After returning from spending Easter with the Jimenez family and sending Luis on his way to Porto to start the Portuguese Camino, we drove back up to Barcelona to pick up my sister Sandy and her friend Susie. We drove up the day before and stayed the night in Stiges a small coastal city 20 minutes from the airport. The hotel we stayed at gave us a free drink coupon for the rooftop bar of a hotel on the beach so that was a good way to spend the evening.

After some delays with immigration, we eventually found Sandy and Susie and it was so good to see them both. We headed to Peníscola where we would be spending the first night. Our hotel was right on the beach and had great views of the Castillo and the famous rocky peninsula.

Peníscola is a lovely seaside town not far from where we live and is very popular with tourists. It is known locally as “The City in the Sea”.

It is a fortified seaport, with a lighthouse, built on a rocky headland. Peníscola is a local evolution of the Latin peninsula. The history of the place goes back to the Iberians. Later the town became Phoenician, named Tyreche, then Greek, named Chersonesos (meaning “peninsula”). It was next captured by the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca; legend has it that this is the place where he made his son Hannibal swear an oath that he would never be a friend of Rome. The present castle was built by the Knights Templar between 1294 and 1307.
In the fourteenth century, it was garrisoned by the Knights of Montesa, and in 1420 it reverted to the Crown of Aragon. From 1415 to 1423 it was the home of Pope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna), whose name is commemorated in the Castell del Papa Luna, the name of the medieval castle. The castle was restored and improved and new walls were added in 1960 when Anthony Mann’s film El Cid was partially filmed there.

We wandered around the old town and then dinner was tapas and lots of vermouth in a wonderful little bar. The next day after a morning walk around another section of the Castell del Papa Luna wall we set off for the village of Cantavieja in Aragon.