Day 5 - Castelldefels to Valencia

I could see when I opened the curtains this morning it was going to be a good day - the sky was blue. It was cool, not cold (this was 8am). After checking out of the hotel I visited the guest-house I plan to stay at for a couple of nights on my way back north in late April; it's in the hills behind Sitges, a little south of Castelldefels. When I write it is 'in the hills' I mean that literally; the road, which eventually becomes no more than a track really, is so steep in a couple of places that the only way up it was in 1st gear and putting one's foot to the floorboard to keep the revs up. However, the place is beautifully appointed - 'rustic with luxury' I think best describes it; they have a nice pool which should be warm enough to swim in when I come back.

SatNav said the drive to Valencia would take slightly over 3 hours (and that's what it took last year), but there is quite a lot of road-working going on on the AP-7 just now north and south of Tarragona over thenty or thirty kilometres in short and long sections so the journey time was slower and I stopped off quite a few times, for lunch etc., but I still arrived at the hotel here just after 4pm. I decided not to do much of an entry today, though - it was a good day, but I'm a little tired so plan to relax for the rest of the evening.

Oh, when I was driving up to the guest-house, my Spanish mobile 'phone rang (luckily not at one of the really steep parts of the hill); it was the lady from the curtain shop in Mazarrón asking if they could come to install my curtains on Monday morning at 11am; I had'phoned her a couple of days before I left home to let her know precisely when I would be arriving (the subject of an earlier blog entry). Let no one tell you Spaniards aren't diligent and hard-working; in my experience so far they are pretty efficient and responsive; it's possible I shall have my own horror stories in due course, but so far I've had only minor frustrations when dealing with suppliers here; I've had a lot worse in the UK and a number of other places I've lived. In any case I had to decline her offer as I must visit quite a number of places on Monday morning and afternoon to confirm various other deliveries and had planned to visit the curtain shop in the morning as my first call - no doubt we can reschedule a time for them to come and install things then.

Tomorrow is a comfortable barely 3-hour drive to Mazarrón so with lunch and perhaps another break I'll make it in 4 1/2 hours at most. It has been a good trip, but I'll be glad when it is over. I won't get to relax much though, as I shall be quite busy for a week or so getting the house up and running and probably won't be online much, if at all, for that period; on the other hand if my furniture deliveries happen very rapidly, which I suspect they might, then I might get to the ISP's office a little earlier than anticipated.