December 12 to 17

Our next stop, Valencia, provided us with one of the strongest winds we have experienced so far. It was so strong that even when going downhill in our bikes we still had to pedal through!

The city is.... I don't know how to describe it. While I love the "old town" (as always) and we had fun in the fresh food market; I find the "art and science" buildings so over the top! Massive set of construction, all resembling fish theme- tons and tons of water around...I guess the best of these cities are the huge amount of coffee shops, restaurants and bars;  all of them so alive.

We left after 1 day and we settle in Calpe; which I really like...enough buildings to be vibrant and yet a sense of small town and a super mountain that we climbed and conquered! And a very "motorhome friendly" place, with lots of places to park and sleep...yuppyy!!

Benidorm definitely not our type of place...a very beautiful long promenade, fine white sand but the buildings... oh! so many buildings and plenty of them in very poor condition... and cheap shops everywhere and lots and lots of people who come here in hordes escaping the cold winter of their countries (Germany, Netherlands, England)

I can't say that I know Alicante that well, as we spent only 1.5 days there. But we visited the most important place, a castle of Arabic foundation but influenced by a baroque style on top of a mountain. You can see the whole city from there. I can see why people will choose to live here. Plenty of interesting little streets with  distinctive balconies - all on black iron, a big fresh food market, the old town and a clean and nice modern city.

And then we hit the jackpot (or we thought we did...). Arrived at night at Playa del Pinet (La Marina) and slept looking at the ocean, on the sand, free internet and all!. A one only cute line of fisherman houses- all empty at this time of the year. Woke up in the morning, 10 km of sandy beach and a very pleasant sunny day inviting us for a run. And we run! In the afternoon we noticed a big sign saying motorhomes not allowed :(