Valencia

14 July
It was a long haul on the motorway eastwards to the coast and Valencia. Many times we had seen a sign beside the road saying "Disculpen las Molestias". We thought this must be some campaign to discipline child molesters. However on carefully checking our Spanish dictionary it turned out that this sign meant "Sorry for the inconvenience" (road works).
We searched around a bit for a camp site on the coast south of Valencia - certainly saw orange trees growing, but this area is covered in extensive rice fields, and reminded us of our trip to Japan. It is the birthplace of paella. The area was rather run down and derelict and with its flat low lying swamps, reminded us also of Louisiana. High rise apartment buildings lined the beach front.
After setting up our tent in a campsite - Devesa Gardens, also termed by us Devesa prison for its extreme security fencing, barriers etc. It was also the most expensive camping of our whole trip 27 Euros (NZ $ 54) to camp on stones. We decided to go in and look at Valencia in the evening. We caught a bus in, cheap and glad not to drive on such busy roads, but not a particularly pretty trip. Once we arrived in the central city we were amazed at how busy and lively Valencia was - and this was a Monday night! Crowded with people and everyone in a rush. We were getting quite hungry but were told at one restaurant that they did not start serving until 8.30pm (we are in Spain after all where people often do not eat until 10pm). Fortunately we found a place that would serve us and we enjoyed a tasty paella.
15 July
Heading northwards from Valencia along the coast we took a morning stop at Sagunto, which turned out to be most interesting. We walked up to a large derelict castle along a ridge above the town.
Next stop was at a very popular long beach with the unfortunate name of Peniscola - it´s name hasn´t kept the crowds away, and it is a beautiful long golden Mediterranean beach.