Spain June 2005

Last Updated: 29/01/2007 @ 09.00

We decided to go to Spain for two reasons. The local air couriers give free seats to children less than 2, so this would be Seth's last freebee. And, a friend of mine owns a flat on the first floor and gave me a quite a good deal for two weeks. Yes, we would have to leave sunny Scotland for a two week holiday on The Med. Queue the Club Med "hands up" promo song.

We were staying in Benicasim, which is about 80km North from Valencia. We decided to rent a car for a week so we could tour a bit, and get our bearings. On our first voyage, we found ourselves high in the hills, in El Desierto de las Palmas. The next few pictures are of an old monastary, with Benicasim and the Med in the distance.

Here is a picture of Benicasim, using my new zoom lens. Looking at the picture above, you can just make out the waterslides, but not much else.

Here is the new monastary. It's quite a bit cosier and definately more posh. Things has really turned for the better for the monks. No drafty walls or high walls to clean.

High on the hill, is this cross. You can actually see it from our flat. It is a shame that they have erected all the telephone masts and power lines around it.

This is looking to the left of the viewing point.

The hills have forts or lookout posts like the next couple of pictures. Some were created by the Romans, and some were created by Spanish. Personally, I prefer the flat where we were staying, as it had a swimming pool (albeit closed) and we were minutes from the beach. If you lived on the hill, sure you'd be safe, but you wouldn't want to ever leave as you'd have to walk up all those stairs!

We stopped down the road from the above, and decided went for a walkie. From the right of the main city, the apartments get smaller and the

Looking thru the trees to the city.

Wide angle shot of the city. Press left/right arrow keys to view the entire picture.

Here are Kim and seth doing some exploring.

Spain - Oropesa

The next town up the coast is Oropesa. The beach is much more organized than Benicasim with the umbrella's neatly alligned. We spent an hour or so just driving aimlessly around the town for two reasons. First, it was a pretty little town, and second is that we couldn't find our way out. A lot of the streets are almost wide enough for a car, never mind them parking everywhere and every direction. We followed a little coastal route until we could find our way out.

Spain - Sagunto

Sagunto is an old Roman village, about an hour or two from Benicasim. The town is very lovely. We were given a map by the Benicasim tourist office and thought it'd would be easy enough to find the Roman fort, as it was the tallest fort on the tallest hill. As we were driving to the fort, we actually drove right past the city. It wasn't that we missed the city, as we drove right through it, but we couldn't find how to get to the fort. After about an hour of driving through ever narrowing streets, we finally found a parking spot by our next two pictures.

There is two reasons why I took the picture of the above sign. First, it's a very pretty, and decorated street sign. We're usually normally accustomed to the rusty and bent street signs, but this one shows a little more pride in their city. The second reason, is we had no idea where we were, so between this sign, and the Generalitat Valenciana (next picture) we would be able to ask a local where we had forgotten our car (digital cameras are great that way).

This is our first picture of the fort. We saw it from the road, but this is the start of our trek up the hill. Did I mention we had a 2 year old and a pram? That will become more aparent later.

Not sure why, but the Romans didn't like their neighbours.

This is the entrance to the Teatro Romano. The city council had a very good idea -- instead of leaving this theatre as a Roman ruin, they actually renovated the theatre, so that you have old and new, and can use the theatre during the day as a tourist attraction, and at night, use it as a modern theatre. Very clever.

Here is the inside of the theatre, with the old and new.

Just across the street were these caves. Some of them were large enough to live in, whereas others would have been used to hide from the guards in the fort above.

The next picture is looking at the city, with the theatre behind us.

From this picture, we are almost at the fort. Fortunately, the Romans aren't home, so we're able to walk up right to the front door. Any idea where the car is? Any idea where the roads are? If you look closely, you'll be able to find our car -- just follow the paint on the walls!

Getting closer to the front door.

Just checking to see if anyone is guarding the walls.

After paying off the guard, we were able to wonder around the grounds. In this building, the guards have a nice little area, dedicated to taking the entrance fees, watching the telly, and enjoying a cold one. I really don't blame them, as the other guard tower is right in the middle of the noon day sun. No nice.

Sagunto is a combination of the older city, the agriculture belt, and one of their most common export is tiles. Along the road, every third building seemed to be manufacturing tiles. Our only highway incident happened on the highway in the middle of the picture. Fortunately, we weren't involved, but a lorrie turned into a VW Golf. No-one was hurt but the ground was littered with Golf.

The next few pictures are of, and around the fort.

You really have to be amazed that a lot of these buildings and walls have been around for thousands of years. I look around our town, and really hope (for a historic point of view) that none of our buildings last for 2000 years, cause most of them are just plain ugly! Especially any building from the 60's or 70's.

There's Kim and wee Seth. As you can see, his pram has been abandoned (about an hour before). This part wouldn't have been too bad for a pram, but the other 300 stairs to get here were taking their toll.

Honestly, I have no idea what this sign says. I'm thinking maybe "Going out of business sale", "Rome or Bust!", "Home sweet home" or maybe even "Romans go home!".

This archway is leading to the square building from a couple pictures ago.

And the view from the other side of the arch.

The building on the far right was their kitchen (sorry no more pics of that building). They had the chimneys coming out of the side of the building, and some of them exited to other buildings to keep them warm. If you go back to our pictures from Bath, you'll remember how the Romans heated their floors. Very clever.

This is looking back at the rest of the fort. Unfortunately the day was getting long, and Seth was getting tired, so we opted out of seeing this part of the fort.

This room used to hold water and other liquids. On the back wall behind Seth and Kim were large vases which contained their bevvies.

The pillar stands serve two purposes - one was to support the roof (just draw your own pillar) and the second is to allow a pedastil for Seth to pose. I'm sure the Romans created it for the latter.

Here's Seth playing hopscotch on the pillar stands.

Here's Seth and Brian posing, with the middle of the fort behind them.

Here's the middle section of the fort. Probably the centre of all the fun, activities and all. In the centre would have been the arcade and games room.

Here are the walls infront of the main section, and the tablets.

Anybody had a chance to translate the tablets yet? I think they mean "Thank you for visiting the fort. Have a good trip home"

On the way back down the hill, this is the spot where we abandoned our pram. See those stairs? Not only where there hundreds of them, but they were also uneven and bumpy. No nice for a baby or pram.

Now, not only did invading people have to deal with the Romans flinging down stones and arrows at them, but also cactuses like this one. More silent than an owl, sharper than a pit bull. You can just see the church in the background. More on that later.

The next several pictures are of the cactus flower. Quite nice, if you can just ignore the 2~3 inch barbs protecting them. The other problem with taking these pictures is that I had to lean over the flowers (cause they're tall and prickly) hover the camera over them, and then try and aim, and then try and snap a picture. Not as easy as it seems. As well, this was the first trip that I'd taken this camera on, so I'm still not sure how to use the macro function.

This was the last picture I took that day, before going to hospital to get the doctor to remove 45 cactus spikes.

Just kidding. This was the last picture I took before going to hospital.

Following us was this church and steeple. There was a lot of working going on in the city, and it was hard trying not to get all the cranes in the pictures.

After a bite of lunch, Seth had found a fountain of energy.

The hills were full of birds and lizzards. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera out, they were gone. Fortunately this little guy was a little easier to capture. He just let us on with our business, and we left him on his.

Here's Seth being adventerous and discovering his environment. He's a cross between James Bond and a tight rope walker.

No obsticle is too large. This was also good training for his pole dancing routine.

Poised like a cat (or frog). Look at the intensity in those eyes.

Now really - isn't he just the cutest baby in the whole entire world? No, really. He has poster child written all over him.

Seth has many ways to get around. He is not actually falling, but going down the stairs the way that he wants to go - hands first.

Here's Kim and Seth posing in the noon day sun.

Here, the camera man is poised for an arial attach on unsuspecting Seth. Run little baby, run!

As we continue our journey down, we stop and admire the town.

All along the hill, the path to the church zig-zags its way up to the church. Along the way are these mosaics, for worshippers to stop and admire along their trek. There must have been a couple dozen of these types of mosaics, each depecting a different stage of Jesus's life.

The church itself isn't that big, but can be seen from almost everywhere in the city.

The church also has several mosaics on the front as well.

Kim and Seth are zig-zagging down the path. Unfortunately, there is no stairs on the side, so you have to keep going back and fourth and back and fourth. I'm sure they did it that way so that way you'd keep admiring the church. I guess that's where the journey is as important as the destination.

I am not sure why this mosaic is behind bars, as most of the other ones were in the open.

This last picture shows the church with the beautiful blue sky, and some of the paths that to reach the church. I'm just glad they didn't put it on the top of the hill.

End of Part I