Spain June 2005

Spain June 2005 - Part II

Spain - Castellon

Castellon was about a 30 min bus ride up the coast, between Vanlencia and Benicasim. We rented a car for a week, and had to return it to the bus/train station. Since we were here anyway, we decided to tour around the town. The next set of pics are in the city park. Just off to the right, is a major construction site, going about 4 square blocks. There seems to be a lot of construction all around the city.

In the centre of the park was this gazebo. Unfortunatley as we were visiting the city in the middle of the week, there was no band, no fanfair. I guess they didn't realize we were coming today.

Seth always tries to find a friend while on the playgrounds. Unfortunately during this trip, Seth's was just starting to speak English, and I'm sure this boy was just learning Spanish. No matter, the old pointing method seemed to be the common language of the playground.

Seth has just mastered the Mt. Everest of the playground. There is not much more to accomplish.

Spain is one of the tile meccas, and even their park benches detail their tiling skill. Seth is keeping an eye on the wildlife.

Unfortunately, we left Seth out in the sun just a little too long, and he's melting into his pram.

This is one of their town squares, and I believe that's some government buildings in the centre. The building on the left is one of their weekend market buildings.

On the direct right side from the above picture, is this bell tower, used for, you know, making bell sounds.

The lower bit of the tower, otherwise known as the bottom.

There's a lot going on in this little square, isn't there? In addition to the government buildings, tower, waterfountain (aka water feature according to Charlie), we also have the church. The government buildings would be right behind me.

This is on the other side of the market building from the square. On market day, this square could be filled with stalls and shoppers, in a frenzy of activity. Off to the right, are quite a few open cafe's. It's o'so'trendy.

Here's a closeup of the monument. This appears to be erected in MCMLXXXV, or 1985 for you non-Romans.

I'm not really sure how to describe the next picture. I asked my Spanish friend, and she didn't know really how to describe these statues either. All I can tell you is that he's a famous Spanish artist, and I'll let you come to your own opinions.

From what I've heard, the top actually turns, but I'm not sure if it's wind powered or not.

There are several sculputres are at the base of the 'hand tree', and water fountains for the warmer days of summer.

It wasn't too warm on this day, so we decided not to play in the fountains.

With the park behind us, we take a little wonder through the streets of town and come across this roundabout fountain.

And, even the keenest of tourists have to fall asleep sometime. Sweet dreams o'worldly traveller.

Spain - Benicasim

We were staying in the town of Benicasim. The town is more of a tourist resourt for people from Valencia and Castellon rather than from the UK. As we found out, most people don't speak English, and sadly, my Spanish is worse than my French.

You're really going to hate us, but this is the view that we had our breakfast and dinners to. We went to Benicasim just before the school holidays, so this was pretty much as busy as the town was. Sadly, this meant that there was a lot of maintenance going on, like ours, everyones pools were in the stage of getting cleaned so we had to brave the 5 minute walk to the Med.

The complex that we were staying in had two buildings, with the swimming pool in the middle. We were on the first floor, which gave us good view of the area. Unfortunately, the pool opened about 2 days after we left. It would have been nice to use, as we had the baby monitor and we could have used it when Seth was taking his naps. Since all the TV channels were in Spanish, we headed outside an played football and basketball in the courtyard. The compound was very children friendly. They even had a mini-playground including swings, bouncy horse, and shoot for Seth. Kim and I were too big.

Today, Spiderman and his sidekick, Bugbaby weren't having a good day. The evil Mothman had escaped, which made them both grumpy. Both Spiderman and Bugbaby wanted to drive, so they had problems controlling the car.

Bugbaby is wondering what Spiderman is thinking, and rolls his eyes in Spiderman's general direction.

Bugbaby has had enough of Spiderman, and decides to pull the ejector seat. Hopefully Spiderman can fly as well as he can spin a web.

Our flat was down the coast about 2 miles. As you can see, there is hardly anyone on the beach, and that's not because of the weather. We spent a lot of time under those three palmtrees in the sand. We just hadn't seen the sun in a year, and didn't want to become another toasted statistic. Even though the sun was out, it didn't appear to want to burn you (if that makes any sense). I spent quite a few hours in the sun without even turning pink.

Now, what does everyone need when they're at the beach, but their own pool? Seth took the advice from most LA'ites, and had his own beach pool installed.

Is anyone watching me?

OK, I'm happy now that I have your entire attention!

All I need is everyone's attention, my beach, my pool, and my ball.

Down the beach a ways, was this fort. Unfortunately we didn't get that much closer to this tower, but thought it looked interesting, watching and monitoring the beach.

These next few beach pictures are from the local beach, whereas the ones above were more closer to the shops. Our local beach was great if you wanted to just get away from the dozen or so people, but if you needed a lollie, there were none to be found.

Who's the cheeky munky?

Here's a pic of me, hair moddled after Jamie Oliver.

I'm giving instructions to Seth on the proper techniques of sand, and their associated castles. Notice, how we decided to go for the "portamoat", which, allows you to relocate your castle and moat nasties like dragons when required.

It takes due dilligence to add the correct amount of dirt to your moat water. Too little dirt, and everyone's drinking it or swiming in it, too much, and the dragons can escape.

As there are no billboards on the beach (or anywhere other than on the motorway) one form of advertising was high above. I'm not sure what this says, as I've forgotten all of my Spanish.

During his hours of excavation, Seth has unearthed a 3rd century orb, possibly used for some kind of ritual or game.

Here is Professor Seth exiting one of the excavation tunnels.

Professor Seth quickly ducks into another tunnel, to ensure that his treasures are not ransacked.

Here are a couple thoughtful pics of Seth.

They were actually working on the next beach with diggers, cat's, excavators, dump trucks etc, so that may be what Seth is actually watching. Very busy site.

Who's been busy?

This was as deep as you could dig, as the beach had a manmade rock foundation. I guess that also helps preserve the beach when tourists try and dig to China.

Time to exit. That was fun for 30 seconds.

Our flat wasn't that close to the beach. We had to walk down an entire flight of stairs, down a side street, turn right and follow that road for a good minute, cross the road, then down a ramp and that got us to the beach. The entire trip took at least 3 minutes! We were thinking about renting a golf cart (that is so popular in the US for short trips) but there were none to be found.

This picture shows it a little better - the building between us and the beach had a mini golf (or crazy golf if you prefer) course. Most buildings have their own fenced off recreation areas. It's really quite sad, as we only saw two people playing on the pitch in two weeks. I guess the better the rec area, the more they can demand for the property.

At our complex we had a basketball court (which doubled as a football pitch), and a playground off to the right.

And a closeup of the other side of the building looking at the Med.

After walking out of the flat's gates, we had to walk past these Adelfas.

Although the plants look really nice, they actually (according to a couple that passed by) hold a horrible secret!

These plants are actually poisonous! Stop Seth! Don't touch them!

Unfortunately, we're not sure what part of the plant is poisonous. All the people said was el poisonous or and shook their fingers. I'm sure they said more, but that's all we needed to take in.

It's quite a nice plant, and you can see why people would want it on their doorstep. On one hand, it's flowers are really nice, the tree grows quite big, and if you touch it or tresspass, then the tree gets you.

Here's that long ramp down to the beach. I told you it was a trek to the beach! Not only did we have to walk down this mighty hill, but after a day of digging in the sand and swimming, we had to walk up it as well!!! The white piller is a water station, for you to wash your feet / sandles / toys etc. I'm not sure if it's the city being generous, or if they just don't want you stealing their sand.

Here is the view of the pool from our balcony. There are two buildings in this complex. The building that we are in is about half the size of the one on the left, but is built in a similar manner. Doesn't the pool look beautiful? Yes, it does. Sadly, this was as full as we ever saw the pool, as they were in the process of getting it ready for the summer rush. About a week or two after we left, the pool was operational.

This is taken from the balcony, looking back toward the town at the mountains.

One night we went out just at dusk a block from the flat and watched the bats. Arantxa (the person I rented the flat from) had never seen bats before, so I'm not sure if she believed me when I told her.

A little further down from "our" beach, was the "Adquisicion Y Adecuacion Torre Sant Vicent Y Su Entorno". Now if your Spanish is as good as mine that is the, er, um, Tower for St. Vicent. I've included the entire plaque for you to read at your leisure. If you'd care to translate, then send it along, and I'll remove this blathering and add what it really says. We tried to view it a couple times, but it was always closed. I'm betting that in a month or so, all the touristy attractions would be open.

Here is Kim and Seth modeling the tower. It was too big to fit on the plane, so we decided to leave it on the beach.

Here's a little mosaic of St. Vicent guarding his tower and blessing all those that are welcome. Since the door is locked, St. Vicent must be busy blessing at the other side of the building.

We were really spoiled for beach choices. About 200 yards down the beach, was a this beach. It was a little more populated, and a couple of the houses overhung the wall, which provided much appreciated shade. They also taught sailing and windsurfing, so we watched the newbies learn to swim. I mean sail.

Kim is trying to persuade Seth to go for a walk in the water.

Getting a little closer.

See? It's not that cold! It's just like the tub at home! Seth decides that a handful of sand can only be a good thing.

OK - this isn't that bad...

Seth decides to venture a little further.

Oh. After getting Seth's sandles wet, he decides to retreat back to the comfort of his sand castle.

I decided to take Seth for a little walk into the depths of the sea. Seth decided that staying on dry land (or dry person) was a better place to be and to let the bigger people get wet.

Safe on dry land, acting the cheeky baby that he is.

Kim and Seth admire the surf.

On the walk to the main town, were these (and many other) bouganvillia bushes.

They grow to at least 10 feet. A lot of people have walls along their road (which is a shame really) but will often have flora like this to make their walls a little less dreary.

Benicasim is nice, in that it isn't spoiled by strip malls or a lot of shops. Behind Kim is a sample of the types of shops that dot their main street.

I remember when I was a child, for our local playground, we were lucky to have a couple swings, and a slide. Occassionally, some dog would leave a stick and we'd find a rock, and with that, we'd be able to have a game of baseball. Well, not today! They have these really expensive playgrounds. The peice of equipment that Kim is trying to master is a skateboard type of thing, which goes up and down on the rails. Unfortunately, since it's on the beach, the one Seth was playing with had a little bit of sand in it's wheels so it didn't ride as smoothly. Still, I sat Seth on it, and he was able to go up and down the track.

I think Seth is really saying "This is mine!"

Looking behind us, is the beautiful beach. We stayed just to the right (and above) those three people by the water. It seems like a long way to walk, and it was, but we were on holidays, so it was an enjoyable walk.

Not sure how this pic got in the bunch. I'll have to remember to delete it.

On today's outting, we decided that the portamoat wasn't an option. Needing to secure our castle, we had to improvise with a white fleximoat. We were fortunate in finding a close water source to maintain the moat.

Add a little dirt...

Another little scoop...

Give a little stir... and viola! A perfect home for the dragons.

Enough of the beaches! What we really need is: CAKE!

Since we all have our birthdays within a week, rather than wait until we arrived in the UK, we decided that a cake was in order. Kim was lucky enough to have her birthday in Spain, where I had mine in Spain, England and Scotland (one of my longest birthdays), and Seth had his in sunny Scotland.

Here's Kim blowing out the candles. If you notice, there's 16 candles, so, it must be Kim's 16th birthday.

Success! All the candles are out, although I'm not sure what Seth is thinking. I'm thinking he's wondering how to get the entire chocolate cake for himself.

Seth has decided to play with his cars on the table, as his car garage is currently under construction.

All the Mini's must be alligned correctly, or else, it just won't do.

All the cake has been eaten, and the sun has set. Everyone is rubbing their bellies. We were fortunate enough to have a telly, but unfortunately, the little people inside only knew Spanish, which didn't help us much. Ever watched an Arnie movie in Spanish? Fortunately with the limited plot, it was easy enough to follow.