A Day of Wow's

Saturday 21st March and we woke up early again. Went down for Spanish breakfast of pastries, bread cheese and meats (salami, ham etc). Don't forget the coffee and fresh orange juice. I pilfered a couple of cakes for a snack later too...

Beautiful El Campello

So, enter the destination into Google maps, Benidorm, and away we go, along the beautiful coast. For anyone who has not heard of Benidorm, please look for the English sitcom by the same name, it is hilarious, and one of the reasons we wanted to see it for ourselves.

Back streets of El Campello        

Google took us through some back streets, which went up and down to get the heart pumping and legs burning.

                                

We did walk up a couple. Will saw a bunny rabbit, and we both saw a squirrel. Cool.

We got pretty warm and made a stop to take off some layers. The sun had come out and the day turned gorgeous.

This is what I thought I would see, Wow

First push up hill..It's ok, sure there'll be more.            

We found our way to the N332, which is the secondary main highway, and nervously, rode off. It had a great shoulder, and all the vehicles were super courteous and we even got a few friendly toots and waves.

Making sure lights are flashing, safety first. 

                   

Racing down the N332

Everywhere we looked there was amazing views and sights. It helped, me in particular, to get up some of the long inclines. It is a busy rode, but interesting and pretty safe.

Spot the yellow dawg,  but Wow the view.

We detoured off to Villajoyosa, right down on the coast for some much needed food, and of course, beer, oh and a toilet stop. We haven't quite got the hang of that situation just yet. Down along what we assumed was the Main Street, we found a busy cafe and made a stop. The street was lined with manicured orange trees. Really clean and neat.

Such a cute street. 

20km down and another 10ish to go. The kind Señora filled our empty water bottle and we continued along Calle Colon towards Benidorm. It stood out in the distance with it's towering high rises. We were guided back out onto the N332, and continued to the outskirts of Benidorm.

                   

Benidorm, here we come.

Then things took a bit of a turn. We were cruising along nicely, and Google had directed us off on a side road, when we came around a round about (don't forget it's the wrong way around), and I took one exit and Will took another. Of course I was right, so I stopped to wait for Will and thought I would check the map for the next section. It was gone! What? Come back! We still have no Sim, and there was no wifi, so Google would not load a single map. Aaaaagh! All I knew was that we had about 8kms to go.

We fumbled our way down to the beach, and whipped out the IPad, which we had MeMaps on, to try figure out where we were and where to go. We came to a nice beach area, with a cove and lots of cafes, but it was a dead end. We were lost in Benidorm! What the hell do we do? Have a beer, and who cares.

               

It was a beautiful spot to be lost. While we were sitting there with our Sam Miguels, laughing at ourselves, an Irish guy sitting near us asked about our bikes and we had a great discussion. He lives here, and gave us some great tips and best of all directions to the cycle path we were looking for along the beach. Thanks so much Patrick (of course you're from Ireland and that is your name, what else would it be?)

            

We had to go straight up a steep hill, so who gets on? Not us. Just push the bikes up and then ride. We found the bike path, right along a great beach. Wow, wow, wow!

What a great beach strip

The real Benidorm view. 

It was a great ride along the strip, and a short walk through the "Old Town", then continue riding along the "Other" side of Benidorm.

There were lots of crazy Poms, on holidays, Bucks nights etc, and we met some not so attractive "ladies", and spotted a large gaggle of Smurfs. Will would not let me stop again for that photo! Pooper!

Crazy Poms in Benidorm

Macca's was our location point, which told us we were close to the Camp ground. Last reckie and about 3kms to go. Up another long hill, then a nice long flat ride before turning left, right, into the Camping Arena Blanca. Yay, 39kms! Wow, good job. What a day. Great day!

Home for the night. Aahh.