Leaving Barcelona, we headed east. It was getting late and we really needed to take a couple of days to reorganize, sort slides, answer emails, etc., so when we spotted an off the beaten track campground, we turned left. Soon we arrived at Camping Riudarenes, a quiet RV park in the woods. There were many stationary campers whose owners live in Barcelona and they use it as a weekend retreat. It wasn’t busy this late in the season but there were a few hardy souls on this rainy weekend. Of course our truck attracted everyone’s attention and in particular Antonio, a mechanic. We patiently answered all his questions and gave the whole family a tour.

On Sunday early afternoon, he knocked on the door and invited us to a traditional Catalan fall barbecue called a Calçotada. Calçots are a particular type of green onions that are grown like leek. They are basically scorched in a brush fire and served with an interesting sauce (called Salsa Calçots) made from tomatoes, almonds, chili and who knows what. It’s quite tricky to eat these onions properly. You pull the inner leaves out, dip them in the sauce and feed them into your mouth. Antonio also barbecued some local chorizo and blood sausage.

Once the weekenders had left, we were busy in The Turtle, taking advantage of the good Wi-Fi connection. During a break in the rain, we took a short walk and the owner of the campground, Quirze Clopes, spotted us on his video surveillance monitor. Quirze graciously invited us into his cave/workshop/kitchen, and soon we found ourselves eating bread, local cheese and sausage and drinking his homemade barrel wine. His wife Isabel Masjuan joined us and it was another party.

To display more photos we are adding the photo gallery feature. Please click on the first thumbnail (which is not the entire picture) to enlarge it and then use the arrows below the photos to view others. Anytime you wish to return to the blog, just click on the photo. Captions will only display below the thumbnails.

Arriving in Barcelona, we had three goals: Finding a safe parking place for The Turtle V, and revisiting both the Mercat (Market) de la Boqueria and the Basilica La Sagrada Familia.

Carefully following our GPS instructions, we spent a good half-hour wandering around in circles following one-way streets through the chaotic traffic until we finally found a parking lot that had room for large vehicles. It was just a few blocks from the Metro that brought us right to the city center. Strolling down the famous pedestrian boulevard La Rambla, we came to our first destination, the Boqueria Market. It was as colorful and varied as we remembered and we had fun taking pictures and tasting some local specialties.

Fortunately, the waiting line at the Basilica La Sagrada Família was pretty short but we highly recommend making reservations online to avoid a possible three-hour wait in the hot sun. Get an audio guide (it’s worth the price) and bring a second set of headphones that you can plug in for additional listeners.

Basilica La Sagrada Família – Source: Wikipedia. The cranes were digitally removed. Photo 9/2009

While construction started in 1882, Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí took over the project a year later. After his death in 1926, things progressed slowly. Monika vividly remembers the building looking like a bombed out church when she visited in 1966 with her family. Obviously that was not the case. It was an enormous church in construction that was started decades earlier. Our last visit was in 1997. Since then, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the basilica in front of over 56,000 people with a mass on November 7, 2010. Now, only 12 years away from the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death, construction is at full speed with paying visitors funding the project. The goal is to finish the church by 2016.

Luck brought us there on a sunny afternoon. The light reflections through the stain glass windows were beautiful and forever changing. Even more amazing was to realize that Gaudí had created this light show on purpose. Everywhere we turned we discovered something unique, often inspired by nature, and we can’t wait to see it when this amazing building is finished.

Torre Agda, affectionately called the Easter Egg.

As we walked back to our home-on-the-road, an icy wind whipped dry leaves across the busy boulevard in front of the colorful 21st century Agbar tower. Fall was in the air.

Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria

 Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família

During our visit to St Cirq Lapopie, France, we had met Pablo and Cris, a nice couple from Santa Coloma de Cervelló near Barcelona who invited us to stop by on our way east. They kept insisting the nearby Colónia Güell was a very special place we absolutely had to see.

We found safe parking right in front of their condominium. It seemed that everyone walking by, from 8 to 80, took a picture of the truck. Pablo emailed us later that half the town was talking about our Turtle!

We spent two very enjoyable evenings with them and their friends and did indeed visit the nearby Colónia Güell, a company town founded by leading industrialist Count Eusebi Güell. As a patron of Catalan arts and literature, he hired his friend Antoni Gaudí in 1890 to help him create his vision of a better environment for his textile workers. The factory itself was equipped with the latest technology of that time, and it was famous for velvet and corduroys.

In designing the town, several architects assisted Gaudí but he personally undertook the design of the church.

Only the crypt was finished by the time Count Güell died in 1918 and his sons had no interest in further financing Gaudí’s project. Strolling through the very informative museum, we learned that the crypt incorporated almost all of his architectural innovations which he later utilized designing the Basilica La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The crypt is considered a benchmark for studying the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.

La Colónia Güell today is no longer a factory town but many of its inhabitants are descendants of the original workers. As our friends said, it is indeed a very special place and was well worth the visit.

Cris and Pablo (on right) and their friends Gerard and Ciara prepared a typical Catalan dinner for us. It was a lively evening.

A church born upside down. This is a simplified reproduction of Gaudí’s catenarian model in search of natural shapes for the temple.

This typical street of Colónia Güell reminded us of England.

A modernistic staircase adorns the outside wall of this house.

La Colónia Güell sports many architecturally interesting buildings.

Antoni Gaudí’s Crypt incorporates many of his architectural inventions.

This beautiful stain glass window opened its two wings just like a butterfly.

Every way you turned, Gaudi’s Crypt was full of architectural surprises.

Gaudí was a keen observer of nature. The structural columns resemble trees in a forest.

Above the entrance of the crypt were many religious symbols.

Gaudí’s imagination allowed him to create shapes that many would call outrageous.

The decorative grates and screens on the windows were recycled sewing needles from the textile factory.

The building technique of the entrance area was fascinating.

Gaudí chose materials from many different sources including misshaped bricks and slag from a nearby smelter.

Typical of Gaudi’s creations. Why not use a giant clam shell to hold the blessed water?

FRIENDS AND FAMILY, FAR AND NEAR

WE HAVE ARRIVED IN TUSCANY, ITALY

FROM WHERE WE WISH YOU A WONDERFUL MERRY CHRISTMAS.

GARY AND MONIKA

THE TURTLE EXPEDITION, UNLTD.

Merry Christmas Greetings from Gary and Monika, and The Turtle.

Across the miles we send this wish
 for a Christmas full of cheer,

And love, luck and happiness
 for a healthy New Year!

Note: We are in the South of France near the Italian border. We’ll bring you up to speed with a new segment of blogs soon –  after Christmas.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Today, when Swiss light the fourth candle on their Advent wreaths and Nevada City has the last of its famous Victorian Christmas markets, we too brought a little pre-Christmas spirit into our Turtle home. A small Poinsettia, The Turtle and a simple arrangement are decorating the table. The four candles are lit and the little red Christmas tree is reflecting in their light. We are sipping a glass of French wine and enjoying a piece of Italian Panettone. Christmas music is playing in the background. As you can see, we are safe, warm and content…..

Pre-Christmas season in the South of France is mellower than in the States. City streets are decorated and grocery stores are displaying all the traditional Christmas foods like fois gras (f. ex. goose liver), pain d’épis (spice bread), peeled canned chestnuts, oysters in baskets, escargot (stuffed snails), lobster, scallops, sea urchin, crab and giant shrimp, lamb, rabbit, goose, Bûche de Noël (Yule log), panettone, seasonal soft cheeses, dried fruit and nuts, chocolates, etc. What’s lacking is the constant drizzle of Christmas music. We certainly don’t miss it.

On Christmas Eve, Père Noël (Father Christmas) also enters the homes through the chimney but he does not seem to have the luxury of a reindeer-pulled sled instead, he arrives with a donkey named Gui (French for Mistletoe). Children fill their shoes full of carrots and treats for Gui. Père Noël takes their offerings and replaces them with small gifts. Now we understand why we have spotted Santas clinging on a rope from windows and balconies…..we think it’s not the Mediterranean diet that keeps him slim but all the rope climbing….

We were fascinated with all the tempting gourmet foods on display in the supermarkets.

Escaping from the flock of Snowbirds and the super resort city of Benidorm, we arrived in Jávea (Xabia) by evening and rather than search for a campground—that turned out to be closed for the winter—we found safe parking on the rocky coast. Just about to prepare dinner, the young Brit Oliver we had met earlier stopped by with his girlfriend Anastasia and their little girl Anneliese. We presented her with a cozy polar bear named Bertrand, a token from the Espar Company who provides our diesel heaters.

Soon after they left, the Austrian Schebesta family stopped to admire the truck and in short order invited us to park in front of their home where we had access to water, internet and electrical power. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and cannot thank them enough for their spontaneous hospitality.

We found safe parking on the rocky coast of Jávea.

Oliver and his girlfriend Anastasia stopped to say hello.

Little Anneliese had a big smile on her face when she received Bertand, the Espar bear.

Monty spoke perfect English and had a thousand questions about our truck. Off to school he went.

We thoroughly enjoyed our brief stay with the Schebesta family. Parking in front of their beautiful home, they provided us with water, internet access and electrical power.

A joint dinner with the Schebesta family was a great way to become instant friends!

With our grey water tank nearly full and our freshwater tank almost empty, we headed north to Aguilas to resupply. Leaving Cabo de Gata and the Costa Almería, we drove north on good highways towards the super resort city of Benidorm on Spain’s famous Costa Blanca.

We stopped for the night at a beach recommended by fellow travelers, Playa del Pinet, which turned out to be a parking area along a side street. Looking like an RV dealership, it was a winter haven for Dutch, Swedish, French and German snowbirds. We grabbed an available spot and spent a quiet night, but it was no place to linger. Others would spend a couple of months there.

It was interesting to see the difference between the European RVers and those we know in the States. There were virtually no tag-alongs, but everyone had either a small 2-passenger motor scooter or cycle or at least bicycles on the back, sometimes electric ones. No trailers or 5th wheels. No slide-outs. These were relatively small coaches built on Fiat, Ford, Renault or Peugeots with 4-cylinder diesel engines. Almost everyone had a satellite dish for television and an array of solar panels. Most of the lighting inside was LED. Virtually everyone uses cassette toilets since in Europe there are very few if any places where you could use a hose to dump 25 gallons of black water.

Benidorm announced itself from far away. Negotiating the main drag of Benidorm, we were glad it was not the height of the summer season. Monika remembered her first visit to Benidorm in 1966 when there was only one high-rise building. Now there was a forest of condos. Still, the beach is beautiful and we could see the reason for the town’s popularity.

Once a sleepy beach town, Benidorm is now a super resort city with a forest of high-rise condos and the largest discothèque in Europe.

We could not imagine what the traffic would be like during the height of the summer season.

The Benidorm main beach was world class.

Playa del Pinet turned out to be a parking area along a side street for European Snowbirds. It looked like an RV dealership.

Many Snowbirds had either a small 2-passenger motor scooter or a motorcycle to get around. There were no “tag-alongs”.

Bicycles were also popular. Many were electric.

This three-axle coach was about the maximum size we saw, and they were rare. No one had “slide-outs”.

Solar panels were a must. This foldout set was claimed to produce 120 watts for 350 Euros ($473.00).

Despite strict rules differentiating “camping” with “parking”, (no chairs, awning, tables, BBQs, etc.), some people pushed the law.

Cabo de Gata Coast is dotted with numerous deserted coves and beaches, but not all allow camping with self-contained motorhomes. Following a tortuous third-gear highway with numerous hairpins, we climbed over a coastal mountain ridge and descended again to the sea leaving the Nature Park behind us and entering the Costa Blanca region.

We had the coordinates for La Higuerica, but unfortunately it placed the beach out in the middle of the ocean. Hummm! Since we knew it was a short way south of  the town of Aguilas, after a couple of dead ends we found it and followed a dirt track to the prettiest little cove and beach we had seen thus far. It was no secret. There were at least a dozen snowbirds from all over Europe parked when we arrived.

Birds of a feather flock together and we soon made friends with several Brits headed for Morocco in their four-wheel-drive expedition trucks. Actually one of the girls was Swiss so Monika had a good time chatting in her own language.

Our first night there was tainted by a horrendous windstorm with blowing sand and dust. Certainly made us glad we were not in a pop-up camper. If we had been, we would’ve had to put the top down. In the morning the sky was clear. The calm water was much colder than our last camp. We took a quick dip just to make sure and then returned to our camper for a hot shower.

In the evening, we all sat together and swapped travel stories. Similarly, there were other group gatherings, each in a different language: German, Dutch, Swedish, Belgian and French. We would have loved to stay a little longer but our camper batteries were still low and we were out of water. Off we went in search for another pretty place along the Costa Blanca.

The third-gear serpentine highway over a coastal mountain ridge was a work of engineering.

The little Cove of La Higuerica was the prettiest we had seen along this coast.

This part of the Costa Blanca Coastline is dotted with numerous coves and beaches.

We met Daniela (Swiss) and Kevin and other Brits headed for Morocco. It was tempting to join them.

Another amazing sunset over Spain with the Mediterranean to our backs.

Moving up the coast a bit, we came to the town of Agua Amarga with a huge parking lot right on the beach, open to RV travelers. It was one of the nicer swimming beaches we had seen with sandy bottom and water that was still not icy. Just up the beach were rinse-off showers. We found a little supermarket where we could stock up on fruit and vegetables. It sort of had the feeling of some of the old fishing towns in Mexico where one could sit on a veranda and sip a cold beer, or in this case, a “cafe con leche”.

The free camping area of Agua Amarga was less than 100 yards from the water.

Our outdoor shower came in handy for washing sand off our feet before climbing back into the camper.

The little town of Agua Amarga was a friendly place, reminiscent of some beach towns along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Cafés along the beach were inviting in the afternoon for a cold beer or a cafe con leche.

The local mini-supermarket gave us a chance to stock up on vegetables.

Several hiking trails had been carved into the sides of the mountains.

Just over the ridge from our camp on the beach we found some interesting tide pools and rock formations.

Moving a few of these rocks around was good exercise.

The water of the Mediterranean was shockingly clear, something like the aqua green of a swimming pool.

Getting an early start from Granada and the incomparable La Alhambra, we wanted to be ahead of the other 6998 tourists who had presumably visited the complex with us the day before. Too many churches, too many palaces and castles. All wonderful and interesting but it was time to head for a beach and some fresh air, and perhaps wishful thinking, someplace where there were not two dogs barking all night. The wild coast called Cabo de Gata was in our sights. This is one of the very few sections of the Spanish Mediterranean that has not been developed owing to its National Park status.

We had beaches recommended by other travelers so our first stop was La Caleta. This little cove tucked between rocky cliffs offered us shore power, water, hot showers, a laundromat, internet access, and it was quiet. The reasonably cute town of Las Negras was within walking distance for a café latte. There were other hiking trails nearby, giving us a view of the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean.

We stayed several days, determined to catch up on blogs and other e-mail correspondence. It also turned out to be a great place to relax, meet fellow travelers, and celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. (God that’s a long time!!!– and we’re still both alive.) In addition to nightly carvings off the wonderful Jamón Ibérica de Bellota, (See previous blog on Ibérica ham), we had also stashed away a melt-in-your-mouth Ibérica de Bellota roast to barbecue and a nice bottle of Rioja wine for this occasion. Sunsets were spectacular, especially when we realized they were no longer setting over the ocean.

The small town of Las Negras was just over the hill from our camp at La Caleta.

Hiking trails afforded us views of the crystal-clear Mediterranean Sea.

We spent a couple of fun evenings with the Dutch couple Hans and Sabine where we pre-celebrated Hans’ 60th birthday.

It was pretty easy to spot overland travelers just by the camper they were driving.

La Caleta was great place to relax, meet fellow travelers, and celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary.

Monika is cutting some of her birthday Jamón Ibérica de Bellota ham for hors d’oeuvres.

We had also stashed away a melt-in-your mouth Ibérica de Bellota roast to barbecue on our anniversary.

Sunsets were spectacular, especially when we realized they were no longer setting over the ocean.