our new fizz glasses with some Prosecco that our good friend Karen from back home bought us for Christmas. It’s delicious. Cheers Karen…!

Dinner is a French lentil and pork tinned concoction that we’ve been travelling around Europe with for quite a while now, with homemade dauphinoise potatoes and broccoli. 

We walk to the beach afterwards to watch the huge breaking waves and the sunset. 

The wind has really kicked up the sea. So much so, we come across a poor, dead baby dolphin. It must have got too close to the shore in the strong sea, beached and not been able to get back into deep water. Sad.

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Tuesday 14th April 2026 (Balerma – Day 2)

We have beautiful blue skies with NO WIND, and it’s a warm day.

We have a coffee in the bar on site and then a light breakfast back at Jess, as we are planning a lunch out. Today we are going out on the bikes to get some exercise. H lifts the bikes off the back of Jess and cleans them (she is missing the gym, and this is the only weightlifting available). We foolishly took the cover off the bikes too early last week, so they are covered in rain and sand.

We are going to cycle to Almerimar Marina today, which is just over 6 miles away. After covering ourselves in suncream, we set off.

It’s mostly flat along the seafront with some weaving through a town. Down here in the south of Spain, it is considered the greenhouse of Europe. If your fruit or veg says it’s come from Spain, then it’s most likely to have come from this part of Spain. The greenhouses are basically acres of plastic sheeting, which break down in the heat and wind and have to be replaced.

What shocks us on our ride is the amount of small pieces of old plastic sheeting stuck in the vegetation at the side of the roads and beaches, ready to blow into the sea just metres away. Surely this is an environmental disaster? It makes all our efforts with plastic bags in the UK seem pointless when you see the amount of damage on this scale. Check out this video.

We finally arrive at the marina in Almerimar, and we find the spot where we used to be berthed.

We both agree that the place is looking a bit tired and tatty, and some of the boats look like they are from our era, 22 years ago. We cycle around and admire the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the background. There’s a motorhome aire here, but it was always too busy in the past when we used to visit it. We have a chat with a couple who have been there for 5 weeks, that’s a long time in one spot…!

We start the cycle back, on the way, an elderly cyclist stops us, a Spanish chap wittering on about H’s seat being too low, something which has always been a bone of contention with her as she doesn’t like the seat too high, but loses power as a result. She does, from the back, look like a circus chimp on a tricycle going up a hill in low gear. She does need to sort that out, it’s bad when a local Spanish cyclist has to point it out as well…!

We cycle back to a seafront restaurant past the campsite, which does a very reasonable menu of the day.

We have salad, anchovies, black rice, Russian salad, two different types of pork and a local dessert between us, served with a glass of wine and coffee afterwards. It’s quite a feast, but we have earned it after 26km of cycling. Back on the bikes and back to Jess, where we spend the rest of the afternoon reading, Del does some more work until the early evening.

There is a petanque court here, a popular game in France and Spain and there are 5 courts here. We stock up on some local cheese and ham, and our steel balls and set off for the court to play a couple of games in the sunset.

It’s a lovely evening. Del soundly beats H.

A good day today. We have enjoyed our two nights here; it should be a short drive tomorrow to the southeastern tip of Spain, the Cabo de Gata (the Cat Cape!).

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Wednesday 15th April 2026 (Balerma – Cabo de Gata 55 miles)

It’s a lovely, bright, fresh morning, with clear blue skies. We have a simple breakfast outside, after which we pack up and set off for our next stop, to a campsite we have been to before in the Cabo de Gata (the bottom right corner of Spain). Del has a work video call to take at 11 this morning, so after we have paid, we park up outside the campsite so he can do that before setting off. It’s another beautiful day today, very still and calm at sea, and everything is blue! Lovely

We arrive at the campsite just in time for lunch. They have a very good restaurant here which does an excellent menu of the day. It’s bad news, though, the restaurant is shut for renovations! Luckily, we have a fridge full of Spanish goodies, so we will save some money today (and probably calories). 

We set up camp, it’s lovely and peaceful here, just lots of birds and some parrots squawking. We get a visit from a friendly ginger stray cat.

H gives her a prawn, and that’s it, we’re mates forever. She stays all day napping next to us. For dinner, we get the outdoor gas stove out, and H makes a Fiduea, which Del declares as the best one he has ever had.

It’s a fantastic dinner, cooked and eaten at the table, with a little tapa of tomato bread and Cantabrian anchovies. We give our cat (Hazel, we have named her) some cat food that we have bought for her. Yes, she has got us wrapped round her little paw. We sit outside in the lovely evening air. Peace…

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Thursday 16th April 2026 (Cabo de Gata – Day 2)

When we open the blinds this morning, our little cat friend is waiting patiently outside. We give her a little something. Del cooks up bacon and eggs on the stove outside, and H does the toast and chops an avocado.

Complete with some freshly brewed coffee, it’s a lovely breakfast on a lovely day. After clearing up and a bit of paperwork (H booking out our next trip and Del doing some homework), we set off for a cycle. The area here is mostly scrubland with the occasional greenhouse, and it isn’t much to write home about, but saying that, it does offer some charm; it is quiet, peaceful and interesting in parts. We like it, and it does get busy here in the summer.

This is the driest part of Spain. For us, the attraction is the tranquillity of the campsite itself. Nevertheless, we like to have a good explore, so we set off across the bumpy dry land towards the sea. The town of Cabo de Gata looks sandblasted and deserted, but there’s a bar open on the seafront. We are forced by the sunshine and blue sea to have a beer and a free tapa each, fried potatoes for Del and a delicious sardine for H.

We shall cycle back on the main road and try to work out the confusing road layout in the town, discovering in fact that deep in the centre it’s actually quite lively.

By the time we get back to the van, we have done 12km, not as much as Tuesday’s cycle, but not shabby. 

The outside table top stove is back out, so for dinner we have a starter of garlic prawns, and chicken for the next course, but when she opens the pack, it’s rancid despite being within date. We have to bin it, we don’t like throwing meat away, it feels disrespectful. We have tuna steaks instead, with a salad.  Hazel, our part-time pet, has had a 3-course meal – a prawn to start, cat food for main and some cheese for dessert. 

We are spoiling her.

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Friday 17th April 2026 (Cabo de Gata – Palomares 56 miles )

Once again, this morning, “our cat” is waiting for us outside.

We have a simple breakfast of croissants and cat food outside before starting to pack up. Hazel the cat has clocked this new activity and is most upset, having had a stable home for two days. She skulks off and won’t let us come near her. We’re really sad too, but we knew that this would happen. She was the sweetest cat and became attached to us. We just wish we could have taken her with us. 

We set off with heavy hearts to Palomares, a free beach park up, a very popular location for vans from all over Europe, which we have visited a couple of times before.

We shall be completely off-grid tonight, so we have charged everything that has a battery inside it, we have full water tanks ready with plenty of food and drink. We like the off-grid stops, and this place is a good one to be off-grid.

It’s a lot quieter here than we’re used to. We find a good spot, side on, facing the sea. There’s a nice restaurant located at the entrance here, so we take the short walk and have some baby squid and spicy potatoes with a glass of wine, delicious.

We relax back at the van for a while and then get the bikes down for a cycle into the nearest town, Villaricos.

The weather is the best you can get. The temperature is just right, no wind, the sea looks fabulous with different shades of blue, and it is so calm and quiet. We stop and look and think fondly of the time we sailed past here just over 20 years ago… The time is just rushing by…

Back to Jess, where we swap the bikes for chairs and a rather large glass of Ricard with ice and sat by the waters edge before dinner of a huge salad and sardines. A nice day…

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Saturday 18th April 2026 (Palomares to Mazarron – 56 miles )

It was a quiet night with just the sound of the sea breaking on the shore. It’s another beautiful day this morning, so we sit outside with a coffee after a paddle in the sea. There’s a baker’s van that comes round the beach beeping his horn to let you know he’s here.

Del is dispatched to buy some croissants and a stick of bread. We sit in the sun and eat them with another coffee. What a place, you can’t beat it, a beautiful sea view, gorgeous weather, free of charge, with pastries delivered to your door. Not a bad start to the day…

We do a slow pack up and leave just before midday. It’s a busy, popular place here. People have been known to spend many weeks here, and we wonder what they are doing with their black and grey water? We have a good idea, and we have read on the internet from some locals about seeing people just dumping everything in the fields behind the parking area. No wonder places like this are becoming rarer when some motor homers behave so badly.

We need to get back on the motorway. Today sees us turning north properly now and heading up the east coast of Spain. On our way to the motorway, Google routes us down a road that gets more and more rustic and drops us in the middle of what looks like a man-made reservoir area. There are short, steep hills between each raised basin of water, and we are led through the storm drains and “run-offs” lanes.

We are not in the wrong place, as many cars seem to be using this route; it just seems a bit odd, the hills are short and steep, and we are a bit concerned that we might bottom out. We take our time, though and get to the other side without a scrape or touching water!

We are heading to Mazarron, which has a harbour, which was always full when we tried to get in with our boat years ago. There is a cheap camper park here, Camping & Resort Bahia Mazarron, which is brand new and has 250 spaces ready out of a 450 total, which are coming next year. This is the kind of place that will fill up instantly in the winter, but for now it’s reasonably quiet. Unfortunately, though it’s in the middle of nowhere, the back end of the town, but it’s a nice place with good showers and a lovely little bar.

We have a coffee and then set up Jess’s with all the outside stuff, chairs, tables and definitely an awning. It’s so hot, and there is no shade at all…

As it’s so hot, we wait a while to cycle into the town. It’s only a short ride away, and when we get there, we are a bit surprised about how tired-looking it is.

We have noticed on our drive this time that this is the case with so many towns in the area, they just look like they have been battered with sand over the past winters and not kept in good order. We stop for an alcohol free beer while contemplating the state of the world. Back at Jess, it’s dinner in the sun, pasta and salad. H beats Del at cards once again… Some things never change…

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Sunday 19th April 2026 (Mazarron to Mar Menor – 42 miles )

We sit outside in the morning sun for breakfast; it’s very hot already, and our awning isn’t shading us at all. It’s only an hour’s drive to the next stop, Camping Mar Menor, where we have reserved for 4 days. This is another regular stop for us as it’s a great campsite and the area is good for cycling. The best bit, though, is the ‘campsite restaurant’, which is not your average camper restaurant; it deserves to be in the Michelin guide. It’s H’s favourite Spanish restaurant and is called Kinita.

We have booked for tonight for their tasting menu. 

At the campsite, we get a large plot with a bit of a sea view and get settled in.

We spend the afternoon reading, relaxing, and just chilling out; it’s quite hot here. At 6pm we go across to the restaurant. We’ve booked an early dinner, as the tasting menu will be a lot of food. We get a table with a sea view and start with a red vermouth, a traditional Spanish aperitif.

The food is delicious, with truffle croquettes, tuna tartare, and a cold tomato soup with prawn tartar, which is amazing. 

Eight courses in all and not tiny ones either. We make it to the last one, but it beats us; we can’t even eat half of it.

We stagger back to the van for a lie down and watch an episode of Radiactive Emergency on Netflix, a shocking true story that we don’t even remember happening at the time. A quick look up tells the whole story…

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Week 2. 6th April – 12th April 2026. Buitrago del Lozoya to Nerja, Spain – 366 miles.

Last week, our journey started with an uneventful, pleasant sea crossing from the UK. Our first week also took us into the Rioja wine region, where we sampled some of the local wine and stayed in some lovely cities in the area. We are now pushing further south this week and heading for the Spanish coast

Monday 6th April 2026 (Buitrago del Lozoya to Aranjuez – 82 miles)

It was a peaceful night here in the hills north of Madrid, and we slept well. We have breakfast and bid farewell to our friendly host, after squeezing the night’s fee into his hand, and set off towards Madrid. Del is driving, and H is navigating.

Madrid has a very large and sprawling low-emission zone, which is very difficult to find information about. As a foreign vehicle, we think we are supposed to register before entering, but the only way is to email the government at least 20 days before, or it’s a €200 fine. Google Maps insists on taking us through the zone as there’s a sneaky little bit of it right across the outer ring motorway. This isn’t about greenness anymore; it’s just about catching people out and charging them. Because we have not been able to register, it means that we have to burn more fuel, go the long way round and create more emissions, just to avoid the emissions-free zone! Ah, but you see, what happens outside a city’s emissions zone is not their problem, it’s someone else’s, we’ve got your money…

H finds a complicated route avoiding the zone, passing through some small towns, but with some lovely scenery.

We arrive at the campsite just outside, and within walking range of the centre of Aranjuez (yes, the place of the concerto of the same name). It’s a very nice site with helpful staff who let us pick our place, so we find one and get set up in a nice, long, cosy pitch near all of the facilities. There’s a recommended restaurant overlooking the river, so we head over there and have an impromptu lunch that was rather larger than expected: a couple of salads, some baby squid, and fried pork.

We have 2 days at the campsite, so today is a bit of a reset day to do laundry and to give Jess her weekly clean. H does an excellent job of cleaning the toilet and bathroom, you know!

It’s a beautiful, warm day, so we have everything set up outside the van and are just chilling out. The temperature is just right, so for dinner we will try out a new bit of kit that we have bought. It’s an outdoor single-ring gas stove.

Every camper has one, and now we do too. We have some thin leftover chicken pieces, which we fry with onions and put on a baguette along with some asparagus and chorizo. It all works well, and we’re very pleased with our new purchase.

We sit out until gone 9pm in the warm air. Del gets another thrashing at chess… Oh, and cards too later on!

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Tuesday 7th April 2026 (Aranjuez – Day 2)

We wake up to a cloudy day, quite a difference from yesterday, with the bright blue sky and hot sun. We take the 30-minute walk into town, which doesn’t really ‘wow’ us, it’s nice and all that, but just a bit ordinary… People come here mainly for the Royal Palace and the gardens. The gardens are huge and spread out over a large area, but at the moment they aren’t looking their best after the winter, and the grey sky doesn’t help. People are working on them, so by the summer they should look marvellous.

After a rather handsome and cheap three-course Spanish lunch, with wine, we walk back to the palace. Our legs are a little heavy… We have decided to pay the 9 euros admission fee and take a look. The history of the palace is greater than the town, which doesn’t look very old.

Some research shows it to be one of the best palaces in Spain and very ornate. We get our tickets and are checked in by security. This place obviously is set up for massive crowds in the summer, but fortunately, today it seems to be just us. Every room is spectacular and ornate, very impressive. It’s very good and well worth the entry fee, especially as we’ve got it mainly to ourselves.

We spend an hour admiring the various rooms, like the porcelain room where everything, including the walls, is made of porcelain and the banqueting room with its impressive frescos. A trip well worth making.

Today, we are tired, more so than usual. We are not sure what’s going on, and now it is catching up with us, having done a good few miles of walking and digesting our 3-course lunch, so we trudge, and we mean trudge, back to Jess, which seems to take forever. She will be a sight for sore eyes.

A good day today. A quiet night in on Jess.

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Wednesday 8th April 2026 (Aranjuez to Noalejo – 199 miles)

A very nice stay in Aranjuez, we really enjoyed the Royal Palace. Today we are moving on to… We don’t really know where to yet. That’s the good thing about this van caper, with plenty of time. It’s good to have a basic plan, but when it comes to the day to day you can just make bits up as you go along.

It rained most of last night and was sometimes very noisy on the roof. It doesn’t make for the best of sleep, so we’re not in the best of spirits this morning. We don’t know how far we will travel today. Maybe to Valdepenas, maybe to Jaen or even further to a cute little privately owned park up in the Andalusian hills. We set off after breakfast and have our usual Spanish coffee from a restaurant on the motorway. We really enjoy this ritual of stopping on the motorway for a coffee. The coffee is delicious, and we intend one day to have lunch in one of these roadside establishments. They always have fantastic menus, and they are so cheap. M&S or Waitrose on the M6, it’s not… This stop this morning has a full fire and roasting rack for whole pigs…

It’s a dull drive in very gloomy weather and rain, and soon H gets bored and so swaps with Del, who can drive for hours and hours like a machine.

As the weather is so rubbish, we decide to press on south. It’s raining heavily and 11 degrees, and we receive a text from a friend back home on the island showing her sunbathing in her back garden in the 22-degree heat. 

As we head south, we soon cross into the province of Andalusia, and the roads become terrible, shaking Jess and us for a good 50 miles. 

The park up tonight is in a little town of Noalejo, which is between Jaen and Granada, with views of the olive tree-covered hills.

It’s a lovely place with everything you need, and very nice showers. It is even colder here, though, as we are now over 1000m above sea level. It’ll be a cold night tonight. 

H whips up steak and dauphinoise potatoes for dinner.

We have a glass of red in the cab seats with our super view.

The owner here is very friendly and has given us a little bottle of his homemade olive oil. We’ve bought a bottle of his red wine also to put in the cellar in Jess, (the back wardrobe). 

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Thursday 9th April 2026 (Noalejo to Granada – 30 miles)

The weather has improved today with blue skies and promises of 28 degrees later. We have a coffee and a simple breakfast before setting off towards Granada. We are staying at another private parking area just outside the city for two nights. The Camping Bellavista offers everything you need and is only 30 miles from where we are now. The plan is to stay there for two nights, it’s nice and close to Granada on the bus and tram routes. Granada is another city with a LEZ, so we won’t be going too close to the centre in Jess.

We stop for our morning coffee, and Del has a magdalena – a sweet breakfast pastry, and H has tomato bread – a toasted small stick of bread with olive oil and grated tomatoes, it’s delicious and one of H’s favourite Spanish breakfasts. 

We arrive at the site. It’s basic but very well done. It’s not a campsite as such, but it has everything you need in a well-maintained place. A little shower block which is immaculate and all the services laid on, it all looks very new.

It’s a 20-minute tram ride into the centre. It’s now 28 degrees, so we have shorts and t-shirts on, but the locals all have big puffer coats on and warm boots. We stand out just a bit, but we don’t care; it’s hot. The Spanish must have a different idea of warm weather.

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing the famous Alhambra Palace on this trip. We tried to book a few days ago, only to find that it’s booked until May 11th. It’s a shame, but it’s something that we’ve seen before, so it’s not a disaster; we will get the chance to see “other stuff“.

Del has broken yet another pair of sunglasses (probably the third in the last 4 months), so we need to find him another pair and a sun hat to protect his face. We walk around the souk/arab market area of the town and find both easily. 

Of course, we can’t resist having a bit of southern food, so we dive into a restaurant bar and have Flamenquin – pork and Spanish ham rolled with cheese and fried. We also grab some fried aubergines with honey. The south of Spain is famous for frying a lot of its food, so we will have to be careful not to overindulge too much whilst we are here. We are also given a free tapa with our drinks, which used to be the norm in Spain, but tapas have now become very trendy and, in some cases, expensive. Granada is one of the few places to retain the tradition of a free tapa with your drink.

The backstreets are interesting here in Granada, and there are lots of lovely shops to look at.

We eventually stumble on the cathedral. It’s the 2nd biggest in Spain (after the beautiful Sagrada Família in Barcelona), and it’s very impressive. The scale of it is immense, and the decorations are incredibly intricate.

It was built after the Catholics overcame the Moors after nearly 800 years of ruling, during which Christianity was banned. They certainly made up for the long wait with this amazing building. 

We get back to the van on the tram just as the sun has gone in and the visibility has dropped to about 200m. It’s quite surreal all around us; we suppose it must be a dust storm or something in the air. 

We have a small supper of ham and cheese and some of the biggest strawberries you’ve ever seen. 

It is Jess’s birthday today; she is 8 years old already. The time has gone very quickly. 

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Friday 10th April 2026 (Granada – Day 2)

The weather was pretty bad here last night, with strong gusts of wind, which meant battening down the hatches but also made the temperature inside Jess uncomfortably warm. Consequently, we’ve both not slept well again.

We’re slow to get going this morning, and it’s raining anyway. All the vans here are covered in sand after last night’s storms. 

We head out, slowly, into town and get tickets for the tourist sightseeing train/bus thing; the idea is that we can just sit and get driven around all the major sites in the town.

The local tram takes us near the centre but not in as far as it probably should, and a lot of the streets are narrow and hilly, so there are not a lot of buses. The streets are cobbled in many parts, and with the flow of pedestrians, the pavements have the slippiest streets ever. We’ve not found it that easy getting around here. Granada is a wonderful place, but it’s very compressed and tightly packed despite the sprawling area of the city. We hope the tourist train will make things easier for us.

Like all these tourist trains it bounces us around and feels like it has square wheels. We get off and have a look around the oldest square, where they used to execute people and walk around yet another Arabic section. There are lots of them here, all selling the same stuff. We find ourselves in ‘tea street’ and go into one of the lavishly decorated Arabic tea houses.

The tea menu is amazing and H plumps for a green tea, flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. Del has a coffee to help wake him up. We also try one of their pistachio baklavas and a slice of pistachio cheesecake (everything is pistachio here).

After a 40-minute wait at the train stop, we eventually set off again, bouncing around up to a viewpoint. It seems that there are not enough trains on this route, and there are about 50 tourists at the next stop trying to get on, and it starts to rain. Realising that that could be us if we get off, we decide to admire the view from our seats and stay on board the square-wheeled train.

It’s not been the best experience on the train; we can’t imagine how it will be in the summer when it’s really busy. We head back to Jess just in time as a vicious wind storm with some rain is upon us. We have had enough of today, really. We are both tired, Granada was a nice city but packed and tiring and the train was rubbish, so we have a light dinner, shower and then turn in, earlyish…

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Saturday 11th April 2026 (Granada to Nerja – 60 miles)

We wake up this morning, after, finally, an excellent night’s sleep We have woken up though to find that we have an orange van! A lot of rain fell in the night, and it contained a lot of sand. We’ve never seen Jess so mucky. All of the vans here are all looking a bit… orange.

We slowly pack up. Today we are heading, finally, for the south coast of Spain to a regular stop of Nerja. We stop at a coffee stop on route for our usual full Caffeine hit and a jet wash. She needs it. So does Jess… It’s only just over an hour away and a spectacular drive, mainly downhill through the Sierra Nevada and past huge reservoirs and dams, which are full of water. We’re not surprised after the rain we have seen recently.

We did enjoy our stay in Granada, we had a great place just 20 minutes from the centre via an excellent tram system. We don’t think that we did the place justice, really. First, we were both absolutely worn out from lack of sleep, but also the town is rather exhausting, and that’s in the spring…! It’s a very beautiful city, very tightly packed with streets just weaving around randomly; there appeared to be no “centre”. Also, like all cities now, Granada too has a LEZ (Low Emissions Zone) and again, some of it is designed to catch you out.

As we start our journey, Del reminds H that we seem to be heading back towards the town, and that maybe we shouldn’t, unless we want a 200 euro fine. Quick off the mark, H soon has us re-routed, burning more fuel and polluting the air outside of Granada. They don’t care, though… It’s someone else’s problem now.

At last, we can see the sea, and we arrive at the campsite that we have pre-booked. We’ve been here a few times; this is probably our 4th time. We love the rusticness of it. It’s full of fruit trees, including avocado trees. We set ourselves up in the sun very quickly, and with a drink. We are getting slick at this.

We always seem to plan our next trip while on one, and this trip is no exception. We have a plan brewing for next winter. H settles down with a computer and starts some travel planning, which keeps her quiet for a while. Soon, the rain starts again, so we take everything in. We planned on a walk to get some exercise, but that’s been dashed. Oh well…

Dinner is a rather splendid pesto pasta and salad with a glass of wine from the camper spot in Noalejo, a couple of days ago, it’s rather nice.

The rain is off and on for the rest of the early evening, so after showers, we just settle in for the night. Tomorrow is another day.

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Sunday 12th April 2026 (Nerja – Day 2)

We had our fair share of rain last night; the weather forecasters are not doing a good job at the moment.

The morning is cool and fresh, but pleasant. After breakfast, we get ourselves ready and set off for a good walk along the seafront. The sea is huge and crashing on the beach, and more wind is forecast for later in the day with a peak overnight.

We’ve never been to Nerja this late in the season; our visit down here is normally around January. It’s also much quieter than we’re used to, with lots of empty pitches.

We have a coffee at a beach bar and discuss where to have lunch. Priorities first and foremost!

There’s a good beach bar further up the beach that does barbecues and a lively restaurant a mile further on; unfortunately, both of these are being blasted by a fierce wind coming off the sea, not quite how we imagined our Sunday lunch. So we walk into town and wander through the backstreets looking at the tourist shops.

It’s busy today; the sun is out now, with good, clean, fresh air and a strong wind. It’s lovely. The Balcon de Europa is a viewing point overlooking the coast. It’s very busy, but while we are there, down below us, we spot a restaurant on a private beach that belongs to a hotel, it’s tucked away out of the wind. Fearing that they might be fully booked, we head on down and to our surprise, there are plenty of places, so we book ourselves in for 1pm.

We walk around the town some more, exploring the bits we haven’t seen before. It’s a lovely place, Nerja, very popular this time around with the Brits. Soon it’s time for lunch. We are given a nice table just a few meters from the sea which crashes into the nearby rocks before settling on the small beach.

A lovely place for a Sunday lunch where we share a tuna salad and a Fideuà (like a paella but with noodles). It’s a very pleasant afternoon. This is helped along with a glass of Cava, followed by a glass of cold white wine each.

The wind is now straight in our face as we battle through the strong wind back to the campsite, and Jess, we share an ice-cream in the hope that it will take the edge off the wind… It doesn’t…

Tonight the wind is predicted to be 52 knots, which is a severe gale, and already it’s started to build up. We put everything away outside, the table and chairs, etc., and sit inside, only for the wind to stop and the sun to come out again, so we get the chairs out again and get the last sun of a very good day.

Tonight is games night. We have a collection of escape games from UNLOCK, so we get on with that, ending with Del getting beaten at cards… Again.

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To see more of Del’s photographs from the past week, have a look here…

Week 1. 30th March – 5th April 2026. Home to Buitrago del Lozoya, Spain – 1053 miles (mainly at sea!)

Yes, we can’t keep still, and why should we…? Fresh from our 3 months in Asia and a weekend in Vienna for a Mozart weekend, we are now off again on a Jess trip. It has been a while since we have had a van trip. Jess has been undercover for quite a few months over the winter. Now we are back on her, and we have spent some pennies on her…

New Tyres, new upholstery in the habitation area, new cabin mat, new mattress, new front seat covers (coming soon). New starter and habitation batteries, and new champagne glasses!!!! She has also had the biggest deep clean, so she is as good as new and ready to go…!!!

Monday 30th March 2026 (East Cowes to Portsmouth – 14 miles)

Today we are setting off on a 7-week trip with Jess down to the south of Spain and back again. The trip will take us from home to Portsmouth, by ferry, down the west coast of France to the north coast of Spain, getting off at Santander. We plan to see some of the north of Spain before driving off down the middle of Spain, past Madrid and to the south east coast of Spain, before turning north and hugging the east coast, up through France and back to the UK via the Eurotunnel from Calais. Whew!!

We planned this trip a few months ago when there was no sniff of any bother in the Middle East, and diesel prices were just high but not extortionate. One good decision that we made was to put ourselves on a ferry from Portsmouth to Spain, cutting out the long drive through France, thus saving on the cost of diesel, and also the toll roads in France, which are so expensive.

The ferry leaves tonight at 9:45pm and takes just over 32 hours to arrive in Santander. We prepared most of the van yesterday, so today we just have to pop the bikes on the back and add some food. We’ve left lots of time between our Isle of Wight ferry and the ferry from Portsmouth to Spain, as we don’t quite trust Wightlink not to cancel a few ferries for various reasons; the usual excuse is that the sea is wet and moves a bit! In the event, though, they managed to put us on an earlier ferry because of issues they had in the earlier part of the day. (See what we mean. If they have to go anywhere near water, they panic, and it all goes wrong!) This means that we have plenty of time to kill in Portsmouth. First, Jess needs a wash and her tyres checked.

H has cooked up some Belgian stew but adapted it using Guinness, so we guess it’s an Irish stew now.

We find a nice spot near the port ready for our ferry and have a very civilised dinner before driving the 500m to the port next door. There are lots of other motorhomes here, so we aren’t the only ones risking any fuel crisis that might come our way. 

Once we get on board the Brittany Ferries boat, we settle into our cabin. We have brought some comforts from home, slippers, robes, and our own pillows, amongst other things, just to make our journey that little extra comfy.

We toast our trip with a drink in the bar and then turn in for the first night. The weather is predicted to be low wind, but with a large 4m Atlantic swell for most of the journey. Could be interesting. 

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Tuesday 31st March 2026 (Portsmouth to Somewhere in the Bay of Biscay)

Del slept well last night, but H, unfortunately, not so well; it wasn’t the gentle rolling of the ship keeping her awake; she just couldn’t sleep. By 9am, the rolling swell is quite large and hitting us side on, twisting and rolling the ship. We have a light breakfast of coffee and croissants in the restaurant. There are some rather green-looking children here on board, clutching sick bags. 

After a walk around the ship, the excitement of the lots of sea around us and the grey skies force us back to our cabin. H is tired and needs a lie down.

After a very nice, peaceful rest, we spend the afternoon playing cards in the lounge area with a beer and a packet or two of crisps, where we are just in time for a quiz starting.

We are given a keypad to present answers from, and the quiz starts. Very soon, we are at the top of the leaderboard, and stay there until the very last question, where we are beaten to the correct answer by a split second.

Oh well, we never did get to see what we could have won, but it was a bit of fun all the same. 

We have booked into the main restaurant for dinner tonight, in the fancy bit of the boat, but first we have a glass of fizz for an aperitif. For dinner, we both choose from a set menu, salad bar and then a rare steak with a glass of Merlot. It’s all rather delicious and sophisticated; the salad bar is generous with huge prawns and smoked salmon.  We expected the price to damage the bank card, but it’s all very reasonable. The food and service are excellent, the ship is French-flagged with French staff, so of course, the food is very good. It’s to be expected. They do know what to do with a saucepan!

After an evening walk and to get the last bit of cloud, we turn in. We will be up at 6 bells in the morning, ready for disembarking at 7am sharp.

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Wednesday 1st April 2026 (Somewhere in the Bay of Biscay to Victoria – Gasteiz, Spain )

At 5:45am, we are woken gently by soft music coming over the cabin speakers. We get up, have showers and pack. H sets off in search of some coffee and Danish pastries to have in our room. At 7am ship time (8am Spanish time), we are docked, and released from the boat and out into the cold, damp, grey skies of Santander.

It’s cold and wet. Lovely.

We have heard horror stories of people spending hours in queues here because of the new EES system, where all non-EU country visitors must be fingerprinted and photographed at the border. Fortunately for us, we are waved through to the front, and soon we are in front of a camera and sticking our claw onto a piece of green flashing glass before being stamped in our passports and allowed entry. Tiresome, really, but there it is.

We need to stock up and do a shop, so we find a Lidl, and after spending some time and money, we head off towards Vitoria Gasteiz, where we have reserved a place in advance at a paid camper park.

The place where we are staying is 10 euros for the night and includes fresh water, a place to fill up your tank and empty your grey water. Very nice. We arrive and manoeuvre ourselves into position and commence the service. Very soon, an irate chap with a hi-vis vest, clipboard and waving a mobile phone camera at us is telling us off in a rather aggressive manner, saying words to the effect that we “shouldn’t be doing that”. Del breaks into some Spanish, and the ‘official’ calms down a little. It transpires that on a Wednesday, which is market day, you can’t use the facilities during certain hours. Interesting one that. We leave with our tail between our legs, after already being able to empty our grey water tank and fill up with fresh water to almost full. Stick that on your clipboard, mate…! 

We need some exercise after 32 hours on the boat and head into the town of Victoria – Gasteiz, a 35-minute walk.

Victoria – Gasteiz is in the Basque region of Spain, and has had a rather tetchy past with Spanish governments going over several years, which today, by and large, has been forgotten. Something about independence from Spain and all that kind of thing. A lot of people got hurt and killed for the cause.

Despite leaving it until later in the day, it’s all looking a bit shut and deserted in the old town. Siesta opening times are still going strong here. We walk around for a while.

We are in the old part of town, which is normally a pleasant and interesting place to walk around, but this place is a bit… well, edgy. Lots of graffiti, lots of closed and boarded-up shops. Is this the right place? It doesn’t feel right. We carry on walking and come out of the old town into the town ‘proper’ and find it very pleasant. Lovely shops, all clean and tidy, very nice. We stop at a bar for a drink outside in a little patch of sun that we have found. Within 20 minutes, though the temperature has dropped and we are cold to the bone and hungry. We walk to the bus via the rather modern but old-style immense cathedral, and get back to Jess, who is warm and welcoming.

Dinner is a tapas feast on board of Spanish goodies we have just bought. It’s rather delicious. 

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Thursday 2nd April 2026 (Victoria – Gasteiz to Logrono – 40 miles)

We both slept well last night on Jess. It was our first night on our new mattress, which has been custom-made, and it is very comfy. A hit!

We have a light breakfast and set off. Today we are visiting the Rioja wine region. Our first stop is to a cute little town on a hill called Laguardia. The parking place has views over the vineyards, which stretch for miles. All the vines look dead and withered, and the weather is showery and cold; it’s hard to imagine that soon this will all turn into lush vines of grapes in the sun.

One advantage of this weather is that it’s quiet – this is one of those places that will get crazy busy in the summer. We find a bar with a beautiful display of pinxos (small snacks of meat, fish and vegetables on a slice of rustic bread popular in the north of Spain). They look beautiful, but we don’t fancy anything today. H has a glass of Rioja (when in Rome, etc.) and Del has a coffee, well, someone has to drive.

The town is very pretty, charming and very old. After a good look round, we drive on to Logroño, a large town in the region well known for its ‘tapas street’. We’re amazed that we manage to get a space in the free motorhome area, as it’s Easter week – last night’s park up was very busy, or rather the free bit outside was, with about 40 vans parking in the supermarket car park. (We parked in the quieter paid bit next door). 

We’re a bit out of town here in the Logroño ‘park up‘, so we will get the bus, we wait, and wait and wait. Three don’t turn up, and we are about to give up and move on to the next town when it comes around the corner.

We’re glad it did, the town is beautiful, much better and bigger than we expected and has an amazing foodie vibe with cute backstreets crammed with cosy tapas bars serving amazing looking food paired with glasses of Rioja wine. 

We take a walk up the famous tapas street, Calle del Laurel. It is just packed…

We try a couple of places, sampling a few of the local specialities. Riojan potato stew (nicer than it sounds), garlic mushrooms and squid, and a pastrami carpaccio. We wander around, taking in the atmosphere and notice quite a few preparations for Easter events tomorrow. Perhaps we should stay another day now that we have our space?

We jump on the bus back and pop into the huge Carrefour supermarket opposite for some supplies. We can’t resist a rotisserie chicken, so have that back in the van with a salad and some wine. Not forgetting, of course, our lovely view here of a petrol station opposite, where we can watch the fuel price rise. So far, it has gone up 5 cents a litre since we went into town a few hours ago!

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Friday 3rd April 2026 ( Logroño – Day 2)

Happy Easter, everyone!

After a Spanish breakfast of tortilla (thick Spanish omelette) and a bit of research for the next few stops for the next few days, we set out on the ‘unreliable‘ bus into town.

Today is the day when catholic churches around Spain walk through the streets to mark the start of Semana Santa. The parade we watch is a very solemn event, and it’s supposed to commemorate the day Jesus was crucified, and to celebrate that the local churches build and parade effigies of Jesus on solid wood floats that are incredibly heavy and require many people to lift and carry them. They are so heavy that they can only walk it 20 or so meters before putting it down to rest.

We have an idea of the route for tonight’s large parade, so we shall come back later. While we’re here, we might as well have a spot of lunch. We find a bar on a busy street and have a few plates of Spanish goodies and some red Rioja to wash it down. Well, we are in the capital of Rioja after all.

After a quiet afternoon, we walk this time back into town and see that it’s become very busy. In the square, there are a few floats set up ready to be carried on the shoulders of the penitents wearing hats and gowns. Their outfits are remarkably like the ones of the Ku Klux Klan, and it looks very strange to our eyes, but here it’s the dress and does not mean anything dodgy.

Each float has its own marching drum band, and soon it becomes very noisy. We watch for a good while, we have a good position near the front, and the crowd is now eight deep. Easter here is a bigger event than Christmas. These processions can go on for hours; in some parts of Spain, they have been known to go overnight!

After an hour, we feel we have seen enough. There is only so much drumming and heavy float lifting one can take, so we walk back to the van.

We’ve enjoyed our couple of days in Logroño, it’s a good-looking city that’s very well cared for, very neat, very tidy, with a lovely, relaxed atmosphere and a great free parking space for Jess to stay on. Tomorrow we will move on. 

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Saturday 4th April 2026 (Logroño to Burgos – 70 miles)

This morning, while we have been having our breakfast, the price of diesel at the local garage has gone up another 2 cents. We have a good view of the prices here on our spot, and in two nights we have been here, the price for a litre of Diesel has gone up 7 cents! Crazy…

After a full service, we set off, and soon we are away from the beautiful city of Logrono and on a free motorway heading west towards the city of Burgos. The drive is beautiful. We have clear blue skies today, and the scenery is very nice, very hilly and green. It changes from looking like parts of the Lake District to Switzerland. The motorways are free and excellent.

It’s a very lovely drive today. As the motorway snakes its way into the distance, we can make out the last snow of winter on the mountains in the distance.

Our drive today runs parallel, on occasion, with the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James). It’s a famous and popular walk. There are lots of people doing it today, it looks like hard work. Why? Well… people undertake the Camino de Santiago for a mix of spiritual, personal, and physical reasons. While rooted in religious tradition to visit St. James’s shrine, modern pilgrims often seek personal growth, mental clarity, physical challenges, cultural immersion, and social connection with fellow walkers. Well, so they say. We’ll take the motorway!

H has found us another free night’s stop in the city of Burgos. We have done well with free stops so far in Spain. They are well-equipped here and make it easy for motorhoming. We are soon parked up, and we quickly set off for the bus into town, which has an elaborate cathedral. We shall see.

Once we got off the bus, we are greeted by a monument to El Cid. You’ve heard of him, right? He was a medieval military leader who became a Spanish national hero. He was famous for his victorious campaigns against the Muslims and Christians, most notably conquering Valencia in 1094.

Here in Burgos, as we walk the old close-built streets which are lined with cafes and restaurants, the locals here are really into the coffee culture, and they do it so well. They are all busy outside, people sitting in the open sunshine, enjoying coffee, a glass of wine or a small beer just chatting away. It’s all rather nice, so we decide that we should do the same with a small beer.

We give the cathedral a miss inside. They want 11 euros to go inside, which, considering that most are free of charge, we think is a bit steep.

We do walk around it on the outside. It’s very ornate and impressive.

What we did find out is that Burgos is Spain’s coldest city. Didn’t feel like it today…

Back at Jess, H makes her first Paella of the trip… It is wonderful, made with spicy Spanish Chorizo and the biggest prawns ever.

Amazing. We finish the dinner off with some blue cheese with the wonderful Rioja wine that we bought in the town of Laguardia on Thursday. Excellent. The night ends with Del getting thrashed at cards. Ah, nothing changes…

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Sunday 5th April 2026 (Burgos to Buitrago del Lozoya – 103 miles)

We have scrambled eggs with salmon and toast for breakfast before a quick pack-up, a van service, and soon we are away from Burgos and back on the motorway heading due south.

Today, we will stop at Aranda de Duero, a small town which is supposed to be charming. Our drives are quite short these days, so it’s not too long before we are in the town and hunting down yet another free space for the night!

We finally find the parking space, but we are not too keen on it. It’s a bit cramped, and what we have seen of the town on the way in doesn’t really inspire us, unless of course you like old buildings covered in graffiti. We move on. Our next choice is to go to Buitrago del Lozoya.

Another lovely drive as we climb higher to just over 1000m above sea level. The scenery just gets better. As we get to 1400m, we see more snow-covered mountains off into the distance. The sun is shining, and we are doing 60 mph down a fabulous Spanish motorway. Smashing.

We are about 70 km north of Madrid, and H has found us a nice, quirky campsite/stop. It’s not far from the town of Buitrago del Lozoya. The guy who runs it is so friendly and charming.

The place is basically built from repurposed shipping containers, painted and refitted with toilets, showers and a kitchen. For 18 euros, you get a place for the night with electricity and all the services. It’s a great place.

Time to use those bikes that we have hauled all the way from East Cowes… They are off the back, checked through, tyres pumped up, and away we go for the short bike ride into town, which is very cute and very old.

Again, people are all out in the sunshine, drinking, chatting and now having lunch, another big social deal here in Spain.

Back at Jess, we will have our first al fresco dinner. It’s so peaceful and pleasant here. We get ahead and have early showers, clean the van and have dinner. A great day today. We are feeling a bit tired though, so bed early tonight.

The new mattress is excellent by the way…! 

To see more of Del’s photographs from the past week, have a look here…

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