Pepa |
Good idea right???
So I booked it.
We flew to Southern Spain and picked up our campervan cheerily named “Pepa”. Pepa was cute, clean and well equipped. We were all impressed. After our technical orientation and cramming our stuff into the very limited storage we hit the road.
It was only a few miles outside of town that I started to wonder if my “good idea” might be a little ill-conceived. The backseat of the van, which cleverly turned into a bed, was uncomfortable for long drives. There was quite a bit of complaining and readjusting but finally it was OK. Pfhew…problem solved.
Penitents |
We did enjoy seeing Granada, the Alhambra, and the processions of penitents in celebration of Semana Santa (holy week) before Easter. I was optimistic that things would look up.
And then it was onto Cordoba.
The campground there was even grimmer. We were initially given a
Children that have given up. |
I knew something had to CHANGE and fast.
So I cried.
Ditched our camper for a carriage in Seville. |
We got to Seville, ditched the camper at the train station, took a cab to our hotel and checked in. It was spacious, clean, and quiet, and the dirty clothes were our own. After a few blissful days without Pepa we took a cab back to the train station and resumed our adventure on four wheels
We were headed to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the famed white hill towns. We knew camping here would be a problem so we had already booked a hotel room in an inn perched on the side of a steep slope. We tried to drive to our hotel but our beast of a vehicle couldn’t make it up and into the little streets. We had become the kind of tourists that people point and laugh at. After skidding and sliding on a steep hill we backed down and sheepishly ditched the van. We now had to walk about a mile uphill with our luggage to our hotel.
Bull running Easter morning |
We finally got there and it was super cute BUT….the innkeeper told us that we had actually reserved our room for the previous night and there was “no space at the inn” and since the room was prepaid there was no refund. Amazingly our innkeeper was able to find us another place close by.
Arcos was beautiful and we did finally enjoy a picnic next to a stream. We also were there for the running of the bulls which was fun although over in about 20 seconds.
Our last day of exploring southern Spain was beautiful but very windy and blustery. Ronda and Grazalema were gorgeous little towns hanging from cliffs and definitely places we want to go back to.
We took the long route through the mountains and spent our last night happily in a cute campground with a beautiful swimming pool. The kids played with each other and we had a glass of wine along with our pasta dinner. We had gotten used to sleeping in close quarters and there was peace in the kingdom.
So what did we learn???
Mixing camping and seeing historic towns was a bad idea especially in high season. But each done separately is great. And, just like my angled shot at the net in tennis how we travel continues to be a work in progress.
Good idea but clearly there is space for improvement
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