Monday 16 January 2017

Tour Map



The map shows all the places we have stayed overnight in our motorhome Cervantes since we bought him in February 2013.
Different years are in different colours, and each location has a link to the relevant blog page, the approach to that location on our YouTube channel, and our Flickr photo album for that day.
I've made the base map Google Satellite so you can zoom in and see exactly how big the aire/stellplatz is. Click the square on the top left of the map to see it with Google Maps as the base map.
We have YouTube playlists of approaches to aires, stellplatz and campsites (ordered by date or country to make finding a particular place easier) to help you decide if the roads are suitable for your motorhome, and if it is somewhere you would like to stay. A link to it is here and here.
We also have photos of nearly everywhere we have stayed in Flickr albums, which you can view here
  • In 2013 we drove 15,962 km and stayed in the motorhome for 111 nights in 77 places.
  • In 2014 we drove 12,857 km and stayed in the motorhome for 115 nights in 59 places.
  • In 2015 we drove 9,283 km and stayed in the motorhome for 86 nights in 63 places.
  • In 2016 we drove 14,594 km and stayed in the motorhome for 137 nights in 98 places.
  • In 2017 we drove 8,339 km and stayed in the motorhome for 68 nights in 42 places.
  • In 2018 we drove 8,271 km and stayed in the motorhome for 95 nights in 54 places.
  • In 2019 we drove 7,850 km and stayed in the motorhome for 92 nights in 71 places.
  • In 2020 we drove 2,092km and stayed in the motorhome for 47 nights in 25 places. COVID!!
  • In 2021 we drove 4,869km and stayed in the motorhome for 71 nights in 30 places. COVID!!
  • In 2022 we drove 3,654km and stayed in the motorhome for 76 nights in 31 places.
  • In 2023 we drove 3,572km and stayed in the motorhome for 68 nights in 27 places. 

Thursday 25 June 2015

Teething troubles part four

Mudflaps
Our motorhome (Cervantes) came with rear mudflaps, but no front ones.
The front wheels have a plastic inner wheel arch cover that fully encloses any exposed metalwork. There is some spray onto the door bottom and the plastic moulding behind the door, but looking at the front mudflaps available, they do not protrude outside the wheel arch so would probably be of no use in stopping the spray. Looking at other motorhomes with front mudflaps fitted, after rain there seems to be just as much spray as you get without front mudflaps, which sort of confirmed my thoughts.
The rear mudflaps were fine until one came adrift in Lincolnshire in June 2014. The constant backwards and forwards motion near the top of the mudflap and the brittle nature of them caused a crack to develop along that line. This crack eventually broke and the mudflap was left hanging by a 2cm piece attached at the inner side.
I noticed this in the nearside door mirror and stopped to remove it entirely with a craft knife.
It broke at exactly the wrong time because the weather on the way back to our house in Spain was atrocious, especially in Northern France. I monitored the underneath and found the spray from the rear wheels was going all along the underside of the floor to the rear, across some wiring and fittings, and generally covering everything with mud and road grime. It was definitely not helping prevent any ingress of water. Add to that the fact that the rear of the motorhome (and the bikes when we carried them) was getting filthy.
They had to be replaced.
Once home I set about sourcing some new ones, but various web searches turned up prices ranging from €70 to €100 per pair - for two squares of plastic????? - surely not!
I thought the only sensible course of action was to make my own, so I started by drilling out the 3 rivets that held on the complete offside one and what was left of the nearside one.
The underside of the floorpan had an L-shaped piece of aluminium welded to it, and another strip of aluminium clamped the mudflap to it.
I searched around for a suitable material to make the mudflaps from, and thought rubber doormats would be suitable.
Looking around our local Carrefour I found the ideal mat. Measuring 70cm x 40cm it was the ideal size to cut in half to make 2 mudflaps 40cm wide and 35cm high. The originals were 30cm x 30cm, so these gave more width coverage and were slightly longer. The best thing about them however was their manufacture. They had a smooth back whilst the front was a tangle of fine nylon strands fused to the base.
This front, I thought, would act in the same way as the spray-suppressant mudflaps found on HGVs.
This material really works to keep the spray down

I extended both strips of aluminium to cope with the extra width, and used stainless steel nuts, bolts and washers so I could remove them easily if needed.
I got a pair of round red reflectors from our local todo shop and bolted them onto the lower outside corners and that was job done.
Nearside mudflap firmly attached
Offside mudflap complete with reflector

They work a treat in even the heaviest of downpours and standing water, and all for the price of €9.99 for the mat and €7.50 for the fittings - bargain!!
They have been on now for nearly 12 months or 15,000kms and show no sign of breaking, cracking or splitting (and the one we got for the front door of the house is also going strong and looks like new).


Ramps
On level ground Cervantes is very nose-down and requires at least 2 if not 3 levels of the ramps under the front wheels to be level.
This is not usually a problem for most people - either their motorhome is already level, or they don't mind it sloping one way or the other.
However, we have a transverse drop-down bed, and if we are not level front to rear you can really feel the slope when you are in bed - it's like trying to stop yourself rolling down a hill.
We can manage not being level side to side as long as the offside (the head end of the bed) is level or is higher than the nearside (the foot end of the bed).
To make this happen we have to try to find an uphill slope to park on if we don't want to use the ramps. If the ground is level we can get the motorhome level with the ramps. If we park on a downhill slope it is impossible to get level because the ramps will not lift us high enough at the front.
Thus we never park/camp on a downhill slope, thereby it seems, missing out on a brilliant view out of the windscreen on many occasions. We have no window at the back, so it's front and side windows only. I have lost count of the number of times we have had our back to a wonderful view for the sake of being level.
I therefore decided to do something about it.
Our Fiamma ramps we bought when we first bought Cervantes had come to the end of their life, (not helped by the massive rocks we parked on on Mt Ventoux!). They had a maximum lift height of 10cm on the top step. We replaced them with Thule ones which have a maximum lift height of 11cm, and were the highest ones we could find without having enormous ones which we would struggle to carry in our 6m motorhome.
The solution I came up with was 2 sheets of 1.5cm board, one to go under each board.
The Thule ramps had circular holes in the base and I utilised these to secure the ramps to the boards. I had some spare steel strips 1cm thick (€4 for 1 metre from our local ferreteria) of just the right width and cut them to length before drilling a central hole in them.
The base of the ramp has rectangular sections with holes in them

Metal strips cut to the size of the rectangles to screw through the hole in the ramp

Using a cushioning strip cut to size from a rubber mat, I could then screw the ramp down onto the board to raise us by another 1.5cm or an extra 13.64%
I cut the board to 97cm x 34cm so that the  tyre would be completely on it before it touched the 56cm x 20cm ramp, so there was no danger of the ramp and board slipping about.
Another consideration was storing them in the motorhome, so they were cut to just fit in the locker below the lounge seat at 97cm
A perfect fit under the bench seat

We are payload rich and storage space poor, so have to consider each purchase for the motorhome in terms of "will it fit where there is space to put it"
I had some spare room in the rear ski locker, so made another board, cut to 106cm x 40cm, to just fit into the locker. With the two boards used together we now have an extra 3cm of lift, 27.27% more than before.
A snug fit in the ski locker


Hopefully we can now enjoy the views of the magnificent hills, valleys, forests, mountains and rivers out of our windscreen instead of a view of the toilet block!
Ramp boards in use at Velez Blanco on 15/02/2015
At last - a great view without falling out of bed!



LED lights
Our motorhome came with LED lights throughout, except for the 3 lights over the sink and cooker which were halogen lights, and these seemed to be the lights we used the most!
The LED lights consume 0.63W each, whilst the halogen lights consume 10.0W each, so the difference is enormous. One hours use of the halogen bulb is the same as over 10 hours use of an LED bulb. We are always concious when running off the leisure batteries of power usage. We have two 90Ah leisure batteries and a 90W solar panel and have never run low on power, but it makes sense to do everything you can to minimise the power use. We are lucky enough to live in a part of Spain that has 300 days of full sun every year, so the solar panel is working most of the time.
Searching the internet brought up tales of LED bulbs lasting a week, of not working due to reversed polarity, of cheap Chinese junk at give-away prices, and of remote buying and being stuck with what you have bought whether you like it (and it works!) or not.
We decided on this occasion to take the easier and more reliable (but possibly not the cheapest) route of going to one of our nearby motorhome accessory shops.
LED in place for 10x longer use

Caravanas Cruz in Elche has sold us many things in the past, all working and for a reasonable price. We headed there and were delighted to find G4 LED bulbs to replace the halogen ones for €5.75 each.
We fitted them in the car park to make sure they worked, and have had not a moments trouble with them in the subsequent 6 months - support your local accessory shop I say!!
We can now cook with impunity all night if we like!


Polish!
We live 10 mins from the Mediterranean sea and are surrounded by marinas, boatyards, ships chandlers, harbours and boats of every size and shape.
Our Burstner motorhome is built of painted aluminium panels combined with plastic mouldings and trim, so the ideal polish would be a marine gel polish which is also suitable for metal.
I must have been in every boat and accessory shop in a 20km strip of the coastline, and have I seen any polish for sale - have I heck!
I could get it online from the UK, but the postage was almost as much as the polish. I was running out of options and was just about to bite the bullet and order some when I spotted on a motorhome forum a post about a polish called Starbrite, sold by a company in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire. I clicked the link to their website and ordered it for £20 and postage of £6.50 - fantastic price.
This stuff is absolutely brilliant

It arrived when it should and was a dream to use - very easy application. I got some stepladders inside the motorhome and stuck my head through the midi Heiki rooflight to do most of the roof. For the unreachable bits I used a cloth on a stick!
After the 2 full days of hard work water now beads off Cervantes, and all the sand blown over from the Sahara and deposited on the roof by "dirty rain" is now just rinsed away, whereas before, if the sand was left for just one day, the sun would bake it on and it would be very difficult to remove. Flies on the front after a long motorway journey are so easy to just wipe off now.
There is a garage near us with a commercial vehicle wash consisting of a pressure washer and a 2 metre high gantry along one side. This means washing the roof is a doddle, and with €1 of water lasting 5 mins it is also very cheap.
Polishing Cervantes twice a year should make it an easy job to keep our motorhome sparkling clean.


Dash Camera and Sat Nav
Trawling through YouTube on the internet I came across great footage of travelogues, near misses, and proof of whose fault an accident was, all supplied by a camera constantly recording everything that happens in front of your vehicle.
I thought this was a great idea, and after a great deal of research finally decided on this one thanks to the recommendation of this man whose name I saw on the afore mentioned motorhome forum (very useful these forums!)
I got the GPS version as I wanted to track our daily route and reproduce it on our blog.
As we drive along now, if anything unusual or spectacular happens, we can review it at the end of the day by transferring the data from the camera SD card into our Samsung netbook, and saving whichever section of footage we want.
We haven't needed it to prove blame as yet, and hope we never have to!
Dash cam permanently wired and fitted

Practically invisible from outside
Our SatNav was ageing and the maps would not update, so a new one was needed.
We have always got on with Garmin and research showed one with a 7" screen. I have always struggled in the motorhome to read the street names and instructions on our old 5" screen, so this was a step in the right direction (we never have the sound turned on as it gets very irritating after a while, and Glyn usually overrules it to keep us on a decent width road)
The Garmin 760LMT-D was just what we wanted and has proved to be brilliant in all respects.
A screen big enough to read

Of course you have to treat every SatNav with a modicum of suspicion and not just blindly follow it off the edge of a cliff. As a tool to get you to (or near) an aire you have punched in as a destination - it does the job.
I've currently got 50,000 POI's in it for aires, campsites Lidl and McDonalds(WiFi) for all Western Europe.


Cycle carrier adaptation
I have adapted our rear cycle carrier to carry my road bike, so I can do some hills on our travels.
I have fitted an old wheel hub onto the cycle rail, so that the front forks (minus the front wheel) fits onto the hub.
A good use for an old hub

The fitting is of the belt and braces variety, but is not about to fall off!
The front wheel then straps onto the frame, thus I can carry a road bike that takes up no more room than a 20" wheel bike.
Safe, secure and legal
and still room for another bike



Cab Seatcovers
When we first got Cervantes we wanted to protect the cab seats from the worst of wear, tear and sweaty bodies that go with 9 months touring.
We originally bought a throw from our local market, then gathered it up behind the headrest of the seat  (held with a strong plastic clamp) and let the rest cover the seat squab. However, every time you got in or out the cover moved, and we seemed to be forever re-arranging them. The cover frequently covered the handbrake, and it was always a scramble to put it on/take it off.
The old seatcovers - they worked but were a pain to use

On our travels we found a car accessory shop in Elche by chance, and they had some synthetic rattan covers held on with elastic that looked just the job.
They had a choice of 2 styles, so we bought one of each and tried them on the seats in the car park. Decision made we took the reject back and swapped it for a matching set.
They do the job beautifully and are very hard wearing, and they don't look at all out of place in the colour scheme of things (I have been told)
Very smart and very hardwearing

We have noticed wear on the the 2 cab seat armrests caused by squeezing between the seats to get to and from the cab. A solution is in hand for this involving a protective sleeve to go over the armrest which will not impede its operation or adjustment.


Red LED in windscreen
We did have a rear cycle light flashing red in the windscreen for many months, but the batteries needed changing every week, even though the light was turned off during the day.
We came across a great alternative in Aldi in the form of a mock CCTV camera dome. This flashes a red LED every 10 seconds and looks as if it has a camera inside the dome.
Flashing LED and fake camera in dome - €4.99 from Aldi!

To date it has been running in the windscreen for 16 weeks, running 24/7 on 2 AA batteries and really does look the business.
LED looking good in the cab from outside....
......and inside



Tour statistics to 25/06/2015
We have owned  our motorhome now since Feb 2013, a total of 28 months. I keep a database of everywhere we have slept overnight and they add up to 269 nights away - a total of nearly 9 months.
111 of these were in aires (mostly free ones), 10 in España Discovery sites, 4 in France Passion sites, 61 wildcamping, and 82 in campsites (mostly ACSI ones).
Adding up all the costs of aires and campsites (€1,782.48), that makes the cost of each night spent in the motorhome €6.63
We still have so much more to see.


The first service
A Fiat Ducato X250 2013 model (ours) is due a first service at 48,000 km or 2 years, whichever is the sooner. In Feb 2015 we had done 33,000 km, so the time was due.
After the first year in Feb 2014 I had an oil and filter change done because I was not happy leaving it 2 years and not doing a thing.
For the 12 month oil and filter change we looked in the Fiat handbook and saw an approved dealer was Cartagena Motors, so made an appointment there. They were primarily car dealers, but looking in the workshop there were 3 motorhomes in there so we felt a little more relaxed.
They had the motorhome at 9am and took a phone number to let us know when it was ready.
We duly walked the 5km into Cartagena and had a good look round, visited a few museums, and had a bite to eat. By 4pm still no phone call, so I rang them. They said they were halfway through and it should be ready by 5pm. We got back at 5:20pm and the bonnet was still up and a head inside it. For this privilege they charged us €160!
When I phoned them this year in Feb 2015 to ask the price of a first service they quoted me €500 - a bit steep I thought for an air filter, a fuel filter, a pollen filter, and an oil and filter change, plus a visual check of the levels, hoses, belts, brakes and exhaust.
So it was back to the Fiat handbook, where we spotted Gines Huertas Industriales who had 3 branches - 1 in Cartagena and 2 in Murcia.
I phoned one of the Murcia ones to enquire the price and was told approx €250 - thats more like it - booked!
We had already booked the annual damp check at our Burstner dealer where we bought the motorhome, so booked the engine service for the week after and had the week inbetween touring the valley north of Murcia.
We dropped Cervantes off at 9am and returned at 11am to a finished service at a cost of €290. The difference here was that Gines Huertas Indutriales deal in commercial vehicles, from white van man to HGV's. Thus they know that time is money to the working man and so price and deliver accordingly.
On the handover back to us the guy on reception told us we had a major problem with the steering which would require a new power steering pump and a new steering rack, but not to worry because he could do it under warranty. When the steering is on full lock there is a vibration through the steering wheel and an increase in noise.
I pointed out that we are now in March 2015, and the 2 year warranty ran out in Feb 2015, at which he went a little pale. I asked him how much it would cost, and after a couple of phone calls to parts suppliers was told €1500.
I told him I would think about it and get back to him.
I had experienced the small vibration before on full lock and assumed the pump was working at maximum pressure and that this was the cause of it. Other than maximum full lock the steering is as light and responsive as the day we bought it.
I obviously checked with the local garage where our car is serviced, and was told the belt was in good condition, and it was possible that when on full lock under maximum load, the belt is juddering slightly. It certainly did not warrant €1500 worth of new parts. Even if the pump and rack were contaminated they could be flushed out and be perfectly serviceable.
On reflection I think the receptionist was trying to get himself some warranty work, and when he found out it wasn't under warranty tried to back-peddle, but didn't quite manage it.
I will monitor it closely and see if any more symptoms develop and then decide a course of action from there. (A further 4,000km later the small vibration is still there on full lock, otherwise the steering is perfect)
Apart from that a clean bill of health, and the damp check was all good too!
The story continues.....

Saturday 24 May 2014

Teething troubles part three

Ladder for bed
After 16,000km and a total of 136 nights away, we noticed (Glyn noticed when she was washing the floor!) that where the feet of the bed ladder rest on the floor, 2 indentations had been made.
Noticeable dents in the floor

It is only me that uses the ladder (Glyn enters and exits the bed via the cab seats), so obviously my extra weight is the cause.
There is no rectifying this, short of taking up the floor covering and renewing the floor, so to stop it getting any worse I have got a 25cm x 50cm x 1cm piece of fibre board to go under the ladder.
Ladder stood on board

When not in use it slips down between the cooker splashback and the back of the forward facing lounge seats, secured there by hooks.
A snug, hidden fit



Window alarms
I bought some extremely cheap window alarms from a ferreteria which did work, but were of very poor quality.
On a flying visit to UK I called into Maplins and got some proper Swann window and door magnetic alarms.
Quality Swann window alarms

These do not false alarm and have now given me 6 months of faultless service.


Flashing LED, PIR alarm and Habitation curtain
We toyed with getting an alarm fitted to Cervantes soon after we bought him, but after due consideration decided against it.
It is almost impossible to make a motorhome secure. You can beef up the door locks all you want, but a child could break in by pulling on the plastic windows which will break the flimsy plastic catches and thin aluminium stays ( as demonstrated on Cervantes by thieves in Cordoba). No alarm in the world would stop this happening, and if you were out of earshot of your alarm when it went off - what is the use of it?
Most people are very passive when they hear an alarm - some not even bothering to glance in the direction of the noise.
Our alternative is very simple. Window alarms to alert us (if we are within earshot) if a window is opened, and a PIR alarm inside the van to alert us if someone gets in.
A simple, cheap PIR - enough to startle an intruder

This does the same job as an alarm at a fraction of the cost.
We also follow basic preventative actions of always closing the window blinds and putting on the cab blinds when we leave Cervantes.
It is practically impossible to start modern engines without the correct transponder key to disarm the immobiliser, so the chances of Cervantes being stolen if someone got in is pretty slim.
With this in mind we have some undiscoverable hiding places for valuables that we can't take with us. We always take cards and passports with us when we leave the van, my pacsafe being invaluable to us. We leave nothing on display inside the van, and have a badly-hidden wallet with some change and useless, non-identifiable cards in.
Thw window alarms have red LED's which flash every 25 seconds, but unfortunately they are not very visible due to the way I have fitted the window alarms.
As additional visibility I have added a flashing red LED in the front windscreen - this is actually a single red LED rear cycle light from Decathlon which looks authentic and does the job beautifully.
Flashing red LED in windscreen
Bright even during the day

If we leave the van and are in sight of it , instead of putting on the cab blinds, we often hang a curtain from the cab side of the drop down bed. This keeps prying eyes from looking through the windows into the habitation area.
Simple solution to prying eyes

Clipped onto drop down bed



Gas locker
As stated in Teething troubles the Burstner Ixeo Time has a design fault which allows water to run down either side of the van when it rains.
I have cured this on the habitation door side and have now addressed the other side.
The water used to pour off the roof directly onto the gas locker. I have checked many times and the inside is always bone dry, but I fear it is only a matter of time before water ingress begins.
A simple Fiamma Drip Stop cured the problem and now the water runs around the locker and down each side.
A simple drip stop saving the gas locker



Oil change
The first service due on the Euro 5 Fiat Ducato is 48,000km. I presume that this is so fleet owners can run them into the ground and not pay for any servicing whilst still keeping the warranty.
This means you are supposed to do absolutely nothing until then except check the fluid levels. I was not happy with this and decided that at the very minimum the oil and filter should be changed. I can imagine some vans not reaching 48,000km in 10 years if the van is only used once a year, but there is a time limit of 24 months as well as a mileage limit.
We left Cervantes for the day at Motor Cartagena where I was very reassured by the sight of at least 3 motorhomes in the repair/service bays inside the garage - they must know what they are doing.
Old oil filter

When I booked in at reception I asked if they could use a genuine Fiat oil filter and fully synthetic diesel oil. The receptionist was most indignant and told me in no uncertain terms that this is a Fiat Professional dealership and they only use Fiat approved parts and the correct oils, which again was reassuring.
New oil filter

The €160.69 bill was nothing compared to the feeling of relief for the next 12 months knowing we are running on fresh oil and a new filter.


Fridge
The gas burner in the fridge was replaced in Sep 2013 and we thought all our problems with it were behind us. However, at the end of our Tour of Comunidad Valenciana the fridge once again would not run efficiently on gas. It worked perfectly on mains and engine battery power, but not on gas.
A visit to our dealers in April 2014 met us up with a Dometic engineer who took the burner to bits and blew out lots and lots of black soot. After a thorough clean and a pressure test the fridge was working perfectly on gas.
The engineer asked us which gas we were using - we have used butane from new. He said he goes to several calls a week because the burners are sooted up by using butane. He recommends us to use propane which burns much cleaner and is gaseous down to minus temperatures. Butane stops gassing at approx 8°C which results in insufficient pressure to run some applications - usually the Truma blown air heating which needs a constant max pressure to run.
We very rarely get that temperature here, but when inland in the hills and mountains the temperature at night can drop to 2 or 3 degrees. Whilst on the Tour of Comunidad Valenciana in the hills our heating would not come on - just the red light flashing on the control knob.
Butane

The butane gas bottle was low, as was the temperature, but the pressure was still sufficient to use the gas stove and I could hear that the gas burner running the fridge was also working. However, the reduced pressure must mean (I assume) that the butane gas is not combusting properly and this is sooting the burner up. The fridge appeared to work fine with a full butane bottle and day time temperatures, but once the bottle is 3/4 empty and the temperature drops - that is when the problems start to appear.
We have 2 x 13kg butane bottles and getting them swapped for 2 x 13kg propane bottles proved to be a bit of a problem. Not all garages stock propane, and the ones that did would not swap an empty butane for a full propane.
I found a friendly garage in the next town along from us who only had one propane which he willingly swapped.
Propane

Swapping the other one proved more tricky, but we eventually got the name of the same ferreteria from two separate sources, so gave them a try and bingo! - they even delivered it to our door.
Whether swapping to propane will solve our fridge problem only time will tell - watch this space for further updates.
I understand what the engineer was telling us and the reasons behind it, but I still can't fully understand why all the thousands of motorhomes on the continent running on butane do not have warm beer and runny ice cream. If it is happening to us why is it not happening to everyone else - or is it? - is everyone having the burner serviced every 6 months?


Habitation door/Window temporary fix
Again a design problem (see Teething troubles) with the door and window opening.
A quick fix, and by no means a permanent one is to fix the door at 90° to the van side by strapping it on both sides.
Crude, but for now it works

This looks very ugly but does work until I can figure a permanent fix. The obvious one is a gas strut between the door and the frame, but I am reluctant to drill the door or the van side/door frame to fix this on.
Project door/window is still ongoing.

Saturday 26 April 2014

Easter in Cartagena - a different view of Semana Santa

Last year we saw Easter (Semana Santa) in our home town of Pilar de la Horadada. It was a fantastic spectacle involving the whole town - the work involved to organise it must be colossal.
We decided to move up a league this year. The scale of the parades and the tronos (the huge platforms with religious figures on them that are carried on the shoulders of many men and women called costeleros) is a factor higher in the big cities with everything bigger, heavier, louder and on such a scale it takes some getting used to.
The number of people watching and participating in Semana Santa in the major cities is something to behold compared to provincial towns such as Pilar (which is not to decry the Semana Santa celebrations in Pilar - they are very, very impressive).
Our two nearest cities with spectacular Semana Santa processions are Cartagena and Murcia. We drew lots and Cartagena won this year - so here we are. (We will go to Murcia another year)

Tuesday 15/04/2014   Home to Cartagena
One of the first places we stopped when we first got Cervantes was Camperpark Cartagena. The site was excellent and the receptionist/owner (Teresa) was fantastic - so helpful and made us feel thoroughly welcome.
This time we booked here for 7 days - very unusual for us but Semana Santa runs for up to two weeks. The bus to Cartagena city centre runs every 15 mins from a stop 10 mins walk away (take a torch if you will be returning in the dark - the road is narrow and unlit). The cost is €1.20 each way, but only €0.75 each way if you buy a bono card for €3.00 from the driver - you can add money to the card on any bus and one card is OK for two people if you are travelling together (you don't need one each).
The plan is to see the processions every night until Easter Sunday and experience for ourselves the feeling of being in the middle of a football-sized crowd of religious followers on the most important week of their year.
However, today involved getting here (shopping on the way - where would we be without Lidl?), setting up Cervantes on our pitch and chilling in the 25° sunshine - heaven!!
We got the 8.00pm bus to Cartagena to see the first procession.
Cartagena is primarily a military city and this is celebrated by 3 tronos carried from 3 different military bases.
The trono carrying St James comes from the military headquarters. The trono carrying St John comes from the artillery park. The trono carrying St Peter comes from the military arsenal. They come together at the church of Santa Maria after being paraded through the streets. Accompanying them are members of the cofradias with their robes and tall hats, bands and drummers, and military personnel in full dress uniform and battle dress.
St John in the military barracks
The artillery barracks
St James in the procession
The headquarters of the military where St James starts from

St Peter, from the military arsenal, has his own military ID card and gets a special privilege pass out on Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy week.
He has to get a special pass out because he is technically under arrest!
Many years ago an attempt was made to steal some lead from the military arsenal by hiding it in the trono. The guards at the gate saw the cofradia struggling with the weight and stopped and searched the trono. He found the lead, but all members of the cofradia denied any knowledge of the crime, so with no alternative the military guards arrested St Peter and put him under detention, where he has been ever since.
St Peter stood on the roof of the vatican - he was the first pope
The military arsenal which lets St Peter out once a year

The processions in Cartagena are very ordered, precise and regimented, as you would expect from the military. This contrasts with Semana Santa processions in other places such as Murcia, where they are much more relaxed and joyful with not as much control.
All the participants of the processions in Cartagena walk in arrow-straight lines, walk in step with the beat of the drums, and are all chosen to be the same height to give an appearance of uniformity, order and regimentation.
St John in procession through the streets

Needless to say the scale of the tronos, the processions and the watching crowd was immense.
A huge spectacle watched by thousands.
Bus home at 10.15pm saw us back in Cervantes by 11.00pm
See todays full photo gallery here


Wednesday 16/04/2014
Through the internet we  had booked ourselves onto a walking tour of Cartagena city centre which majored on Semana Santa and included a behind the scenes viewing of the tronos being prepared for tonight's procession.
Our guide Ignacio was excellent, speaking fluent English and going into great detail about the 3 main influences of Cartagena - Roman, Moorish and Christian. Above all Cartagena is a military city - a large naval base takes up 1/3 of the city. Mining for silver and lead was also a large part of the history of Cartagena.
Our guide Ignacio - a fine source of information

We were led to the church of Santa Maria where all the processions finish, and most of them start from.
Inside an army of people were decorating the tronos with flowers, arranging the 12 disciples at the table of the last supper, making sure the lights were working, and generally looking very, very busy.
Attention to the last detail

Flower arranging
Making sure the disciples sit in their correct seats
Before the flowers are added

More flower arranging

Most of the tronos are carried by members of the various cofradias, but some were so huge that they had to be on wheels with an electric motor to move them. The biggest had its own power source travelling behind connected by a thick electric cable. However, if they are carried , things don't always go to plan - an example here (not the only tottering virgin over Easter I imagine).
We were also able (thanks to Ignacio) to go into the meeting rooms of the Californos cofradía - a very private place that only a few chosen people see.
The Californos trono in their private chapel
Inside the inner sanctum of the Californos - a very special place

One trono weighed 2600 kgs, was carried by 120 costaleros and had a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on it. She was wearing an enormous mantle (cloak) which took 2 years to make and weighs 70 kgs, 50 kgs of which was gold thread. (all facts courtesy of Ignacio).
The most important tronos here are replicas of the original ones by the sculptor Francisco Salzillo who has a museum dedicated to him in Murcia. The original ones are brought out of the museum and used in the Murcia celebrations for Semana Santa, which we hope to see in future years. We have been to the museum to see the sculptures up close and they are stunning.
We then toured some naval instalations including the new home of the first working submarine ever built, along with some historic Cartagena highlights to finish in the Town Hall square. A fantastic 2 hour tour worth every cent of €10.
Back to Cartagena in the evening to see the procession proper. It was suitably huge in every respect with thousands of people watching, and seemingly thousands of people taking part.
Tonight's procession was one of two big ones (the other being on Friday). If you stood in one spot and watched all the procession from start to finish it would take 6.5 hours to pass.
We saw 3 hours worth and tried to walk against the direction of the procession to see more, but the crowds were massive and reluctant to part, and the pavements were very narrow.
The last supper trono, now fully decorated
We found a good viewing spot - tronos on both sides of us
Trono passing in front of a military building

St Peter coming out of Santa Maria church, where the processions start from

The umbilical cord and power supply following St Peter

A huge trono carried by at least 90 costeleros

We did manage to see 10 of the 12 tronos before finally giving in and getting the midnight bus home.
There was a bit of drama before we caught the bus in that we could not get a proper timetable of the bus times, despite asking the bus drivers and going to the bus station to ask. We got half a story in the end which was confirmed by the people waiting at the bus stop, but the police had closed the roads around our bus stop, so we had to guess where the bus would be diverted to. We guessed right in the end, but it was a close thing.
See todays full photo gallery here


Thursday 17/04/2014
Glyn had seen on the internet (WiFi included in our €7 per day fee on this site) that a cruise ship with sails was due into Cartagena this morning. We watched it dock on the port webcam so knew it had made it on time, and decided to go in and watch it leave at 3.00pm
4 masted cruise ship docked in Cartagena

I thought it was going to be a pretend sailing ship with no sails, but suprisingly there was one mainsail on one of the masts, and four spinnakers, one on each mast. How much power they would contribute to a ship of this size is debateable, but they certainly looked impressive.
Does this look odd to you?

It looks a bit top-heavy - I wonder if it has a keel

The sea was dead calm, and the exit from Cartagena bound for Valencia was very slow and stately.
The 4.00pm bus got us back to Cervantes for a beer in the sun before tonights procession.
There are 2 main cofradias in Cartagena. The Californos (founded by a man who made his fortune in California) wear predominantly red and control the first half of Holy week. The second half is controlled by the purple wearing Marrajas. The marraja is a fish caught off the coast of Cartagena, and half of all the profits on the catch were used to found the cofradia.
Flag of the Californos cofradía

Flag of the Marrajas cofradía

Tonight's procession (the last one to be dominated by the Californos) is the silent, unlit procession and includes tronos of the betrayal of Christ, Christ on the cross and the grieving Virgin Mary.
A dark, silent procession - it really was dark

Christ on the cross
The atmosphere was electric watching the silent, dark procession. All the street lights and most of the shop and house lights had been turned off, so until the brightly lit tronos came past, all you could see in the gloom were the shapes of silent figures - very atmospheric.
Some light on the trono to lead the way

Our lady of Christ, the Virgin Mary, in that mantle
At certain points around the route, specially chosen singers were placed on balconies above the procession. As the procession reached these points they stopped, and the singer sings a haunting song, very much like flamenco singing, which is very moving to everyone who hears it. Unfortunately we did not know where these points were, but looking at the crowds it would have been difficult to get near enough to hear the singing.
Ladies in black mantillas (the veils on their heads)

Luckily the weather was kind, so no rain or wind tonight.
We caught the 10.45pm bus so home for 11.30pm. The sliding gates on the motorhome park are locked closed from 9.00pm to 9.00am, so Teresa has kindly given us a key to the door so we can come and go as we please.
See today's full photo gallery here



Friday 18/04/2014
The fridge seems not to be working again as it should. We thought it was cured with the new burner fitted in September 2013, but apparently not. The freezer is down to -10° but the fridge is at +15°, so not good enough if the outside temperature is only at +25°. A visit to the dealers to sort this problem is now essential when we get back.
Today is the second of the really big, long processions due to start at 9.00pm
We got the 8.00pm bus to Cartagena and another marathon 6 hour procession to come.
Busy streets - I think the whole of Cartagena is here tonight

Walking the backstreets of Cartagena we found a couple of really nice, authentic, genuine, unspoilt local bars - just our style. After a beer the procession should have been with us, but a delay meant another 20 mins before it appeared.
A well-lit trono on wheels

Christ on the cross
Christ being removed from the cross

Christ with Mary

The Virgin Mary

The first 6 enormous tronos were so huge that they were on wheels and powered by electric, although the 7th was carried by at least 80 costaleros (bearers).
Huge trono carried by costaleros

As well as the tronos, the bands, the military and the cofradias, the processions also have the granaderos. These are helpers dressed in cofradias colours but without the tall hats. In years gone by they gave out food to the poor and starving along the procession route. These days they give out sweets and religious photos and texts to the crowds.
The young lad in front of us was doing very well out of the granaderos - he already had a rucksack full of sweets!
Marching soldiers

Membersof the cofradía

We watched as many tronos as we could but by midnight we were flagging so caught the bus home. A total of 15 people got off the bus in Santa Ana and walked back to the campsite with us to go to their respective vans - many people with the same idea as us.
See today's full photo gallery here


Saturday 19/04/2014
The fridge saga continues. This morning the freezer was at -1° and the fridge at +19°. That meant that the fridge was warmer than the van this morning!
We decided to put Cervantes onto mains electric hook-up to see if that would narrow down the fridge problem to the gas use only. Results so far are:-
Sat 09.00am  Freezer -3°     Fridge +19°
      10.20am  Freezer -5°     Fridge +15°
      12.20pm  Freezer -5°     Fridge +13°
      03.30pm  Freezer -6°     Fridge +11°
      05.00pm  Freezer -7°     Fridge +9°
      06.30pm  Freezer -7°     Fridge +8°
      08.00pm  Freezer -9°     Fridge +8°
      11.30pm  Freezer -11°   Fridge +8°
Sun 09.00am Freezer -15°   Fridge +3°
We had parked Cervantes so the fridge vents were out of direct sunlight. The fridge control was set to maximum, the external temperature on Sat was 26°, the internal van temperature was 23°. Overnight (Sat to Sun) temp was 13° in the van. Prior to the change to hook-up, the gas bottle was changed for a new, full one on Thursday morning. Whilst the freezer did get to -10° at one point, the fridge never got below +15°, so it looks like the fridge runs fine on mains electric but does not work properly on gas.
We decided to head into the local town of Santa Ana to have an explore. A nice little town sandwiched between 2 busy roads. We found a cafe doing excellent toast and coffee for breakfast, and after buying bread for today and tomorrow we went back to the site.
Great sunshine until 6.00pm when rain (!!) forced us into Cervantes. We did not bring any rain gear with us so we decided to give the ladies procession tonight a miss, and go in for the celebration procession tomorrow morning.


Sunday 20/04/2014
Into Cartagena today on the 10.00am bus for the last of the Semana Santa processions.
The local info said this was a joyful, celebratory procession to celebrate Christ risen from the dead.
The day was bright and clear with full warm sunshine all day.
We found a good, open viewing spot for the procession and got there just as the first trono was approaching - great timing.
The first trono of the day

The pain of the costalero is evident

One of the many bands

Trono complete with real tree
Welcome back

The phoenix rising from the ashes

Fantastic detail of Jesus...

...and Mary
Jesus is risen

All female costaleras carrying Jesus and doubting Thomas

St Peter and the fish (real fish)

Flowers in abundance
Granaderas giving out sweets

Precision marching by the soldiers
Pain, concentration and devotion

The Virgin Mary and costaleros
Ladies in white mantillas
Concentrating to the end

Even Romans have to get home somehow

The procession was held in the daylight which made it feel brighter and lighter, but to be perfectly honest it was exactly the same as the other ones we had seen. Granaderos leading the way giving out sweets, a marching band, the codfradia members and a trono. We expected dancing and singing to praise the Lord, but in essence it was just the same (although there did seem to be more children taking part in the procession) - still mightily impressive, but not different.
We managed to watch the whole of the procession pass us in 2.5 hours, which was very enjoyable to watch. Again most of the tronos were on wheels, but 3 were carried by costeleros, one carried exclusively by women - very impressive. Especially good was the trono with St Peter the fisherman, who was holding a fishing net with real fish in it. Great imagination and a tremendous amount of work to produce this.
Again the military were out in force with some very regimented displays of marching and weapon handling.
All in all a fantastic experience - it was a privilege to be here and watch it.
We were home for 4.00pm to get the last of the sun and have a quiet night in.
The fridge is now working perfectly on mains hook-up, so the problem is definitely the gas supply/operation.
See today's full photo gallery here


Monday 21/04/14
The processions are now all finished and most people are back at work/school, so we are having a day to ourselves in Cartagena.
We decided to try to get to a high point to look down on Cartagena from a different perspective. The hill we chose was on the left hand side as you enter the harbour.
We had driven down this road last year to wave goodbye to a very good friend (Sue) who was leaving on a cruise ship. She passed us in very rough seas (4 tugs were needed to get them into the open sea!) at the entrance to Cartagena harbour.
We turned off right before the harbour entrance and walked up a hairpin road to the top of the hill, where there are numerous communications towers.
The view was excellent. The naval dockyard was visible (usually not seen from Cartagena) and showed how big it really is. The boatbuilding sheds and dry dock were on a scale of immense proportions.
We sat for a good 30 mins at the top pointing out the landmarks we knew and surmising about others.
Container port

Cruise ship dock and marina
Castle and quayside

University and military buildings
Naval base (lime green police station behind it)

I was a bit nervous about taking any photographs due to the signs on the way up saying "Military land - no cars or foot traffic" We still pressed on and climbed the hill because we could see people and bikes walking/riding up and down. It was obvious that no-one was stopping them walking or riding up, but I thought photographs may be taking it a bit far.
Do not pass!! (No vehicles or pies)

Out of sight of the CCTV cameras on the top of the hill (I think!!) I took some covert pictures of the panorama of Cartagena.
A great view of a great city, and never forgotten memories of a very impressive Semana Santa. We will be back very soon.
See today's full photo gallery here