Route Map
A route map of our trip to Spain, with the posts – predated so it shows before the trip when you select the category. [nwm_map id=”3″ zoom=”4″]
A route map of our trip to Spain, with the posts – predated so it shows before the trip when you select the category. [nwm_map id=”3″ zoom=”4″]
This year we had a three week May vacation so we decided to head to Spain in the camper. But as usual with our camper vacations, we didn’t get off to the start we wanted. The original idea was that I would leave on Monday with the kids and get to the Bordeaux area of France. I would then stay there on the beach for a couple of days before meeting Ivo in Bilbao on Friday. But then the delays…
The problem with being Dutch is that everything is very well regulated. Everyone eats at 6 pm and has the kids in bed at 8 pm. It works really well, as long as you’re in the Netherlands. When you go elsewhere, it’s cultural jet lag. Nowhere is it more true than in Spain, where no one eats until 8:30 at the very earliest, and kids don’t go to sleep until at least 10 pm, later on weekends. But our kids…
Figuring that the kids have about one cathedral in them per trip, we chose the one in Burgos. It’s a good choice, a World Heritage site, with enough ornateness to last us pretty much the entire trip. And the fact that we again had audio guides helped the kids keep interest for much longer than is normally the case. L was bored a lot sooner than K, who actually likes beautiful places and looking at pictures of Jesus. She’s actually…
The other side of switching to Spanish time and getting to bed late, is that we’re really getting a late start in the morning. Of course, as a night person, I’m OK with that. I’m actually pretty sure that my culture that best matches my body rhythm is Spanish. So, after catching two busses into the centre from the campsite, we were just in time for a late lunch (on Dutch time, perfectly normal lunch time for Spain). We decided…
Now completely done with cities, we decided to head for the beach. Well, maybe we’d hit just one more old city along the way – Toledo was supposed to be pretty impressive, the whole old city being a World Heritage Site – so we’d just stop there for a bit. It’s an ancient city influenced by all of the cultures who have held sway in Spain – the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors and the Spanish. After finding parking and…
We chose the campsite in Torre La Sal because it had a heated pool and was on the beach, but it was definitely the campground equivalent of the boring concrete boxes that line the Spanish Coast. Rows of identical spaces in straight lines, with little between them. And, like the concrete boxes, it was full of mostly retired and tanned Dutch, German and British couples down for the winter. And while some of the couples seemed to be getting out…