30/12/18 – 01/12/18
It was hard to believe it was December already, the weather had turned positively balmy and only the short days hinted at the season. Because it was so nice we decided we wanted some more beach time and made our way back to El Grao de Castellon. We turned up at the motorhome parking spot on the Friday lunchtime and nipped into one of the last spaces. It was going to be a busy weekend.
For a bit of variety we spent some time inland at Castellon itself – Castellon de la Plana. It’s not a tourist town really, just an everyday place with lots of bustling energy as people go about their lives. We wandered the streets, finding a few interesting buildings and the market square but not really looking for much, it was just something pleasant to do in the warm day, although Paul did get some odd looks for his shorts and t-shirt combo. Most people were wearing warm jackets to ward off the chill.
We popped into Castellon’s museum of art, a freebie that has some interesting (to us anyway) ethnographic and archeological stuff in the basement, plus pottery and artworks on the higher floors. The basement was noisy with sounds from the displays, particularly the buzzing of bees and the clang of metal working, it bought the displays to life but if you have a bee phobia you should probably avoid it. The art on the top floor was particularly interesting too, but the 2nd floor religious imagery did very little for me and the ceramics would probably have been more interesting if I hadn’t run out of energy for translation by that point. The building is huge and modern and energy conscious, we were the only people in some of the sections and it was quite disconcerting to see the darkness beyond some of the doors – were we allowed inside? – it was only as the lights came on that we knew we were in a gallery and not a store room.
Back in El Grao de Castellon we ventured into the planetarium where there was a good display about female astronomers on the ground floor and some other displays in the basement.
Displays from ‘The History of the Bicycle’
Once we had been suitably cultured we felt that we could relax and enjoy some beach time, soaking up the sun and swimming in the sea. It was gorgeous.