Viva Espana!*

Guy Fawkes, and it was hot - summer's day hot. So no bonfires and fireworks for us, but instead, the beach. We found a long, thin strip of beach close to our Aire, and settled in. Sandcastles, shells, catch the fish (thank you for the game Granny), looking at footprints, being Octonauts, drawing whales in the sand - Kevin and I were a Jemima-amusing tag team, with the one off duty enjoying the sun. It was warm, but you could feel it didn't have the same strength as a summer sun, which was a relief to pale-skinned, paranoid-mother me - neither Jemima nor I was going to get sunburnt. And the sea was gentle - and bracing, but wonderful - you never regret a swim, I said to myself as I ventured in (thank you Philly and Richard). And thank you Spain - there aren't many places in Europe you could do this in November.

Then lunch in the beachfront cafe - the menu del dia, another Spanish offering we have grown to love. Today, paella or salad or beef stew, followed by chicken or grilled fish or sardines, with chips, plus bread, a drink (including wine or beer), and a dessert or coffee, all for €10 - which Kevin is keen I make clear is £7.14. I am mildly obsessed with food, and Kevin is extremely keen on a Good Deal, so the menu del dia makes us both very happy. (And it works perfectly with Jemima - we have a big lunch out together, then a quiet light dinner in the van in the evenings.)

After some more beach fun, off down the road to what is apparently one of the Leading Campings of Europe. It is enormous and very well kept, but we will have to see how it deserves this title tomorrow. Enough to say we enjoyed DJ Jos at the welcome party this evening. Hi de hi campers. And hurrah for Spain.

*I am writing this on my phone on the Blogger app, which doesn't appear to have the option for proper Spanish punctuation and accents. So this should have an upside down exclamation mark at the start, but I don't know how to do it. (It's also why the font sometimes goes weird - it looks ok on my phone but not on the screen.) So apologies to Spanish speakers and fellow formatting pedants.

The beach:

In...:

And out... (again):

Lunch:

DJ Jos:

Santa Pola to La Marina: