Post It from Vilanova Park, Vilanova i la Geltru, Catalonia, Spain 2nd June 2013
We arrived here on Friday 31st May after a really terrifying drive for us from Castellon. We chose to avoid the toll motorway and whilst the road was not as fast this was a blessing in disguise. The winds were so strong and blowing directly across us. All the flags we saw at the businesses along the journey was as straight as a board. When we crossed the River Ebro the effect on our van was enormous and I thought at one point we were going to be blown into the barriers on our right. Shortly after this point we noticed that there were wind farms on the tops of the hills and there were lots of wind socks adjacent the road. Then came the image of devastation for one driver, a small curtain sided HGV, bigger than us though, and it had been blown completely over onto its side. Lesson learned there, I had checked the weather further north where we were heading but I did not check the weather for the journey and certainly gave no thoughts to the wind direction and speed. I later saw that I was now missing one of the fridge covers, which do not fit very securely in any case, was missing and I presumed it had come off in the winds.
We arrived at Vilanova Park just after a heavy but brief shower. Our immediate impressions of the camping site were its very large size. A later stroll around the camp showed it to be a very large complex with static bungalows in their hundreds and all the facilities that go with a holiday park rather than a camping site. We later discovered it was really a holiday park with Keycamp & Thomson Alfresco holidays from the British sector and others I had never heard of, plus the mini disco and boisterous children etc. that comes with such places. It was the British schools half term so we saw many British holiday makers who had caught the sun too much! We have not had a package holiday, or even stayed at large hotels, for many years and the whole environment brought back memories of former holidays when our son was young and we were much younger.
It was beautifully laid out and very clean. There were two large pools, surrounded by the best quality grass I have ever seen is Spain discounting a golf course, the unfortunate thing was they closed at 1800 which, given we had shade on our pitch, was too early in our opinion.
We were given a pitch on this occasion, rather than choosing one our self and unfortunately we found some comments from a caravaner we met at La Manga to be true. All the pitches are heavily shaded by trees and by the afternoon when we arrived there was no sun on our pitch at all. The hedges needed a prune and the soil base covered with a dressing of gravel was severely lacking on our pitch. Not on the others I saw so I guess a long term camper may have been on this particular pitch, D40, and it had not been tended to before we arrived. At least the water was on site and the electric was not metered, which proved beneficial as it is getting cooler overnight and I have put the heater on for the past two mornings to make sure it is warm for Smokee before the sun reached us. The waste water was a short walk away although I will drop the full tank when we leave in the morning. The gardener came and tidied the hedges as I type.
Like the previous site there were many Dutch caravaners about. I recall seeing a post on the forum asking was there no one left in Holland and I can understand those comments now. We did see French, German, British and Spanish around the site but the only difference here was that everyone seemed to keep themselves private and there was no willingness to engage in conversation other than the obligatory good morning etc.
There was a large supermarket and restaurant but the prices in both were a little more than we had experienced elsewhere on our travels so far, as was the laundry facilities at 5 Euros a wash and 1 Euro for 10 minutes of tumble drying. At Lo Monte it was 3 and 2 for 60 minutes respectively. The service in the restaurant and bar was poor due to ratio of staff to customers I think rather than the attitude of the staff, who were very pleasant throughout all areas of the camp.
We caught a local bus from outside the camp gates down into Vilanova town and had a very pleasant day strolling the market and Rambla’s, having lunch and visiting the marina and beach area before the ride back for a late afternoon around the pool. The whole area was very inviting and you can easily catch a train or bus into Barcelona. It was very evident we were in Catalonia with its slightly different language, its own flag and different words for the same things in Castilian Spanish. It did not cause us any difficulty, we had to read things and think a bit more laterally to interpret what they meant and all the people we spoke to could understand our Spanish, in the main.
We were impressed with this campsite, our only personal dislike was our unfortunate allocation of plot, we would have preferred less shade and nearby there are dog kennels and from D sector you can hear the barking all night long. I think we would visit again, with more time, and visit Barcelona and it makes a perfect location to have friends or family fly out and join you for a short break because of the sites facilities and easy of transport connections.
The CC seem to have taken the map facility off their stories page, this is the second one I cannot place on a map. Anyone know why?
Regards, Roy