The Valencian Summer

This week, I have read that Valencia had it's third hottest summer on record this year. The sunshine brought record numbers of tourists to the beaches, and Peniscola was declared Spain's 4th most popular resort. May was not especially warm, and we had rain, but I can confirm that July was a scorcher.

The tourists utilised every possible place to park, including traffic islands and roundabouts, and the town, opened South Beach for parking. I imagine that this tourist did not arrive on Ryanair.


Here are the cars on the beach in the evening. Also in the image is frame for the Beach Cinema, which generally starts at 10.30pm.

Here is a queue of folks waiting for a table at a popular restaurant. It's about 10.30pm and they are queueing around the cars which are parked on the roundabout. The road was also open for traffic!

I took the time to go and explore nearby Benicarlo, which is not a tourist destination and has some great buildings, and the centre is quite smart.



I did my best to try some local specialities, and eat like a local. Some foods promised much and delivered very little!


I managed to see the beach early one morning, freshly raked and almost empty, so strange for high season.

There are always street performers on the promenade in the evenings. Some are more sophisticated than others.



Each September as part of the Fiesta, young bulls are set loose to run up the beach. The view here is of the safety fencing set up on the beach with the old town in the background. This was a very still, warm evening and it's about 10pm when I took this photo.

The weather was more humid than usual, and I've heard that this was typical throughout the region. We were not too badly affected, as the estate is on a hill and we always get a breeze. I did suffer my first local mosquito bite ever! Typically the insects blow past at such a rapid pace, we need no screens or spray.

Summer ended with the usual Gota Fria downpour, and nearby Vinaros achieved 20 litres per square metre of rainfall one day.