Beach, Barbie and Benicassim

2.5.09 – 3.5.09 – Benicassim and Valencia

Saturday:

So the next morning (Saturday) we head of early, well 9.30am which is extremely early for us. We decide to go to Benicassim which is another small holiday town on the coast about 75 kms north of Valencia. It is only about 35 kms from Moncofa where we stayed last night – and what a beautiful spot it is. The campsite is first class, well run and the reception staff speak all languages, including English! Once we have settled in we head straight down to the beach, which is only a few hundred metres down the road and walk along the promenade for a while – wow, absolutely sensational! We decide we would like to stay here for the next 2 months!! But alas, there is motor racing to be seen so we are only allowed to stay 3 or 4 days (oh well!). The promenade is a well maintained very wide walkway and bikeway that runs along the beautiful pristine beach for about 14 kms. On one side of the walkway is the beach and on the other side are palm trees and then magnificant luxury spanish homes, most built many, many years ago, sadly some in disrepair but most others well kept. It is a lovely sunny day and we walk back through the little town during siesta time. I dont think much happens at any time, let alone siesta time but lovely little cafes and shops.

We wonder what everyone does during this siesta time – it is a two hour break from around 2pm to 4pm each day. Everyone seems to disappear somewhere, which is OK if you have somewhere to disappear to, but what happens to those shop workers that dont have anywhere to go for 2 hours (ie if they live hours a way from work)?? And when I say everyone, I mean everyone – all government run offices (tourist centres, post office, banks etc) and even street vendors! Doesnt matter if you are a paying customer or not. At one campsite we arrived at siesta time and the manager came out and said we could park whereever we liked but come back in two hours to pay!

Anyway, back to Benicassim, that afternoon we also go to the local Tourist Office (when it re-opens after siesta at 4.30pm) which has a very helpful young Spanish lady who speaks excellent English – she gives us the local run down on Benicassim, the next largest town south, Castellon and also Valencia, together with local bus and train timetables. We decide the next day we will take the local bus to Castellon and then the train from Castellon to Valencia. Unfortunately there are only 3 trains a day from Benicassim direct to Valencia so a trip on the local bus and then train is the way to go.

Sunday:

So Sunday we head off to the local bus stop to go into Castellon and then by train to Valencia. Bob and I cannot decide which side of the road the bus to Castellon will stop at, so he chooses his side and I choose mine. I feel that my excellent sense of direction will not let me down and keep looking up the road waiting for the bus to appear around the corner. The bus of course pulls up on Bob's side and lets him in while I come running up the rear. The bus is about to pull out without me but Bob's excellent Spanish saves the day – he yelled out “dos, dos” (which means two) so the bus driver opens the door again and lets me on. Bob said he knew he was on a winner on the bus stop issue because I was looking up the wrong side of the road from which the traffic flows!

The bus ride to Castellon is a nice ride along the coastline, through more coastal towns and we arrive in Castellon early afternoon. Then we are off to find the train station for the train to Valencia – we have a map so should be fine. As we are standing on the corner of a plaza deciding which direction to head, an elderly gent walking his dog in the park decides to offer us assistance. We ask if he speaks English and he said yes, German! He was very kind hearted, although had difficulty reading our map and understanding the word train or station. After many attempts at both the gent and us trying to describe a train station, Bob started making chugging noises and eventually the elderly gent said “ah - toot, toot” and we jumped with joy – yes train that goes toot, toot!! He was very pleased with himself (that is both the elderly gent and Bob!). The elderly gent looked at the map again but kept saying “momento, momento”, frowning and holding his head – he was having extreme difficulty in figuring out where the train station was. Eventually another lady came along and both the lady and this gent had a very animated discussion in Spanish (we think) – it seemed that the gent was saying the station was about 5 kms away but the lady was saying no, only 1km or so. She indicated to us, using her fingers in a walking fashion and rolling her tongue with “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdd” sound that we could walk there no problem. The elderly gent disagreed. In the end, we decided to leave them to their discussion, thanked them with many “gracias” and took off in the direction that we were headed before the elderly gent offered his help!

We found the train station in the direction that we thought it was after about a 20 minute walk and boarded a train to Valencia, which was about an hour away. Once in Valencia we headed towards the old town centre, which was very easy to find from the station. And what a wonderful town centre it was. It seems that the beautiful old buildings are constructed around two main plazas filled with fountains, statues and lovely trees. We decided to board a tourist bus to give us the highlights of the city in one fowl swoop. Although “touristy”, we find the tourist buses very good value – you get see all the highlights of the city with commentary about the history and current life of the city – always very interesting. By this stage it is almost 8pm and we need to head back to the train station for the last train back to Benicassim.

As we head back that night in the train, we decide that we didnt see all that we would have liked of Valencia so we would head back the next day. We still had until about 4pm the next day on the tourist bus (the tickets last for 24 hours). The only issue is that we will have to get up very early to catch the direct train from Benicassim to Valencia – 8am!! Bob tries to convince me that we will have to set an alarm – what – we are on holidays!! After much cajoling, I relent and allow the alarm to be set, just once while we are on holidays.