We have clearly picked the wrong year to try a winter trip to Spain in our motorhome.
Our Christmas Day fell slap in the middle of a 36-hour spell of rain, a lot of which was heavy. Hence my Biblical Christmas post.
Christmas was just for starters, it seems. After New Year’s Day the Iberian peninsular began being lashed by Storm Francis, apparently named by the Portuguese. The storm worked its way across Spain to reach our neck of the woods arriving on Saturday 3rd when it started raining at 20:30. At one point on that first night, the rain was so heavy that it sounded as though buckets of water were being thrown over Frodo’s roof. In a motorhome or caravan, light rain overnight can actually be quite soothing but not so a hammering deluge.
The rain did moderate on Sunday, long enough at least for us to take a trip in our newly acquired rental car into Jalon for a tapas lunch at one of our favourite eateries, Casa Claudia. The restaurant is positioned directly opposite a road in Jalon which dips down and crosses a ford. In normal conditions the road surface is dry, the water being channelled through pipes beneath the road surface to flow downstream. The road had now been taped off to stop traffic attempting the crossing: with the pipework beneath being inadequate, a strong stream of water was gushing across the road itself. In the past, cars have been known to be washed downstream, hence the taping off. It’s amazing what some folks think they can drive through.
After 48 hours of more or less constant rain, Frodo’s roof finally fell silent during the evening of Monday 5th. Francine found a Spanish Met Office equivalent with graphics of hourly rainfall. At Pego, which seems to be the nearest weather station to our location, For the 48 hours, Francis had dumped a total of just over 60cms of rain (almost 25 inches, in old money).
The main celebration around this time of year in Spain is Three Kings Day on 6th January, though the major festivities are parades which take place on the evening of 5th when a sort of carnival follows three stalwarts dressed as the three Magi through the streets. We’ve witnessed one in Dénia several years ago, with the Three Kings first arriving in the harbour by boat, albeit a modern catamaran. The subsequent colourful procession throws out sweets for the children beside the route. The biblical rain delivered by Storm Francis caused this year’s parades in this area to be cancelled, sadly.
Fortunately, the cancelling of the Three Kings parade did not affect the supply of the Three Kings cakes, a chunk of which our very friendly Dutch neighbours presented to us. Fear not, this is the low calorie version as you can see. This was not our first sweet treat from our Dutch neighbours, the lady had previously made a batch of oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts) which she had shared with us. Oliebollen consist of a doughnut batter mixed with chopped apple and raisins. Our neighbour told us that they are a traditional New Year Eve thing in the Netherlands. It must have been quite a feat making doughnuts in a motorhome. Brava!
Recent Comments