Today was spent in the campground finishing preparations for our departure. Ton spent the morning packing and cleaning. I did a little work outside of François and watched the coming and going of other campers while waiting for assignments from Ton. As we have gained experience we have gotten the final days down to a routine. We used to allocate 2 full days for final clean up, but now can get most things done in one.
Author: Ron Corbin
November 1, 2026 Amsterdam NE
The trip is drawing to a close. Today we had a short drive to the campground that we use at the beginning and end of trips. Before we left I was wandering around the campground when I heard the distinctive honking of geese, and looked up in a tree and two geese were standing on the limb of a tree. I did a double take as I have never seen a goose perched in a tree before, never mind two. They weren’t Canadian geese, but a European species, but never the less it was a first for me.
We made one last pass through a grocery store on the way to the campground to pick up a couple of last gifts. After we settled in Ton began the hard work of preparing for the flight home while I stood by in case she needed something moved. The last two days of a trip are hard work for Ton, but not so much for me.
October 31, 2026 Utrecht NE
We were off early in the morning. We both woke up early and since it was too cold out to relax much we decided to get an early start on our drive. Just as we pulled on to the autobahn near Aachen I noticed a police car driving slowly in the middle lane with his lights on. Behind the police was a long line of cars slowly following him. The car just in front of us got on in front of the police and took off at normal speed. But I merged in right behind the police and was first in line traveling slowly.
We followed along at a little more than walking pace for a couple of hundred yards when the police car stopped and two officers got out and began walking beside the car checking out the vegetation in the median and along the side of the road. They were obviously looking for someone. We then noticed that there was a police car with two officers on the other side of the autobahn approaching us doing the same thing. We also noticed there were about 15 police cars on a country toad that passed under the autobahn. So someone had gotten the attention of a large number of police officers on a Saturday morning. Eventually the search party on both sides of the autobahn met each other without flushing out anything. The six officers had a little conference and then reopened the autobahn.
We will never know what happened, but it was an interesting way to start the day. The rest of our drive to Utrecht was uneventful and we arrived at the campground a couple of hours later only to a see a sign in 4 languages saying they were full.
Since it was early in the day I decided to stick my head into the office and see if they meant it. The guy asked if I was picky about my spot and I said not today. He explained that they had had very heavy rain last weekend and the grass spots were kind of muddy, but if I was comfortable with one I could use it.
I grabbed Ton and we walked in to take a look at the spots on the grass. The road in was a little rutted up but pretty dry and the spots on the grass felt pretty firm so we decided it was ok. I did spin the wheels once backing into the spot but didn’t dig in too bad.
Utrecht is the third largest city in the Netherlands and the home to a famous university. Like every city here it is clean, and full of solidly built homes. As we were walking Ton and I were talking about our impressions of the cities in the Netherlands. The cities are very nice, they look like they would be a great place to live, but they are all very similar. Our conclusion is that Dutch cities are probably a great place to live, but are fairly monotonous to visit. For our Dutch friends that is said with the emphasis on a great place to live.
The day was foggy and we kept wishing the fog would burn off, but it never completely did. But, despite the damp and the chill the center of Utrecht was hopping. We had one destination in mind after we spent some time taking in the sites.
We noticed that most of the churches in Utrecht have been converted to museums. Our destination was one of those converted churches but this one has been converted into a beer hall.
The setting of the beer hall was very nice and it was packed. We were lucky that a couple had just gotten up when we walked in and we were able to snag their table. They specialize in Belgian beer so we were able to revisit a couple of our favorite beers from earlier in the trip. It was a nice way to end an interesting, but ultimately uneventful day.
October 30, 2026 Monschau GE
Ton keeps coming up with places she wants to visit. It’s interesting one of us is less willing to face the end of the trip than the other on every trip. Sometimes it’s me, and sometimes its’s Ton. This time it is very much Ton. I was ready to head to Amsterdam today. I am glad Ton is keeping us in traveling mode instead of end of trip mode. Especially as she does most of the work at the end of the trip.
Monschau comes up on nearly every list of most beautiful villages in Germany. It was only 40 minutes from Aachen. The drive was on a two lane road, and at one point along a stretch in the woods there was a sign that said Belgium. We then spent the next ten minutes wondering if we had crossed into Belgium and could we have been mistaken and Monschau was in Belgium? After a while I noticed that all the cars on the road had German license plates so we decided that Monschau was indeed in Germany. But we were right, the road we were on had crossed into Belgium for a few kilometers, but since no houses or towns were on that stretch of the road the Germans maintain the road.
Monschau was once a thriving textile town in the 1600’s and 1700’s until the industrial revolution kicked in. Then the textiles there were not competitive. It kind of hung on as a backwater and as a backwater all the wars for a couple of hundred years passed it by.
It is located in a valley in the Eifel mountains and now thrives on tourism. For a small village it attracts over 2 million tourists per year. Which given its size is a lot of people.
Today there were a decent amount of people around, probably about the right amount to have it feel active, but not too many to make it uncomfortable. The town is built in a narrow valley formed by the Rur River which used to be used to power the mills that produced textiles. Today it makes for a beautiful background as you are walking.
We spent a nice afternoon strolling thought the town. For the second day in a row we struck out on food. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t at all memorable.
It is a beautiful setting and we caught it on a beautiful day. The trees were probably close to peak fall colors, the sun was shining while not providing much heat, and the people in the town were relaxed and having a good time.
Monschau is mostly a day trip destination from one of the multiple larger cities nearby in Germany and Belgium and that made sense to me, you can walk through the whole town in 30 minutes from end to end and back. It really is a beautiful place that time has passed by and definitely worth a days drive for.
For the last few nights we have had to turn the heater on in François. Tonight we may have to have it on most of the night as the temperatures are supposed to fall to the mid 30’s.
October 29, 2026 Aachen GE
Today Aachen is a small city in Germany lying on the Belgian and Netherlands borders. But in the late 700’s and early 800’s it was the city from which Charlemagne ruled the Carolingen Empire and for that period may have been the most important city in Europe.
The other thing Aachen is famous for is its thermal baths. The baths here have been famous since the Romans, though you are not encouraged to drink it due to the high sulfur content. Our plan for the day was to visit the Cathedral and then walk to the baths.
The Cathedral is one of the oldest in Europe and was begun during Charlemagne’s reign on the site of an older church in town. Because the formula for Cathedrals was not as established as they became later we found the Cathedral here both more interesting and beautiful.
The entrance way was built in an octagon with arches. This is a style that reminded us more of the great Mosques we have seen. It turns out that one of the influences for the early architect was the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Though at that time it was a Cathedral, not a Mosque.
It was much smaller than we expected which gave it a surprisingly intimate feeling, because while it felt smaller than most Cathedrals, it is still an immense building. Charlemagne is buried here, and the Cathedral still has the throne he was crowned on, the throne must not be that ostentatious as neither one of us noticed it.
We were very impressed with this Cathedral as it didn’t feel like it was built to a formula like so many of the Cathedrals we have seen. Luckily while Aachen was mostly destroyed during WWII, the Cathedral survived with only minor damage.
As in most German cities the Rathouse (city hall in English, but I can’t resist using the German) was opposite the Cathedral on a square. But, like many German cities the city government placed the back of the Rathouse to the Cathedral. The front faces the market square.
We had lunch at an old beer hall. Ton summed up the meal by saying’ “Aachen-beautiful Cathedral, mediocre food and beer.
We next headed over to the bath. We had visions of beautiful 18th and 19th century buildings like we have seen in Vichy France or Karlovy Vary in Czechia. It was a long walk from the city center and when we got there we were greeted by a modern glass fronted building that looked like the entry of an upscale gym in the US. Ton was so disappointed that she didn’t even bother to take a picture.
We debated whether to walk back to the old town, but it would have been another 25 minute walk through an unimpressive part of Aachen, so instead we called an Uber and headed back to François.
October 28, 2026 Aachen GE
The plan was to visit the spa town of Aachen. We had tried to visit it at the end of our spring trip, but ran into the equivalent of memorial day weekend and ended up staying in a hotel as every campground withing 20 kilometers of Aachen was booked. We hoped for better luck this time.
It was about 150 miles from Metz to Aachen and we crossed though 4 countries. We started in France and after about 45 minutes passed into Luxemburg. Google routed us so we saw a great deal of the Grand Duchy. We spent all most 90 minutes driving through Luxemburg on back roads, we were both startled that you could drive 90 minutes without leaving Luxemburg. We were also surprised that most of Luxemburg was farm land, it was not the impression of Luxemburg that we had from our previous trip.
We wound up the trip with about 40 minutes in Belgium and 25 minutes in Germany on freeways. We arrived to find the campground that was full last time was quieter. We also found they had a good German washer and dryer available for the cheapest price we have ever seen in Europe. So our plan changed and we took advantage to wash all the bedding and our clothes. Tomorrow we will head into Aachen
October 27, 2026 Metz FR
We picked Metz because it is close to Nancy which is a city we really enjoyed visiting in a previous trip. Metz is famous for being the city that claims the invention of Quiche Lorraine. Metz was a fortress town defending the Moselle River and was fought over extensively in WWI, and twice in WWII, once between the French and the Germans at the beginning of the war, and near the end it was fought over again by the Germans and the Americans.
Our first stop was the market to try some Quiche Lorraine. The mixed heritage of the region, it has changed hands between the Germans and the French at least 4 times in the last 150 years showed up in the meal. The Quiche Lorrain was very French, but it was served with Sauerkraut. They also had a Picon beer on the menu, we had read about it but never tried it. We enjoyed the food, we really enjoyed the beer. It is a mixture of a local beer and a liquor we discovered in Belgium earlier on the trip called Picon which is made from oranges.
The Cathedral in Metz is referred to as Gods Lantern as it has the most stained glass in the world. Along the side it has three stories of stained glass.
It also has the highest ceiling of all the Cathedrals in France to allow for the abundance of glass. Many different styles of art are represented in the glass, not just from the medieval times, modern artists also have contributed glass windows such as the cubist artist Jacques Villon, and the modern artist Chagall.
The Cathedral is not only used for religious services, but it occasionally hosts plays. There was a video playing showing what looked like a historical drama that used the Cathedral as a play house in an intriguing looking way.
The other must see site in Metz is the train station. The train station was built by the Germans during the late 19th century after they had annexed Alsace and Lorrain following their victory in the Franco-Prussian war. It is reputed to be the most beautiful train station in France.
If this is the most beautiful station in France, then the French somehow missed out on train station architecture in the 19th century. We have seen many better looking train stations in our travels in Europe.
We had wandered quite far from home at this point and with the shorter days were running out of day light. So we began heading back to François for the night. But on the way we saw a nice corner bar and thought that one more Picon beer was in order. We enjoyed our beer while watching the regulars in the bar go through their evening socializing.
Our stop at the bar had accomplished something we rarely do. We saw a bit of Metz after dark. The campground here is located close enough to the city center where we didn’t feel the need to scramble back to François before dark.
We really liked Metz, over our last few trips to France we have really enjoyed our stops in the north. We had a great time in Nancy when we stopped there a couple of years ago, and in Strasbourg. The north is quickly turning into one of my favorite parts of France.
October 26, 2026 Dijon FR
We had bigger plans for today than we achieved. The plan was to drive to Dijon, arrive around 2 pm when the office for the campground reopened after lunch. Check in and re-visit a town we first visited on our very first trip to France.
What happened is we were so relaxed thinking we had plenty of time in the morning that we were a little tardy leaving. We needed gas and there was a big Carrefour that was too tempting to pass. The Carrefour was larger than most grocery stores in the US with a lot of interesting things to look at. We didn’t buy much but somehow spent over an hour wandering around.
When we finally got going we ran into the word I fear most in French-“Deviation”. It means detour. This detour sent us on a 20 kilometer drive through the hills around Issoires on narrow country lanes. Google then decided to send us into a little village and all my instincts told me to ignore it and stay on the bigger road we were on.
My instincts were right – about halfway through the village google told me to make a sharp left turn that was barely possible as there were two stone buildings right to the edge of the lane. François would fit once I made the turn, the question was I short enough to make the turn. After much backing and froing and almost hitting one of the walls someone from the village came over and suggested I keep going straight for 200 meters and then turn left. I thanked her and sure enough 200 meters later there was a much easier left turn that led us right back to the road we were on when we “self-deviated” into the village.
The rest of the day was fine though Dijon was a bit further than I thought and it took us a while to get there. About two kilometers from the end of the drive we ran into another “deviation”, the only thing worst than a “deviation” in the country is one in a city. However, this time we were lucky, though the road for the deviation was narrower than I would have liked we made it through ok.
By the time we arrived at the campground it was 3:45, cold, and raining. So instead of heading into town we just laid low. There are no pictures because the drive today was not photogenic, and neither was the weather.
October 25, 2026 Issoires FR
There is not much to say about today. We were up a little early helped by Europe changing the time and falling back a week earlier than the US. Getting out of the campground became a team effort as we were surrounded by trees and large RV’s that made turning out interesting. At one point I had three spotters helping me with directions being shouted in three languages simultaneously. After a few minutes we managed to extricate François and head down the road.
The drive was just short of 500 kilometers which was about 1/3 of the way to Amsterdam. It was a no truck Sunday, though Spain does not seem to take that prohibition as seriously as other countries. To make up for the lower number of trucks it rained a good part of the day.
When we arrived at the campground there were three other motorhomes lined up at the entrance so I was waiting on the road. As we were sitting I felt a slight bump in the back and noticed a car had backed into us. The young lady came and apologized and we went back to look at the damage. Fortunately there was none on either vehicle so I told her no problem and she left looking relieved.
The campground was busier than I anticipated as it was hosting a dog show. So after we settled in we went down to watch the medal ceremony. It may be a little louder tonight than we anticipated.
October 24, 2026 Roses SP
We had a very short agenda for today, lunch at our favorite restaurant in Roses. We have eaten at La Gallaga de Roses four times in our various visits here and each meal has been fantastic. We could think of no better way to end this visit to Spain than with a meal there.
Our reservation was not until 1 pm so we slept in and then relaxed around the campground enjoying our morning coffee. We headed into town and just kind of window shopped for about an hour before showing up for our meal.
The meal was fantastic, and the portions were huge. In addition to the main course we received two starters, a plate of anchovies, and a plate of calamari. The main course was the sea food platter above, and it was finished off with desert. We were the first ones to arrive, but within 30 minutes the place was full. Ton had dish envy as she looked at what the people around us ordered, the variety of seafood on offer is fantastic. La Gallaga did not let us down again.
We took our time on the way back as we wanted to walk off our lunch as we were stuffed. When we returned to François we both decided an afternoon siesta was in order. The rest of the day was spent goofing off before our big drive north tomorrow.
October 23, 2026 Roses SP
Our time in Spain is coming to a close so we reluctantly left Cadaques behind and headed over the hill to Roses. Today’s primary purpose was to prepare ourselves for the drive back to Amsterdam by filling the refrigerator with cheap Spanish food, filling François with cheap (relatively) Spanish fuel, and getting a couple of things at a hardware store.
We weren’t in a big hurry to get moving in the morning and lingered in Cadaques until near our checkout time. The drive over the hills was again slow but uneventful. We arrived in Roses around 11:30 and took care of our chores.
After topping François off we headed over to Mercadona to pick up some staples for the drive north. Ton loves the vegetables in Spain; everywhere else we shop (except France) she is lamenting that vegetables are not as fresh as Spain. I managed to track down a couple more bottles of a Spanish red wine that I think is the best value I have ever drank, I picked up a bottle last week for €1.35 on a lark, when I opened it with low expectations I found an easy drinking wine that put a lot of very expensive bottles of wine to shame.
Having knocked out our chores we checked into the campground and took a couple of hours to relax. Our plan was to head out to the waterfront promenade for an evening walk right before sunset.
The promenade in Roses is a couple of kilometers long. The view to sea is beautiful. The town is less charming especially after Cadaques. But what Roses has are some excellent restaurants and that is why it is memorable to us.
The first meal we ever had in Spain was in Roses and we still talk about it today. The best meal we have ever had in Spain is also in Roses. The real reason we came to Roses is that we have a reservation at the La Gallega de Roses tomorrow. It is going to be our farewell meal before leaving.
The Spanish have a marvelous tradition of an evening family walk. We always enjoy participating in the tradition. The waterfront promenade in Roses is always a good walk, particularly on a day with perfect weather. The sunset was beautiful.
October 22, 2026 Cadaques SP
Cadaques is not a large town and we had seen most of it yesterday. But it is a picturesque town and Ton was looking forward to spending the day walking the streets and waterfront with her camera.
Our first stop of the day was the church. It was supposed to occupy the highest point in the town, but like a lot of things it depends on how you define highest. Our campground was definitely higher than the church but maybe we weren’t considered part of the town.
After the church we decided to head into the commercial part of town to a family run bakery. We split a nice cream filled pastry and coffee. As we were sitting there the school let out for lunch and the owners two daughters came running in looking for food. They were very cute.
The next couple of hours were spent slowly walking the waterfront enjoying the views. Ton was in heaven as there were lots of great spots for photos, though the light was not quite right.
Most of the time the tourists we see in towns are retirees like us. Today was nice as the majority of tourists were younger families with kids. Today the families were mostly French as it also a school holiday there, and Cadaques is located quite close to the French border so we were not perplexed like we were in Tarragona with all of the German kids.
In our travels we have noticed that European kids are given a lot more room to roam by their parents than American kids. It is not unusual to see kids playing along the waterfront or walking through the town unescorted by parents. Ton and I like this independence and believe it is healthy.
We debated lunch but couldn’t come to agreement on a place to eat so we finally compromised by stopping at a beach front bar and having a glass of wine. We spent some of our time talking to the German couple at the next table. When we first asked where he was from he said I like to think I am European. He had an interesting life as he had grown up in Catalonia and worked for over 20 years in France. He is now wrapping up his career in Germany and is thinking he will split his time in retirement between Germany and Mauritius.
Before we knew it, it was 4pm and we definitely needed something to eat so we climbed the hill to François. Ton prepared a nice Spaghetti dinner and we watched a beautiful sunset from inside François.
We have learned that some of our most memorable days are the days when we do the least.
October 21, 2026 Cadaques SP
Cadaques has been on our list to visit for a long time. We like this part of Spain and have visited the neighboring city of Roses four times. We go out of our way to stop there whenever we come to Spain.
To get to Cadaques we had to transit Barcelona. Like everyone driving a RV transiting cities is never fun. Today went smoothly in our direction, though at one point there was a truck about the size of François on its side with fire trucks and ambulances in the lanes going the opposite direction. This was a reminder of how things can go bad.
The last 20 kilometers were on steep and winding mountain roads. It was a pretty drive though Ton enjoyed the view much more than I did as the road had my full attention.
Our campground is only about 400 yards from the waterfront, but it is also about 400 feet higher. The trail/road down was steep and mostly straight. The walk down was hard on the knees, and the walk up was hard on the lungs.
Since we are staying tomorrow today was more of a reconnaissance to see what the town had to offer. Tourism is king here and has been for decades. The waterfront was full of restaurants and cute shops. We took a look at a couple of places for tomorrow.
Last year we visited the Dali museum in nearby Figueres. Dali had a home here that he stayed at for much of the year. It has now been turned into a museum. We had thoughts of going to it, but there are no tickets available on Thursday and Saturday, and only one on Friday. Since there are two of us we had to pass on the Dali museum.
We covered about half of the U shape harbor walk today and really enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we will spend more time in the town and try to fully explore the waterfront and the narrow streets in the hills above town.
October 20, 2026 Tarragona SP
Last night will be remembered as the night of the mosquitos. The rain finally let up about 6pm and everybody in the campground emerged from their campers and began drying things. We joined in the drying frenzy and decided to crank up the heat in François to a sauna like 80 degrees. This succeeded in getting a lot of our things dry, but had an unexpected consequence. When the rain stopped the mosquito population in the camp came out in force. During our coming and going after the rain at least 8 gained access to François. Buoyed by our warm camper they were ravenous. Ton and I spent the rest of the night fighting mosquitos. These were particularly agile mosquitos and my kill to strike rate was very poor. By about 1 am I had managed to kill 7, but at least one was still flying when exhaustion kicked in and I fell to sleep.
Feeling a little battle worn in the morning we decided to head into Peniscola to see what it was like when it was not pouring. It is a picturesque place, in fact it is frequently used in movies and television shows. Most recently it was a location for Game of Thrones as well as a long time ago it appeared in El Cid.
We parked on the waterfront and walked along the beach to the old town. The beach is also beautiful and long. It is about 8 kilometers and lined with hotels and vacation rentals. This part of Spain is some spectacular coast line.
Historically Peniscola is famous as the seat of a pretender pope known as Pope Luna (Benedictine XIII). He was Catalan and during a very complicated period in the Catholic church he was one of two competing popes. He set up his base in Peniscola after he was exiled from Avignon so Peniscola has claim to be one of three sites that have been a Papal base, the other two are Avignon in France, and of course Rome. Eventually he lost the fight and was excommunicated from the church.
We walked around town for about 90 minutes, but after waiting for two days to get to see it we didn’t have time to do it justice. The old town has been occupied for over 1500 years by Carthaginians, Romans, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Spanish. We debated going into the castle, but in the end we decided to move on. I think in a different circumstance we would have been enthralled with Peniscola, and it probably deserves a revisit if we ever pass this way again.
We decided to shift north a couple of hours and selected a campground we had stayed at last year when we were transiting back to Amsterdam from Morocco. Last year we arrived 7 or 8 days later and had a beautiful seaside campground nearly to ourselves. We were expecting that today only to arrive at a packed campground with numerous German families and lots of kids. I’m not sure why all of these German kids are not in school but they do seem to be enjoying themselves.
Our campsite came with a kitten who immediately attached herself to us. She went out of her way to show us a food bowl someone had left for her. We couldn’t resist and fed her so she has now decided that we belong to her. Ton is already planning tomorrows breakfast for her.
October 19, 2026 Peniscola SP
The weather was bad yesterday, but it was worst today. The region we are in is in the process of getting over 1″ of rain in 12 hours and the rain is coming with strong winds. But being intrepid and optimistic travelers we decided to head into town anyway. Our plan was to go to a restaurant for lunch and head into town when the rain let up.
When we arrived downtown the rain was sheeting down and the wind was blowing a gale. We hustled the 200 meters to the restaurant and still arrived dripping wet.
The restaurant Ton chose was called El Hogar del Jubilado which roughly translates as “The Pensioners Restaurant”. It is the type of place with plastic chairs, formica topped tables and very simple food made from fresh ingredients. The kind of food your grandmother would make if she was Spanish. You went to the counter, pointed at what you wanted from what was on display and they prepared it for you. We pointed at Anchovies, Squid, a piece of cod, and a potato dish. We were looking at some more stuff as it all looked good, the lady behind the counter saw us contemplating some more stuff when she held up her hand and indicated that we had already ordered a lot of food. When it came it was absolutely delicious and the portions were huge. This didn’t stop Ton from ordering one more dish of egg plant and fried peppers. Our neighbors were getting a kick out of the amount of food we ordered. We had plenty of time to eat as the weather was showing no signs of letting up. We shared the restaurant for about 2 hours with a bunch of Dutch pensioners, nibbling at our food and looking for signs the weather was going to break.
We finally threw in the towel and headed back to the campground. We may be intrepid travelers, but age has made us wiser- we will try again tomorrow.
October 18, 2026 Peniscola SP
Suddenly our decisions are being decided by time, on every trip there comes a point where the logistics of wrapping up the trip start to weigh on our plans. Two days ago we took a day off because we were tired and the normal rainy days that serve as rest days had not happened on this trip. Today our first serious storm of the trip is on us. On top of that we are in a town we really like. Earlier in the trip we would have just hunkered down for a rain day. But we are pretty far south of Amsterdam, so instead of resting we decided to take advantage of light traffic Sunday and head north about 4 hours to Peniscola.
The drive went smoothly and we only hit one really wet stretch for about 30 minutes. The rest of the way was light showers. Traffic was light and we by-passed Valencia so all in all a good drive. We arrived in Peniscola and set up in a slightly underwhelming campground for the day. The bad weather is supposed to continue tomorrow so we will have another decision to make.
October 17, 2026 Alicante SP
I took my morning walk around sunrise. As the days are shortening up sunrise is around 8 am. The campground is located next to the beach and I got to watch a beautiful sunrise as an unexpected treat.
Ton loves European markets, if a town we are visiting has one it is on our agenda to visit. Today we shifted south to Alicante which is a resort town known for its night life and as a vacation place for northern Europeans. It is not known for its market.
Ton’s ideal market is an interesting building selling a variety of things, with a few food offerings, and maybe a tourist store or two. She mentioned that Alicante had a market, and luckily it had a tram stop on the line we were going to take into the town from the campground. So it became our first stop.
When we walked up to the market it was in a nice early 20th century building. There were a lot of people going in and out. When we entered without any expectations we walked into a very large market with a great variety of foods on sale. There were fruit stands, bakery stands, butchers, fish mongers, and people selling local wines and liquors. Around the edges were small food stands selling local specialties. It sprawled over two floors and Ton was in heaven.
About half way through Ton said that this is the best market we have visited in Europe. What really made it perfect was that it was very busy, and the customers were mostly locals shopping for their homes. It gives the market a totally different atmosphere. There were a few tourists mixed in like us but they were not treated as pests, but were also made to feel welcome.
Ton spends a lot of time researching places to visit when we head to a new town. In addition to the things to see she always has a couple of places to eat on the list. Today’s choice was really memorable. It was just down the street from the market, and when we first walked up we almost passed it by. We stopped and looked at the menu, and then looked inside. Sometimes a place that looks tiny from the road is actually bigger than it looks, but in the case of this Cerveceria it was indeed tiny. It had about 8 stools at a bar and another 4 strolls along a back wall, there were also two stand-up tables on the sidewalk where you could order through a window. We looked in and it was packed. We decided to try somewhere else when a waitress appeared on the sidewalk and said she had a spot for us. So we headed in.
The atmosphere was informal as people were perched on stools or standing leaning on the bar. Drinks and food were passed across the bar with the help of patrons. It lead to a lot of discussion about what are you eating, or what wine is that. We have been to a lot of these informal tiny places this trip and have really enjoyed ourselves. The chef here performed miracles with a grill and panini machine. We had some of the best Tapas we have had on this trip. The guy was a wonderful cook and friendly. The service was quick and delivered with humor. And we enjoyed a friendly conversation with a Swedish/English couple who were just as impressed as we were. We ended up lingering here much longer than we planned as we kept seeing new Tapas that we wanted to try.
At this point we had been in Alicante for about 3 hours and hadn’t really explored the city. Ton gave me a street to find and told me it was the mushroom street. When we got there it was indeed a street full of giant plastic mushrooms. They were whimsical, I don’t know if there is a story behind them, or someone just said why don’t we order a bunch of giant plastic mushrooms and stick them on this street, and the city council said sure. I hope it was the latter. Above the street there were also Christmas decorations, we had a debate whether they were early (my theory), or they just left them up year round (Tons theory). Either way it added to the fun of our walk.
As I said yesterday the Spanish excel at pedestrian streets. Alicante had one of the best waterfront promenades we have ever seen. I can imagine on a normal night it will be packed about 7pm when the Spanish families go out for their evening walks. I said normal night because as we were walking you could begin to see the thunderheads forming over the ocean so we had to cut our wonderful day in Alicante short to get home before the storms came through.
October 16, 2026 Altea SP
Before we went to sleep last night we decided to take today off. So today was a day without a plan except to stay put in the campground.
We took advantage of our day off to sleep in until almost 9am which is not something we do often. After making coffee I took a little stroll along the beach while Ton prepared breakfast.
After breakfast we took another short walk to check out the local grocery. We purchased nothing because as we expected everything was quite expensive compared to the big groceries.
When we came back Ton told me to go find the washers as it would be a good day to knock out some laundry. When I went to buy the tokens it took to activate the washer I was told that you had to make a reservation to do laundry. The next reservation was at 4pm.
We relaxed all afternoon in our very full campground. Interestingly this campground is probably 85% Dutch. The Dutch are big travelers, but this is probably the highest number of Dutch we have seen in one campground. They seem to be enjoying themselves and have organized line dancing nights, an evening Petanque league, and a knitting club. They seem to mostly be here for long term stays and have formed friendships.
After laundry was done we headed out for another evening stroll and the beach front restaurants were starting to open up. It is interesting here because the restaurants have to cater to two different supper schedules. The British and Dutch eat around 6 pm, and the Spanish around 8 pm. I think from a restaurant perspective if you can attract both crowds you get two good seatings for dinner. It just means longer hours.
We usually count on the rain to force us to take down days. This trip we have not had any rain induced down days so I am happy that we finally decided to do it on our own, while nothing particularly interesting happened we had a nice relaxing day in a beautiful place.
October 15, 2026 Altea SP
Altea had a lot of hype to live up to, one of Tons sources of places to visit in Spain called it the Santorini of Spain, National Geographic called it the most beautiful village in Spain.
The drive down from Valencia was uneventful and we checked into a beach front campground that we thought would be expensive, we were happy to be told it was only €25. A good start for Altea. After settling in we decided to head into the old town but it was further than we thought. We decided to splurge on an Uber, that was also very reasonable.
We were waiting for our Uber in front of a Thai Massage shop. Thai Massage places are very common in Europe, but not as common in Spain as Northern and Central Europe. While we were waiting a lady stuck her head out and asked if I wanted a massage. Ton struck up a conversation with her in Thai and she had a nice chat until the Uber came.
We did a quick walk through town and then headed to a restaurant for lunch. The entrance was off a street and we had to descend to the dining area which turned out to be a beautiful terrace overlooking the town and ocean. We took the menu of the day. We received three appetizers, a giant salad, two nice sausages, and two beef curry empanadas. The appetizers would have been a filling lunch. I ordered salmon and Ton ordered steak. My salmon was the largest piece of fish I have ever been served in a restaurant. It was also perfectly cooked. Tons steak was also good. We weren’t done because our deserts were also huge.
The food was excellent, the service was friendly, and the views were spectacular. After a couple of tough days in Valencia, the Spain we know and love is back.
We headed down towards the ocean with a thought of walking along the beach, but a food coma set in, we decided we would save the beach for later. The Uber driver explained that this part of the “Costa Brava” is the most beautiful because unlike the towns surrounding Altea it has not been overdeveloped with high rise condos and restaurants. We can see some of them off on the horizon north of us, and according to our driver it gets worst south.
Is Altea the Santorini of Spain, truthfully we don’t know because we haven’t been to Santorini. Is it the most beautiful village in Spain, well that is a matter of taste, it is a beautiful town, but Spain is blessed with beautiful towns. To our taste it is not the most beautiful place we have visited in Spain but it would be near the top of a list of beautiful places.
October 14, 2026 Valencia SP
We have visited Valencia three times now, and for some reason we do not enjoy ourselves here. I even googled to see what its reputation was among Spaniards, and it turns out it is pretty positive. So Ton and I are scratching our heads about why we have never enjoyed our visits here.
Our first stop today was the market as Ton wanted to look for some spices, and a local nougat based candy, and Horchata. We succeeded in finding all three. The market is enormous and the highlight of our visit. But the interactions with the shop owners were brusque, usually the shop owners we deal with are friendly and happy to explain things. Here it was tell me what you want and hand over your card.
Ton went to get a picture of the interior of the market, and one shop owner who she wasn’t even pointing the camera at shouted at her-no photos! It wasn’t the warm Spain we are used to.
After an hour in the market we headed to the central square to see what was happening. There was another tent city set up in front of the city hall that occupied about 1/3 of the square. Both the protestors and the police looked very bored.
We had tried a couple of pastries in the market, but went for a Pinxtos lunch in a very well decorated but mostly empty Basque restaurant. Without the happy crowd of Basques it wasn’t quite the same experience, though the Pinxtos were excellent.
About 2 we ran out of ideas so decided to head back to our garage. The bus was packed when we got on, but we managed to acquire seats. Yesterday, I didn’t hit the stop button and we missed our stop. I kept waiting for the crowd to thin on the bus but if anything it got denser. When we came to our stop and I stood up the way to the door was packed, but usually people will make some effort to get out of the way. In this case nobody did and the people near us who knew we were not Spanish speakers made no effort to help. So once again we missed our stop. I was very frustrated at one guy who smirked and gave me a shrug like-too bad gringo. But I held my tongue.
So during the extra 500 meters we had to walk back to the campground Ton and I came to the conclusion that any further adventures in Spain would not include Valencia. For whatever reason Valencia and the Corbin’s are not made for each other.