If you head by motorhome for Spain's sunnier climes in January or February, even when you've shelled-out for a long sea crossing to avoid wintery weather in France, you are unlikely to avoid freezing temperatures entirely. Salamanca, our usual first stop on the way south, lies at 800m. To put that into context, Buxton - our home town - is at 300m, sharing the dubious honour of being Britain's highest market town with Alston. So inland Spain is more than twice the height of the UK's upland settlements. Expect sub zero temperatures!
From Logroño it's too long a drive to reach the Mediterranean coast at Valencia without an overnight stop somewhere. We decided to head for Teruel, about 340kms south. I toyed with the idea of taking the more direct route through Soria, but the mountain roads south of the town reach 1300m. Yesterday when we drove through the Cantabrian mountains the highest peaks were dusted with snow. Best to take the motorway today we agreed even if it involves a bit of a detour via Zaragoza.
It was a long but uneventful drive, the roads almost empty apart from a brief interlude of maniacal urban motorway around Zaragoza. Inland Spain must be one of the least populated areas of western Europe. Much of the country south of Zaragoza looks somewhat god forsaken - a neverending plateau of rock strewn badlands punctuated by the odd scrawny looking cultivated patch.
The Autovia Mudéjar undulates across the high plains avoiding the highest Sierras, there are no really steep climbs so I only become aware of the height we had gained when I passed a blue sign that read 1220m. An other giveaway of this imperceptible slow climb registered on the dashboard - the average fuel consumption gague ticked ever downwards - 32.4mpg at Zaragoza, 29.3mpg after we passed the blue altitude sign a few kilometres short of our destination.
We've stayed at Teruel previously - in late November 2016 our blog informs me; it also straightened out a misapprehension - I was convinced we had stopped overnight here in a car park near next to a Mercadona and the local social security offices. I was right about all of that apart from the overnight thing. We just stopped to do some shopping apparently. What is certainly the case is the municipally run free area autocaravanas on the edge of town is a more recent development. It's very good, apart from the fact it's next to an HGV parking area and drivers fire up their engines at 5.45am for a 6am start with much revving, slamming of cab doors and high decibel banter.
Despite our Lonely Planet guide's enthusiast copy about Teruel's architectural highlights and online reviews praising the town's tapas bars we didn't venture into the centre back in 2016, and decided against it today too. With daytime temperatures a degree or two above zero and nighttime ones somewhat lower, sightseeing was not an attractive proposition. The best we could muster was a desultory stroll around the empty carpark of the Alcampo hypermarket next door.
Next day we headed towards the Valencia Camper stop near Betera. Gill had pre-booked us a place on-line. It's less than a two hour drive from Teruel so we arrived by early afternoon and found there was plenty of room.
A decade ago, when we first started travelling long term in the winter, we rarely booked ahead, most places away from costas' high-rise resorts were uncrowded. Not so now, you can't be certain of finding a place anywhere on Spain's Mediterranean coast from Benacassim to Marbella. One of the joys of winter motorhoming in Spain used to be simply wandering about. You still can, but not on the Mediterranean coast where it's milder and sunnier and packed with northern European retirees.
We've been to Valencia many times so we don't tend to sightsee, it's more of a 'tum-see' trip. Jump on the metro near the camper stop, head for Central Market, eat something delicious at the place's central bar run by the Michelin starred chef Richard Camarena.
There's always a few 'specials' chalked up, so we chose a mixture of these with some classics.
The patatas bravas were good, but not quite as delicious as those dished up two days ago by Bar Jubera in Logroño.
I tried a dish off the board - broad beans with eggs. Spanish cooking uses eggs a lot, pairing them with ingredients we would never dream of using back home.
It worked, it was enjoyable - tasty rather than delicious.
Chocolate cake was the dessert of the day, we shared a portion. Very yummy, a deep brown chocolatey wedge, firm at one end becoming soft and sludgy towards its apex. We took a moment to appreciate the pastry chef's skill, then devoured it in a trice.
Back at the van we discussed what next. Every weather app we consulted said the same, the further south and west you travelled the wetter and windier it became. Here in Valencia we were in the sunniest spot in Spain. There are a couple of Acsi sites on the coast a few kilometres beyond Valencia docks, still close to the city but within cycling distance of the Parc Natural l'Albufera, the extensive tract of protected wetland to the south of the urban sprawl. Let's stay put until the weather improves in Andalucia we agreed.
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