I returned later on Sunday to Les Cases d’Alcanar in the car with Sue and Maddy to show them my new discovery. There is a great promenade there which goes on for a few kilometres, but the beach is pebbles rather than sand. A nice place though that we shall return to on a nice warm sunny evening for a good seaside stroll.

For anybody wishing to find the back way in by car, just drive north from Vinarós up the N340 until you see the Catalonian border, after that just look for the first sign that says ‘camping’, which is on the right, go down there and eventually you will come out on the seafront, if you turn right, i.e. north you will arrive at the town of Les Cases. Les Cases del Alcanar is the most southerly seaside town in Catalonia.

On Monday we went to Peñíscola so that Maddy could have a ride on one of the little tourist trains.  There are 3 tours they do, we went on the Cerromar one that goes up onto the really steep hill in Peñíscola, giving great views over the castle, the others go around the town, south of the town and one that goes ‘round a new construction called ‘Les Atalayas’. The train costs 3€ for adults and 2.50€ for children and takes about 30 minutes.

The trains depart from the seafront just by the tourist info place. There is a Chinese restaurant called “China Town� just there too, we were somehow lured in there after the train ride as the Menu del Dia is just 6.95€, there is fairly wide range of stuff you can have. I had a spring roll, chicken and almonds with fried rice with that you can also get ice cream or coffee and the meal comes with either a glass of wine or a beer. Bargain, but the healthy lifestyle isn’t so healthy today.

I didn’t have a chance to do a bike ride so I swam 20 lengths of the pool when we got back. I’d estimated that the pool was a 30m pool, but after a lengthy discussion with some bloke who used to be a teacher, we came to the conclusion that it’s only 20m, so my swim was only 400m, bugger.

In the evening we invited our Dutch friends Henk and Gepka (something like that anyway) to come and drink some wine, I think we all got a bit pissed really, not good for the new healthy lifestyle, but good fun. Henk is 70 years old and is stupidly fit, he rides to Vinarós every morning to get the bread and has an average speed of 20.8 km/h, compared to my dreadful 16km/h. We met them 4 years ago when we first came to Camping Vinarós.