Espana

For those of you who know us well you will not be surprised to see that we changed our minds again and have decided to take in Spain and probably Portugal too

Reason being the weather is just so good!

We had almost forgotten what it was like to open the door in a morning and leave it open, the last few days here on the Spanish north east coast has been great reaching 22 Deg daytime and full sun

Anyway the trip down began with drama as usual...

Flamingos in the Camargue region

Three wheels on my wagon.....and not rolling along!

After spending a good night on an Aire near Port Vendres south of Perpignan we left bound for Spain

After 100m we discovered a rather large bolt in a rear tyre. Thank God it was still inflated

After sawing off the bolt head and visiting 3 garages in Perpignan, a small adventure in itself, we found Euromaster, big enough to take the job on

Of course after a good result we drove off only to hear loud clunking noises from the back of the van where in my mind the brake callipers where being treated to abuse

The 'team' above were not smiling like this when I returned all of 2 minutes later but after a quick inspection and lots of hand signals new balancing weights were fitted to the wheel and the thicker mutilated ones just fitted removed...learning curve for all of us, hence the relieved faces

Lookalikie fans would say the middle two were Martin Bills and Craig Wagstaff whom I realise most of you don't know but I do, so there!

Monserrat mountain range en route through northern Spain

BTW, The road network is the best I've ever driven on, apparently the whole country has just completed a 3 year road redevelopment programme

Almond trees in blossom

There are miles and miles of these. can you believe we are drinking fruit juice from the supermarket 

They taste better eaten straight from the tree, these are young orange trees in cultivation

The girl from Del England she say...yes!

Some oranges........yesterday

A private Aire in the middle of a nowhere with an excellent restaurant, we spent the next week hoping we'd fine more like this, alas no..

Can't bemoan a place till you've seen it so we drove through Benidorm, because it was there and en route. Concrete heaven for some....not us!

For a week we followed the coastal route then inland after deciding this region was not for us

Portugal was our next objective as we knew the weather was just as good

The Sierra Nevada from the north side 

The countryside round this region is beautiful enough but a lack of facilities for motorhomes and uninteresting villages pushed us eastwards

Miles and miles of olive groves

The village of Archidona, north of Malaga, was more like it though with tapas bars and a old village feel steeped in history

We are aware that there are numerous such Andalucian villages worth a visit and would make great days out for tourists on the southern coast

The message is clear here...smoking cigarettes will help you become as fit as a rock climber!

The town's main bar served excellent tapas