We’ve been at Vendrell Platja in Calafell on the Costa Daurada for three nights and plan to move on tomorrow. It’s unusual for us to stay four nights anywhere. Usually we get too excited at the thought of what’s round the next corner but I’ve had a horrible cold and we felt like chilling so that’s what we’ve done. Another positive for the motorhoming way of life – just taking life as it comes.

Cycling, walking, eating tapas and watching sunsets has been the best we could offer in terms of entertainment and very nice it has been too.

I’ve been sitting here trying to decide what other little gems I might have to offer this blog, given that we’ve not done anything very newsworthy.

Let’s start with the neighbours: We have a Dutch couple next door who are in Spain for the whole winter. They are caravanners and have an extraordinary amount of kit with them that includes sun loungers, chairs and tables, an extra fridge, electric bikes, a pot plant and a small white dog called Paco. They tell us that they adopted him in Spain three years ago. He’s very cute and demands attention from everyone who passes by.

We’re a bit fascinated by these couples we meet who go south for the winter. They seem to stay on the same site for a whole month then move on. There’s a British couple on here who are doing the same thing and they’re in a big flash motorhome. To be honest I would get very bored on the same site for weeks on end. Each to their own and all that but the potential for entertainment around here is limited and, just to complicate things further, all is not well in the camp. The ones who thought they would stay for a month didn’t think it would be as cool as it has turned out. It’s only about 18° today and not at all sunny and the talk of the camp, in several languages I might add, is that it’s going to rain heavily on Monday and Tuesday. You can see that they’re itching to go south sooner. I just hope they didn’t pay for a whole month in advance.

Another bit of excitement this morning occurred at Lidl. We were standing at the check out, waiting our turn, when the alarms all went off and a security guard, sporting a set of fancy hand cuffs, shot out the door after a man who was strolling through the car park pushing a loaded trolley. The problem was, it seemed, that the loaded trolley hadn’t been through the checkouts. There was a great buzz of anticipation all round as the shoppers peered through the window at the scene. I thought to myself that this would be a good moment for someone else to slip out with a bottle of whisky. No one would have noticed. To everyone’s immense disappointment the hand cuffs weren’t put to use and the man just ran off waving two fingers in the air, leaving the security guard to bring the trolley back into the shop.

Shopping for three night’s dinners and quite a lot of other stuff at Lidl came to the grand total of 26€ – that’s £19. Lidl is our new best friend. It’s official.

Well done if you’ve ploughed your way through this bit of mindless chat. You can now stand down and go and do other more interesting things – but tune in tomorrow for the low down on a place called Peniscola. We have to go, even if it’s only to say we’ve been there. With a name like that it would be rude not to.