By the beach at Castellon de la Plana

Thursday 14 March 2018 - Day 11

Nido’s parked up at a free aire in Castellon De La Plana.  The aire is next to the planetarium and just across the road from the beach.  It has about 60 pitches with free facilities. I’d read somewhere that it had recently doubled in size, so no doubt they’ll soon be charging a fee.  We arrived around 1045, having driven an hour from Peniscola.  There were quite a few spaces when we arrived but now it’s full.  There’s vans of every shape and size.  Nido is the smallest, and the largest is a massive Unicat (see picture below).  This is a serious rig, probably better suited to touring the deserts of Morocco than the Spanish Costas.  It could be enhanced by a few surface to air missile pods on the roof but, apart from that I don’t think much will get in its way!

Like many Spanish towns, Castellon is a bit industrial and commercial; there’s a large container port and fishing harbour, plus several large factories on the outskirts,  The centre is quite pleasant though , with a marina and a number of small plazas, traditional bars and restaurants, some interesting monuments and statues and some fine examples of modernist architecture.  Some of these have seen better days, but even now, they retain some of their grandeur, especially the ceramic tiles at the main entrance.  We like these sorts of town much more than the high-rise resorts, watching the locals go about their daily lives.  Castellon very much tolerates tourists rather than pamper to them.

Once parked up we walked into town to have a look around and get our bearings, buying some bread and a couple of small chopping boards from one of the many Chinese Bazaars (ie shops selling all sorts of tat!).  After lunch we walked the long beach; it was still a bit cloudy and very windy, but eventually the sun one out and we soaked up some warmth.  We sat on the warm beach for a while but the wind-whipped sand beat us in the end.  Cathy prepped our dinner then we walked back into the town, stopping off to watch some guys playing water polo on kayaks in the marina.  The shops and bars were just starting to open after the siesta and no doubt this university town is much buzzier later at night (when we’re tucked up in bed!).  The highlight of the evening (apart from Cathy’s excellent meal!) was the bats flying around the palm trees at dusk - it doesn’t take much to please us these days!

Tomorrow we’re planning to head inland for a day or two.  The coast is good and we love the sea, but we’re not huge fans of tourist resorts and large towns and cities, so we’ll be looking for a quiet village with views, perhaps with some walks and an old castle to climb up to.

I would't want to take this down the narrow lanes of Cornwall!