Feliz Navidad and 1000 nice people

Liverpool, wonderful city. While Christine inspects the parks in Madrid in rainy weather with temperatures above 0 Celsius and waits for her loved one, Christian wanders around the English city with two friends and watches football. The game may be lost, but the visit will always be remembered, everything around it was too cool, from the fan march to the pub visits the day before to the atmosphere at Anfield Road.

But after 2 days he is back, including Mr. H. from Austria and we are still visiting Madrid. We find a wonderful restaurant a bit away from the city center where we eat really good paella and Christian gets a little Spanish tutoring from the waitress. By the way, the food is so delicious that we go here again the next day. Madrid is quite nice. It's the Christmas market, everything is lit up and there are also hordes of people moving through the streets. There is comparatively little going on around the San Bernabeu stadium, where a Real Madrid league game is taking place on the same day. We come to the conclusion: there are probably better cities for sightseeing, but the culinary factor is very high in Madrid; you can discover new delicacies every 5 meters.

After Madrid is before Madrid, we want to get back to the warm, which is why we drive south without an exact destination or route. So we end up grazing the entire area between Valencia and Malaga. We go back and forth several times, we see bad things and we see beautiful things. For the first time we are confronted with large numbers of mobile homes and converted vehicles on the beach and visit places elsewhere where we can find peace and quiet and enjoy the warm sun of southern Spain. We notice great animal suffering, horses and dogs on 2 meter chains in meadows, but also observe ibex families from a distance of 5 meters calmly eating the greenery from the trees. The landscape often appears to us bare, dry, parched and crying out for water, and a few kilometers further we walk through lush meadows along the river or stick our feet in the sand to let the sea water wash it away again. We drive and sleep between the plastic houses where it stinks and the chemical canisters are lying around (yes, exactly where our vegetables are grown) and hike on cliffs where we can't get enough of the turquoise sea. We don't understand humanity when we look at the trash on the shore (Christian even made an unreleased anger video), but we feel validated when we see that we're not the only ones picking it up. We are ashamed to belong to this species when we see campers emptying their gray and black water in nature, but we are happy that we get to know people who are just sweet, nice, decent and delightful. This time we would like to go into this in more detail and simply share a few experiences from the last few weeks.

At Franze: Yes, this parking space and the operator are truly unique. We enjoy the 2 nights here in inland Spain near Yecla. Franze is a good cook and he even prepares vegetarian meals for Christine. The stay is rounded off with a first aid measure from Christian after the neighbor was bitten on the thigh by the neighbor's dog. Pressure bandage, patient reassurance and tips for further treatment included. Afterwards we were basically alone in the place, peace and quiet.

peace_shanti_und_ahoi: Santa Pola, mobile home town, ugh new territory for us. Opposite a truck, Instagram stickers. Christine's curiosity has to be satisfied and after a short time she announces that she will now buy a book. Hm? Yes, the two lovely people have written a book. We buy it and read it in a day. A very clear reading recommendation and our feeling is positive again. A realistic look at life in a motorhome, away from #vanlife and everything is so “leiwand”. Even if it was only a short exchange, we will meet again somewhere, have fun on your life path, we are eagerly waiting for the 2nd book.

Feliz Navidad: Santa Pola again, the coast is still besieged by mobile homes, it's Christmas Eve. We decide to cook a feast, potatoes, fake soy schnitzel and green salad. As things go, there is a nice girl from Tyrol standing next to us. You can also have a quick toast to celebrate the day. Well, nothing came of the feast, the next day the three of us didn't feel so special, everything in between remains our secret. After that our paths diverged and by chance we ran into each other on a mountain peak near Teulada on New Year's Eve. Dear Miss K., may you always have a good wind, we hope we can get together again for an 8terl.

Between the holidays: Valencia, visit from home. This means that Christine and Miss C. treat themselves to an apartment and Christian has some time for themselves with Lilli at the campsite. The city is visited together thanks to a dog taxi (come on, Valencia is really beautiful) before we go to the shared holiday home in, that's right, Santa Pola. We take a little trip to the island of Tabarca and enjoy strolling on the beach promenade and being in company for a few days. Dear Miss C., may your Prosecco always be at the right temperature, it was an honor.

New Year's Eve: New Year's Eve has been planned for a long time, one of those fixed points that you set for the trip before you leave. If a friend's parents have a house in Spain and enough space to visit them, that's a nice change. To be honest, we felt like we were in a star hotel. The finest breakfast that Mr. B. conjured up, we were driven around, shown wonderful places and, most importantly, the hospitality of Mr. B. and Ms. D. was so warm that we would have liked to have stayed a little longer . Miss L. and Mr. F. our time together was wonderful, we should also start the paella pan at home more often. #thanks***

Christian's parents: Pretty cool action to get on the plane at that age, check out the rental car and have a good time in a finca near Malaga. Just an adventure. We are enjoying this week with Christian's parents to the fullest. We enjoy delicacies, visit the beach, Christian Cousin from Germany comes over for a drink, we let the sun shine on our stomachs and take trips to Ronda and Granada to the Alhambra. Ronda is beautiful, we eat well and enjoy the day to the fullest. The Alhambra is also impressive. We spend 4 hours in the old walls where we see how the last Moorish kings lived and lived. My dear parents, we are really looking forward to seeing each other again.

Christine's parents: RV convoy. We meet near Murcia and stop at a campsite near a thermal bath. Wellness!! But then? Sea or not? We like peace and quiet and so we explore new terrain. It will be the Las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas National Park. Molinicos is the first stop. Wonderful little town and a 10 kilometer hike satisfies the urge to move. This is followed by a wonderful and cozy weekend in Genave, with visits to the rustic bakery and hikes between olive groves.

Christian has wanted to drive through the national park for a long time, but first we have to make a quick stop at the Ferreteria (small hardware store) to buy a new gas adapter and then it happened. You'll find out next time what and why our plans suddenly changed.

Ps: Due to the many wonderful visits, we have preferred to focus on them in the last few weeks rather than make our existence available for posterity. It's simply impossible to fit everything into just a few lines and that's why it should be mentioned that greetings go out to all the other wonderful people we got to know, be it Mr. H. and Mrs. J. in their Morello, the dude next door, the one before lived in a cave and whose name we don't know, or the dear doctor “dreaba da Donau”.