Back into the mountains

Because it's a little warmer, most people stick to the coast in the southern area of Spain. And that's totally logical. But boy, we sure do enjoy the interior more. We find the coast very busy and industrial, and really not that scenic. And if you want free motorhome parking, it's not that easy to come by, and you likely won't be alone.

Yes, there are also a lot of campgrounds along the coast. But they're not cheap, and we remember from past experience when we were here doing a motorhome exchange in 2017 that they can be very crowded, with not much space between sites.

Into the big city of Valencia, Spain

Valencia is a big port city on the east coast of Spain. It's actually a bigger city than I thought it was, with a population of just under 800,000.

Unfortunately the coast of Spain has a reputation for motorhomes and camper vans getting broken into, so you have to be cautious about where you leave them. We have read lots of reviews where people have had problems, so we've decided to take the cautious approach and pay for secure parking when we visit cities.

Glad we stayed put!

It turned out that this area is exactly up our alley, and we're glad we stayed put for another night. Lots of exploring to do on foot... with hiking trails, caves, and waterfalls!

And it turned out to be a nice day as well. 

We headed out, but not very far!

Still dealing with some showers throughout the day yesterday, but at least the temperatures are decent. It's supposed to hit 20C (68F) today, and we no longer have to use the furnace in the evening. Forecast for the next week calls for lots of sunshine, so we are finally into some decent weather.

We said goodbye to hosts Mirella and Bart, and of course Diezel the dog. And we headed out... but not very far!

Back on the road

The rain stopped yesterday morning and we finally made it out for a walk around the neighborhood. The area we are staying is called an "urbanización". There are hundreds of these types of developments in Spain. 

They are essentially private communities, normally located outside of a town with monthly fees that go towards maintenance and public areas. 

Through the ages...

We never left the house yesterday. It drizzled with rain the entire day! So rather than show you photos of us at our laptops, or us playing backgammon, we'll take this opportunity to show you some photos that you've never seen before!

We met in March of 1983, and by September of that year we did our first trip together... to England!

Thinking we might have to put a fire on!

It turned into a beautiful blue sky day with a high of about 17C (63F), but it was really windy which kind of took away from what was otherwise a really nice day.

Our plan was to get out for a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon, but we just never got to it!

Arrived at our house sit assignment

We still had a couple of hours to drive to get to our house sit location, and we had to do a big grocery shop along the way. 

I saw a big Mercadona grocery store in the next town only 6 kms away from where we had spent the night, so we decided to go there first and get that done.

What's the plan for this winter?

Yesterday was a bit of a dreary day with rain on and off, although the temperature was warm enough. Things look like they're improved this morning though, with some blue sky peaking through. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice though, with a high of 20C (68F). Not quite shorts and t-shirt weather, but we're getting there.

We did some driving to get closer to our house sitting assignment. Still about two hours to go today, but that's fine because they don't want us to arrive until 4:00pm.

This ferry is unlike anything you've ever seen before!

We got up and drove as soon as it was light, at about 8am. Where we are right now, sunset is at 5:30pm and sunrise is at 8:10am. 

We weren't going very far... only about 30 kms (18 miles) further inland to a little village near a castle. My thinking was that we would have some breakfast, do some computer work, visit the castle, and then do some more driving after lunch. That's not quite what happened.

Good news!

We left the university parking lot in Tarragona at about 8am. Paid the €5.95 ($8.50 CAD, $6.25 USD) at the automatic pay machine, and that was that. Nice peaceful night. Certainly a reasonable cost for 24 hours of secure parking in the city.

And, Tuesday was the Constitution Day public holiday in Spain. Oddly, Thursday will also be a public holiday. So we need to make sure we stop at a grocery store today because they will be closed tomorrow.

Busy day in Tarragona, Spain

We did an early drive down to the coastal city of Tarragona and got ourselves parked up in a paid parking area near the university... from there, it's an easy walk to go in and explore the city. We were there just before 9am.

The woman at the parking booth said that it's guarded from 8am to 10pm, but that we could stay overnight at our own risk. There are lots of security cameras as well, and we had read of other motorhomes doing the same thing, so we felt pretty comfortable.

The Top 4 Places for Digital Nomads to Live in Post-COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live and work. For many of us, working from home has become the new normal. And for some of us, that's not such a bad thing. 

If you've been itching to get out of the city and set up shop in a more peaceful, remote location, now is the time to do it. Check out our list of the top 7 places for digital nomads to live post-COVID.

The medieval town of Montblanc, Spain

The weather turned out better than forecast, so we decided to stay in Montblanc a second night. This would allow us to go for a walk around the town and see what there is to see.

Montblanc is a fortified medieval town. People have been living here since around 1100... almost a thousand years!

Grocery shopping in Spain

We woke up at our gorgeous overnight spot and it was cold. -4C (25F), to be exact. I had Max's furnace set for 12C (54F) overnight, so we were comfortable enough sleeping. 

But rather than use up more propane to warm things up, we decided to drive back down to the motorhome area and empty our tanks and do some driving and let the engine heat warm us up.