Passing through

Just 3 or 4kms from Pinoso we left the Valencian Community and Alicante province and crossed into Murcia. Just outside Almansa, near the wind turbines, we started our trek across Castilla la Mancha though it doesn't become the wide open Don Quijote landscape till close to the provincial capital of Albacete. Into the province of Cuenca and about four hours into the journey into Madrid, the province and community, rather than the city. Swing South, to avoid the traffic in town, onto the M50 ring road and out, via the A6, heading for A Coruña after tunnelling under the Guadarrama mountains. On the other side of the mountain we were in Castilla y Leon, at the edge of Segovia province, right at the edge so we were quickly onto Avila province on the toll motorway. The new A50 motorway, that will eventually join Avila to Salamanca has been opened for a good part of its length whilst we were in Culebrón so we were soon into our home province of Salamanca and into Ciudad Rodrigo. The adventure continues there.

Rice, Paella and Valencia

My earliest brush with a paella would have been as part of the Vesta meals range in my student days - Hmm which shall I cook tonight, Beef Chow Mein or Paella?

Paella goes with Spain like rock goes with Blackpool.

Paella is available all over Spain, in fact all over the World, but it originated in the area around Valencia. Once I got here I soon realised that my idea that paella was a yellow rice, seafood and chicken dish was only partially true. There are tens, maybe hundereds, of recipes generally dependant on what produce is abundant locally. So, on the coast the traditional dish is indeed seafood and chicken whilst near us in Pinoso they cook the rice with rabbit and snails. That's why Valencianos usually call the food rice rather than paella. Apparently the paella is the name of the wide, flat, handled pans that the rice is cooked in though, to be honest, the words for the food and the utensil are now more or less interchangeable even for Spaniards.

We were in Valencia with our Spanish pal Pepa the other day. She realised we were hard up but still looking for something a bit different so she took us to this open air paella stall. There was a typical seafood paella but they also had one with bacalao and cauliflower - "Just like the rice my Gran used to cook", said Pepa.

Benidorm

Being in Culebron, we are about 100km, or just over an hour with the newish toll motorway, from Benidorm. So we thought we'd go and get a breath of sea air.

It's not difficult to spot Brits with strong regional accents and inappropriate clothing in search of cheap, "proper" food in Benidorm. But it's also full of Dutch and Germans and Russians and lots and lots of promenading Spaniards out to enjoy the famously good climate, the food and the splendid beaches

I read somewhere that a one time Mayor of Benidorm had a vision of the place as a tourist Mecca and he set about creating a town that would appeal to the mass tourist market. It certainly worked. In fact it's an exciting sort of place. We were glad we popped in.