Week 11 – Banyoles (ES) to Granada (ES)

After a fresh run around the Beslau lake, we explored a few little places in Spain – starting with the Roman and Greek ruins of Empúries (well worth the €3 entry), the town of L’Escala, and finally the small walled medieval village of Peratallada where we hid for the night.  So far, this part of Spain has some really nice scenery and views – a rather pleasant surprise.  After wasting a morning in Girona out-of-town shopping areas for a spare laptop power supply (Thanks to MotorhomeFacts for the location of shop!), as the sun was hot we headed to the coast to Lloret de Mar and then on to Blanes where we were able to spend the night next to the sea.  The “Costas” are living up to their image with a bunch of British lads playing football on the beach, being typical “brits on tour”, trying to get the girls to “get their t**ts out”.  Hilariously living up to reputation!

We left Blanes to head to the Monestir de Montserrat and managed to stumble across parking for a funicular railway which seemed the simplest way of getting to the top.  The ride was most impressive and the views at the top were great.  The monastery basilica and the workmanship inside was spectacular and probably should be a Spanish must-see.  God knows what the 1960’s architects did to ruin the super views though!  Muppets.  From here we had to make headway and drove a few hours towards our next area to visit around Morella.  We overnight in Asco as they provided free area for us, but really it was a nothing place and we’d have moved on if we had time.

On arriving at Morella we bumped into some friends who we met in Holland and randomly bumped into in Italy.  Bit of a bizarre coincidence as we knew they were heading to Morocco with us in a week or so, but actually bumping into them in was quite unexpected and very nice.  Morella has provided a superb free aire, and the place itself is worth seeing – really very well presented old walled town with a much warmer feel than most.  We popped to the old villages of Forcall and Mirambel for a look around, and Mirambel looked tatty but was really rather good once inside the village walls.  After a social and drinking evening we left via different routes to Jalance for no other reason that it was located in the right place and had motorhome facilities.  The drive did present some stunning scenery, but Jalance itself was just “yet another walled town” though the view from the top of the castle was good.

Frustratingly we were unable to find any supermarkets or even any shops for any food whatsoever let alone an ice-cream we most definitely deserved.  This did mean our tea was based on dregs – but we didn’t touch the emergency rations of supernoodles.

After filling with water and emptying the waste we headed to Ubeda.  The roads were as straight as an arrow and with so many new and unfinished roads TomTom had a problem – even on the latest maps.  We visited a few villages but found nothing special and most things were closed, and those on hilltops had little parking, so we got to Ubeda fairly late.  The scenery however is quite beautiful with hills, flats, rocks, and organised olive and orange trees.  Due to it being a Sunday we were unable to get any more food, so the cupboard was scoured and we managed a cous-cous dish and the emergency supernoodles remained.

Ubeda seemed to have something going on in the evening but we were unable to fathom out what or where it was.  The town itself though was lovely and well worth a visit and a good walk around.  We found somewhere quiet to hide the night near a Carrefour ready for a shop in the morning. Low and behold Carrefour and every other shop remained closed and we realised it was an Andalucian bank holiday!  After another tour around the impressive Ubeda we headed to Baeza which again was rather good and worth a look, but again everything closed.  With nowhere to hide the night we headed to a campsite near Granada to simply do laundry and get ready for some more snowboarding, planning to go via an LPG station and supermarket (assuming they are open!) before heading up the mountains.

We ended week 11 enjoying the inland part of Spain a lot more than the coast – though it is a vast country with lots of nothingness along the way.  And for tea we ended up with, yep, supernoodles.

Click here to go to week 12