Late March Update 2009

1. Briar in the seaside village of Colloiure
2. Pont Du Gard viaduct - Vaucluse Valley - Provence
3. Avignon - Pont de Benezet bridge-Palais De Papas - Rhone river - Provence
4. Taxi rank at barcelona aeroporto
5. MC & Briar - Stadi Olympia - Barcelona
6. MC & Briar - Cite De Carcassonne - Rousillion
7. MC and Gaudi's Sagrida Familia



Spent most of the Saturday 14th March giving Hugo an internal cleansing a bit of time on the internet and generally moped about camp all day. We however were entertained by the local weekend permanent campers who arrived in droves all day Saturday, familia’s , dogs, cats and even Grandpa and grandma ta boot. I think it was really the first warm and fine weekend for awhile and everyone was out for a change enjoying the famed Mediterranean weather.
While our Friday at the campground was rather sedate – Saturday night was anything but. Instead of sharing the campground with about 5 or 6 motorhomes/caravans with tourists like ourselves passing thru and a couple of permanent poms (livin down here on their pensions) we shared it with about 500/600 Catalunyans , all dusting off their winter blues. There were barbeques goin (charcoal), table tennis and soccer in the middle of the roads, between the campers, lotsa conversation and catchin up with fellow campers, down our row seemed like every tent was suddenly occupied. They all had come to party and that they did till midnight ( Esphana amidso noche ), all the kids , mommas and poppas, were out the campground had the music pumpin and I mean pumpin till then… and then it jus stopped and everyone went ta bed – hard case . There was even a mix of Abba in there somewhere.
So it was a very quieter Sunday morning and everyone arose a bit later , so we got our bicylettas off Hugos rack and cycled into town around midday, to check it all out of course and grab a pan for comida. All seemed rather quiet in town until we hit the beach promenade, there were people everywhere – not hundreds – but thousands it seemed at first …all enjoying the warmer weather again, hey what else do you do in Esphana on Domingo( Sunday) do like everyone else in the world does go to the beach. I used to think the beaches on the Gold coast were busy. (this is just the start of the crowds we will encounter from here on in)
Still it was a interesting cycle around Sitges, the beach promenade and the old part of town of course ( every town in Spain has an old part) . The restaurants on the promenade were blitzing it, there were many with queues of 20/30 and sometimes even 50/60 waiting to be seated. Off course being Domingo(Sunday) and in Europe nothing is abierto except the restaurants, cafes, heladerias (ice cream shops), takeaways and cerveceria’s (pubs - bars ) , souvenir shops and the odd clothing store we didn’t get our pan, still treddled back to El Garrofer campground and had a healthy Jamon con insalata instead. ( Ham and salad for the dummies ).
Whilst all our Spanish neighbours were once again firing up the barbacaos (barbeques). Even their friends had come out to camp to join several of the regulars for domingo comida. Off course they didn’t eat till around 2.30-3.00pm not like some foreigners in the camp who ate theirs at 1.00-1.30pm – wont mention names. Still we are getting better adjusted to this relaxing style of life. Off course the camp got quiet for an hour or two whilst they all siested . Then they all starting packing up and headin home – leaving us and our 5 or 6 motorhome/ caravan foreigners for a quiet campground again- by the way that’s how it stayed for the rest of the week – with the odd foreigner coming and going.
Monday 16th – decided to spend the day getting Hugo some new tyres and some better security locks put on Hugo. This took most of the day , by the time we had found a couple of campervan shops , with what we needed and could also place the locks for us , one does not exactly carry around a full tool kit when campervanning.
By the end of the day Hugo had two new tyres and two new security locks on him – so not only was he feelin good about that but we were to knowing we could lock Hugo up a bit more confidently and securely. We did do a small food supply run as well – to last us for a few days, whilst we were gonna be doin the tourist thing in downtown Barcelona for the next couple days. So after a good tapas/ chena/ hot showers – off ta bed with eager anticipation of tomorrows events. Once again awoke to a magnifico mediterrano manyana ( around 20 degrees) a wee breeze – the usual 3 x S’s – pack the backpack and headed to the autobous stop to catch the 8.45 into centro Barcelona.
A rather interesting 50 min. ride along the coast and out to the aeroporto into town route trip. Man – I thought I had seen some taxi stands in my time
But nothing like the one they got a Barcelona aeroporto – sensational is a word to describe it about right. I even took a photo – they had a carpark the size of around 3 x football fields full of taxi’s waiting to get in a queue for the travellers arriving, that carpark was about 600/700 yards away from the terminals where it was nose to tail of more taxi’s queuing along the road and outside the terminal buildings – all an ugly black and yellow – easy to spot – I reckon on my observatory skills there would have been around 1600 taxis at any one time on or around the airport – like I said sensational – by the way didn’t spot a single middle eastern or Punjab taxi driver amongst any of them.
We finally ended our bus trip at the Catalunya Placa (plaza) where we had to catch the Barcelona city tour bus ride – we did this bus tour for a couple days in Madrid with the same company and we had a discount voucher for the Barcelona bus tour. Would recommend this to anyone for seeing a bigger city , as they have stops around the major tourist stops/ musee’s/cathedral’s/ etc.etc and on a fine warm day on the top open deck of a bus ya get ta see a lot I’ll tell ya. They even have earplugs with commentary on the various highlights/stops. Ya can get off at anyone of these stops and get on anywhere at the designated stops. We decided once we got on to do the whole route – which took around 2 ½ hours and showed us all the usual amazing things. It also gives you a chance to pick out which ones to actually get off and visit. We got off at the second to last stop so we could check out the Barcelona cathedral – which off course all the tourist books rave about- but it was cerrado – due to it being revamped it certain parts and it was comida time 2-4pm. We stopped for a café con latte and pee at a café nearby the cathedral. Then we wandered through Barri Gothic (old town part of Barcelona – as ya do) – we finally found a rather international flavoured tapas restaurant serving supposedly tapas comida’s to unsuspecting foreigners like us - but we knew better that it wasn’t tapas at all , but we were hungry and ate it anyway – even though it was a ripoff really and I hate ripoffs, we would have the real thing tonite or tomorrow night. I had spotted one earlier in our wandering that I had a sneaky feelin we would be checkin out tonite or tmoro. After the worms had been fed- another pee – all this travelling makes me pee a lot – dunno wot that’s about. ( ha! Old age???)
We caught the tour bus again and headed for Sagrada Familia church – one of my big ticks on our European adventure. We had gone past earlier in the day and there were masses of people/ bus tours etc. queuing once again to get in. Well we must have timed it right because we walked straight in after paying the entrada fee of $8.50 each
nothing much is free in Europe – especially historic sites or artefacts. Hey this is one helluva piece of architectural masterpiece by an equally architectural master that seeing in the flesh beats photos out of a book any day. Gaudi who obviously designed Sagrada Familia , also designed several other buildings through and around Barcelona,
but this piece de resistance and ironically his last. They still have 20 years of building to complete it and it was started in the 1800’s! Sadly Gaudi was killed by a Barcelonian tram running him over in 1926 – pretty ironic really. This is all built by donation and sponsorship and there must be heaps going into it as 5 cranes were in place and heaps of steel etc going in by workers we figured had a job for life! The precision and detail going into this grand building is nothing short of breathtaking – I could spend 3-4 pages writing about it but I won’t, however Gaudi’s biggest influence would have been nature and many,many of the attributes of Sagrada Familia depict this influence in astounding ways. We also passed a couple of other buildings he designed on the bus tour – Castillo Batillo and the La Pedrera . In the basement of the Sagrada Familia was a musee all about Gaudi and the initial plans and workings of Sagrada Familia. He used string and suspended mini bag weights to create the initial shape of Sagrida Familia – amazing. After that we caught the tour bus back into Barcelona centro – placa Catalunya – had a nosy through a Cortes Inglese department store – had about 7 seven floors a bit like Marks & Spencers. lookin for a replacement mobile phone and briars perfumes that got stolen. Can’t have Briar touring around Europa being not smelling nice can we… Still had a nosy – too expensive .. same in euros as nz dollars - caught the N30 back out to camp Garrofer. Another night of scheming and planning tomorrows day back in Barcelona – some dinner , a DVD and off ta bed – all this touristy stuff does make one rather tired – more so than working… yeah right you all say.
Awoke to another splendid Mediterranean day warm sunny around 20 degrees – back into Barcelona central we headed – managed to get a good pic of the infamous taxi stand at Barcelona aeroporto this trip in. We jumped on the tour bus again and headed for stop no. 6 – Placa Francesc Macia – more Cortese Inglese stores there – we were gonna buy a mobile today – and we did but from a store next door to Cortes Inglese – a cheap $85.00 Nokia and Briar picked up a cheap $23.00 euro black replacement handbag – muy bien. So feelin rather smug with what we had set out to do, we grabbed a filled roll or baguette each and caught the tour bus at stop no. 8 for the Palau Alfons Xlll / Palau Victoria Eugenia – a palace sittin on the hill built for a world expo held there in the 1930’s. It looks down over the Fira Internacional de Mostres – world expo site and the whole of Barcelona. We sat on a park bench and ate our baguette’s and then had a wander around took a couple pics- poked our nose inside the palau’s which today is used as the National art muse. of Catalunya. $8.50 each for entrada – not budgeted for today – so wandered on up the hill to the 1992 Olympic stadium and Anella Olimpica site. Got a pic next to the communication tower designed by a Japanese artiste- another couple pics standing in the Estadi Olimpica – Luis Companys – Olmypic stadium – where the 1992 games were held. (amazed to find it was designed and built ready for the 1936 games but the Spanish Civil war meant those games were held in Germany..) Cool stuff – grabbed a the tour bus from there back down to the Port Vell (Marina) and sat in the afternoon sun in a cervecia/restaurant with views over the port/marina.
Had a timber gangplank type bridge which pivoted on a pillar and rotated diagonally
to allow yachts back into the marina – fascinating to some, or nosy bastards like me.
After that our planned stroll up the famous street Las Ramblas – even took a pickie of the sign for proof. Well it was pretty much like any other city street really with a big middle walkway part and roads either side and then pavement and shops. Had all the touristy souvenir and tapas bar advertising/paraphernalia etc.etc. lotsa little market type stalls along the middle part. Several blokes made up as Statues – stat-u-bro. There was one guy on a toilet – another done as a 14th century cavalier – Edward scissorhands – another knight – they all stand there motionless until fag time with a bowl in front for donations -- aaayyy. You could tell this was a touristy town by the different types and nationalities of people, mostly from the languages you picked up.
Now it was time to head for the tapas bar we had spotted yesterday for the new revolution in tapas – called pintxos – they are small creations with bamboo type toothpick through them and you just wander along choosing what you like and then pay for the amount of toothpicks you have on your plate at the end. – sensational.
When you do the real deal tapas thing ya supposed to have several at one bar and then move onto the next. But in our haste to find good tapas bars- we got lost abit wandering and never spotted many tapas bars like the one we ate at earlier. Still it was
good wandering through the old parts (Barri Gothic / La Ribiera ) of Barcelona. We finally found a restaurant down a dingy little lane of the main haunts and shared the plato del dia ( menu of the day – night really) with a young boys french tour group who bowled in to the restaurant about ten minutes after we had arrived. It made for a lively and very noisy atmosphere. While the food wasn’t sensational there was plenty of it and reasonably flavoursome and good value for money. We rolled outta there headed back up to Placa Catalunya along Las Ramblas again to catch the N30 back to camp Garrofer and right at the end of Las Ramblas there was a student riot happening
so lotsa police kitted out with full riot gear / paddy wagons / flashing lights , even had the old eye in the sky, helicopter buzzin around and off course a couple thousand protesters marching who knows where or why- we had spotted them earlier in the day –outside a Zara store near Placa Catalunya while we were on the bus. Still this was quite exciting a part from there were no buses runnin due to blocked off streets – fortunately the marchers moved on somewhere else and freed up our bus route – which was delayed around ½ an hour – so a late ride home to camp. Still we made it safe and sound. Awoke the following morning to yet another outstanding mediterrano day- a catch up day around camp and Sitges today – both needed haircuts / trims so after a late brekkie we jumped on the bikes and rode along the less crowded beach promenade into the downtown village of Sitges. Found a good hairdresser who spoke
reasonable inglese , very chatty chap, who not only did a good job on us both but was also a reasonable pagar (price) .
Picked up some pan , a few other supplies for dinner etc. and back out to Hugo and Camp Garrofer- so good havin the bikes – good way to see villages . Did some internet research – some more laundry - the usual antipasto – chena and DVD and bedtime.
We both awoke excited about headin back into France today – so we left Camp Garrofer around 11.00am and made a beeline for the border – on our way through we had spotted a town (La Jonquera) just before the border crossing – where lotsa truckies stop before heading in France – mainly due to cheaper diesel and food prices – so there a a lot more than usual supermarkets/gas stations etc. etc there and we decided to also stock up on supplies before headin back into France- we spotted a carpark with several campervans in so that was good enough for us. We packed a whole trolley full – mainly of the refreshment kind of course- some food as well.
Hugo’s cupboards fully replenished we crossed over the border for the third time and disappointingly once again no border guards to check us out on our way through…. yeah right. Hardly seen a border guard since we got here in Europe – I wonder what they do all day or get paid ta do.?? We finally stopped for comida at a marina at Argeles sur mer about 30k’s on the French side – late lunch – 4.00pm . Then headed back towards the border again to Colloiure – the quaint little seaside town we had stayed at previously on our way back down to Barcelona. We pulled into the same Aire de stationment we stayed at last time around 5.00pm, plugged in and bunkered down for the night. We awoke to a yet another splendid mediterrano morning after brekkie and the usual 3 x S’s we headed into town for a squiz around. We walked around the Chateau Royale smack in the middle of town on the waters edge to off course. Took afew pics found a phone booth, gave Julie ( Rognes) a quick call about our drop in on later in the week if poss. After finally nutting out the phone and calling system – all in French as well we finally got thru only to leave a message on the on the mobile answer. Found a café and parked for awhile doing what the French do – café next to the beach in the sun.
We wandered through some of the older part and then jumped in Hugo and headed off to a local Supermarche in Canet De Rousillion on our way to Gruissan Plage further up the coast. After the supermarche we headed to the coast road found a spot on the promenade next to a netball court next to Canet En Rousillion beach had some comida. Then found a carwash , so we could give Hugo a good spray powerwash as it had been about 6 or 7 weeks since his last bath. Off up the coast again – some magnificient beaches – lotsa parking bays/ cars and campervans all the way along – this was still in winter come spring – it must surely get crazy around here in summer.
We pulled into one of the Aire de stationments right next to a campground in Port Leucreute – pulled in and checked it out to see if we might stop for the night here. There were around 75-80 campervans all parked along the beachfront with the vistas overlooking the beach already full and several rows of campervans behind – there was even another parking bay on the otherside of the entry road with the services and space for another 50-60 campervans, there was about 20 empty parking bays left here. Ironically the campground next door had only 6 or 7 campervans in the campground. But the campowner was smart enough to advertise laundry facilities available signs all around the aire de stationment.. which did have reasonably good campervan services but no electricity hook-up. But a lot of these campers had solar panels and satellite dishes on there campervan roofs and looked as though had been there awhile.
We decided against plonking here for the night and carried onto Gruissan Plage – another ¾ hour or so we pulled into the Gruissan Aire de stationment – paid our $7.00 euro fee and found a spot amongst the other 80 campervans parked there already. After settlin in we thought we’d check out the local town/marina and some old ruins on the top of the hill which looked like it had views all over Gruissan. The town and marina were pretty quiet – lotsa yachts/boats but no people. Lotsa apartments overlooking the Marina and port but very few people around. Bet it is rather different come summer time.
We wandered up to the top of the hill found a great spot on top of some sought of concrete water tank perhaps with 360 degree views right around Gruissan – the town – the marina – the beaches – the harbour – salt lakes – where of course they produce sea salt. As the sun settled over the distant mountains I pinched Briar and myself just to make sure we were here – haha – I also sneaked a quick peck on the cheek – how romantic of me. Back to Hugo – an anti-pasto and chena, a few games of computer hearts and mahjong and into bed for some zzzzz’ss..
Once again we awoke to another sunny but not so warm Cote De Azur morning, they had showers and loos at this aire de stationment, we managed to sneak in early before everyone arose for a quick shower- warm water even – yaayyy. No 3 x S’s this morning though – managed two S’s, so I didn’t have a shave if you’re wondering.
I had decided the previous night to do a trip inland into Cite de Carcassonne apparently the biggest fortress of its kind in Europe – with 52 towers/turrets
around the perimeter walls – just another piece of French magnifique. It even had a moat around it with no water unfortunately – but had the entry drawbridge and towers
cool stuff – unfortunately it was very touristy orientated on the inside – where people obviously lived and had there musees/ cafes/ restaurants/souvenir shops a couple of armouries complete with metal helmets/bodysuits and swords of the period. You can imagine the streets with swashbuckling buccaneers, madams, peddlers etc.etc. etc
It was well worth wandering around – had pay to much to go in the castle part which was small in comparison to the whole fortress itself.
We had managed to find a patisserie in town earlier and had the now customary filled roll/baguette and cuppa for lunch in the carpark. The hour trip inland and back out again to the coast was rather interesting as well – a lot of rugged stony land with lotsa – you guessed it – vines , vines and more rows vines. Not an area or region I thought was renound for vino. Passed lotsa campers on route – they all wave at each other, so now us being seasoned campervanners wave back as though we been doin it for years… yeah right. We are noticing far more campervanners down and around these regions now- our days of solitude are far and few between are numbered as it starts to warm up.
Back out at the coast we headed for Cape De Agde to check out there aire de stationment – couldn’t find it but parked up at the Cape point and wandered up to admire the coastal views – there were even a few people out sunbaking, it was around 17 degrees, back into Hugo got lost up some river / canal got “ma cherie” out to navigate us otta there, we then passed through a major coastal town of Sete- lotsa marina’s and yachts/ boats – big boats parked up the sought you would have seen in Auckland port when the America’s cup was on.
Around 20k’s or so further up the coast we pulled into the coastal town of Palavas Les Flots. The route out there was past many ponds and canals and estuaries and apparently the town and marina/port has been man made – don’t know how much of its for real. But it is all a protected wildlife sanctuary region – with Flamingo’s (yes pink ones of course) everywhere.
Hundreds of them with their long legs and bum stuck in the air and their heads stuck in the water feeding. As we approached Palavas Les Flots we could see a mini version of skytower in the town centre.
Had already checked it out as a definite aire de stationment stop. We found it without too much fuss and checked in for two nights – it was near the main road into Palavas right on the marina. We were later to find out that the toilet/shower block was also used by the marina folk. We managed to find a corner site overlooking the boats with the sun setting and beaming into the front of the campervan – fantastique . There were around 70 or so campers in this stationment, mostly French – a few german and Netherlands – no brits/ kiwis or aussies though. This was certainly the best aire de staionment yet – especially with the services it provided – it was very well set up for campervans. We plugged in and ate our antipasto as the sun set over the flots (we found out later it means ponds – funny that) - next morning after a nice warm shower and shave we headed into town for a bit of exploring- had found out about some free Wifi or hotspot at a local hotel – which worked – we had taken the backpack and the mini lappie with us – so sat in the hotel courtyard and opened a few emails and answered a few. Then strolled further into town – around the marina – Palavas had a canal smack through the middle of it – so you could drive ya boat up the main street almost and park it, get out and go to lunch at the many restaurants lining both sides of the canal.
We spotted the mini skytower and made a beeline for it, we paid our two euros each and zoomed up the see through glass lift around 120 feet up (7 storeys) where of course 360 degrees around – unfortunately for Briar but luckily for the budget the restaurant was closed or under going new management or direction we were told. They had headphones in English at various spots around the circular tower which described the various views , areas and info. on the local town, culture etc.etc.
Being a spectacularly sunny and clear day – the views were for miles and miles in all directions. We spent a good half hour learning about Palavas Les Flots (where we found out about ponds being called Flots in French) the protected flora /fauna the wildlife – and the eelponds – a local specialty in the restaurants – bloody French eat almost anything like kiwis. The local fisherman also are a big part of the local culture- they also park their boats up the main canal – and peddle their catch each morning – at the permanently set up stalls on the canal, we arrived a bit late too see all that, a shame really.
After much persuasion or niggling from Briar we stopped at a Restaurant called Nexxt ( looked parisienne chic) and the Platos de jour (plates of the day) looked rather apetising and value for money- I should mention we had nothing really to eat for lunch. So we sat down on an outside/courtyard tableau and ordered the set menu of the day and began our first leisurely French dining experience. The ambience/ service and later food was excellent and we both really enjoyed the experience – probably our best meal out experience so far. When it comes to eating out – the French are worlds apart from everyone else…it is a beautiful thing. The entrée/ main course and desert were all really tasty and very well presented, the service was also impeccable compared to previous dining experiences in Esphana and Portugal. We had a couple of iced teas with a peach flavour – very refreshing, water and a couple of coffees to finish all for $40 euros.
I even left a $2.00 euro tip , I was that impressed – last of the big tippers. As we waddled away I was thinking the waiting staff were saying bloody cheap tourists.
Hey I’m on a budget don’t ya know. Had a slow waddle back to Hugo along another canal which ran along the back of the aire de stationment. We siested most off the rest of the afternoon – but ventured out later that evening for a sunset treddle along the beach front promenade. We had a very lite and late dinner – a DVD and into lala land. We awoke to a different morning – it was windy and cloudy and decidedly cooler, raced down to the shower block – 3 x S’s – some brekkie and raced down to the hotel to use Wifi again before the ominous looking rain clouds approaching. We got about half an hour before it started spittin. We packed up the lappies quickly headed back to Hugo - packed up the bikes and Hugo ready for the next bon voyage.
We left Palavas Les Flots in showery weather –headed up the coast about 25 k’s to another aire de stationment – but the local council had closed it until beginning May.
So hit the trail – heading for Saint Marie Le Mer – another coastal town in a national parque area south of Nimes – we had to travel through flat marsh / swamp land called the Camargue region – which is a bit like Argentinian or Spanish caballero country. White ponies every where on farms. The Saint Marie Le Mer town had right on the promenade next to the tourist office and centro area a torro del arena – lotsa horsemanship stuff. We did notice that all the horses on the advertising posters , in the postcards and in the countryside fields we drove past were 98 % white. As you would expect there is a lot of beef around and predominately features on most of the restaurant menus but still bloody expensive.
Beef and lamb are way expensive – a good 200gm piece of scotch fillet 9 entrecot its called over here – seems through most of Europe so far) – would be around $4.00 euros – about $17-18 a kilo – on the current exchange rate that’s about $44.00 NZ dollars a kilo. So we have steak only on special occasions, the lamb seems to be a little cheaper – and frozen NZ lamb is slightly cheaper again – the local lamb both in Portugal/Spain and France so far tastes a lot different from NZ lamb, just doesn’t measure up I’m afraid at all to ours. We stopped in at an Intermarche supermarket store to replenish supplies and headed the remaining 23 k’s out to Saint marie Le Mer- with Hugo being buffeted all thwe way out by a very stiff South-easterley, which by the way blew most of the night as well – and typically didn’t give up till we left the next morning. We literally blew into Saint Marie Le Mer – once again a deserted seaside resort town – there were a few locals, people and tourists around – but once again this place no doubt would pump in summer. We pulled into the Aire De stationment if ya could call it that. More like just a car park with a dump and water station really – no chemical toilet disposal or electricity hook up like the book said. Ya just can’t tell until ya get their sometimes. We settled in with around 5 campers at that time- there was however space for about 14/15 campervans only.
We headed off for a windblown reconoiture of the local seaside village of Saint Marie Le Mer – but suprising to find quite a few tourist type shops down the usual narrow lanes in the centre of town trading – god knows who too. There were a couple of idiots like us wandering around on an angle seeing the sights. We checked the local Caballero arena and tourist info. centre out- see if anything else in the local area worth seeing.
Got blown all the way back down the promenade – luckily it was a tail wind goin home – been away for an hour ½ and 2/3 more campers there by then – and by around 6pm the car park was full with about 14 campers. Briar cooked up a yummy lamb chop dinner – with strawberries for desert. Bon apetito .
We woke with the sun beaming in but the wind was still there but certainly not like it was the previous day. We had finished brekkie and had just finished our showers around 8.45am – knock on the camper door – the local authority fee collector standing there wanting $8.00 euros outta us. Bloody cheek – considering the pitiful services they provided. – We had noticed our neighbours and a camper behind us also take off before 8.00am – now we know why – to avoid paying a stationment fee. I guess it was only $8.00 euros – not break the bank kinda stuff. We paid the man refilled Hugo with some water and dumped our grey water and drove of towards Avignon.
We decided to do a detour first to the Pont Du Gard - a Roman concrete water viaduct built in the in 50 AD. The drive through more of the Camargue region then past Nimes and finally into The Provence region and onto Pont Du Gard. We parked up in the parking lot - a few buses / campervans there already - $5.00 euro entrée / parking fee – not bad. Had to pass through yet another quaint little French village called Castillion Du Gard. The castle town overlooking the pont du gard – funny that
Had around a 10 minute walk out to see the viaduct in all its glory- man to think this was built almost two thousand years ago - unbelievable – an just to get water from a natural spring into the city centre of Nimes – where of course the romans had built a mini colloseum and several other cathedrals/buildings of significance way back then too. It took five years and a thousand men to build it – it was around 500 metres in length and rose above the riverbed it went over about 120 metres high. A very masterful piece of roman building skills – f…en amazing really.
We wandered around the viaduct in awe – took a couple pics only – as we are really on our last battery reserves before we pick up the new battery charger in a few days. – fingers crossed. The whole park and viaduct is another Unesco World heritage site – have quite a few of those here in France. Sauntered around abit more through the Jardins, back to Hugo for a cuppa and then hit the road for Avignon – yet another famous walled town – but this one was a little extra special, as it is also the only Papal city outside of the Vatican in Rome to have a Pope residing – during the mid 14th century.
The Palais De Papes was built in the 1340-s and took 20 years to complete – whilst two popes Benedict X11 and Clement V1 oversaw the construction of the gothic palace, the largest in Europe.
It also sits right on the Rhone river and our campground we were staying in was straight across from it – right next to the Pont Edouard Daladier bridge which also happened to be on the Barthelasse Island ( the largest river island in Europe 1700 acres) which the Rhone river runs down both sides of it. There is also the famous bridge Pont St-Benezet which has a poem written about it and only 4 of its 22 spans remain today – got a superb sunset pic with it all in – fantastique. We once again saundered around the Palais – the jardins which at the top give fantastique views ova the whole of Avignon – the barthelasse island (almost) the Villeneuve-les-avignon part of Avignon. We also visited the Musee Petit du Palais which had some outstanding Italian religious paintings by Boticelli/ Carpaccio and Giovanni De Paulo.
Mostly 12th century to 14th century stuff – shame about the borer on some of them had eaten away at the gold filigree paint on a few. Still interesting – I wonder what these artistes would have painted without Christianity and the crucification and rising of Christ. – fruit bowls or naked women perhaps ??? Still after a couple hours of saundering around we watched a bunch of breakdancers in the square and then headed to the plaza de horloge in the middle of the walled city – sat down at a café – a glass of rouge and rose and people watched as we sipped our wine.
Lotsa younger people about we noticed – it was around 5.30pm – still we finished our vins and spotted a creperie – Briar had been dying (ya know what I mean) to try one – so she got her wish – they make them fresh then and there in front of you – the batter is poured onto a special hotplate and then they use a special spreader knife to evenly spread the mixture evenly over the circular hotplate – once flipped on with the filling- everyone else has Chantilly chocolate or Nutella ( yes – that’s right Nutella)
Briar has the old alcohol – Grand Mariner and sugar one. Alchie !
I did manage to sneak a couple of bites - delicioso - no doubt will try another one of those some where. We then headed back to the camp – along the Rhone next to some of the luxurious tour canal cruise boats. Only one of the four parked was operating but very nice – a good way to see a country. Had a couple hours on the WIFI internet
In the camper – had some homemade pizza for tea and then the DVD and bedtime.
The usual morning routine but at a leisurely pace - we finally hit the road about 11pm – needed diesel and some food supplies – managed to do that on our way outta Avignon to our next destination. – Carpentras.
Have to really look around at Diesel/petrol prices – can differ from 0.93 to 1.07 euros per litre in France. We were heading to Carpentras to check out the Aire de stationment there for the following day Carpentras apparently shuts all the streets to (of course) the older part of town to have its weekly Friday market, I read somewhere one of the best in France . The aire de stationment in Carpentras wasn’t all that good – having only a couple parks on a busy street – and with a lot of dodgy characters around – the town streets were rather badly organised in my opinion – trafficwise – so we thought wed hightail it outta there – check out another aire de stationment in a nearby town – 12 km’s further up the mountain – Mt Ventoux – the Tour de France (cycle) race passes over this mountain- its around 2000m high. Malaucene a town at the base is around 600m high in altitude- still another quaint little French village with a decidedly quieter stationment with the same services as Carpentras and a few more campervans around – the old safety in numbers trick.
We decided this will do us for the night. – Freecamp night. Did the usual stroll and check out the town routine – around 3/4pm – shops shut for siesta time – once again another town with a small hilltop in the centre of town with panoramic views of the town and its surrounds - so up we trudged for a jack norhee.
Back to Hugo after jack via the old part and maze of alleys to Hugo- a tapas some computer mahjong and my turn to cook – honey/soy pork stir fry. The old one dish wonder – easy peasy. Hit the hay earlier than usual .
We awoke also earlier than usual – to a sunny warm(16) day – we were next to a mountain with snow on it – right at the very top. We packed up Huo after a cuppa – cleaned the toilet out – filled up with water and headed back into Carpentras – before one of those local authority chaps knocked on our door demanding $8.00 euros or something. Headed back down the mountain to Carpentras before checking out the Friday markets. Found a perfect spot at the aire de stationment to have a shower and some brekkie- on a busy street – so would deter thiefs while we were at the markets. Showered and breakfasted we hit the old streets of Carpentras and Market day.
Had spotted through a gate opening into the old part some vendors setting up trestles – so we headed there first – well that was the beginning and it went on and on weaving through the streets/lanes/plaza’s/squares even the carpark across from the old town part. All sorts of stuff for sale of course – but most of the locals were their for the food / veggies/fruit – meat/seafood/fresh cheese – the odd baguette /pan seller and other regional produce. Gotta say one thing about markets the food is always fresh and usually a lot cheaper than the supermarkets. After a couple hours of wandering – bought he odd veggie and some fruit – spent a grand total of around $5.00 euros we found a café – for an café et la and a sugar brioche bun (yum) - cafes in plazas are a great place to people watch.
Bags of goodies in hand we headed back to Hugo and hit the trail again . We both thoroughly enjoyed our first real market experience – has given us the taste for more.
We then made a beeline for a campground in Aix en Provence not only to boot Hugos leisure battery up - but it was close to Julie and Fritz’s for the following morning. Aix-en Provence supposedly chic – parisienne town –passing thru didn’t rock my boat – we found Camp Chantecler – got charged $23.00 euros – rip off
Will make sure I have 2 bloody showers at that price . Found a parcel for Hugo a couple plots down from some fellow Kiwi campers in a campervan .. We set Hugo up
For the night – plugged in etc – went and had me first shower whilst briar did some computer stuff. Then grabbed a couple chairs and botteliers of red and headed down a couple plots to have a couple with some fellow countryman/woman. After intros’
Jarod,Jasmine and 4 yr old Talia and some friends of theirs who also had just arrived that day Shaun and Emma – sat for an hour or two – exchanged travel stories – news about home – where ya headin to next – etc etc. Jasmine was around 7 months pregnant – but her and Jarod were doin a quick trip through Europe with around 10 days to go –had hired a campervan from a UK/Kiwi campervan firm. Good to chat with not only some english speaking people but bloody kiwis ta boot. It got dark to quick and it was getting colder so we headed back to hugo for dinner, DVD time and bedtime. We were both looking forward to meeting Cathy’s friends Julie / Fritz and family – yeeaayyy more kiwis, sought of (Fritz is of german decent) but spent many years living and working in NZ and hopefully pickin up some goodies . That’s all for this update as getting tired – will fill ya in about our stay with Julie and Fritz in Rognes next update – Au revoir/ bon journey for now.

Mid March Update 2009

Photo 1. Mark - Place de le Bourse palace in backround, Bordeaux
Photo 2. Briar & the rock cave houses of Les Eyzies De Tayac, Vezere Valley, France
Photo 3. Mark n Briar at the Millau Viaduct, Dordogne Valley, France
Photo 4. Briar in downtown Bordeaux, Aquitane region, France




Mid March Update 2009


Bonjour from Francais, Sunday the 15th.
The weather has not done as we would have liked , rather grey and gloomy, but it did clear up later on and we various patches of blue sky and soleil during the afternoon. We caught the autobous 142 from camp beausoleil to Perrioux Gare Estacion (train station in French) and caught an electric tram into Centro Bordeaux. Being a Sunday it was a lot quieter than normal, one would presume although the tram was pretty full by the time we reached our stop.
Well what a welcome relief to arrive into a city with some different architecture and typically French as well. Also most noticeable are the clean streets and lanes etc. etc ‘
Still have the usual dog shit everywhere but certainly no litter like Spain and Portugal.
The city is very well set out and orderly, not like the mishmash cities of Spain, generally most inner buildings are of 4 to 5 storeys high with the dormer windows in the roof at the top, parisienne style. There are also lotsa pedestrian accessways, alleys and streets weaving through the old town part of Bordeaux.
We firstly wandered along the Promenade of the La Gironne river which is basically the heart and soul of Bordeaux city and many houses/apartment buildings line the promenade with the odd palace and municipal buildings, museo. We hit the promenade at the right time as they were setting up their local Sunday morning food market, unfortunately we had eaten brekkie earlier and were not in the market for food but we sauntered through it just the same, there were many fresh seafood stalls, boucheries(butcher), the usual veggie, fromage – cheese, spectialist meat products, and fruit stalls also creperies , patisseries, various other stalls selling allsorts of interesting foods, as it was around 10.00am I think we were a little earlier compared to the locals, but got a great picture of their life choices…here or church...
We continued to wander through the old part of Bordeaux as we do checkin out the narrow streets and alleyways, past another church but service was happening so couldn’t peek in and have a look, but saw many women cycling and running to the service…late ..oops!
We hit the Jardin public (public garden in inglese) a quick pee beats MC’s usual bush trick) and set our sites on the Cathedral St. Andre , this particular cathedral is a Unesco world heritage site and one can see why when you come across it, whilst again we have seen many Cathedrals in our tour already they all never seem cease to amaze you, because they are all different and unique in their own way, this one was built in the 11th century, it is renowned for its elaborate masonry carvings (which are amazing) and certainly the most impressive window leadlights yet. There also seems to be more windows or light sources into the inside of the Cathedrals than what we saw in Spain and Portugal.
We then headed for the Musee Des Beaux Atrs which was libre (free) entrée and whilst no paintings of significant artists, well worth a looksie. By now the worms needed feeding so found a cute little corner French café and had quiche and salata for dejerner (lunch) a coffee ( not as good as Spain or Portugal) . We then visited the Place De La Bourse , a spectacular semi-round palace built in the opulent 17th century with its fountain in the centre. The usual pics and on we trudged again through more narrow streets and alleyways, we finally ended up at the Bordeaux jardin where they had a travelling carnival/fair with the usual Auckland Easter show attractions/rides…some scary stuuf there… etc.etc. There we also took a couple pics of a magnifique bronze statue neither of us can remember what it was called. We can’t find our Bordeaux map to know it but it was about freedom through revolution and unity.
We had both had enough of walkin so back on the tram and back out to camp Beausoleil. Anti-pasto / some dinner and tucked ourselves in bed for tomorrows travels.
We woke to a sunny and still day – yeaayy, perfect for travelling, the usual 3 x S’s (For him) some brekkie and hit the autovias. We had planned a pit stop in St. Emillion a landmark town in the centre of the premier Bordeaux wine growing region – of course. This town is also a Unesco world heritage site, you know when you see a picture in a glossy travel magazine or in a National geographic mag of how pretty a village can look, this was most certainly one of those pictures or villages, was absolutely quaint and both us have kicked ourselves for not getting a pic, but as we are on limited battery for the camera until end of the month before we get our new charger. Hey we walked around the quaint little town –visited the cathedral very impressive for such a small village, visited the local Maison du Vin (house of wine)
Which housed all the wines from the chateau’s/vineyard’s of the local St. Emillion Gru region, we splashed out on a bottle with a 2000 vintage - $ 11.80 euros our most expensive wine we have purchased yet. We then drove past vineyard after vineyard and grapevines after grapevines , with the odd Chateau thrown in for good measure, mostly small to medium chateaus by French standards.
We were heading for the Dordogne valley virtually tracking the Dordogne river, crossing it several times, we even stopped and had lunch lookin at it near Bergerac. Onwards we drove into the heart of the Vezere valley in the Perignord Noir region, the area is well known for its caves and remnants/drawings, artefacts some which date back over 50,000 years. (the region has been inhabited by man for 400,000 years…wha out) We stopped in a wee village called Les Eyzies de Tayac, which had a prehistoric museo and also several of the houses here are built into the rock, bloody amazing. Some are still inhabited today, bloody amazing. We camped at the local Aire de stationment for the night, no electicity at this one, had water/dump station and toilets , hey it was libre.
We had a quick reconnoitre of the town before headin back to Hugo for chena and a vino. Another quaint little village and once again very different from Spanish villages,
but they all still have a cathedral or church in the centre or most prominent position in the village or town. (and the bell tolls all through the night) These houses or maisons (in france) are without a doubt the most ornate and lavish buildings in the towns and certainly the interiors are dripping with ornamental artefacts and decoration, and we all thought that Churches were places of humility, a very different perspective on what I thought Christianity was about.
Some of the Cathedrals and churches I have visited have been dripping with gold artefacts and treasures. Ya get my point of view perhaps.
We were off to the Natioanl Prehistoric Musee inda morning so a few games of computer hearts and off ta lala land. Woke to a semi alright morning , certainly a few degrees cooler then yesterday. The usual routine 3x S’s, (MC of course again), brekkie, pack up Hugo for travel and on the road again. We parked in the middle of town for safety reasons ( amazing how cautious one becomes when one has been broken into ) and trekked up the hill or rockface to the museo. Got to the entrée … BUGGER musee closed on Tuesday’s – oh no not one of these day’s. We had even checked the hours out the previous arvo but failed to look at another notice. Ah well…laughed at ourselves…and onto our next gig – a 20k drive to the Laucraux Caves where there were cave drawings 18,000 years old and some of the best preserved drawings in the region. We parked Hugo and managed to tag onto a guided tour with a bunch of school kids around 8/9 years old obviously doing a field trip. While the guide and tour was good it was however all in French, hey we don,t speak French on guided tours in NZ do we ?? it was disappointing in that we thought there were many more caves and crevasses to explore, there was only three, at $8.50 euros each …not what I would call value for money. Hey we can at least say we have both stood in caves nearly 20,000 years old. (and Briar had never stood in one before anyway so way to start huh) Can’t do that in NZ.
The plan for the rest of the day was to drive around and visit several of the villages in the local area, several have been voted the prettiest villages in France. So from Montignac (Laucraux caves) we headed south towards Sarlat , then onto Domme, which was a hillside or more like clifftop town which had commanding views over Perignord valleys, quaint town maybe, pretty - yeah right. Stopped by the Dordogne river for lunch again. Then onto La Roque Gageac a village literally built into the rock face, still had a bloody church to. Quaint maybe, pretty – yeah right. Then onto Belves also another quaint maybe, pretty – yeah right village. Perhaps they would look pretty with the sun shining on them in the middle of summer. Each to their own as the saying goes.
Still the region and the villages are a vast and certainly welcoming contrast to what we saw in both Spain and Portugal. Briar was even making suggesttions that Sarlat would be a nice place to live. Bugger that girlfriend…huh??
We tracked back to another quaint little village St. Cyprien to stop for the night at another Aire de stationment, which had power(220v/water/dump station etc. all for a $3 euro token purchased from the local Tourismo Office. Bargain
There was room for ten campers and we were the second and awoke to find only 2 spaces left, a few arrivals during the night, most aire de stationments are relatively empty until around 6/7 pm and then everyone arrives after the days travels.
Still we managed to get some shut eye with the sound of the bloody church bell ringin on the hour throughout most of the bloody night, this particular stationment happened to be right in the middle of town near the church of course. We had some wild geese honking in flocks flying north for the summer overhead as the sun was setting and thrown in for good measure the odd jet fighter plane skoot across, I could tell this was gonna be a sleepless nuit. Managed a wee bit of shut eye, bloody Briar slept like a log,
must be a women thing. ( Yeah, nah, …I can sleep anywhere at anytime)
Another morning, usual routine, Briar volunteering to drive today after a refreshing night’s sleep and bein one not to argue or complain , hey girl no problemo, hit the trail early after refuelling Hugo with water/dumping some greywater and emptying the Thetford Casette toilet, nifty little contraption or device and makes us reasonably self dependant for several days. Left the grey dull skies of St. Cyprien and the Dordogne Valley for quite a travel stint today towards the Langedouc-Rousillion region where the tallest viaduct in the world known as the Millau viaduct is, around 200 k’s on the tarseal today. Because we had made such an early start for a change we made a beeline straight for Millau town with some interesting roads and diversions via (ma cherie- TOM TOM) still it gives ya a real look at the French countryside through this particular region , hhmmm the smell of sileage and cows , kinda reminds ya of home. Except of course it is still to cold for the cows to be in the fields , the sods are still inside in their winter sheds. Just the hay and their own excrement is spread out over the fields permeating wondrous odours as one navigates through the fields. We arrived at Millau around 1pm in sunshine and blue skies with a wee bit of cloud around and drove into the centre of town to the tourismo office to find where the local aire de stationment was (through narrow streets and under skinny arches I might add) and a map and info. on the town and local area. We were also here for the Roquefort cheese. Info in hand we headed out to sit under the viaduct for lunch and we found a great spot directly underneath next to a Visitors centre. A few pics , a ham and salad baguette a cuppa and a bit of a look around the visitors centre and then we headed of to a spot right next to the viaduct at the top this time to look over it. Once again parked up the obligatory pics, another big tick for both of us. Briar was the lucky one to drive over it , I just got to hand over $9.60 euros to the lady at the peage (toll) booth.
After driving over it we headed to a camp ground for a change in another quaint little village called Saint Rome De Tarn which of course would have to be next to the Tarn river. This campground was right down in a valley and happened to be the only one open in the area close to where we wanted to visit the next day. The Caves of the Roquefort cheese.
Once again we bunkered down for the night – anti-pasto and local lamb for chena. We awoke to the fog but alas brilliant blue skies above. The usual routine , with one change – bacon and eggs for brekkie – yummy ( amazing the small things in life one appreciates when one has them occasionally) . On the trail again, my turn to drive today after I had dormido bene (good nights sleep) off to Roquefort. We stopped by the Info. centre where they also had a Aire-de staionment we could have stopped for the night. We parked Hugo up where he stood and walked up the hill to the caves , around 2 k’s later (uphill) we found the Entrée to the Societe caves. Once again a token $3 euro guided tour fee , we were in. Joined another pommie couple for a very personal tour with a very pregnant but eloquent mademoiselle guide, who spoke reasonable English for us all, even though this was the French speaking tour. But hey she was the only one used to speaking French most of the time so she made a valiant effort on our behalf which made it a lot more enjoyable for us, because we understood it all. The caves in essence were formed during an earthquake/movement many thousands of years ago, since the discovery of these caves which have natural fissures allowing ventilation throughout, which is paramount in the process of making Roquefort cheese. (There is a special legend about the shepherd and Briar got her photo with him on the way in) The pioneers of the Roquefort cheese built labrinthys and levels of storage areas ( 11 storeys deep in some parts) bloody amazing, and for both of us were far more fascinating than the drawings of the Laucraux caves. The guided tour included a talk/film/light show/tour through the caves and degustation (cheese tasting at the end) there are three predominate flavours of Roquefort, all with there own undeniable flavour. Also the milk used in processing Roquefort is from ewes not cows, it is also a blue vein cheese and is injected with pencillin made on site with the fungus formed in the bread specially made and injected into the cheese before it is stored in the caves.
We had previously bought a wedge of Roquefort from a supermarket earlier in the week in France, of course, it had been consumed by now, so after a tres bien tour we bought another bigger wedge and good value for money wedge. After our tour we hit the autovia …a proper autovia – and headed south towards the Mediterrano second time round. We headed through Beziers and Perpignan and stopped for chena at a seaside town called Valras Plage , lunch by the Mediterrano/ warm sun shining – brilliant. (ahhh yes…the sun and warmth again)
Very much like El Campello – long long promenade on a sandy beach. After a leisurely lunch of jamon and fromage toasted sandes we headed for a small French coastal town called Collioure, its around 10-15 k’s from the Esphana border.
We punched in the co-ordinates in our trusty mon cherie(tom tom) and headed through some precarious swampy backroads and then through some dirt backroads and unchartered towns (that didn’t even appear on our map…and certainly didn’t concur with Briar’s navigation plans!) and roads before we finally arrived onto a main road outside Narbonne. (thanks to some human intervention)
Back on the main drag it was plain sailing all the way to the turn off to Collioure, once again into the middle of town to the tourismo officina , parked up at a recognised campervan stop and headed for the tourist office. Picked up some info. and directions on the local aire de stationment. If the other villages were quaint, then this little town was divinely quaint and pretty ta boot. Had a quick scoot around the small port area , complete with churches, fort, restaurant and café’s up back to Hugo and of ta search for some supplies for chena and check out the aire de stationment. The aire de stationment was a wee bit out of town on a hill but no vistas of the mediterrane but vistas of the surrounding hills covered in grapevines and castle to boot. There were about 4 campers there parked up so we headed off to get some supplies and head back there unless we found somewhere more suitable down near the sandy plages. Drove around the plages for half an hour without Mon cherie guiding us, so blind leading the blind ended up god knows where but couldn’t find a supermercado, picked up some pan (baguette) at least and headed rather frustratingly back to the aire de stationment, we passed several shopping centres on the autovia on the way to Collioure earlier. (Broke our rule of shopping early and being good little prepared boyscouts) Still a good chance to try some canned goodies and pasta we had in reserve for occasions such as this. The aire de stationment had electricity so that was a bonus , it was a $7.50 token for 24 horas, cheaper than a campground. Parked up and plugged Hugo in and settled for the nite.
Tonight I don’t think we are gonna need the heater, it was nice to get back to a warmer climate. After some dinner and a DVD it was bedtime. Once again awoke to a crystal clear blue mediterrano sky – buenisimo you know the routine by now, filled Hugo up with some water , dumped the grey water as the greywater tank was full from showers, on the road into Espana. Once again Briar offered to drive and once again I said OK, no problemo. We decided to go the coast road as opposed to the main Autovia, took a bit longer but we had no plane to catch and the vistas are magnifique. The pyrenness were spectacular once again and we have now circumnavigated them – fantastique!
Had to head inland a bit before we hit Barcelona, no problemo back out to the coast to check out campgrounds near the playa and also on either a bus route or train estacio within walking distance from a campground. This former single lane former main highway is probably busier than when it was in its heyday, made it difficult to stop and check out campgrounds. There are only a few open anyways and they were all close to this busy highway. We stopped along the oceanfront somewhere for our second feed of mackas – twice in the same month- unheard of for me. Unfortunately for Briar they put tomato sauce on her favoured fillet-o-fish burger, so not impressed.
Still we ate in the sunshine outside looking at mediterrano, had a real haze like the doldrums we experienced in Baiona in late February. Still the worms feed back into Hugo and lets check out some more campgrounds south of Barcelona. Hit the main C-32 autovia into Barcelona, which also head south towards the playas of Castedefrells and Sitges , but somewhere along the way we took you guessed it a wrong turn/route and ended up smack in the middle of downtown Barcelona, not that it phased a very composed Briar behind the wheel, I was the one panicking not Briar. (six lanes of cars headed along streets all wanting my driving space…haven’t they heard of Kiwi women drivers!!) Still with some kiwi ingenuity and intuition we lucked our way outta there and found ourselves on the autovia south of Barcelona . We took the exit before the peage tolls to our destination thinking we won’t have ta pay, now I know why, after a very precipitous drive around a very narrow coastal road 100metres or so above the sea (and MC didn’t even panic…my record at the end… I let 18 cars go ahead as I pulled over…thank god because of the corners I could only ever see the first two and thought it was a quiet road!! Don’t ya love BLONDE!), shades of things to come for our drive around the Almafi coast in Italy we are told …we arrived in Sitges, found a supermarket store, a very well equipped campground with Wifi , where the bus to Barcelona stops at the Gate, tres bien. Very good washroom facilities, has its own café/cervecia, we checked in and set up Hugo for a weeks stay.
Being a Friday nite we had the obligatory anti-pasto and vino starter before dinner. Whilst the odd train (electric thank goodness) comes past around 700/800meters away I cannot hear a bloody church bell ringin . ah… bliss. (heeey…dogs barking…no problemo…they are everywhere…and cats in the camp…well Briar can deal with them…)
We awoke to another splendid mediteranno morning – not a cloud in the sky. Camp day today – washing … give Hugo’s floor a mop - air out the mattress and sheets and catch up with some storytelling of the past weeks travels.
We will head into Barcelona on Monday/Tuesday and do the touristy thing and cross off another couple of ticks with visiting Sagrida Familia (Church of the Sacred Family- started in 1882 and due for completion ion 2020) and walk down Las Ramblas and check out the famed tapas bars. Tomorrow we will get the bicyclettas of the back of Hugo and check out the local town of Stiges. Will add some pics and more stories at the end of next week before we hit the trail and I post this update on the blogsite.

Early March Update 2009

Photo 1 MC holding up the Guggenheim museo
Photo 2 MC at Sagres, Cape San Vicente behind me
Photo 3 Briar - comida time at cafe in Lagos
Photo 4 Tapas time on the apartment rooftop- Fuseta
Photo 5 MC - at a local Urinol Castelo San Jorge - Lisboa
Photo 6 Briar lunching at Esteria lookin at the Atlantic
Photo 7 Briar on the Ribiera river wall at Porto
Photo 8 MC and Briar at the top of Nazare playa
Photo 9 MC and Briar at the Bibao Guggenheim Museo
Photo 10 Briar at marina in Orio town/playa
Photo 11 MC doin the haka - backstreets of Santiago De Compsotella
Photo 12 MC and Briar - Baiona bay in backround




Early March Update 2009


Left Porto on a sunny, warm day 19 degree day, hit the Autovia heading towards the Galicia costa , we hit the Portuguese-Esphana border around 11.00am.
The countryside is certainly a lot greener the further North we venture , but there are still a shit load of gum trees around , as well as lotsa conifers now. The Galician coast is very picturesque , a wee bit like the Bay of Islands, upper northland areas , surprises around every corner. Rocky headlands with sanby breach coves between the headlands. We hit a supermercado in Vigo somewhere to restock and decided to head to a camping ground at Baiona around the coastline. The pictures and write up in the camping ground book looked really good and when we finally arrived at the campground it really was superb the pics in the mag did not do justice. The campground is set on its own little sandy peninsula with estuary one side and harbour/sea the other. We even took pictures of our view from the camper. We were stopping for a night and ended up staying treiz noches, while the facilities were OK- nothing to rave about , the location and vistas surely made up for anything else. We settled in , set up camp, caught up with a load of washing got the table out of the back of Hugo, got a couple of fold up chairs out, prepare the obligatory anti-pasta plate and set down with the vino tinto and watched the sun go down feeling rather smug with ourselves, for finding such a spot. The other great thing was we only had to share the entire campground with three other campervans and a couple of familias stayin in the bungalows down the other end. After dinner and watchin a DVD it was time to hit the hay to chimes of the local church bell across the estuary still chimin at 11.00pm at night , GOD knows what that’s about (scuse the pun). It even starts ringing around 6.00am in the morning. Still we both slept thru the 6.00am chiming, nothing ta do with the couple botteliers of vino consumed the previous evening of course. Woke to another sunny, warm 19 degree day after desayuno (brekkie) and showers, washing up etc.etc , pulled the mattress and bedding out for a good airing, we thought we’d toodle of down around the bay on our bicyclettas and check out a forta-leza right out at the point and the centro urbano of Baiona, there was cycle and pedestrian ways along the front of the beaches/promenades most of the way around.
No breeze, no hills, no worries, both had shorts on .. yeeayy, comprenday. We stopped a copule of times to do the touristy piccies across the bays shot … we had spotted a forta-leza on a headland the preceding evening while watchin the sun set, lets check it out. Paid the euro each it cost – locked the bikes up next to the entry office and proceeded thru the gates , I spotted a set of stairs which led us up to the top of the fort wall(which went around the entire circumference of the complex. While we casually walked around the top of the wall it did take us around 40 mins. There were views around the whole bay / harbours/ views for miles in each direction and around 60-70 metres above the coastline etc. you can see why they built fortresses like this in these positions. This fortress was built in the 14 th century and had bits added to it in the 18th century. It has some maritime significance as there was an anchor belonging to the Pinta which had limped back into this bay with news of Christopher Columbus’es discovery of America, hence the next bay around the corner from Baiona, ironically is called Americas Playa. After we had ridden around town out to another headland we bikied around to Americas playa or bay (more pics) stopped for the obligatory café con leche (no postres) at the far end and cycled back to base camp. Spent the rest of the arvo in the camp office doing Wifi ( internet stuff) then back to Hugo for another tapas con vino evening watchin the sunset, man I could get used to this. Up the next day fro another bike adventure, had a bit of post to send , so back into Baiona, afterwards strolled around the old part of town, still amazes you even after you’ve seen it time and time again. Stopped at a café for lunch in a charming little praca (plaza) – both had the Platos del dia (menu of the day) 10.00 euros each for a 3 course meal plus a vino. Bargain or wot.- we thought so and it was . whilst the food wasn’t exceptional it was tasty and good value for money and yes I did choose the seafood dish when in Baiona do as the locals do. Once again back on the bikes to work of some comida (lunch) and back to camp again for a siesta , well Briar did. I managed to do an update which I posted on the blog , no pics as it was taking to long to download, not sure why – maybe the wireless connection. Both had showers and then treddled back into Baiona for Chena (dinner) at a local seafood restaurant Briar had spotted that day and had booked a mesa (table) for tonite. As it happened we were their only customers for the night and had the pic of the tables on the second level , so had the best table with of course the vistas of the whole bay , the marina and across to Americas playa directly across. We both had an excellent meal , had good service from a Portuguese waiter who spoke very good inglese (English for u dummies) .
Both had the sole (fish) for a main a couple of entrees , a couple of beers , a bottlier of vino ( Faustina 2006- one of my favourites so far) – 105 euros later- whoops won,t be doin that to often. Hey ya only live once don’t ya. Still it was a rather sedate treddle home to Hugo that nite. Awoke to the birds singing again the sun shining the usual threes S’s – as me old mate OX would say Shit – Shower – Shave a good fresh fruit brekkie – packed up Hugo sadly waved adios to baiona and we hit the road. We arrived in Santiago De Compostella, we were told it was a compulsory stop to check out the cathedral. We saudered thru the streets , back streets etc.etc found a spot to park and had a 15 min. walk up the hill to the cathedral. It was a very very warm 20 degrees today, and I wished I had worn me shorts. Whilst we have seen several cathedrals already time and time again – I know I’m repeating myself again. The fasade of this Cathedral was the most impressive so far. It sits in a Praca , probably big enough to hold 3 or 4 thousand pilgrims at a time for an outside service. It was built in the 14th century – how they did it G.d knows, still it did take 80 years to complete – hey yo not surprised. The inside wasn’t quite as impressive as the fasade but none the less , the suspended twin organs fascinated Briar, who took a couple of pics even though the sign said no photographia, everyone else was so why not us. The security guard couldn’t cared less. Wandered through some more of those amazing alleyways , lanes, streets – yes through the old part… we counted 41 restaurants down on lane about 200metres long, they all proudly display the seafood , meat, game etc.etc in fridges in their front windows , so you can see wot ya paying for. I tell ya some of the T bone steaks were calling to me – eat me eat me. Hytailed it outta there before my stomach overtook me senses. Back to Hugo, stopped at local supermercado for some dinner supplies and of to the local and only campground actually in the town and open that time of year. The Santiago De Compostella Cathedral does house the original ashes(Urn) of the Apostle – San Antonio of which pilgrimages over the centuries have come to worship and bless and be blessed I guess by. There is a special place at the back of the Altar where you can touch the urn, it was closed when we were visiting, bloody siestas. The campground had excellent showers , best so far- strange why one remembers such things. Still both slept well as we had a rather early nite for us the usual three S’s and brekkie and as Willie Nelson would say on the road again. Briar slept so well she decided she would drive today , I didn’t mind it gives me a chance to see some countryside, we headed northwards towards the Costa verde or the Asturias part of Esphana , so much for me seeing some countryside , it was foggy almost the entire trip to Cape Saint Vicente which was a bit further than we intended to travel, but it was a crappy day so might as well be in a van tarvelling we figured. We did stop for comida at a town just of the highway called Villaviciosa which was a hard case as we also visted a Villiaviciosa in southern spain as well. Our first camp destination no longer existed, it was now a garden centre , so a bit further around the coast we found a campground right on the playa , even had a short nine hole golf course next door- ( 35 euros – green fees and clubs) . They put across the road int the campervan part of the campground – of course we were the only ones there. So had a somewhat picturesque view out of Hugo’s window at the Atlantic once again, a wee bit rougher this time however, still battened down the hatches, had the heater goin , whipped up a paella for chena – delicioso. Couple games of laptop
Games – Hearts mostly and of to bed. Well it blew quite a bit during the nite but we survived that and the fria ( cold) showers the next morning, still we were on a mission today to see the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao ( one of briars ticks) and we gonner see it clean at least. As we were only about 40k’s from Bilbao where the Guggenheim museo is it didn’t take long for us to get there and we found a park reasonably close to the museum, down by river side promenade, there were lotsa people strolling along the promenade , being a Sunday arvo and as the museum is intergrated into the river. Locked Hugo up and headed for a few hours of bedazzlement of not just the modern contemporary art inside the museo but marvel at the museo structure itself.
In the flesh it is the most architecturally radical building I have ever seen, and from every angle the building unfolds with something different, even the exterior titanium surface is astounding and the curves of the entire building are magnifique. There really isn’t a straight wall or surface in the entire building – both outside and inside which is even more astounding, yes the interior was also mind boggling and the central atrium is out this world. They gave you digital talking guides on entrada , which gave you commentary of not just the art in the museo but also about the artists and Architect Frank Gehry who designed the museo and his inspiration/story for the shape, structure, building, building products used, etc etc. As an architectural designer this is as good as it gets . There were a couple of temporary exhibits on – as well as the usual permanent exhibitions , me mum never got here to see this museo, she would have enjoyed its space I’m sure. One exhibition on was by a Japanese artist, another was by a American sculpture artist , a French sculpture artist and an American neon artist , all fascinating displays in their own right. Unfortunately one entire floor of permanent exhibits were closed for some reason, hence the reduced entry price.
Well after a couple of hours of marvelling we headed back outside to marvel some more at the other side of the museo to snap some more pics. Even wandered across a footbridge to the other side of the river to take some pics. Got some good ones from there of the museo in its entireity. We wandered further up the river to the next bridge to head back to Hugo as it was getting on and we hadn’t found a place to settle in for what we thought was gonna be a crappy night, little did we realise just how crappy.
I was unlocking the drivers door to Hugo but ended up locking – strange , so unlocked it and climbed through the drivers cab to the back ta let Briar in and, HULLO the inside of the van had been turned inside out – OH NO – weve been robbed. Let Briar in who was now upset , they had gone through all the cupboards, and a few bags . It had been obviously a quick thrash through our stuff, and while they new exactly what to look for, or so we thought. Anyhow the short of it, this does and can happen when travelling through Europa. We are still a wee bit green perhaps in how to lock up and choices of where to park. They took 3 Katmandu jackets, a hooded sweaty, a pair of Nike trainers,several bottles of briars perfume, me bone carving, a few small items from Briars purse, me laptop adaptor and power pack, the camera recharger, our mobile phone and me jar of lollies. We think it had to be girls, as it was mostly girlie stuff taken. So had to quickly pack everything away, do a quick check as to what was taken, try to console briar who was upset and with very good reason, I decided with what they had stolen it wasn’t worth going to the local Policia. Hugo was OK nothing broken and we had most of the really important hard to replace stuff in the safe. So with a bad taste in the mouth we headed out to the coast to find a campground to stay the night, the weather was also starting to pack it in, not the most welcoming start to the basque countryside. We found a place in Mundaka , right on a rivermouth/estuary
However it was on a hillside and access through the camp was very steep on the at least tarsealed road, we were right down the bottom in a valley and once again by ourselves. Still set up camp for the night, by this stage had not shopped for several days and the supplies were a little short. Fortunately the camp had a restaurant come diner that was open so we heade up there after a hot shower to raise our spirits a bit.
The food was good and cheap – whole roast chicken, chips and pan(bread - bagette)
A bottle of red house vino – all for 20 euros. Managed to contact Amy on the camp phone to get some info. and use Wifi (internet) to sought out some cancellations and check ups. etc etc – things one has to do after being robbed. Still we bunkered in for what turned out to be a rough night, don’t think it stopped blowing or raining all night,
Being in a valley we were protected from the wind but not the rain. Briar even thought we were going to be swept away out to sea at one stage, it certainly did not help either her or me sleep all that well. We awoke to grey skies and rain, had some brekkie and then parked the van as close to the amenities block as possible, so did not have to run to far. After another hot shower we packed up a wet Hugo and tackled the
Steep climb up outta there, a bit of initial skidding, good old Hugo got us outta there and we were on our way again, after we both had a bad nights sleep, we were just glad to be on the road away from the previous days drama. We had planned to stop in Sans Sebastion for a look around but parking was rather difficult , we drove around the waterfront and did manage to find a park right outside a policia estaction, which put us both at ease. We had to get some deneiro out and jump on the internet to do some more stuff ones does after being robbed – bloody hassle. Still that done it poured down of course just as we were heading back to Hugo and of course we didn’t have our umbrellas with us. Back at Hugo drippin wet we put a pot of soup on and ate.
We then hit the road to a town we had spotted on the way into Sans Sebastion to check the local campground, we also had ta do a restock of groceries and we had also spotted a Eroski Mercado, so back we travelled. The weather was staring to clear a bit, no blue skies, but patches in the distance . Did our shop and headed out to Camping Zarautz, which happened to be about 5k’s out of town and right on top of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. No thanks – we shot around the corner to another campground in a little fishing village called Orio- which happened to have a campground just opening for the new season. It was right down near the Playa (Beach), the office attendant spoke good inglese and we both had good vibes about the place and we were there very first customers for the year. Once again hunkered in for the night, had a quick wander down to the beach ta hav a look. Dinner and we both crashed quite early. The sun woke us the next morning around nine or so , both headed for the showers but alas no agua caliente ( hot water) so a rather quick fria (cold) shower back for some desayuno (brekkie) and then into some laundry, as we had both accumulated a fair bit and even washed the sheets. After lunch we wandered about a km into town to check it out. Came across a men & womens adventure clothing shop, perfect for Briar to replace a couple of items and make her feel good for herself again, she found some nice Rip Curl walkers and a Spanish sports weatherproof jacket which were both 35 % off as well . good times. I went back two later and also bought me a jacket to replace the one I had stolen as well. A bit more wandering through town – picked up some fresh pan , back to hugo for the rest of the day, did some internet stuuf across the road at a nice Hotel over a couple of cervecas (beers). Back for chena, also noticed another campervan had slotted in not to far from us with an Aussie flag in the window. Packed the fresh dry laundry away , made up the bed with fresh sheets – yum. Cooked up a piece of Galician steak we had bought from a local carneceria (butcher) – absolutely delicioso – as one would expect when one can only afford it once every 3rd or 4th week. Still both slept well once again, but unfortunately woke to the sound of rain beating on Huog’s roof. Our fellow aussie campers – had enough of cold showers, packed up and headed off. We also tossed a coin but decided to have one more night. It was pretty fell for driving anyhows, we managed to do some more internet stuff at the hotel again which was great. After two days of cold showers it was a real welcome to discover they had managed to get the boiler going at last, they had some problems with air through the lines. So of course we both raced for the showers and took extra long ones ta boot. So after another hearty steak chena again we hit the hay earliesh. Woke to a cloudy day, but at least there was no rain, but it had rained very heavily and blown a gale during the night
And we still had agua caliente for a duchas (shower) . So after the 3 x S’s some desayuno we packed up Hugo and were France bound. The camp staff were very apologetic about the amenties they only charged us for one night… Good times
We rather enjoyed Orio almost as much as Baiona, but France was beckoning and we wanted to get the Basque country behind us. We hit the Autovia after a meandering back road drive along a rather filthy river both from the recent torrential rain and littered with rubbish stuck all through the trees. Hit Biarritz around 11.00am went down to the beachfront and took a photo of the massive seas , no surfers out but some f…en mad old german with flippers on body surfin in a sought of a bay. There were many exquisite looking womens clothing and apparel shops we had to pass to get to the playa or as in France le Plage, so I made up some excuse that we couldn’t turn around and hytailed it outta there. We then did a breeze through Bayonne as well past the Cathedral with its two towers towering above the town and of north towards Mimizan Plage on the coast road towards Bordeaux. We did stop at a Carrefours shopping plaza to restock the cupboards and fridge , and a real bonus found a universal adaptor/power pack for me lappie, so can recharge me baby… yeahh.. amp’d for sure. . Carrefours are hypermarket stores with just about everything ya need and are apparently right through Europe. We passed forest after forest of conifers of a young age , tall spindly pines not like back home, they had all been pruned though about three quarters the way up. You could tell which direction the predominant westward wind came from by the angle of the pines, and we thought we had it rough down Baiona, Mundaka with the weather , it appeared these guys got it worse , there were hundreds if not thousands of trees that had been snapped half way up their trunks by the force of the winds or blizzards, amazing as we drove through some fo the back roads to get to Mimizan plage they were still clearing trunks and debris off the roads. Mother Nature is as powerful as she is pleasant. We stopped at a cute little French village to stock up on some goodies , spotted a market bought some fresh veggies, then headed toward Mimizan plage , found the tourist centre , got a map and found out where the Aire De Stationment we were looking for and made a beeline for there. In France they have Aire De Stationments all over France – a lot of towns provide them for campervanners etc. to use free of charge – majority of them , so that you visit their town and spend deneiros in their towns. Some have electricity and some don’t, but they generally have Potable water/ Chemical Toilet facilities and greywater disposal pits. So who needs campgrounds , they cost nothing and generally there are a lot of fellow campers there , so it is always safe with plenty of campers about, some just sit there for weeks on end Ten minutes later we pulled into the stationment there was a parking space for about 60 campervans , with a toilet block , a separate chemical toilet and portable water supply station and free electricity boxes to plug into and the plage(beach) was just over the sand hill … good times
The winds were still blustering spasmodically so – pulled up to a spot I thought was rather well shielded by 10 or so other campers in a row – might as well use them as windbreaks… as we were backing in we spotted and waved to our Aussie campers who we had shared the Orio campground with a day or so earlier. .. Good times some English speaking neighbours for a change… well as I was setting up camp introduced meself to them and of course invited briar and I over for a vino after Chena. After chena we met Eddie and Carol who were from Melbourne and have been travelling through Europa for 11 months to date – they are heading back through France via Paris to Scotland, to their daughters – will put the camper on the internet for sale and head back to Australia in a couple of months. We chatted for hours and got lotsa useful info. and tips on all soughts of things, we also heard a few of their stories and boo boos . yeayhh where not the only ones.. They gave us some novels to read and camping guide books for Greece and some maps etc…. we let them get to bed around midnight….good times. We hit the sack and woke to a sunny morning .. only had 2 x S’s this morning not elaborating on the one I missed out on . Still these campers are pretty self sufficient, briar even had a shower once the boiler had warmed the water up for her. After brekkie we packed up Hugo and hit the trail along with our new aussie best mates who were heading toward Bordeaux also but via a different path.
We only had a short journey really and got away a bit later than intended , still we followed the coast road until we found supposedly the biggest sandhill in Europe at the Pyla-s-Mer plage they even had a tourist park for buses, campers and cars, good toilet amenities and even little tourist shops on the trek towards the big sandhill. Even though it was a beaut day the wind was a wee bit fresh, trudging up a sandhill didn’t appeal to either of us and hey weve trudge up a few sandhills up 90 mile beach way I reckon were just as big … yeah right. We ducked in and ducked out just as quick and headed on into Arcachon a nice little seaside in the bay kinda place, where we had intended on freecamping another nite at another aire de stationment, but it was really close to a main road and you could only hook up to electricity for a couple of hours, so we headed further up the bay another 20k’s or so to Andernos Les Bains town and found a good aires down near the waters edge next to the local marina, we had no electricity for the nite , but that’s OK we can survive without power for 2/3 days without max. W set up camp before the usual entourage of campers pour in, none of them had electricity either. They did have a dual bay set-up where you could dump grey water fill ya tanks and also change ya chemical disposal toilets over. It was a Friday evening so we strolled down through the main streets to check it out, bad move wandered past some more of those exquisite womens clothing/apparel shops, must admit briar didn’t actually wander inside to too many of them, but she did check a couple out. The other thing around early evening time is once again families out wandering and stopping for crepes – with Chantilly chocolate mostly, the grand mariner ones sounded better to me. Called into a TAB come bar come café come tobacco/lotto souvenir shop, hardcase .. watched a horse race , we even each picked a no. (didn’t actually put any money on) just as well , our horses are still running. Easy stroll back to Hugo past a primary school for Briar, homemade pizza, garlic bread for chena with of course something to wash it down with, jus so happened to be red in colour and came out of a bottle that did have a cork in it once. A couple of laptop games of hearts and hit the sack, to the sound of drizzle hittin Hugo’s roof and when we woke up it was still doing the same. You know the drill by now 3 x S’s some desayuno , pack up Hugo and on the road again, this time we punched in Bordeaux on the tom-tom. Briar decided she would drive again, bein one not to argue- no problemo girlfriend. Did some drivin a couple of forested backroads – with asome more snapped off pines onto the autovia and into Bordeaux, decided the previous evening to stay at a campground, so we could catch a bus or train into Bordeaux centro, see we are learning, much safer to park the camper in a safe place and bus or train into the city centres. Bordeaux sits on the La Gironne river with the usual medieval heritage etc etc in fact it is a world Unesco heritage site, they have a couple of museo’s worth checkin out and also a vino museo, will pick up some info. on some of the chateau’s and vineyards in the local area, this is of course vino country, ya only have to look at the wine aisles in the supermercados. Booked into the Beausoleil campground approx. 12k’s to Bordeaux centro urbano , got the bikes of the back of Hugo and treddled a couple k’s to the local supermercado, pick up some carne and verdures for chena.
Back for some late comida – jamon et fromage toasted sandes – yummy.
They have Wifi internet almost for free so decided a good day to order a new battery charger for the camera ,catch up on some more emails etc.etc and will hit the City manyana (not how they say it French, haven’t learnt that one) will try posting a few pics . but no promises. Well look who just walked through the gates our new best Aussie mates , they have been in town for the day got here earlier this morning also.
They must think where following them or something. We were gonna go have another vino with them , but decided not to get in their face too much. Well all for now – Au revoir as they say in france’ .