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’ .