Slowing the pace down

As we leave Granada we take a last look at the snow capped mountains that surround the city.  Drive through fields of artichokes and wonder they really can eat that many!  Later we did see some dried and dyed for floral arrangements which is probably a better way to use them!  This time we are on the northern side of the Sierra Nevadas and they are very different to the southern side.  Drier and arrid and we can picture the spagetti westerns being filmed there back in the 60's and 70's.  There is even a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.  Head directly east round Lorca and Murcia, Alicante and Valencia making it to Alcossebre at 7.30 pm.  We chose Playas de Tropicana, right on the beach.  It has it's own supermarcado which closes on the dot of 8pm as we try to enter to get essentials for dinner.

  We are very travel weary so decide to lash out and go to the very posh looking restaurant in the camp ground.  The fresh pizza and chicken breast in rockequefort sauce, salad and a jug of sangria sooth us well followed by the complimentry shots of pineapple vodka!  As Monday will be a public holiday ( 1st May) we decide to stay put and veg out.  The van goes to the car wash, the oil is checked and topped up and we walk on the beach.  The camp ground is very busy but very leafy with mulberry and olive trees.  Andrew exchanges the novel I have finished for the one and only one in English left for exchange in the men's shower block!  It turns out to be a very good one too and seems to be unread.

Next morning I knock out the ants from the very tasty, uncooked sausages we had in last night's dinner and cook up a breakfast.  Pack up and locate the 2nd hole in the air mattress which we patch.  Head to Barcelona .  We pass through areas of flat lands along the coast which appear to be National Parkls.  Then we have mountains and castles built on every strategic hill.