2 January ’06, Monday.
It has been a few days since I’ve written so let’s see what we did…
Just outside of Granada, the road started a pretty steep climb (that is for “Bumble Bee” it was a steep climb) and headed for our first pass. Going over the top, we saw the sign that told us we had just passed over 3600 feet and that was the first of 3 such passes we would go through before heading into the valley areas. At some points we were struggling along at 40km in third, and then there were the flats that I had to let off the pedal to keep us from going over 100km. As we were coming to a small town called Guadix, we started to notice some caves. Then it went from 2 or 3 to 2000 or more. Some of these caves have stone fronts and others, stucco facades. This made a very interesting find for us, but unfortunately we just didn’t think we could take the time to stop. I had miscalculated the time and distance we had to go (from Granada to Benidorm) so we passed. Looking later at the travel books that we have, we found that some of these caves date back to the time of the Moors (10th century). It would have been a good stop. The soil is soft to dig, but once it is, the walls turn almost rock hard and give a constant year round interior temperature of 55 degrees. The whole day was spent going through some of the best “natural” views we have yet to see in Spain. Then to my surprise, we were going by Alcante and only had another 15 miles to Benidorm. That was a quick trip!!! We found Benidorm to be just what a lot of Brits had said it was…A High Rise Beach Club that is filled with so many loud and rowdy pubs that it is like a 24 hour party. As you know, we kind of like that kind of stuff, so we were off to find the campground and settle in for 3 weeks. Our first duty was to head off to town (about a 12 minute walk to the beach) and check it out. The sun was out bright, the temp was wonderful (70+- degrees) and Benidorm looks new and wonderful. Having an early dinner of sea food paella was a great way to start our visit. The next day, the clouds came in for the morning, but ever since we have had wonderful sunny days. On New Years Eve, our plans were to head into Benidorm to enjoy a great fireworks display while dug into the beach sand with a bottle of the bubbly. We did get to the beach, but decided to leave the “bubbly” at home. The fireworks display didn’t let us down. First of all, it was centered in one of the city plazas. They had “boomers” (huge fire crackers that are hung on a line one after another) that were so loud that it sounded like you were in the middle of a war…at times there must have been 60+ going off one after another. Then mixed in between they sent up the huge star burst pieces that would light up the sky for minutes on end. As each sky rocket was fired, it went right up past the windows of the high rise condominiums….SHWISSSS !!!! BANG !!! The crowds were excited, we were excited, and the dogs of the city left town… Well now that we are all set up, we are starting to sell off some of our things that aren’t needed any more. Today we sold our Camper Van tent, an electric drill, and one of our portable tables…”come one, come all, we have a “deal for you $$$”… We also signed up for 3 weeks of Wi-Fi that will give us 24/7 internet…I love it.
It has been a few days since I’ve written so let’s see what we did…
Just outside of Granada, the road started a pretty steep climb (that is for “Bumble Bee” it was a steep climb) and headed for our first pass. Going over the top, we saw the sign that told us we had just passed over 3600 feet and that was the first of 3 such passes we would go through before heading into the valley areas. At some points we were struggling along at 40km in third, and then there were the flats that I had to let off the pedal to keep us from going over 100km. As we were coming to a small town called Guadix, we started to notice some caves. Then it went from 2 or 3 to 2000 or more. Some of these caves have stone fronts and others, stucco facades. This made a very interesting find for us, but unfortunately we just didn’t think we could take the time to stop. I had miscalculated the time and distance we had to go (from Granada to Benidorm) so we passed. Looking later at the travel books that we have, we found that some of these caves date back to the time of the Moors (10th century). It would have been a good stop. The soil is soft to dig, but once it is, the walls turn almost rock hard and give a constant year round interior temperature of 55 degrees. The whole day was spent going through some of the best “natural” views we have yet to see in Spain. Then to my surprise, we were going by Alcante and only had another 15 miles to Benidorm. That was a quick trip!!! We found Benidorm to be just what a lot of Brits had said it was…A High Rise Beach Club that is filled with so many loud and rowdy pubs that it is like a 24 hour party. As you know, we kind of like that kind of stuff, so we were off to find the campground and settle in for 3 weeks. Our first duty was to head off to town (about a 12 minute walk to the beach) and check it out. The sun was out bright, the temp was wonderful (70+- degrees) and Benidorm looks new and wonderful. Having an early dinner of sea food paella was a great way to start our visit. The next day, the clouds came in for the morning, but ever since we have had wonderful sunny days. On New Years Eve, our plans were to head into Benidorm to enjoy a great fireworks display while dug into the beach sand with a bottle of the bubbly. We did get to the beach, but decided to leave the “bubbly” at home. The fireworks display didn’t let us down. First of all, it was centered in one of the city plazas. They had “boomers” (huge fire crackers that are hung on a line one after another) that were so loud that it sounded like you were in the middle of a war…at times there must have been 60+ going off one after another. Then mixed in between they sent up the huge star burst pieces that would light up the sky for minutes on end. As each sky rocket was fired, it went right up past the windows of the high rise condominiums….SHWISSSS !!!! BANG !!! The crowds were excited, we were excited, and the dogs of the city left town… Well now that we are all set up, we are starting to sell off some of our things that aren’t needed any more. Today we sold our Camper Van tent, an electric drill, and one of our portable tables…”come one, come all, we have a “deal for you $$$”… We also signed up for 3 weeks of Wi-Fi that will give us 24/7 internet…I love it.