Spain Archives - Sandals N Socks

Tarifa

Grant Williams — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 08:30:56 +0000

After my city break in Cadiz I was in the need of a bit of beach time, I’d seen a place called Bolonia beach so off I went. The drive was great, nice roads that ended in a drive over a small mountain and dropping down into the village of Bolonia.

I can imagine when there’s some wind or waves this would be a surfer of kite paradise, parking is as close to being on the beach as you can get and the beach is fantastic, clean golden sand.

Just off the sand there’s a Roman archaeological site with buildings, roads and squares and the pis de resistance, an amphitheater, not quite good as Side in Turkey, but certainly a fantastic site.

On the headland is the quarry where the Romans got the stone to build their town.

After a couple of days exploring in Bolonia I moved a couple of miles along the coast to another great beach, again parking right on the beach. Spent a couple of days here, even did some fishing! There was even some beach art.

Tarifa town itself was quite busy, good place to do shopping, laundry, empty the necessary and get some water, all the above done I carried on to Estepona.

The post Tarifa appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Cadiz

Grant Williams — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 17:47:20 +0000

On the way to Cadiz I had a rest break at Praia do Barril, great little place, a vast nature reserve, fantastic beach and home to the ‘Anchor Graveyard’

Lunch and a walk and it was onward to Cadiz.

Cadiz is somewhere I think most people have heard of, I always remember it cropping up in old movies with pirates or adventurers, but I didn’t really know where it was, well not when I was younger. Parking was on the mainland side of the, rather impressive, bridge linking Cadiz with the rest of Spain, and believe it or not you can walk over the bridge: seemed silly not to.

The bridge is 3km long and the walk is along the service road, like having a two lane road all to yourself, I only saw 2 bikes.

Cadiz has a modern shopping area, a very large port and a fantastic old town. Apparently it’s the oldest inhabited city in europe and the place just drips history. The narrow winding streets open out into squares and public spaces, and little shops fronts and street vendors are everywhere.

The market hall.

In the middle of the old town is the public market building which was full of life. I was there on a Sunday, so not sure if it’s always so busy, I should imagine so, The market has wine merchants selling wine obviously, bars, cafes and deli counters, what seemed to be happening was one person went off and got wine or beer or perhaps coffee, another went along the deli counters getting olives, cheese or cured meats, they then got together at a table and that was lunch sorted, such a fantastic atmosphere.

The ‘seaward’ side of the city has a great promenade and beaches. A real must visit place.
The view from my parking spot

The post Cadiz appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Madrid

willis — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 10:08:59 +0000

Madrid

Because Dom wanted to catch an early coach to Benidorm we set off for Madrid from Segovia around 8am, apparently Dom didn’t realise there was an 8 in the morning as well! Not the fastest train but we were soon there, we just needed to find the coach station now! It turned out not to be a problem, the main route through the city would take us there, unfortunately it was on the other side of the city, oops!

We decided to walk and take in the sights on the way.

It probably wont surprise you to find out it’s a really busy city and not just around the attractions, there are cars and people everywhere, but surprisingly not in the parks and gardens, and there’s plenty of green space.

There are the obvious places to visit, museums etc, but there are little things to find all over the place; most roundabouts (and there are lots) seem to have a statue or fountain on, winding back streets lead to small squares full of people sitting outside the bars and cafes chatting and generally watching the world go by.

Some of the sculptures are a bit bewildering, but there seemed to something new at every turn.

I’m not sure if this poor lady had drunk too much wine or had forgotten where she’d parked!

Why? this has got to be one of the strangest ones I saw, and this is the polite angle!

Even the buildings have a style of their own.

Cat wanted to get in on the action

They’ve even got a football team, who knew?

There are loads more things to see and do, if I told you everything we got up to it’d get boring,!

The post Madrid appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Monte De Facho

willis — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 09:30:10 +0000

Monte De Facho

With no particular destination in mind we went exploring the coast road around the peninsula between the estuary’s of Ria De Pontevedra and Ria De Vigo. Dom was in charge of navigation and decided we’d visit a lighthouse, well t was something to do.

30 minutes of great, scenic roads later we arrived at a parking area, right on a headland overlooking the Illas Cies (Cies islands) what a view, the drive was worth it just for that. On a notice board in the car park there was something (in Spanish) about some archaeological site and it seemed silly not to investigate.

The walk wasn’t long but the path was really uneven, made up of large boulders, and was uphill! my favourite!!

It turned out to be a really cool dig site exploring an iron age village, although no excavations had been done for a few years it was still a work in progress.

Plenty to explore here, they’ve even recreated what one of the ‘houses’ would have looked like.

The post Monte De Facho appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Road Trip Sound Track

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:09:10 +0000

Road Trip Sound Track

Well we’re a month in and have done well over 1,000 miles, but still loads to go. A part of being on a road trip like this is the lack of distractions like tv. We’ve watched all of Game Of Thrones, only because I hadn’t seen any of it and was feeling a bit left out, a few movies but not much else.

One of the best things is having the time to revisit all that music you’ve not heard for years, but still think is great. As I write this we’re listening to ‘Hotter Than July’ not played it since the late 80’s, it’s even better than I remember!!

Artists on our play list range from Dire Straits and the Eagles through absolutely everyone from the 80’s right to Hendrix and the Beatles, we’ve even got Christine and the Queens amongst other up to date stuff. Dom seems to be enjoying listening to artists he’s never even heard of, even if they’re not quite up his street.

So remember if you’re planning a long road trip take plenty of music, including stuff you don’t know.

The post Road Trip Sound Track appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Arcade

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 14:16:24 +0000

Arcade

Our journey South, towards Portugal, has brought us to the town of Arcade. It’s not a huge place, but it’s very picturesque and very Spanish.

The aire is right on the waterfront, next to a little park with children’s play areas, skate park and small football pitch. During the day the area is a haven for the more senior members of the community, walking, jogging (mostly going just a bit faster than the walkers) and generally relaxing, but in the early evening it attracts the families, with all generations joining in with the fun and games.

It’s great to watch this part of Spanish life as the community comes together to relax. A couple of minutes walk into the town and we found another square buzzing with life, the sound of laughter and chat being far preferable to music being pumped from bars as you tend to get in the more tourist areas.

The post Arcade appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Cabo Fisterra

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 13:18:07 +0000

Cabo Fisterra

Cabo Fisterra, or Finisterre if you’ve ever listened to the shipping forecast, is the one of most Westerly points in Spain, and was once considered as the end of the world by the Romans, today it’s the final point for many pilgrims walking the way of St. James.

Even Cat wanted to get in on the act, but it was a bit windy!

We didn’t stay long as the wind and rain were really closing in, but you can appreciate why the Romans thought it was the end of the world, especially on a day like we had.

The post Cabo Fisterra appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Caion

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 13:06:52 +0000

Caion

After our time in the city of A Coruna we needed some quiet time so headed off for Caion. It’s a great aire, set amongst the pine trees and literally on the beach.

I found a nice spot on one of the rocks and was so chilled I ended up sitting there for hours watching the tide coming in. what a way to recharge your batteries!

Watching the tide come in

While watching the tide you notice all sorts of things:

Unfortunately on day 2 the weather changed and we had rain, and the forecast said it was going to be with us for a couple of days. So not being a fan of sitting on a rock in the rain we decided to find something more interesting to do.

The post Caion appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

A Coruna

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 12:46:08 +0000

A Coruna

We were parked up around 6k from A Coruna in a nice little fishing harbour, and having driven through the city on our way here thought it would be a good idea to walk in, luckily there was a path.

The city sits on a headland and has 2 ‘shores’; believe it or not a West and North shore! and at the tip of the headland the ‘Pillar of Hercules’, a large lighthouse open to the public.

It soon became obvious that this is a really busy place, and not just with tourists. The West shore has a great, sandy beach a couple of k long, popular with the locals for the usual beach stuff, and it’s only a few meters from the city.

Wandering through the streets is a treat, with old and new buildings, narrow streets and wide avenues and of course squares to sit and rest your feet in.

The main square, or ‘Plaza Mayor’ has bars and cafes on three sides and the official building on the other, but most of the space was cordoned off, we weren’t absolutely sure what for but this should have given us a clue.

A 2 minute walk from the square brings you to the North shore which is the main marina and port, and what a place, you really need to visit to get the true feel of the place. There’s a wide promenade lined with bars, cafes and restaurants, loads of general relaxing space, and the whole place just ‘buzzed’

The day we were visiting there was a cruise ship moored at one of the docks, about 100m from the prom, what a sight. I’ve seen cruise ships in cities before, but not literally in the middle of everything, it must have been great waking up on-board and realising where you were.

Just along from the cruise liner was the reason for the Plaza Mayor being cordoned off; a rally. It was marshalling day so cars were coming and going, some stopping for spectators to ogle at, but most just coming in for the checks and then going for a spin around the town, and that went on well into the night.

Some more wandering and we found our way to the lighthouse, originally built by the Romans, but it’s had some work done since then!

To appreciate A Coruna fully you need to visit, we were blessed with great weather, especially for October, but even on a dull day it’s well worth the time.

Just a few pictures of A Coruna

The post A Coruna appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Foz: Spain

willis — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 14:40:20 +0000

Having now travelled around 200km along the north coast of Spain in a reasonably small camper van, stopping at various surfing beaches, hiking through woodland areas and generally exploring the Spanish countryside, all in the company of my son Dom, has made me appreciate the important things in life.

Some people seek companionship, the support of another to see them through the day, maybe just the sense of belonging to something is all that’s needed, food and shelter go without saying, but high on our priority list is one of the simplest of things ……. A hot shower!

Today our prayers were answered: in the small town of Foz we found a municipal swimming pool, although we couldn’t use the pool because we didn’t have swimming caps, we could use the showers etc ….. Luxury! Oh we also found a launderette: the simple pleasures of life on the road.

This place (Foz) is great, there’s a large sandy beach, a little harbour, plenty of shops and bars and the Aire (motor home parking) is right on the waters edge, certainly one of the best views we’ve so far had from the van (picture above).

On the way here we stopped at a few spots, all great. In Navia there’s an outdoor sports are with football pitch, cycle track and running track(s), and in the main car park is the changing rooms, which also appear to be a youth club that the users (we assume) have ‘decorated’ with some great graffiti: this is just one of three buildings.

Spotted this camper yesterday, we’ve not seen many older than ours, and although I don’t know how old this one was it certainly looked older.

We do tend to stand out among the ‘posh’ vans, some costing more than a small house, but it’s normally us that people take notice of, perhaps it’s just their shock that we’ve made it this far: little do they know we’ve 1,000’s of miles still to go.

In he same town that we saw the old van we also came across a large church with the doors open, so we took a peak. The main church was a bit plain but around the walls were various scenes, almost like individual alters, quite beautiful.

It didn’t seem like the church was normally open to the public so we had a quick look around and thought it better we left, but as we were leaving I said to Dom that knowing our luck the doors were open because of a special event, a wedding perhaps, but oh no worse: this was parked outside.

I don’t think you can make out the writing on the van, but yes you guessed it, we were in the middle of a funeral!

Not sure what the next few days will bring, but the forecast is good and now that we don’t smell (quite as bad) and we’ve got plenty of clean clothes it doesn’t really matter.

The post Foz: Spain appeared first on Sandals N Socks.