Journey home part one

To get from Praia da Luz to Bishops Offley by car is a lengthy process - but still better than flying! Our trip covers a lot of miles and takes in four countries, so off we set from our lovely house that has been our home for the past eight weeks. Destination, Andujar in Spain.

This is a lovely town with a mediaeval centre and our hotel was slap bang in the middle of it - the Palacio Sirventes da Mieres. The journey was around five hours and it was easy going, up to and through the Spanish border, waving at Castro Marim where our friends Rupert and Andrew have their wonderful guest house - Casa Rosada.


Then up into the mountains of Spain, heading past Cordoba and its bull-fighting, into the olive groves that are everywhere. The trip was largely uneventful - except for one thing. As we journeyed, there was a bright light shining from a tower, like a searchlight. Yet no matter where we were in relation to it, the light shone quite harshly and it made shadows in the air from the strength of the light it distributed. What was it - we puzzled and then turned to Google Maps and discovered it was the Gemasolar Power Plant near Seville in Andalusia. This incredible construction generates electricity 24 hours a day by storing energy in molten salt that it releases in the hours of darkness. Quite spectacular!

So we arrived and we settled into our hotel, a beautiful building full of artwork and artfully decorated too. There were beers in the fridge, a good shower and a comfortable bed. What more can you ask?

Heading out for a meal at a local tapas bar, we walked to it, we were struck by the number of wedding dress shops and also the number of beautiful doors that we saw.

Now, when someone tells you that a place is good, you build expectations. Our host at the hotel had suggested this tapas bar and we duly arrived, and then took in the menu. As no one spoke English we needed Google Translate to help us decipher the menu. We chose our four dishes and there were various exchanges between us and the staff in which we believed we had said, yes, bring it all at once. No. We had said, yes, a large portion of each dish please. Oops. The meal was vast and to be honest, next day, neither of us felt very good,

So, next day - Saturday, we left Andujar for Sant Carles de la Rapita - a seaside town beyond Valencia. It was a six hour drive and neither of us was on top form. We decided we needed some food, eventually, and headed for services - except on Spanish roads, many of the services are either low grade or actually not to be found. Signage simply disappears and we had a number of abortive attempts before finally finding one that had a cafeteria ... that was closed. Into the local supermarket where we purchased the most disgusting sandwiches either of us has ever tasted. The majority went in the bin and we gave up.

After finding our way back onto the motorway we then plugged along in earnest and arrived at Rapita around 4pm - just the time for a beer on the sea front! Then back to the hotel for a bath before heading out for an excellent pizza at the bizarrely named Bonsai Italian to make up for our lack of food. Hotel was nice - a bit Travelodge-like - the Hotel du Port right in the centre.

All in all a busy time and we realised that in the past 24 hours we have seen four types of power generation - solar with the Gemasolar plant; solar with dozens of farms of panels spread between olive and orange groves; hydroelectric beside the dramatic part of the motorway and wind turbines which Spain has in abundance.