Distance travelled: 410km
Total distance: 3955km
Ice cream count: 11

Arrived at another lovely little campsite and chose our spot in the shade. After a spot of lunch we headed into Béziers for a wander. Béziers is a beautiful little town with a stunning cathedral high on the hill, as well as an interesting old bridge (Pont Vieux) and various old churches. We had a fairly long walk along the river and canal and Wilf had a dip, before finding a small café for a cold drink – Orangina for Matt, of course!

The next day brought a bit of rain in the morning so we had an easy morning around the van, and Matt and Wilf explored the canal near our campsite. As it was brightening up in the afternoon, we headed to Montpellier, about an hour away. Parking and navigating the roads around town was tricky, but we eventually found a good spot and went for an explore… we didn’t get too far and really only saw the shopping and commercial area as we wanted to eat and had limited time on our parking… croque monsieur and crêpes were had though, so all good!

Distance travelled: 520km
Total distance: 3545km
Ice cream count: 11

Another lovely little campsite close to the beach, this time about 55km from Barcelona in a little resort called Pineda de Mar. We spent the first afternoon walking the promenade (sadly Wilf wasn’t allowed on the beach) and getting a few provisions. The following day turned out to be yet another public holiday in Spain, so we headed into Barcelona. Too late to get tickets for Parc de Guelle, so we instead decided to explore the city on foot. We found some lovely streets in the Gothic quarter to mooch around and had a delicious lunch in a tasty Italian restaurant in a pretty square on the edge of it. We returned to a really popular café there too for cake and a cold drink, which was well needed after all the walking! This exploring is proving to be exhausting!

Distance travelled: 245km
Total distance: 3025km
Ice cream count: 10

Next stop was Valencia, and a little caravan park about 17km out of the city. On first appearances we weren’t sure about this one, but despite the smaller pitches, it was a lovely quiet site, with welcome Sangria and powerful showers to keep us happy. Our first afternoon involved a trip to one of Spain’s best dog beaches, allegedly. It wasn’t great, but Wilf did get a good run and there was a lovely little port nearby, Port Saplaya, with gorgeous pastel coloured houses and a massive winding marina that we could wander round. We also had a great ice cream and crêpe at Toni’s on the sea front, before heading home for tasty sandwiches on the van.

Our next day was all about exploring Valencia – despite it seeming to be another public holiday, we made the most of a day on foot round this beautiful city. Cake by a noisy church was the first stop, followed by a long walk through the beautiful city park, bringing us to the amazing Science and Art centre. We explored this from the outside at least, soaking up the sunshine and watching the zorbing balls, rowing boats and paddle boards from a distance. Lunch was tasty burgers in a huge old market hall, washed down with Agua di Valencia (thanks for the top tip Vicky G!) which left us both feeling decidedly squiffy! It turns out a cocktail of gin, vodka, Cava and fresh orange was quite potent!! More wandering the streets brought us to the Plaza de la Virgin which was bustling with people in traditional dress and more church bells as the evening celebrations and performances were getting underway – no idea what they were celebrating, but something to do with Easter we think!

Distance travelled: 410km
Total distance: 2780km
Ice cream count: 8

Another fairly lengthy journey through some beautiful mountains brought us to a much more arid scene as our next stop was sunny Alicante, on the east coast of Spain. The weather here was definitely more what we expected with clear blue skies, baking sun and light evenings. We got to our enormous and sprawling campsite late in the afternoon but it was still scorching, and Matt did well to get the awning up despite the heat and hard ground. We felt a bit under-prepared compared to some of the Spanish families at the site who had gazebos with fridge freezers, microwaves and dishwashers(!) but we set up our little tent and made the van a bit more spacious.

My friend from uni, Tasha, lives close to here, so we had a nice catch up with her and two of her children Poppy and Jago that evening. The next day we took Griff in the big pool – just a little dip as it was freezing cold despite the lovely weather – and then headed out to meet Tash again with her husband Tim and Jago. We had a lovely walk round Santa Pola port, and had a drink by the beach while Jago played in the sand. The G&T was served in a bucket pretty much, so I was happy! Packing up the tent when we got back was a battle with the mozzies, but it made for a relaxed morning before we headed off for Valencia the next day.

Distance travelled: 387km
Total distance: 2670km
Ice cream count: 7

The drive to this site included some steep mountain roads into Sierra Nevada but it was well worth it as we arrived at a really nice little site with amazing views being right in the mountains. Our exploring here was a bit disappointing in that we couldn’t get tickets for the Alhambra Palace (despite trying to call, email, go to the ticket office and live chat with the booking line!) but Granada was an interesting little place, with lots of obvious Eastern and Muslim influences. Exploring the winding and stepped streets and small souk-type shops, and with falafel replacing tapas as the main food options was a lovely change. Some nice walks for Wilf in the mountains with goats galore, and a stop at a massive Carrefour so we could fire up the BBQ for Spanish omelette, ended this stop nicely.

Distance travelled: 284km
Total distance: 2283km
Ice cream count: 6

Nice journey back to Seville, though it felt a bit strange to be retracing our steps somewhat. Trying to find a McDonalds on Easter Sunday so we could get on WiFi and FaceTime home proved a massive mission and we ended up in central Seville with no WiFi! Onwards to the campsite and it turned out they had good signal so we could call the Mums/Grandma/Gran/Sisters to give them an update. Campsite was really busy for Easter but thankfully they all cleared out on Easter Monday and it was much more peaceful after that. Nice space for Wilfy and good walking through the orange groves allowed for some much needed exercise – running and biking.

A full day in Seville was also really enjoyable, and the sun and blue skies were back to make for some great photos of the Cathedral and parks. This was possibly the most beautiful city we’ve been to yet and full of old colonial style buildings, winding laneways and cobbled streets. Food and restaurants offered tapas and pinchos, but we had our heart set on pizza… sadly at the wrong time of day when everything was closing for siesta, so we ended up in a very average place. Hey ho. The ice creams were not bad which made up for it (jelly sweet ice cream?! Crazy!!)

Distance travelled: 486km
Total distance: 2099km
Ice cream count: 5

Journey to Malaga was a long one so we had an early start. Beautiful mountainous scenery as we came closer to Malaga, and we made pretty good time with just a couple of short loo/feeding breaks. Arrived at Casa Tres Hijos to stay with our good friends Chris, Caz and Delilah and got stuck into a yummy Spanish buffet lunch. The three days were really all about the eating, with tasty steaks at Casa Paco’s, seafood by the beach and a tasty chilli by Caz. We also had a trip out to the lake in the mountains, part of the Caminito del Rey national park, where we had a nice walk and picnic and Wilf had a good swim. Wilf really enjoyed a bit of freedom roaming in the orchard and gardens at the Casa too – such a lovely little break from the campervan for us all and really nice to hang out with the Shepables, and Jen and Alex too.

Distance travelled: 327km
Total distance: 1613km
Ice cream count: 4 each 

Another long drive took us to our next stop, near Lagos in the Algarve. This stop was all about finding a doctor or surgery to get Griff his vaccinations so we could finally stop monitoring the fridge temperature and forget about it! We tried a GP near the campsite, but he wasn’t too familiar with the particular vaccines we had so recommended that we go to Portimao Hospital where there is a vaccine clinic. Luckily the system was reasonably easy to navigate and the doctor we saw spoke good English and was willing to help us. She provided new vaccines for two of his jabs and used our Hep B one. She seemed sad that he had to have all 3 at once and kept apologising to poor Griff ‘sorry baby’, as he howled at each one. Of course his crying was short lived and he was soon back to his happy self, laughing in the car home and chatting and squealing away. After a couple of doses of Calpol he also slept amazingly well, and we had a take away curry and some cider to help us recover from the trauma! We had a lazy day round the van the following day to allow Griff to snooze and recover, but as the weather was pretty pants, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a day.

We also found a nice beach for Wilf at Praia da Rocha as the local one at Luz wasn’t dog friendly, and finally made it to a Decathlon to buy a lamp for in the awning!

Distance travelled: 343km + 66km + 38km
Total distance: 1586km
Ice cream count: 3 each

After a long drive with lots of tolls and some wailing from Griff, we arrived at our next campsite; the slightly more modern sister site to the one near Porto. We were parked up next to some more Brits one of whom had a dog so things weren’t looking great, but they turned out to be a lovely family and Matt swapped stories of VW vanning and dogs with them happily. This stop involved a visit to Cascais and a run on the beach for Wilf, then dinner at Sala de Corte in Lisbon. This was a really amazing steak restaurant we’d been to when we were in Lisbon for Matt’s 40th… it had moved and grown massively in size since then, but the steak was still good and Griff seemed to enjoy it. Late night for him, but he slept well as a consequence.

The second day around Lisbon was spent exploring Sintra – a small town in the mountains that the Portuguese royals were said to frequent. It was a quaint little village with some lovely architecture and gardens but sadly ruined by the busloads of tourists being regularly shipped in! We didn’t venture up to the Palace, having been warned about how windy the roads were, but from a distance it looked pretty spectacular. We had an ice cream and Pastel da Nata though, so all was not lost!