8. Day on the trails of my first vacation

My first vacation - I was 20 years old. I went on holiday to Spain with my uncle Alfried and my aunt Anneliese. I drove my car to Herten / Westfalen. Here, I was kept quite busy for a few more days. Felt like washing and ironing 10 machines of laundry. Mowing the lawn, cleaning the lawnmower, washing the car, etc. I was pretty annoyed back then. The first few days had nothing to do with vacation. When we finally managed to pack everything into the car, we set off. We easily covered the first 1000 km in one day. We were in Lyon. Alfried said we were stopping at the gas station now. I thought, the fuel gauge still showed half full. Upon arrival at the gas station, Alfried refueled. He drove away from the pump to the corresponding parking lot. Alfried opened the trunk, took out an old sleeping bag, rolled it out on the grass, and lay down. We are spending the night here, was his reply. Anneliese had made herself comfortable on the back seat with a blanket, and I stood there, not knowing what to do or say. I assumed we would be sleeping in a hotel or a guesthouse. I then reclined the passenger seat and lay down. I couldn't sleep that night.

So that was the short story of this vacation to Les Palmeras. Today I got up at 5:00 AM, made breakfast. Fresh rolls baked and filled. In Spain, there are no snacks at gas stations on the highway. You have to exit the highway for that, which we didn't want to do. So everyone gets 2 fresh filled rolls and we have plenty to drink anyway. I got the RV ready inside, while Lothar packed everything outside. We had already done most of it the day before. At exactly 7:00 AM we left the Barcelona campsite heading toward Les Palmeras. First onto the highway toward Barcelona. Then the highway went right through the middle of Barcelona and further toward Tarragona. After Tarragona, we headed toward Valencia. We got a little lost here, as we originally wanted to take the highway around Valencia, but we unfortunately missed it. So we drove our rig through the city. It wasn't always fun. However, Lothar drove through the city traffic without complications. Now it was still 60 km over land. The last storm had left its marks. Everything was still flooded. After 6 hours, we arrived at our new campsite in the rain. The owner, a friendly man, explained to us that we were the only campers besides the two others, and we could choose a spot wherever we liked. The choice wasn’t hard, as the tree-lined avenues were very low. So not too far back, as we wouldn’t be able to get through there. Once we had the power connection, Lothar chatted away with the neighbors from Augsburg, who were staying here all winter. Now they were having a beer, then another one. In the meantime, it had stopped raining. I wanted to ride the bikes to Alfried and Anneliese's old apartment. Finally, we set off. We were about 2 km away. There were many landmarks I recognized. I found the apartment right away. I looked for a doorbell. In Spain, names are not on the doorbells, only the apartment numbers. There are no mailmen here; the post has a collection point. You register there. When mail comes, you receive a notification via the post app and must then pick up your mail. I rang the doorbell, but no one answered. Then I rang again; someone asked me in Spanish. I replied in English, but no one let me in. Then I thought, let’s go and find somewhere to eat. At the corner near Sueca, there was a restaurant open, so we went in. It was all very simple. The menu was small. Translated, there were several sandwiches or a few pasta dishes. So, 2 macaroni alla Bolognese. The pasta came cold, and the sauce tasted bland. I ordered red wine and water. I immediately got a whole bottle of red wine. Of course, we finished it. We ate and paid. We complained about the pasta, and they heated it up in the microwave again. 1 beer, 1 bottle of red wine, 1 bottle of water, 2 pasta with Bolognese 16.70 €. The restaurant staff were nice, and we thanked them saying Ollá and rode our bikes back to our campsite. Tomorrow we will try again.