When we decided we would be road tripping, we knew that we had to go back to Spain, our favourite country in Europe. Our first ever experience of Spain was on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona, so we were headed there first. This time we found a delightful family run hotel to stay in Palamos, parking the car at the hotel for two nights and getting out and about by foot. The temperatures were now into the high 20’s, low 30’s so very pleasant for enjoying this part of Spain.

We found a great 4.5 km walk along the coast to a lovely golden sand beach, La Fosca, taking in cliff top views of the super clear water below. Reaching the beautiful beach, we rented loungers and an umbrella for the day and settled in to enjoy the Mediterranean beach life. The water was calm and warm enough even for Carolyn to brave a dip.

The hotel restaurant was excellent, after the first night we decided to eat in again rather than trying to find somewhere else, it was so good. We need to get used to even later eating hours, nothing before 8pm, and unlikely to be done before 9:30. But, mostly we were reminded of why we like Spain so much; the weather, the beaches, the food and cheaper cost of living here (petrol is at least €0.20c/l cheaper in Spain than France!).

It’s not a road trip if Google doesn’t take you on an adventure at least once. We ended up driving along rural tracks amidst the rice fields south of Valencia wondering “WHYYYYY?” on our way to a lunch stop at a gorgeous beach, heading to our mid way point of La Rapita, towards our next destination.

In 2018, we spent 3 weeks housesitting two active dogs near the beaches of Moraira and Calpe. Moraira was our favourite and we found a budget hotel 5 minutes from the beach where we could enjoy 3 days of relaxing on the beach, swimming in the Med, savour good food and wine, and revisit some familiar places from our previous sojourn in this area. We had to  drive through to Javea, and find my all-time favourite sangria cafe, once again, it didn’t disappoint, but the beaches there were not worth staying for – crowded, no car parking and bland, so back to Moraira beach again to laze, swim and enjoy.

Once done here on the coast, it was time to head north again. Sometimes the negatives turn out to be positives. We were notified the day we were due to stay that our planned rural accommodation couldn’t (wouldn’t) take us (long story but they wanted an out, and seeing some of Google reviews of the accommodation rather than Booking.dot.com reviews, we took the escape) but had to quickly come up with a plan B which was excellent, staying in a very comfortable old seminary right in the middle of Cuenca. We got a better room in a better location at a better price. It was lovely to wander that amazing old town, and enjoy views and even chat to a couple of kiwis from Tauranga seated next to our table, enjoying a drink with the view, with similar but different stories – but always fun to cross paths with like-minded adventurers.

To reach France from the Mediterranean coast took 3 days of long driving stages. Our final day was supposed to take just over 4 hours of driving, plus stops for coffee, petrol and lunch, like previous days. Instead we hit a cycling event that meant we had to detour another hour and a half to reach our destination in the foothills of the Pyrenees near Lourdes. The views while driving reminded us how vast the plains of Spain are (and no rain!) We loved being in Spain for so many reasons but we have new places to be and enjoy in France so will continue to explore and adventure as we head north.