Vino!

Well we made it to Valencia! Before leaving Zaragoza a few days ago, we had a quick look around the city - and its an amazing contrast of the old and the new! And all slapped in the middle of what looks like a huge desert! Anyway, we got through the mountains and the landscape immediately changed into a much more lush looking country. Very green and leafy and lots of cute looking villages dotted throughout the landscape.

We made it to Valencia around 4pm, got settled into our campground and headed straight for the beach - and walked through the dunes onto the sand - the boys charging ahead of course, straight into some topless sunbathers, and got an eyeful. Thankfully these young ladies were thoughtful enough to put there tops back on in the presence of children! Haha!

So anyway, the campground itself is not quite what we hoped for, there is a supermarket on site, which is closed, bar and restaurant on site - also closed, and an amazing looking swimming pool on site - ALSO closed! The site really only consists of spaces to park campers, and pitch tents, but no grassy areas for the kids to run round on either! So yesterday while Glen started his conference and when we had some "down"time, the kids were quite bored. We walked half a mile up the road to the local village to get some fresh produce, gave the campervan a good clean, and then headed back across the road to the beach to cool off a bit. Only Xanthe Lucas and I braved the Mediterranean Sea, which was actually beautifully warm to swim in! Then Glen got back at around 9pm, and we walked back to the village to find some dinner. We found a lovely wee restaurant with great service, and the waiters, despite having only very basic knowledge of the English language, had great fun with the kids! So the kids were all able to enjoy some roast chicken and chips, followed by icecream, while Glen and I could relax with a glass of wine! Yum!

There is one upside to this "boring" campsite, we have befriended the local cat - pure black of course, looks just like our cat Sooty, only its a boy. The kids even bought it some cat food, and it has been making itself very much at home in our campervan. Well, that is until Glen returns from the conference and kicks it out! The kids have named it Benji! The kids have also been fascinated with the Salamanders that come out at night at the campsite too. They are attracted to the lamps outside, and one of the guests there gave the kids a lesson on the lifestyle of a Salamader - how much of his poor English they understood I'm not sure, but what we managed to understand, is that the heat of the lamp is good for their skin. Well, at least that what we think he said!

Anyway, today is our second full day is Valencia, and the kids and I are downtown doing some shopping, looking around, and hopefully visiting the aquarium which looks amazing from the outside. Also the science centre looks amazing so we might come back in to town again tomorrow to look at that. But first on our priority list today is to visit a chemist, as our campsite is swarming with sandflies and we are all very itchy - especially Xanthe who is allergic to insect bites - she's had quite a nasty reaction to them!

We don't have internet/wi-fi at our campsite, so we are meeting Glen during his breaks, and taking advantage our the wi-fi at the convention centre, to make contact. So please don't feel neglected if we don't personally reply to all the emails we have received. We have read all the comments, emails etc, but only limited opportunity to respond at the moment. We have another full day here tomorrow, and then on Saturday we drive to Barcelona. Hopefully we will have wi-fi there, and the kids will be able to respond to their friends.