Day No. 169 - Gandia

Torgit: When I wake up this morning, it's cold, not to say freezing cold. We haven't had the heating on for a few days because it was quite warm at night at 13 degrees. Today it's much colder, only 8 degrees. We quickly snuggle down with Marc. But he's almost got one foot outside for the sunrise photo shoot. As beautiful as the sunsets in Portugal were, the sunrises here in Spain on the Costa Blanca are just as stunning. First I make a coffee and enjoy the view of the sea and the waves. Then we pack up and get the car ready. We want to drift along the coast for a while and drive further north.

The next town is Oliva. We drive through large plantations of oranges and mandarins, which are being picked here. In between, huge areas of yellow flowers - spring is already here in Spain. Almond trees are already in bloom everywhere. This sea of colors in pink, yellow and orange is beautiful. On the way, we quickly pop into Mercadona for dinner.

In Gandia we see a nice advertising sign for a campsite, but our battery is still in the green zone, we can stay another night and park4night shows us a nice spot right on the beach (39°02'10.3″N 0°11'12.7″W). We continue over a pedestrian bridge (yes, they don't take that too seriously here) and find ourselves at the end of a path right on Playa Naturista Gandia beach, all alone. The beach in front of us, the mountain range from Montdúver to Penya Migdia and Muntanya Redona behind us, the Riu Vaca next to us on one side and a bird sanctuary on the other. A dream. We stay here. First we explore our beach, beautiful white sand and the beach is forever long. However, this beach also suffered badly during the last storm. Not only are there dead fish and garbage everywhere, but the jetty to the beach has been half torn away. No wonder, this small, inconspicuous river to our left had risen 5 meters due to the hurricane and the associated masses of water, causing 4 bridges to collapse. Back at the van, we first have lunch. And zack happy. 

We're going to be lazy today and read: Marc is reading his Brittany crime novel part 888 and I'm reading 'Herzenhören' by Jan-Philipp Sendker. As I'm slowly running out of books, I've activated a Kindle and lo and behold, what Marc downloaded ages ago from some dubious Russian platform isn't so bad. In this context, I would like to praise the Cologne City Library for its really good digital offering. Not only can you borrow books online, you can also read newspapers. And I really like using the free access to the digital language school Rosetta Stone. Unfortunately, the Onleihe book lending service doesn't work for Kindle, which is purely an Amazon thing. If you have any tips on how I can change the format or how I can manage to read the books from the city library on my Kindle, please get in touch with me!

But back to the beach: We're barely sitting down when 2 hikers come by and we hear: "It's carnival in Cologne and you're here?" Well, you can't hide your license plate. Caught out again. Yes, they would always flee too. As soon as we have the book in our hands again, a racing cyclist comes by carrying his bike. Marc immediately says he must really love his bike, and it turns out it's a Frenchman. I spontaneously remember: "Vous aimez la bicicleta." Shit, drifted into the wrong language. Unfortunately, this happens to me again and again on our tour: I can think of words in every language in the world, but unfortunately not in the one I need at the moment. As soon as we have our book in our hands again, a motorcycle rolls up. And chats to us nicely from the side. A very nice conversation develops about the area here and about Spain in general. For example, that water and parking are free and more and more highways are becoming toll-free since the left-wingers have been in power in Madrid. Free drinking water is very rare in Germany, I only know the Apollinaris spring in Sinzig, for example, but only local residents can get water there. In Germany, everything is nicely regulated. It feels like parking is getting more and more expensive here and the introduction of a car toll has been discussed for ages. Here in Spain, the toll on the highways is gradually being abolished in order to relieve the country roads that lead through smaller towns from the trucks. Spain also has a different waste disposal system to ours, which is very convenient for us here on our trip, as property owners don't have their own garbage cans, but there are garbage cans for everyone on every street corner, which are emptied every evening.

Hanso, as the friendly motorcyclist is called, has experienced ups and downs in his life. When his wife separated and the house had to be sold, it was a shock at first. Today he sees it in a positive light: "Otherwise I would still just be there cutting the hedge". He has lived here for a while and celebrated his 70th birthday here with all 4 of his children. You can tell that he loves 'his area' here very much, he really goes into raptures.

At some point it gets cool, the sun goes down and we realize that the afternoon is over and once again we haven't done anything, but we are happy. Hanso says goodbye and gives us a few tips for the surrounding area. A rider with 4 horses on a lead comes by promptly. We are always delighted at how friendly the locals greet us. Do we approach gypsies or travelers with the same friendliness in Germany?

Now it's time to get into the warm van, I swing the wooden spoon and Marc makes a phone call around the world.

Editor-in-chief's addition: Hanso seems to be doing some things right. He is clearly happy about positive communication. He often lacks this here. When the German over-winterers come, they usually have few positive topics. Where the nearest Aldi or Lidl is often more important than the good pub or the sights nearby. Hanso seems to enjoy exploring the area all the more. His "little moped" now has almost 150,000 kilometers on the clock. Okay, the bike was used, 6,000 of which were ridden by its predecessor. - I also often notice that people always focus on the negative things. - But more on that tomorrow.