310 Peñiscola.

17th September 2018  Miles Today 183   Total Miles  2,591.
We tried before we left Benidorm to get our tickets for the MotoGP printed out. They had been sent by email a few days previous but the staff at the hotel were a bit anal and kept moaning about virus' etc so no joy there then.

I figured out that if I put some Voltarol cream (sort of liquid Ibuprofen) on the cheeks of our bums the journey would be much less painful. So after an application of said cream we set off and managed a huge 60m journey and stopped for breakfast at an British cafe. This is Benidorm after all. I was a bit miffed at the ticket thing but at around 11am we were off and running.

At about 3pm we arrived at Peñiscola and booked into Hotel Maria. The Voltarol had done it's job admirably.
The Hotel was delightful. It was clean. bright, had air con and was just nice. We chilled out for a bit and them changed out of our bike gear and into shorts etc and wandered down to the beach.

WOW....... What a fantastic place. We had never heard of it before but the place had 2 beaches, one was about 100m long and the other went as far as the eye could see. They were either side of a peninsular with a castle on top. The bonus was that it was spotless and there were no drunken Brits gobbing off and competing for the most embarrassing outfits.

The Castle on the peninsular.

The place had lots of clean and charming back street shops.

The beach went on forever.

Sand castles on steroids.

Only the Brits found this funny.

This place is all about St George and the dragon. Hence this kiddies play area,

I'm not much good at this 'selfie' malarky.

18th September 2018  Miles Today 0 Total Miles 2,591.
We had a greats night sleep. No drunken morons shouting at each other from the balconies and the room was cool.
We decided to visit the castle today and it was brilliant.

The peninsular was liberated from the Arab Muslims in 1233 by James 1st of Aragon. The castle was built by the Knights Templar around 1300BC and was garrisoned by the Knights Montesa. It is believed to be that last place the Knights Templar built. We were sad to learn that the day before we arrived there had been a huge festival or the kind they have in Rio de Janero. We bumped into some Belgians and they showed us some video of the festival. As said, it was just like Rio. They also had a some street 'bull running' on but alas we missed that too. Bloody Benidorm !!!

View from the top of the castle.

Beach as far as the eye can see.

The church at the top of the castle.

With all the usual Christian models.

The altar. We lit a couple of candles for lost relatives and friends.

Pope Benedict XIII 'Papa Luna' who lived in the castle around 1400AD.

It was hot and glorious.

A model of the castle in Templar times.

A kind of historic Beaux tapestry.

Dungeons and Dragons time.

In the garden they had a bird of prey exhibition.

On the way back down.

We finished up getting our costumes on and going into the sea for a cool off but as soon as we got in, it clouded over but the sea was very warm so it was not a problem. A great day all round.