Europe Week 1: Spain-Peñiscola
Looking back, the day we arrived in Peñiscola was one of the worst of the trip (now that we are back and can see it in total). It had taken us all day to get to the timeshare, so we ended up checking in around 6pm. We were staying a full week at a European timeshare property that is associated with the US company that my parents have ownership in. I had been paying the quarterly dues on the timeshare membership for the past two years to be able to use the points for our stay. We have stayed many times in properties here in the States, and they are always wonderful. More than wonderful in places like Napa Valley and Leavenworth. I didn't know what to expect in Spain, but the ambiance of the hotel lobby had my hopes up, I must admit.
Here's a shot of the hotel from the beach side, looking towards the hotel buildings (basically the back of the hotel):
They gave us our keys, and we unloaded the Beast in this tiny alley between the hotel and the apartment buildings next door. We rolled our suitcases past four smallish pools, before arriving at our apartment. The landscaping was gorgeous, even if the buildings looked a little old. So far, so good.
However, when we went inside, it wasn't so posh. It was very small and very hot. The AC and mini fridge had been off all day, and the two bedrooms upstairs were even more sweltering. We turned the AC and fridge on, then Luis went to park the Beast in the gated outdoor lot (didn't plan on that daily expense since we'd never been charged for parking at any other properties!). I called the front desk to ask about towels for the pool. They told me they didn't supply any. I then told them our apartment had zero bath towels and to please send six so the kids could swim that night and alleviate some of the heat. They said they would send some right away.
On his way back from parking the Beast, Luis asked somebody where the nearest grocery store was. They told him it was a mile down the road and it closed at 7pm. Yippee. Since we had just parked the Beast a half mile away in the opposite direction, we were stuck hoofing it once again. One nice side effect was that we were able to see the beauty of the Mediterranean as we walked along the beach sidewalk for that mile after the sun had gone down enough that it wasn't raging hot during our walk.
We loaded up on some food basics, as well as four cheap beach towels and came back home to make sandwiches and microwave pizza cooked on a skillet (no microwave in the apartment). The kids didn't care, thankfully. Another lovely discovery at this point was that the dishes in the sideboard had been put away wet with pieces of food still on them. Disgusting. After Luis washed them all with the dish detergent and sponge that we had bought at the store (also not provided in the apartment when these were standard in the US properties), I think we finally ate around 8:30pm...right on schedule for Spain. :-) The kids went scrambling for their suits the second we were done, and we pulled them out of the pool an hour later. Meanwhile, I had gone with Tommy to the front desk to arrange for 3 days of the buffet option, since we only had a two-burner stove and no oven in the apartment (another complete difference from the US properties). They explained that wifi was only available in the hotel lobby, and we had to pay 3EU per hour. Crazy.
The AC in the apartment was barely a drizzle, and the fridge had obviously not been on long enough to even cool the food we'd put in it, let alone make ice yet, so we sent Tommy to get some ice from the hotel next door. He came back with a story of how the hotel staff had rolled their eyes at him when he asked for ice, then stomped off to fill the bowl we'd had him carry with him. I was about to go ballistic by this time at all of the disappointments in both service and amenities. When 10pm rolled around, and we started getting the kids ready for bed, we realized that the couch and trundle bed under it had no bedding to be found anywhere. We made another call to the front desk to ask again about the towels that had still not appeared, and now the missing bedding. They told us they would send someone right away. This phrase was beginning to become laughable, and up there with "cinco minutos mas".
At 10:45pm (still the same day!), Luis and Tommy walked in person to the front desk to insist on the linens that hadn't yet arrived, and on their way back, they passed a housekeeper who had just dropped off the items with me. Finally. We got the beds made and the kids tucked in. As Luis and I were laying in bed and I was reading (trying to adjust to the lower-end accommodations and see how we could make the best of it), a huge spider literally scurried out of the pillow next to my head and across my bare arm...until I shrieked and smacked it to the floor then ran to the corner of the room.
In the next minute while Luis killed it and I stood there, I sincerely almost decided to end the trip right then and fly everybody home. I was so utterly crushed that this dive we were staying in was what I'd paid so much money for over the past two years and that everybody would hate the entire trip because of this one apartment. Luis talked me back to bed and I cried a little over how awful the night had been. We agreed to just totally veg out the next day by the pools and not do anything at all. And to try to adjust and make the very best we could out of the situation. Obviously the younger kids didn't care as long as there was a pool literally five steps from their front door. We could make this work.
Monday morning, we got the kids up and went for our first experience of the hotel buffet. With six people, it was the most cost effective way to feed all of us at the 4-star hotel, rather than ordering separate dishes for everyone at one of the hotel restaurants. Pricey, but cost effective. (See my daily food budget go out the window at this point.) For the next three days, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the buffet, and this was the only time we ran into the paella that we'd heard so much about. None of the restaurants we went to the rest of the week had it on their menus. Go figure! Unfortunately, the food quality at the buffet was what you'd expect from any buffet place, only with strange food combinations that didn't really sit well with the kids at all, and weren't that appetizing to Luis or I, either. The kids loved the dessert bar the best, of course. Tip for the non-European traveler: budget money for even water at your meals. Tap water isn't available, and you have to either buy still or sparkling water as your cheapest option.
Once breakfast was over, we walked back to the apartment and pulled some lounge chairs into the shade, then got everybody slathered with sunscreen and had a VERY relaxing morning at the apartment pools. We all needed it. Just to sit and read and jump in to swim with the kids, then read some more was so soothing after the craziness of the international flights, followed by an insane day of sightseeing in Madrid, followed by driving across the country and dealing with the nightmare of the first day at the apartment. I remember telling Luis that it felt like that morning was the real start to our vacation. :-)
After lunch, Luis took the kids to the beach (which was right outside the gate at the back of the hotel), and I lugged the laptop to the lobby to start my campaign to let somebody know how unhappy I was with the accomodations. I had to reach my mom first, and explain everything in email, so that she could try to reach somebody at the timeshare company in the States. Due to the timechange, I didn't hear back from her until the next day. So, I answered email and checked in with my employees at work via online chat to make sure things were going okay.
At dinner that night, we all agreed that we would stake out chairs at the hotel pool the next morning and spend the morning at the larger hotel pool. Once dinner was over, we left Tommy with the kids while Luis and I trekked out to the van and went driving to see how far the Peñiscola castle was from our apartment. It was a really nice drive, and showed us the main beach front road where there were dozens of shops and restaurants for miles.
We stuck to our plan about the large hotel pool the next morning, so Luis and I went to the there at 9am and sat under some umbrellas waiting for the lounge chairs to be unlocked. We had brought along one set of our walkie-talkies that we usually take camping and Luis left one turned up really loud near Tommy and Ethan while they were still sleeping. At 10am, the chairs were unlocked, and we laid out four in a row under the same unbrellas we'd been sitting under. Then Luis made some crazy monster noises into his walkie-talkie to wake the kids up and laughed like a loon when Tommy finally answered. :-) About 10 mins later, our four ducklings came wandering out with crazy hair, in shorts with suits underneath and Luis took them to the buffet while I kept our lounge chairs reserved. That morning was a bunch of fun. We sat next to an older couple who thought we were British (hahaha!), and complimented us on our beautiful children. They were really nice to chat with as we watched the kids splash and swim.
The afternoon activites we'd set for after lunch was a tour of the nearby castle followed by a visit to a local bird zoo. We got to the base of the cliff where the castle is perched around 1:30pm. After another dose of sunscreen, we started up the steep hill(s).
There's an entire village still in operation around the base of the castle, and we stopped for our first batch of souvenirs while sweat ran off of us in rivulets. It was so unspeakably hot.
We kept hiking up, up, up, and stopped again to get cold drinks (the kids opted for popsicles once again) when we couldn't walk any more. I went for a lemonade slushie type of drink that was divine.
After that welcome breather, we went and got our tickets to tour the castle itself.
It was built by the Knights Templar at the turn of the 14th century (1301-1312, I think), and they have an awesome museum dedicated to the Templar order down a steep flight of steps, and close to some of the dungeons. We enjoyed roaming around, and imagining life 700 years ago.
The view from the highest point of the castle is well worth the climb, though Luis was limping from both knees by the time we got to the top, poor guy.
Gracie took some cute shots of Alanna and us with Luis' camera while we were up on top.
We called it a day at the castle and headed back to the Beast to crank the AC and head to a shop to buy some pool toys, then drove back to the apartment. At this point, Tommy and Ethan decided to stay back and play computer games while Luis and I took the girls to the bird zoo. We had to go pretty quickly so that we could be done and back to the hotel in time to make the buffet before it closed, but we had a total blast!! The birds in one room absolutely swarmed us. On me alone, they had my sunglasses, hair, buttons, and bra strap all under attack, as well as four or five eating the seeds from my hand.
The girls adored the birds, of course, and didn't want to leave.
We sat through a cute little show in the center of the zoo where one of the keepers brought out different birds who did great tricks. Then zipped over to the reptile side of things to peek at snakes, lizards and frogs, and then a quick trip through the giftshop to get a bag of feathers for each girl. We barely made it back to the hotel in time to call the boys and have them meet us at the buffet before they closed the doors!
Late that night, I picked up the number in email from my mom for the Spain contact to call regarding our accommodations. When I called, of course I was told the help desk I needed to speak with was closed and I'd have to call the next day. Par for the course.
The next morning, Luis and I spent a couple of hours doing all of the laundry by hand in the bathroom sink and tub with the liquid laundry detergent I had brought with us. Then hanging it on our balcony. Tommy played babysitter at the pool with the kids to keep them from going stir crazy, though he spent as much time in the water as they did. :-)
I did reach the help desk and described each of the issues we'd encountered, and asked to be relocated for the remainder of our week, but was told that there was no availability anywhere in Spain due to the season. I then asked if they could move us to the 4-star hotel that was right next door, and they said they couldn't because they would only be able to get one room, and we had too many people. I then asked if they had any other hotels they had association with in Barcelona (where we were headed to next) that we could get a discount from if we left the apartment early, and was again told no. My last request was to get a refund for the $200 charge for their finding this property for us months ago, and they told me I'd have to take that up with the US division.
That afternoon, we all went to the beach and found out that the beach lounge chairs and umbrellas are actually for rent. You can't just use them. Pay for the shade, baby. Pay for the shade. I was happy to! I videotaped Luis and the kids body surfing and having a blast in the waves. We were all laughing so hard! It was beautiful and wonderful, and just what I'd hoped we'd experience at the beach.
Luis and I had agreed at some point that day that I would try to find us accommodations in Barcelona for one night, since he and Tommy were going to be driving way north of Barcelona to go to the Salvador Dali Castle museum. We had worked out the driving time, and it made no sense to have them be based from Peñiscola. So, I surfed some more in the hotel lobby (they made quite the penny off of me those five nights), and found us a hotel suite that slept right in downtown Barcelona.
The next (and last day) we spent on the coast was actually 45min south in a town called Benicasim, where they had an awesome waterpark. I made a breakfast of pancakes and we headed out. After paying for our loungechairs in the shade again, we set up camp and all four kids headed to the winds. They only appeared about 3 hours later for lunch when they were starving, and again when it was time to go. Was rewarding for me to see them all so utterly happy and jumping at which slide they would try next. We didn't bring the camera that day, since it was all about the water and fun. But do have great memories of it. Luis and I talked and read and talked some more. Very 'chillaxing' as Tommy would put it. :-)
We drove home, and I made American spaghetti with beans and corn as the side veggies and fresh baguette bread with butter. The kids just about devoured the dishes along with the food, and all four of them said that was the best meal they'd had since we left on vacation. Food was not a positive experience in Spain, sadly.
We spent the next morning packing, then checked out two days early and gassed up the Beast to head out on the last leg of our stay in Spain.
Next up...Barcelona!
Here's a shot of the hotel from the beach side, looking towards the hotel buildings (basically the back of the hotel):
They gave us our keys, and we unloaded the Beast in this tiny alley between the hotel and the apartment buildings next door. We rolled our suitcases past four smallish pools, before arriving at our apartment. The landscaping was gorgeous, even if the buildings looked a little old. So far, so good.
However, when we went inside, it wasn't so posh. It was very small and very hot. The AC and mini fridge had been off all day, and the two bedrooms upstairs were even more sweltering. We turned the AC and fridge on, then Luis went to park the Beast in the gated outdoor lot (didn't plan on that daily expense since we'd never been charged for parking at any other properties!). I called the front desk to ask about towels for the pool. They told me they didn't supply any. I then told them our apartment had zero bath towels and to please send six so the kids could swim that night and alleviate some of the heat. They said they would send some right away.
On his way back from parking the Beast, Luis asked somebody where the nearest grocery store was. They told him it was a mile down the road and it closed at 7pm. Yippee. Since we had just parked the Beast a half mile away in the opposite direction, we were stuck hoofing it once again. One nice side effect was that we were able to see the beauty of the Mediterranean as we walked along the beach sidewalk for that mile after the sun had gone down enough that it wasn't raging hot during our walk.
We loaded up on some food basics, as well as four cheap beach towels and came back home to make sandwiches and microwave pizza cooked on a skillet (no microwave in the apartment). The kids didn't care, thankfully. Another lovely discovery at this point was that the dishes in the sideboard had been put away wet with pieces of food still on them. Disgusting. After Luis washed them all with the dish detergent and sponge that we had bought at the store (also not provided in the apartment when these were standard in the US properties), I think we finally ate around 8:30pm...right on schedule for Spain. :-) The kids went scrambling for their suits the second we were done, and we pulled them out of the pool an hour later. Meanwhile, I had gone with Tommy to the front desk to arrange for 3 days of the buffet option, since we only had a two-burner stove and no oven in the apartment (another complete difference from the US properties). They explained that wifi was only available in the hotel lobby, and we had to pay 3EU per hour. Crazy.
The AC in the apartment was barely a drizzle, and the fridge had obviously not been on long enough to even cool the food we'd put in it, let alone make ice yet, so we sent Tommy to get some ice from the hotel next door. He came back with a story of how the hotel staff had rolled their eyes at him when he asked for ice, then stomped off to fill the bowl we'd had him carry with him. I was about to go ballistic by this time at all of the disappointments in both service and amenities. When 10pm rolled around, and we started getting the kids ready for bed, we realized that the couch and trundle bed under it had no bedding to be found anywhere. We made another call to the front desk to ask again about the towels that had still not appeared, and now the missing bedding. They told us they would send someone right away. This phrase was beginning to become laughable, and up there with "cinco minutos mas".
At 10:45pm (still the same day!), Luis and Tommy walked in person to the front desk to insist on the linens that hadn't yet arrived, and on their way back, they passed a housekeeper who had just dropped off the items with me. Finally. We got the beds made and the kids tucked in. As Luis and I were laying in bed and I was reading (trying to adjust to the lower-end accommodations and see how we could make the best of it), a huge spider literally scurried out of the pillow next to my head and across my bare arm...until I shrieked and smacked it to the floor then ran to the corner of the room.
In the next minute while Luis killed it and I stood there, I sincerely almost decided to end the trip right then and fly everybody home. I was so utterly crushed that this dive we were staying in was what I'd paid so much money for over the past two years and that everybody would hate the entire trip because of this one apartment. Luis talked me back to bed and I cried a little over how awful the night had been. We agreed to just totally veg out the next day by the pools and not do anything at all. And to try to adjust and make the very best we could out of the situation. Obviously the younger kids didn't care as long as there was a pool literally five steps from their front door. We could make this work.
Monday morning, we got the kids up and went for our first experience of the hotel buffet. With six people, it was the most cost effective way to feed all of us at the 4-star hotel, rather than ordering separate dishes for everyone at one of the hotel restaurants. Pricey, but cost effective. (See my daily food budget go out the window at this point.) For the next three days, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the buffet, and this was the only time we ran into the paella that we'd heard so much about. None of the restaurants we went to the rest of the week had it on their menus. Go figure! Unfortunately, the food quality at the buffet was what you'd expect from any buffet place, only with strange food combinations that didn't really sit well with the kids at all, and weren't that appetizing to Luis or I, either. The kids loved the dessert bar the best, of course. Tip for the non-European traveler: budget money for even water at your meals. Tap water isn't available, and you have to either buy still or sparkling water as your cheapest option.
Once breakfast was over, we walked back to the apartment and pulled some lounge chairs into the shade, then got everybody slathered with sunscreen and had a VERY relaxing morning at the apartment pools. We all needed it. Just to sit and read and jump in to swim with the kids, then read some more was so soothing after the craziness of the international flights, followed by an insane day of sightseeing in Madrid, followed by driving across the country and dealing with the nightmare of the first day at the apartment. I remember telling Luis that it felt like that morning was the real start to our vacation. :-)
After lunch, Luis took the kids to the beach (which was right outside the gate at the back of the hotel), and I lugged the laptop to the lobby to start my campaign to let somebody know how unhappy I was with the accomodations. I had to reach my mom first, and explain everything in email, so that she could try to reach somebody at the timeshare company in the States. Due to the timechange, I didn't hear back from her until the next day. So, I answered email and checked in with my employees at work via online chat to make sure things were going okay.
At dinner that night, we all agreed that we would stake out chairs at the hotel pool the next morning and spend the morning at the larger hotel pool. Once dinner was over, we left Tommy with the kids while Luis and I trekked out to the van and went driving to see how far the Peñiscola castle was from our apartment. It was a really nice drive, and showed us the main beach front road where there were dozens of shops and restaurants for miles.
We stuck to our plan about the large hotel pool the next morning, so Luis and I went to the there at 9am and sat under some umbrellas waiting for the lounge chairs to be unlocked. We had brought along one set of our walkie-talkies that we usually take camping and Luis left one turned up really loud near Tommy and Ethan while they were still sleeping. At 10am, the chairs were unlocked, and we laid out four in a row under the same unbrellas we'd been sitting under. Then Luis made some crazy monster noises into his walkie-talkie to wake the kids up and laughed like a loon when Tommy finally answered. :-) About 10 mins later, our four ducklings came wandering out with crazy hair, in shorts with suits underneath and Luis took them to the buffet while I kept our lounge chairs reserved. That morning was a bunch of fun. We sat next to an older couple who thought we were British (hahaha!), and complimented us on our beautiful children. They were really nice to chat with as we watched the kids splash and swim.
The afternoon activites we'd set for after lunch was a tour of the nearby castle followed by a visit to a local bird zoo. We got to the base of the cliff where the castle is perched around 1:30pm. After another dose of sunscreen, we started up the steep hill(s).
There's an entire village still in operation around the base of the castle, and we stopped for our first batch of souvenirs while sweat ran off of us in rivulets. It was so unspeakably hot.
We kept hiking up, up, up, and stopped again to get cold drinks (the kids opted for popsicles once again) when we couldn't walk any more. I went for a lemonade slushie type of drink that was divine.
After that welcome breather, we went and got our tickets to tour the castle itself.
It was built by the Knights Templar at the turn of the 14th century (1301-1312, I think), and they have an awesome museum dedicated to the Templar order down a steep flight of steps, and close to some of the dungeons. We enjoyed roaming around, and imagining life 700 years ago.
The view from the highest point of the castle is well worth the climb, though Luis was limping from both knees by the time we got to the top, poor guy.
Gracie took some cute shots of Alanna and us with Luis' camera while we were up on top.
We called it a day at the castle and headed back to the Beast to crank the AC and head to a shop to buy some pool toys, then drove back to the apartment. At this point, Tommy and Ethan decided to stay back and play computer games while Luis and I took the girls to the bird zoo. We had to go pretty quickly so that we could be done and back to the hotel in time to make the buffet before it closed, but we had a total blast!! The birds in one room absolutely swarmed us. On me alone, they had my sunglasses, hair, buttons, and bra strap all under attack, as well as four or five eating the seeds from my hand.
The girls adored the birds, of course, and didn't want to leave.
We sat through a cute little show in the center of the zoo where one of the keepers brought out different birds who did great tricks. Then zipped over to the reptile side of things to peek at snakes, lizards and frogs, and then a quick trip through the giftshop to get a bag of feathers for each girl. We barely made it back to the hotel in time to call the boys and have them meet us at the buffet before they closed the doors!
Late that night, I picked up the number in email from my mom for the Spain contact to call regarding our accommodations. When I called, of course I was told the help desk I needed to speak with was closed and I'd have to call the next day. Par for the course.
The next morning, Luis and I spent a couple of hours doing all of the laundry by hand in the bathroom sink and tub with the liquid laundry detergent I had brought with us. Then hanging it on our balcony. Tommy played babysitter at the pool with the kids to keep them from going stir crazy, though he spent as much time in the water as they did. :-)
I did reach the help desk and described each of the issues we'd encountered, and asked to be relocated for the remainder of our week, but was told that there was no availability anywhere in Spain due to the season. I then asked if they could move us to the 4-star hotel that was right next door, and they said they couldn't because they would only be able to get one room, and we had too many people. I then asked if they had any other hotels they had association with in Barcelona (where we were headed to next) that we could get a discount from if we left the apartment early, and was again told no. My last request was to get a refund for the $200 charge for their finding this property for us months ago, and they told me I'd have to take that up with the US division.
That afternoon, we all went to the beach and found out that the beach lounge chairs and umbrellas are actually for rent. You can't just use them. Pay for the shade, baby. Pay for the shade. I was happy to! I videotaped Luis and the kids body surfing and having a blast in the waves. We were all laughing so hard! It was beautiful and wonderful, and just what I'd hoped we'd experience at the beach.
Luis and I had agreed at some point that day that I would try to find us accommodations in Barcelona for one night, since he and Tommy were going to be driving way north of Barcelona to go to the Salvador Dali Castle museum. We had worked out the driving time, and it made no sense to have them be based from Peñiscola. So, I surfed some more in the hotel lobby (they made quite the penny off of me those five nights), and found us a hotel suite that slept right in downtown Barcelona.
The next (and last day) we spent on the coast was actually 45min south in a town called Benicasim, where they had an awesome waterpark. I made a breakfast of pancakes and we headed out. After paying for our loungechairs in the shade again, we set up camp and all four kids headed to the winds. They only appeared about 3 hours later for lunch when they were starving, and again when it was time to go. Was rewarding for me to see them all so utterly happy and jumping at which slide they would try next. We didn't bring the camera that day, since it was all about the water and fun. But do have great memories of it. Luis and I talked and read and talked some more. Very 'chillaxing' as Tommy would put it. :-)
We drove home, and I made American spaghetti with beans and corn as the side veggies and fresh baguette bread with butter. The kids just about devoured the dishes along with the food, and all four of them said that was the best meal they'd had since we left on vacation. Food was not a positive experience in Spain, sadly.
We spent the next morning packing, then checked out two days early and gassed up the Beast to head out on the last leg of our stay in Spain.
Next up...Barcelona!