Once again these pictures are all in the wrong order.. one day I will get this thing sorted...
Left is Coraleen in one of tiny streets winding up to the top of Morella which seemed to go on forever .. but actually was only 1173 metres up!!
Above right is Coraleen in the main street of Tarragona.. another beautiful little town on the eastern coast of Spain.. and more beautiful weather.
Above is the view of the town of Morella from the valley below where we stopped and chatted to a couple from Thames.. only to proove it is really a small world. And to the right one of the beautiful bell towers at the top of Morella.
And to the left... another one in the Town of Tarragona.
Travelling north west to visit some of the hilltowns once again we came across another couple, this time from Thames. They were in their 60´s and retired and were travelling through France and Spain for two months camping although mostly free camping (they told us a story about meeting some snakes.. live ones at that!!) and enjoying the simplicity of it all. Sorry.. not for us!
The first hilltop town we came across looked gorgeous so we stopped on theside of a mountain.. read steep incline.. to take some pictures.. not a goodlook when lorries were roaring past us at 100kms an hour! Moving right along to Morella with a disintegrating castle 1173 metres high we found a Hostal for the night and went out exploring after an interesting lunch of something that was called meat but defintely tasted like squid, the colour of squid, shaped like a crab with feelers and was soft and squishy like squid... and it tasted divine.. and washed down with some local beer I certainly had no complaints. We started out walking up hundreds of steps ... I kid you not.. there were hundreds of the blighters.. only to realise we were then at the base of the castle. Never fear.. we were up to it (even though my right knee has given up the ghost but a few voltaren could fix that) we plodded on. And plodding it was as we were inland with no breeze and I swear the temperature was at least 39 degrees. The walk to the top of the castle didnt seem so bad as the steps were circular and the view on the way just amazing, stopping to take pictures of the bell tower, an old bull ring and the view we soon found we had less than 100 steps to go!! At this stage I gave up and let Coraleen do the last bit on her own. I stayed below and took a picture of her at the top just to proove one of us did it. It was amazing even if the castle was disintegrating. Believe me we slept well that night in the cool of the Hostal even though it wasnt airconditioned.´ As the town in general is at such a high altitude it was actually cold at night and we took our Polar Fleeces out once again. There was nothing much to do in the evening except have a drink at the local but definitely worth the visit.
That was our tourist day so the following morning we headed back towards theCoast to stay on the beach. We stayed three nights in Tarragona whichis 86kms south of Barcelona and spent two days laying on the beach. We decided we deserved it. After all we couldnt go to Ibiza or rather werent prepared to spend the money to go - its sooo expensive. The ferry fare alone, without Molly was $300NZ each return. Tarragona was our first time we actually camped and didnt do too bad. Me in my little tent and Coraleen in the van. We managed to get the awning up and the tent and the airbed and even sorted out the power. Last time we turned the power on and then plugged in the jug for a coffee and blew out the campsite!! This time we had learnt.. take the jug to the showers and boil it.. not in the van. There is a few touristy things to do here although mainly its the seaside. Our campground is about 1km long and 250m wide between the sea and yes, you guessed it... the main trunk railway line on the East Coast. We have learnt in our short time here the Spanish dont value their coast line as every campground has been on either the train line or the motorway and Tarragona has both. Thank god for ear plugs is all I can say. Oh and yes... no nude men on the beach so all is well. We are now looking for a campground in Barcelona although they seem few and far between.
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