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Sunday 4 May 2014

Sunny Spain

Since moving to France we have been blessed enough to be able to do lots of travelling and have seen so many wonderful things. One thing we hadn't really done is just have a relaxing holiday where we don't do much at all! So for the spring break we decided to book a week in Spain with the sole purpose of playing at the beach and relaxing at the pool. Being someone who finds it challenging to do nothing I booked in a couple of days at a theme park on the way down to our destination.

We left Toulouse on Saturday afternoon after Hannah had been to dancing and Jasper had been to the morning of his soccer tournament. We needed to stop for dinner so decided to stop in at Barcelona for a bite to eat. James and I had been to Barcelona 17 years ago and I remember it as a vibrant but slightly run down city. It seems to have been taken over by the tourism machine and has now got the same generic shops as all the other big European cities we have been. Gone were the flamingo dancers in the square and the musicians playing on each street corner. It is a lovely city though and we had a great meal at a nice new restaurant that was very family friendly. The driving was still crazy though and James did very well navigating through the one way systems where several roads all converged into one.


After dinner we got back on the motorway and headed further south to Salou where we stayed for two nights while going to Port Aventura. We arrived in the dark and couldn't find the hotel so I had to get out and have a look for the right place and we eventually managed to find the entrance. The apartment was nice and spacious and Hannah was delighted when she opened the curtains the next morning and could see the beach!

Just by coincidence some friends from Toulouse were staying at the same apartments so it was nice catching up with them the next morning. We then drove the few minutes to the theme park. Jasper was desperate to ride the big roller coasters and has been focusing on growing the last few weeks so that he would be tall enough! He had to be 140cm and decided to wear his trainers just to ensure he was tall enough which he was.

Before riding the roller coasters


After riding the roller coasters!



The roller coaster!


James and Jasper had a great time on the two big rides.

This is more like the girls and I - The Chinese teacups.


The chuppa chup ride.



While they were queuing for the rides the girls and I went on a ride which involved going on a boat and squirting people on other boats with water. While we were lining up we noticed that the majority of people were wearing jackets. We decided to be hardcore and go without jackets (plus James had the money so I couldn't buy any). Luckily it was hot as we got soaking wet and we seemed to be targets without coats on! There was a man on another boat who seemed to have it in for Penelope and would fire mercilessly at her - meanwhile he was fully covered with a raincoat!
Waiting to get on the Angkor ride.


Yes they have coats and we don't!


More water guns on the side of the path.



We had a great day going on lots of rides and also got to go and watch a show - which Hannah loved!

The singing, dancing, magic trick show we went to.



After riding the Tukaka splash ride


We had just been through that and no we weren't wearing jackets!


We ended the day by watching the parade and being blown kisses by Elmo.






We got back to the Apartment quite late and couldn't get into it. The caretaker had to come up and replace the batteries of the key code and then we eventually managed to get in and cook some dinner.

The next day we spent a lovely hour at the beach with our friends then headed back to Port Aventura for another day of riding roller coasters. We had hoped it would not be as busy as it was a Monday but it was and the queues were even longer. We all went on the water pistol ride together which was great fun (we had brought jackets with us this time). Then James and jasper went and queued for 50 minutes for the roller coaster. We spent the rest of the day getting wet on roller coasters and having a blast. A great place to spend two days.
Lining up to go on the fish ride.



Hannah and I ready to go on the parachute ride.





Up to the top!



The Wild West show.


We left the park at 5pm and drove an hour down the coast to the town of Peniscola where we were going to spend the next six nights. We had booked a ground floor apartment which was the right thing to do as we were right by the playground, grass area and the pools - perfect. We went for a walk to get dinner and discovered that our accommodation was not that near any restaurants. We eventually stumbled across a lovely little restaurant serving tasty food. The wind had died down a bit so the walk back to the apartment was not quite so cool.

The next day we woke to a lovely still morning and we went straight down to the beach to explore. One of the nice things about going on holiday is discovering all the little interesting shops to buy things and to get a bargain such as €2 for 2kg of strawberries at the little fruit and vege market just down the road from us!

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1 comment:

  1. That couldn't be more like Movie World on the Gold Coast! right down to the rides!

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