Nice places and good company

We slept well on the parking in Sevilla and after some grocery shopping and breakfast we leave in the direction of Cadiz. We found a camp side “Camping Playa Las Dunas”, that has space for us for the coming two nights (it is very busy, some others where fully booked). It is located in the village where all the sherry is exported, El Puerto De Santa Maria. It is raining from time to time and we stop along the way at a big shopping mall to do some shopping, have lunch and the kids can play at the playground in between showers. When we arrive at the camping around 15.00 it is still raining, but we see some blue skies coming our way. In the evening Robert is doing a short biking tour around town and sees the evening procession passing by. Unfortunately, it is raining again, but for tomorrow the weather looks promising.

We planned to take the ferry from 10.30 to Cadiz which is half an hour by boat. Unfortunately one of our batteries is not connecting to the bikes so we first have to solve this issue. Luckily we got the tip from Hermans, the shop where we bought the bikes, to reset it in the charger and that worked. The next boat would leave 50 minutes later so still no problem. But when we arrived at the harbor the ferry was not going as they had technical issues. After some sad faces we decided to take the train instead. We take our bikes as well (only the one from Dax we leave at the station) so we can move around town easier when we are in Cadiz. We arrive around 12.00 and park our bikes in town, stroll around, have coffee and buy some food at the market for lunch later. The bike shop calls us that they had a conversation with the factory that it can be a problem caused by a lot of water…. It is busy as there are 4 big cruise ships in the harbor, so British and Germans all over, but it is ok. We take our bikes to cycle around the city via the beaches and visit the fortress at the end of the pier. You can’t go in it, but the walk is nice and windy 😊. In the park close by we eat some bread and there is a playground for the kids. After cycling through the harbor to see the cruise ships we take the train back to the camp side. There are some bouncy castles set up so the kids enjoy themselves while we have a glass of wine at the terrace. We put on the bbq and afterwards make all preparations to leave early tomorrow to go to Gibraltar.

At 8.00 we leave the camp side and after a stop for gas and breakfast we arrive at the camper parking next to the boarder with Gibraltar at 10.00. We park the camper for the night, have something to eat and take off the bikes. There is always a lot of traffic to cross the border, but with our bikes we can pass by all the cars and the pedestrians and go in front of the line. We show our passports and all in all it takes us 10 minutes to get in, not bad when you know that the waiting time can normally go up until three hours 😊. Robert was really looking forward for the first experience, cycling over the airport runway to get into the city. When there is a plane coming they close the road and after the plane passed by they open it again, what a system. Luckily not everything is English here, we can still cycle on the right side of the road. But for the rest everything changed, you pay with Pounds, eat fish and chips at the pub and can go shopping at Marks&Spencer. We park our bikes at the cable car where we get up to the rock. We see the monkeys, have coffee (plus a small video call to sing for Sanne’s Grandma who turned 90 this day) and start our stroll around the rock. It is a nice walk downhill and along the way we have some nice views, see all the army stuff like canons and go into some caves. We didn’t have enough time to also visit the tunnels from WW II as it is already three and the kids get tired and hungry. We go back to the bikes and cycle to Mainstreet where we have some nice pub food at the Clipper. We head back to the camper where Robert changes and crosses the border again to have drinks and dinner with some guys from Round Table Gibraltar.

After a bit of a short night for some people 😉 we have breakfast, do some homework and get ready to drive to the camp side in Estepona. We called a few days ago, but couldn’t book a spot. They told us to come by as they would have space anyway. Unfortunately when we arrive around 11.00 there is nothing free so we have to find a new destination. We called a camping in the neighborhood and luckily they have some space left at Marbella Playa, about half an hour drive. Also here it is very busy, but it is organised pretty well. The camp side is old, but clean and completely filled with Spanish people that celebrate their Easter holidays. After lunch we walk in 2 minutes to the beach where we spend the rest of the afternoon.

Good news travels fast, so also the rumour that we are in the neighborhood 😊. In the morning Robert and Dax are trying to get a haircut, but everything is already closed for Easter. At 13.00 we get visitors from Round Table and Ladies Circle Denmark! Patrick and Helene just decided to move to this area and are in their new apartment, together with Soren who is here this week to help out and of course to enjoy the nice weather. We first have a drink at the camp side and then go to the beach and have lunch. A great afternoon with good company, food and drinks. We promised the kids to go to the swimming pool after lunch, so also when lunch finishes at 18.30 they kept us to that promise. After a short swim we eat something small and the kids go to bed way to late, but compared to the Spanish kids that are still running around, it was actually pretty early.