Cross Country Travels

Jose and I love to travel. And when we travel we do it cheap. No fancy shmancy hotels or taxis, no continental breakfasts or tour guides. We like hostels and tents, PBJ's and coke. Whenever we have a long weekend or 4 days free, we try and visit as many places as we can. This last trip was truly spontaneous.

Our original plan was to go to Portugal. We had six days free this summer and we planned a camping trip down to Lisbon and then work our way up back home. The night before we were going to leave, at around 11PM we looked at the weather and they were calling for thunder storms 3 days straight in Portugal. Jose and I looked at each other with a twinkle in our eye and I ran to get the map of Spain. We had to be on the road by 6AM. It was 11PM, and we started to plan a new trip...across country.

We decided that we wanted sun and fun, not thunder and blunder. So we pretty much just looked at the map of the weather forcast for Spain and saw a big yellow sun on Alicante...so Alicante it was. We had saved 500 Euros for the trip and decided to travel around until it ran out!

Day 1: 6 hour drive to Cuenca. Arrived just in time to find the camp site (European camping is much different than American camping)




it was the first time we'd set up the tent...that was an adventure. We also had bought an air matress...I won't even get into that fiasco...




The landscapes were just full of sunflowers everywhere.

Day 2: spend the morning in Cuenca and then drove 4 hours to Denia, Alicante


La Ciudad Encantada (The Enchanted City) -outskirts of Cuenca, where the rocks are molded by the wind



La Ventana del Diablo (The Devil's Window)- outskirts of Cuenca





Cuenca





Pulled the car over on the side of the road in Castilla La Mancha to take this shot

I forgot to take pictures of Denia. We arrived around 7PM. Set up tent. Wonderful weather. Hot as crap. Took a dip in the Mediteranean. Had a beer at the campsite café. Went to sleep.

Days 3 and 4: Drove 45 minutes to Calpe, Alicante


Everywhere in Alicante is hot as crap. Drank lots of water.


Our campsite

Retired couple's campsite. Quite different from ours. Who the heck takes PLANTS on vacation with them??

Did I mention it was HOT?

Ahh. The beach.



We decided that the next camping trip we're taking chairs with us


Scenery in Alicante



Day 5: Drove 7 hours to Valladolid (heading home)


Torito Bravo

Cathedral


Plaza Mayor at night

Decided to pamper ourselves and stay in hostel...tents are not comfy

Day 6: Drove 4 hours home to Santiago


Galicia