19th – 24th July
Hooray! The children are coming today and Joan and I are already at the site all set up and waiting. Having had a text from Andy to say they are off the ferry and on their way we reckon as it is only about 90 miles they will be with us in a couple of hours. 4 hours later we are beginning to become alarmed, where are they? It turns out that Andy has taken a slight detour/ taken the wrong turning, and is still about an hour away! But eventually they arrive and as all of you who have grandchildren will know, just bounced out of the car and hit the ground running, wow. So this is what it’s like living through a hurricane, exhausting but wonderful.
Right first job put up their new tent which has not been erected by them before because it is too big for their back garden, unless they want to put it over the flower beds. Fortunately Andy did have the instructions as I had never seen a tent this shape before. To be honest we never did quite get it perfect and Andy kept adjusting bits the entire time. Unfortunately it was immediately apparent that although the seller said it had only been used a couple of times it had not been looked after and had in fact been put away damp, plus a couple of fixing points were broken. It did the trick though of giving them shelter for sleeping. We had already arranged that all cooking etc would be done in the van so it all worked fine. We would all rather have eaten outside as it is such good fun, plus it does not matter if you drop something but the weather was not really good enough with often a stiff breeze so we ate inside. Although we had picked a pitch near the toilets so the children could nip in if they needed, after the first night we realised it was a mistake. It was the meeting point for all the teenagers on the site, carrying on and with music playing on their mobile phones. Although Andy protested, Joan and Carole decided we would move in the morning and I have been married far too long to argue, so we did. The children really enjoyed being in France and as they had money to spend in the shops they were equally delighted and delightful with their “bonjour & merci”, plus Joe was our official bread buyer for breakfast. Every morning a van came to the site just near us and he went with our order of Pain au chocolat, croixants and baguettes, ooh I'm feeling hungry just thinking about it! They really enjoyed the camping experience and I will be surprised if they don’t go again.
One fairly amusing thing to happen was the peculiar smell. a couple of days before they arrived Joan and I were sitting having a drink and I said to her gosh I really must wash my sandels as I think they are very smelly. So having done so I thought that would be the end of it until having put the children to bed we were all sitting in the van having a chat and a glass of wine I noticed it again so when they left I told Joan and we thought I should wash them again. However the next morning I was standing over near the cooker, the smell was putrid and my sandels were outside! You know what Joan, I think I know where the piece of cheese we lost is, it's in this cooker. Immediately we started to empty the oven which we only use for storing vegetables and found the cause of the problem. It was a rotten potato and boy was it ripe! Later the next day having totally aired the van we asked Carole if she had noticed it and she said oh yes I just thought it was Bryan's feet and didn't like to say.
Some nights we had really heavy rain and Andy was quite worried as they did have a couple of leaks. One night/early morning about 2am I awoke to hear a huge downpour and suddenly thunder and lightning. I leaped out of bed and rushed out to make sure they were alright only to be greeted by cheery greetings from the tent, yes we are fine said Carole, but I was worried so I nipped back in and put up our lounge bed, which is enormous, just in case. In the event next morning we found they had all gone back to sleep and all was well.
Sadly our weather could have been better, after all it was the end of July, but the children did go on to the beach every single day. Joe was fearless and straight into the water as soon as possible but Eleanor at 4 years of age decided she preferred the pools some of which were quite big. The beach here is pebbles when the tide is in but very soon after it starts to go out there is sand, so apart from a couple of hours when it comes right in it was always fun. Most of the time we were there the tides were favourable but on the last full day as it was not out early on so we took them to St.Valery en Caux (mentioned earlier), parked on the Aire and all climbed the cliff and then enjoyed lunch in the town square. After a visit to the Patisserie for some wonderful cakes it was time to return to the campsite where the tide had receded enough for them to spend the rest of the day on the beach.
So all too soon it was the last day but as their ferry was not until the evening we suggested breaking the journey at Le Treport. This is a very nice little place where Joan and I had spent a few days last year. Andy and Carole really liked it and the children were pleased as they got another chance to shop with the holiday money they had left. We all enjoyed a very nice meal and then Joan and I left them to go on the funicular railway up to the top of the cliff while we headed for our ferry at Dunkirk. We had decided to return a few days early as we wanted to see Jamie before he went on holiday, spend a bit of time with Stephen and Reena and we were also anxious to get home to see Jacqueline who’d had an operation the week before. I am a great believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason and so I am convinced we returned early because of the pending disaster with Joan ending up in hospital. Whatever it was I am so glad we did come home when we did.
So there it is another 3 months holiday in Europe during which time we have met some wonderful people and stayed in some lovely places. We have enjoyed all sorts of weather and seen some outstanding scenery. So thank you to all the people who helped to make it another memorable holiday.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan
xxxx
p.s. Hello everybody,
First may I apologise for making this a sort of round robin but I have had my plate a little full of late and now I expect to be fairly busy with the patient.
So the story is that the day after we returned to England from our holiday Joan became very ill. Because of the world wide panic about swine flu she was wrongly diagnosed on line as having it. This happened while we were stating in London at my sister’s house and it was really impossible to get any sort of medical help, plus the fact that it was a Sunday did not help. So we returned to Gateshead on the Monday and first thing Tuesday I got the Tami flu which was prescribed, this has apparently caused Joan some liver damage but hopefully this will regenerate itself. Joan had spoken to a doctor and they were reluctant to visit because of the flu scare but we decided enough was enough. So I phoned and insisted that the doctor visited her as she was in a lot of pain and had a very high temperature plus her breathing was very shallow. Within 20 minutes the top man at the practice arrived took one look at her, had a quick listen to her chest and her back and called an ambulance. He told us he suspected she had pneumonia and was very ill indeed. The ambulance came within a very short time and admitted her to hospital where because of the flu she was put into isolation. By now she could not have cared one way or the other as she was so ill, they had her on oxygen, a saline drip and huge amounts of antibiotics. Having assessed her she was moved to another ward and started to feel marginally better.
One of the things getting her down was the total isolation as everybody who entered the room had masks, aprons and rubber gloves on and spent as little time as possible in there, plus they did not talk to her. I had always tried to tell them that she did NOT have swine flu but to no avail, then I spoke to one of the doctors. He said well her swabs said...............oh she hasn’t been swabbed yet! He promptly did it and that afternoon when it showed negative they opened her door took the RED sign off it and started treating her like a human being. Finally she was beginning to feel a bit better but still had excruciating pain when she breathed or moved. Finally they said all the treatments were working and that she should go home as she would get better sooner there. That night she had a horrendous night and next day they said she couldn’t go home. However on Monday the head man arrived and told her it was quite normal and that it would take at least a month for the pain to ease completely maybe longer and a full two months to full recovery. So there we are, this of course is a précis of the last 14 days, she is home and has had the best nights sleep she has had for ages, and hopefully her recovery will continue now.
She has asked me to say thank you to all of you for your prayers, kind thoughts, flowers, chocolates and cards.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan
XXXX
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Sea? What sea? How many millions of gallons?
14th to 18th July
Well now we know it definitely is Bastille Day and everything in France is closed. Fortunately we have loads of food so no need to worry and of course the boulangerie (bakers), are open first thing every day. We are heading for the “best aire in France” according to the book. This aire is reached up a single track road running alongside the port entrance. The main problem with this is that it is not straight but curves fairly sharply around so you cannot see if anybody is coming the other way, we have seen some huge vans having to reverse out of the way. On our arrival it looks absolutely packed and we park at the side of the road and are about to look for somewhere else nearby when the Dutch chap in the van next to us says, just stay there, nobody will mind, so we did. Then about 2 hours later we saw a van leaving a prime spot and quickly nipped in there. The weather is amazing so hot and sunny, having wandered around the village and along the pebble beach, plus of course a visit to the lighthouse we just chilled out on our chairs. This is one of the nice things about aires you tend to sit at the back of your van and chat to the people either side while sipping your drink. We saw a really good sunset at around 10pm and made our plans for tomorrow.
Somewhere along the line we got our lines crossed with Carole and Andy and headed for Le Crotoy some 50 odd miles further up the coast towards Boulogne. This seemed like a very good idea as the children would not have to sit in the car for hours on end. We went to check out the place and stayed on the biggest aire we have ever seen. It holds some 70 vans and so we could not imagine having any trouble getting on, which was the case. As soon as we were set up we got our bikes off and cycled to find the campsite we thought we were booked on for Sunday. We were soo excited as Joseph and Eleanor were coming with a tent to spend some time with us in Normandy. Carole says they are very excited and it is very difficult to keep them calm but I reckon Joan is worse, we keep stopping at shops and she says I think I should get this or that for them.
Anyway having cycled for several miles we arrived at the seaside where there was no sign of any sea? Still we cycled back to the two campsites we had passed and inquired if we were booked in, and received a negative answer. So we returned to the town and enquired at both the campsites there and received the same answer, strange? Having returned to our van we were just chilling out with a drink when there was a very loud noise from a siren. Gosh I said to Joan there must be a factory near here, I wonder what they make? About 20 minutes later Joan who had been reading a booklet from the tourist information shop suddenly exclaimed, “my God!” That’s not a factory siren, 5 hours after high tide they open the flood gates over there and release millions of gallons of water onto the beach. We had this picture in our heads of us all being on the beach happily playing and suddenly this siren goes off and we grab everything and run like hell, weird. What was worse was we could see us hearing it seeing people running and thinking it was some sort of dinner bell! The leaflet also explained that the sea went out for 9 miles!!
Fortunately about now we got a text saying, we are not going to Le Crotoy but a place called Quiberville plage, which was about 5 miles from where we had been when we set of to Le Crotoy! However we had enjoyed the trip and our main concern was to ensure the site was good and we could get a couple of pitches adjacent in the hope that Carole and Andy could go out for a free evening and enjoy a meal or at the least a couple of drinks. On our arrival the site was very nice and the pitches were enormous. It very soon became apparent that we could all get onto one pitch, great. As the lady had no booking although Carole had emailed her we went around and picked one which seemed perfect and booked us all in, then went off to Veules les Roses a free aire about 5 miles away. It was amazing it must be highly recommended in a German book of aires as everybody else had a ‘D’ on their number plate. We had a quick look around to see if possibly our friends Joe & Ingrid were among them but we were pretty sure they had gone home by now. Most of the van’s seemed to be full of children and this raised our excitement levels as we anticipated Joe and Eleanor’s arrival. Sadly we did not go very far as it rained more or less continuously shame for the kids. Next day we went back to the port aire at St Valen Caux which was only a couple of miles further on so we arrived pretty early and explored the area, which was to prove useful later in the week.
To be continued..................................
Love
Joan and Bryan xxx
p.s. As many of you know we are home now and Joan is very ill with pneumonia so I will add here that she is much improved and apart from difficulty breathing is much better. She is receiving antibiotics and very good care. x
I should also explain that this has NOT been veted by management so the grammer/spelling may be iffy.
Well now we know it definitely is Bastille Day and everything in France is closed. Fortunately we have loads of food so no need to worry and of course the boulangerie (bakers), are open first thing every day. We are heading for the “best aire in France” according to the book. This aire is reached up a single track road running alongside the port entrance. The main problem with this is that it is not straight but curves fairly sharply around so you cannot see if anybody is coming the other way, we have seen some huge vans having to reverse out of the way. On our arrival it looks absolutely packed and we park at the side of the road and are about to look for somewhere else nearby when the Dutch chap in the van next to us says, just stay there, nobody will mind, so we did. Then about 2 hours later we saw a van leaving a prime spot and quickly nipped in there. The weather is amazing so hot and sunny, having wandered around the village and along the pebble beach, plus of course a visit to the lighthouse we just chilled out on our chairs. This is one of the nice things about aires you tend to sit at the back of your van and chat to the people either side while sipping your drink. We saw a really good sunset at around 10pm and made our plans for tomorrow.
Somewhere along the line we got our lines crossed with Carole and Andy and headed for Le Crotoy some 50 odd miles further up the coast towards Boulogne. This seemed like a very good idea as the children would not have to sit in the car for hours on end. We went to check out the place and stayed on the biggest aire we have ever seen. It holds some 70 vans and so we could not imagine having any trouble getting on, which was the case. As soon as we were set up we got our bikes off and cycled to find the campsite we thought we were booked on for Sunday. We were soo excited as Joseph and Eleanor were coming with a tent to spend some time with us in Normandy. Carole says they are very excited and it is very difficult to keep them calm but I reckon Joan is worse, we keep stopping at shops and she says I think I should get this or that for them.
Anyway having cycled for several miles we arrived at the seaside where there was no sign of any sea? Still we cycled back to the two campsites we had passed and inquired if we were booked in, and received a negative answer. So we returned to the town and enquired at both the campsites there and received the same answer, strange? Having returned to our van we were just chilling out with a drink when there was a very loud noise from a siren. Gosh I said to Joan there must be a factory near here, I wonder what they make? About 20 minutes later Joan who had been reading a booklet from the tourist information shop suddenly exclaimed, “my God!” That’s not a factory siren, 5 hours after high tide they open the flood gates over there and release millions of gallons of water onto the beach. We had this picture in our heads of us all being on the beach happily playing and suddenly this siren goes off and we grab everything and run like hell, weird. What was worse was we could see us hearing it seeing people running and thinking it was some sort of dinner bell! The leaflet also explained that the sea went out for 9 miles!!
Fortunately about now we got a text saying, we are not going to Le Crotoy but a place called Quiberville plage, which was about 5 miles from where we had been when we set of to Le Crotoy! However we had enjoyed the trip and our main concern was to ensure the site was good and we could get a couple of pitches adjacent in the hope that Carole and Andy could go out for a free evening and enjoy a meal or at the least a couple of drinks. On our arrival the site was very nice and the pitches were enormous. It very soon became apparent that we could all get onto one pitch, great. As the lady had no booking although Carole had emailed her we went around and picked one which seemed perfect and booked us all in, then went off to Veules les Roses a free aire about 5 miles away. It was amazing it must be highly recommended in a German book of aires as everybody else had a ‘D’ on their number plate. We had a quick look around to see if possibly our friends Joe & Ingrid were among them but we were pretty sure they had gone home by now. Most of the van’s seemed to be full of children and this raised our excitement levels as we anticipated Joe and Eleanor’s arrival. Sadly we did not go very far as it rained more or less continuously shame for the kids. Next day we went back to the port aire at St Valen Caux which was only a couple of miles further on so we arrived pretty early and explored the area, which was to prove useful later in the week.
To be continued..................................
Love
Joan and Bryan xxx
p.s. As many of you know we are home now and Joan is very ill with pneumonia so I will add here that she is much improved and apart from difficulty breathing is much better. She is receiving antibiotics and very good care. x
I should also explain that this has NOT been veted by management so the grammer/spelling may be iffy.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
St. Reverend Boule club and Fireworks!
7th to 12th July
As we approached Oiron the mobile rang and Kaye asked if we were actually coming, just then we came around the corner and there she was waving to us. Joan got out and I drove around the corner to the car park for the chateau where, this being France we were able to park overnight and slept very well indeed. Before this we were shown around Kaye & Phil’s house and were amazed at the work she had already done. I say she had done because Phil is in England during term time as he is a teacher and his income helps them to afford the work they have to do. They have taken on a similar task to Julie & Khaled and as with them we are amazed at how much they have had to do to make their house habitable. Their intention eventually is to have B&B guests but it has not happened as soon as they had initially hoped. As with all such ventures it is really hard work but Kaye is doing a fantastic job and turning her hand to major tasks like plastering/painting/cementing etc.
This being her first such venture she has made some mistakes she openly admits, and some of them have been costly. Also they have some severe restrictions as to what they can do as the Chateau has control over what is done in the area, for instance they had to have special windows made to conform to the local laws, she has even had to build a cover for her caravan as it must not be visible from the air! From what she says one of the biggest disappointments she has had is that she has been ripped off by English builders, but on the other hand has found the French to be very helpful indeed and now only employs them for major jobs.
After we had had the grand tour we all went into the huge garden which will be another mammoth task. Phil is not the most handy of chaps but is quite good at taking instruction and doing the heavy work so that suits Kaye. As with all such projects they will eventually emerge into the light and all will be well but it will take a lot of hard work and a lot of give and take from both of them. We took Kaye for lunch and had a really good meal at another village nearby that she knows. We returned to meet a couple of really good friends of theirs and enjoyed an evening meal with them, although neither of us was hungry after the meal this afternoon.
On Thursday morning after breakfast we went and said goodbye to Kaye and told her if she felt like a break to come over for the weekend to where we were going, St. Reverend where we all met last year. We then headed off to meet Ron & Sandra there and on our arrival were immediately recognised by Herve & Christina the couple who run it who made us very welcome. Soon afterwards our good friends Ron & Sandra arrived and said come and have lunch with us it’s all ready, which was a very nice surprise. Over lunch they told us about the other members of the “Boule club 2008” who we had not managed to contact, and we all expressed our admiration for the work Kaye was doing. It is a shame our Belgian friends Agide and Simone are not here.
Friday morning Ron & Sandra arranged to take us to the market in town, which turned out to be a very expensive trip. As we wandered around we decided to take advantage of Ron’s knowledge of French and buy some cheese. The problem is that neither of us particularly likes sheep or goat’s cheese and we prefer hard cheese not soft. Ron was quite happy to oblige and we approached a cheese stall where after his enquiry the stall holder pointed out the cows cheeses. She was only too happy to give us all a sample and we all agreed it was a very nice cheese. Ron & Sandra bought some and Joan & I also added a piece of another one. When we paid for it we were astounded, we had paid €20.80 (about £19.50) for a couple of fairly small bits of cheese! We are not sure whether to frame it or eat it, but it has been a standing joke with all of us ever since. We later saw the same cheese in the supermarket for under half the price per kilo.
Having spent another very pleasant day together we were delighted when Kaye arrived with Cobbles her little kitten and a tent to spend a few days relaxing with us. She put her tent up on our pitch which had plenty of room and they only charged us €2 a night for an extra person which was very good. The following day we had another surprise courtesy of Ron who drove us to the seaside which was only just around the corner. We had not realised all last year just how close we had been!
On our return to the van, somewhat later than any of us intended the small one disappeared inside and produced a meal for all five of us in less than an hour, amazing woman. The following morning it poured with rain and we really thought it would be a wash out but it stopped around 11 o’clock and we all went off again to St Gilles, intending another walk along the beach. As we approached, the traffic seemed very heavy and we discovered why, oh boy, another market! The ladies were delighted and we parked and walked around it but managed to avoid the cheese stall thank God. That evening Ron and Sandra had us all around for a superb barbeque and I said to Joan if we don’t stop eating soon we will need new clothes!
As planned Monday morning we said goodbye to Sandra, Ron & Kaye and headed off to the supermarket for supplies. Good grief, what’s going on, not another market surely? It was wall to wall traffic and everywhere seemed to be full of people and cars. Fortunately there are 3 dedicated motorhome bays and we managed to get one. Still none the wiser we got our few bits and left asap, and headed for an aire about 150 miles away. When we arrived it was as we had been told, in a perfect spot near a marina, but it was packed. Joan quickly found another one about 18 miles further on which when we arrived at the co-ordinates appeared non-existent as even the locals could not tell us where it was. Still we had to find a place for the night and it was still fairly early so Joan plotted another one and as we started towards it she suddenly checked the map again and said oops! turn here and go to the one at Rohan as it is on our planned route. This proved to be a really good move.
When we arrived it was a lovely little spot at the side of a canal overlooking a marina with a few narrow boats in it, perfect. It was still only 6.30pm so plenty of time for a stroll into town and possibly spot a place for dinner, no chance. Having returned to cook our own dinner we noticed some chaps unloading a couple of enormous speakers across the other side of the canal. Oh dear said Joan too late to move on now. Around 9.30pm we saw loads of families gathering on the opposite bank of the river which ran alongside the canal. Next somebody put on some noise which I understand is called music by today’s generation? It was I should add a really nice night and warm, then suddenly it started to rain. Well that will probably spoil it for them I said, they will have to pack up now. As we were about to close our curtains for the night the bloomin sky lit up with colour and noise.
We then witnessed the biggest and most beautiful firework display I have ever seen up close, I say up close because if we had been that close in England we would have been moved back!! Some of these explosions shook the van and the ground. By now of course we were outside enjoying the spectacle and praying that the embers that were dropping were actually out by the time they hit the van! Amazing! The end was greeted by cheers from the crowd and we think the music continued for a bit but we both zonked out after another wonderful experience.
We awoke at 8.30am and were on the road by 9.10am. After a pretty uneventful trip we got here (Cerisy la Foret) on a very quiet little free aire set next to a field full of modern sculptures at lunchtime. As we drove I said to Joan, you know I think all the fireworks etc be because it’s Bastille day, but I thought it was an even numbered day? If anybody rings ask them and true enough when Jacq rang she said, well it’s actually today the 14th, but we are sure that explains the fireworks and all the crowds buying food.
Sorry no precis this time.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
As we approached Oiron the mobile rang and Kaye asked if we were actually coming, just then we came around the corner and there she was waving to us. Joan got out and I drove around the corner to the car park for the chateau where, this being France we were able to park overnight and slept very well indeed. Before this we were shown around Kaye & Phil’s house and were amazed at the work she had already done. I say she had done because Phil is in England during term time as he is a teacher and his income helps them to afford the work they have to do. They have taken on a similar task to Julie & Khaled and as with them we are amazed at how much they have had to do to make their house habitable. Their intention eventually is to have B&B guests but it has not happened as soon as they had initially hoped. As with all such ventures it is really hard work but Kaye is doing a fantastic job and turning her hand to major tasks like plastering/painting/cementing etc.
This being her first such venture she has made some mistakes she openly admits, and some of them have been costly. Also they have some severe restrictions as to what they can do as the Chateau has control over what is done in the area, for instance they had to have special windows made to conform to the local laws, she has even had to build a cover for her caravan as it must not be visible from the air! From what she says one of the biggest disappointments she has had is that she has been ripped off by English builders, but on the other hand has found the French to be very helpful indeed and now only employs them for major jobs.
After we had had the grand tour we all went into the huge garden which will be another mammoth task. Phil is not the most handy of chaps but is quite good at taking instruction and doing the heavy work so that suits Kaye. As with all such projects they will eventually emerge into the light and all will be well but it will take a lot of hard work and a lot of give and take from both of them. We took Kaye for lunch and had a really good meal at another village nearby that she knows. We returned to meet a couple of really good friends of theirs and enjoyed an evening meal with them, although neither of us was hungry after the meal this afternoon.
On Thursday morning after breakfast we went and said goodbye to Kaye and told her if she felt like a break to come over for the weekend to where we were going, St. Reverend where we all met last year. We then headed off to meet Ron & Sandra there and on our arrival were immediately recognised by Herve & Christina the couple who run it who made us very welcome. Soon afterwards our good friends Ron & Sandra arrived and said come and have lunch with us it’s all ready, which was a very nice surprise. Over lunch they told us about the other members of the “Boule club 2008” who we had not managed to contact, and we all expressed our admiration for the work Kaye was doing. It is a shame our Belgian friends Agide and Simone are not here.
Friday morning Ron & Sandra arranged to take us to the market in town, which turned out to be a very expensive trip. As we wandered around we decided to take advantage of Ron’s knowledge of French and buy some cheese. The problem is that neither of us particularly likes sheep or goat’s cheese and we prefer hard cheese not soft. Ron was quite happy to oblige and we approached a cheese stall where after his enquiry the stall holder pointed out the cows cheeses. She was only too happy to give us all a sample and we all agreed it was a very nice cheese. Ron & Sandra bought some and Joan & I also added a piece of another one. When we paid for it we were astounded, we had paid €20.80 (about £19.50) for a couple of fairly small bits of cheese! We are not sure whether to frame it or eat it, but it has been a standing joke with all of us ever since. We later saw the same cheese in the supermarket for under half the price per kilo.
Having spent another very pleasant day together we were delighted when Kaye arrived with Cobbles her little kitten and a tent to spend a few days relaxing with us. She put her tent up on our pitch which had plenty of room and they only charged us €2 a night for an extra person which was very good. The following day we had another surprise courtesy of Ron who drove us to the seaside which was only just around the corner. We had not realised all last year just how close we had been!
On our return to the van, somewhat later than any of us intended the small one disappeared inside and produced a meal for all five of us in less than an hour, amazing woman. The following morning it poured with rain and we really thought it would be a wash out but it stopped around 11 o’clock and we all went off again to St Gilles, intending another walk along the beach. As we approached, the traffic seemed very heavy and we discovered why, oh boy, another market! The ladies were delighted and we parked and walked around it but managed to avoid the cheese stall thank God. That evening Ron and Sandra had us all around for a superb barbeque and I said to Joan if we don’t stop eating soon we will need new clothes!
As planned Monday morning we said goodbye to Sandra, Ron & Kaye and headed off to the supermarket for supplies. Good grief, what’s going on, not another market surely? It was wall to wall traffic and everywhere seemed to be full of people and cars. Fortunately there are 3 dedicated motorhome bays and we managed to get one. Still none the wiser we got our few bits and left asap, and headed for an aire about 150 miles away. When we arrived it was as we had been told, in a perfect spot near a marina, but it was packed. Joan quickly found another one about 18 miles further on which when we arrived at the co-ordinates appeared non-existent as even the locals could not tell us where it was. Still we had to find a place for the night and it was still fairly early so Joan plotted another one and as we started towards it she suddenly checked the map again and said oops! turn here and go to the one at Rohan as it is on our planned route. This proved to be a really good move.
When we arrived it was a lovely little spot at the side of a canal overlooking a marina with a few narrow boats in it, perfect. It was still only 6.30pm so plenty of time for a stroll into town and possibly spot a place for dinner, no chance. Having returned to cook our own dinner we noticed some chaps unloading a couple of enormous speakers across the other side of the canal. Oh dear said Joan too late to move on now. Around 9.30pm we saw loads of families gathering on the opposite bank of the river which ran alongside the canal. Next somebody put on some noise which I understand is called music by today’s generation? It was I should add a really nice night and warm, then suddenly it started to rain. Well that will probably spoil it for them I said, they will have to pack up now. As we were about to close our curtains for the night the bloomin sky lit up with colour and noise.
We then witnessed the biggest and most beautiful firework display I have ever seen up close, I say up close because if we had been that close in England we would have been moved back!! Some of these explosions shook the van and the ground. By now of course we were outside enjoying the spectacle and praying that the embers that were dropping were actually out by the time they hit the van! Amazing! The end was greeted by cheers from the crowd and we think the music continued for a bit but we both zonked out after another wonderful experience.
We awoke at 8.30am and were on the road by 9.10am. After a pretty uneventful trip we got here (Cerisy la Foret) on a very quiet little free aire set next to a field full of modern sculptures at lunchtime. As we drove I said to Joan, you know I think all the fireworks etc be because it’s Bastille day, but I thought it was an even numbered day? If anybody rings ask them and true enough when Jacq rang she said, well it’s actually today the 14th, but we are sure that explains the fireworks and all the crowds buying food.
Sorry no precis this time.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Animals, a beach, booze, an enormous fish and help I’m lost!
29th June to 7th July
Précis for those with little time=
Saw Julie, Khaled & Hannah off, met return flight, safely returned the animals and enjoyed lots of good food, drink and fellowship. Met Khaled’s oldest friend and new wife, very nice. Saw old towns, took pictures. Carried on to seaside resort, lay on beach, met new friends. Broke camping club noise rule, enjoyed meal out. Got lost in France and worse, lost small one. Visited Millau Bridge again another €11.50
Worrying about image as everybody giving us drinks, and now food?! XX
The full story for our loyal fans.
I have just realised that nowhere have I mentioned Julie’s departure or for that matter Khaled’s, suffice to say they both caught their respective planes on time. Also we should have mentioned that their good friends Arfan and his new wife Annamarie who were expected to call in after they had been to Barcelona suddenly arrived on Friday. This was not a problem as they were expected, and their room was ready for them. The only problem was we were not sure if they would like the food we had prepared but we need not have worried, they are a lovely couple and just sort of joined in with us. They left on Monday morning to visit Barcelona and returned Tuesday night late.
On Monday we visited another of Julies recommendations, a small village called Minerve which is an ancient Cathar stronghold. When you arrive you are directed all around it and appear to be going out into the country. Then you arrive at a car park which is but a short walk downhill to the town. It is constructed on an outcrop of rock with a deep gorge on both sides that eventually meet so it must have been almost impregnable in the old days. Sadly it is overrun with “art shops” and I said to Joan ‘baa’ as we could see them looking at us as we walked in ready to be shorn! Still we had a very nice visit and enjoyed a mid-day Pizza and a drink then returned home. Wow! Sam, assisted by his lovely girlfriend Yolene, is cooking dinner, a very delicious spag bol. It was not until the next day we discovered he had used enough meat for about 6 people. Still as he is about to become a student he will rapidly learn I am sure.
Tuesday is a funny one, Julie and Co return and relieve us of our duties. In a way we will miss doing them, but at least all the animals are still here and appear to be healthy. As Julie phoned and expressed concern about all the luggage they had, I asked Arfan and Annamarie to join us on the airport run and of course they were only too happy to agree.
Khaled, Julie and Hannah have had a really good time but are really knackered as every moment has been filled, which is as it should be. So I did the animals for the last time, and cooked a Thai curry for them all, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. We were going to leave Thursday but were persuaded to stay for lunch. Khaled and Arfan did a great barbecue which we ate out in the garden in a special shed originally constructed for Pablo the donkey. It rained for the first time since we’d arrived but we were fairly sheltered although Khaled needs to attend to the roof to cover all the holes! By the time we’d finished lunch and had a few drinks we decided to leave on Friday. Arfan said he was really pleased as he had been saying he wanted to cook us a meal because he felt embarrassed that we’d cooked for them. They always said we will help you cook, and did make us an accompaniment one day, so Thursday we offered to help and were told to relax. He made us all a lovely Syrian meal which we ate outside on the upstairs decking. It was a very pleasant evening indeed and a perfect end to our stay. As always tearing ourselves away from chez Shbib was very difficult and they don’t make it any easier to leave. They did however express their thanks for our looking after everything while they were away but we both agreed it had been very enjoyable indeed.
So what next, well we had intended to go along to St.Tropez and spend some time just lying on the beach. However when we stopped to look at all we had to do with the remaining time we had, we realised it was not such a good plan. We really wanted some beach time so we went to Vias Plage which is not very far from Julie and Khaled’s but was almost right on the beach. Some people would not like it at all as it was a bit like Blackpool but it was just right at the time for us. With temperatures always in and around the mid 30’s and a very short walk to the beach we allowed ourselves to just chill. On the first day when we arrived we were asked to leave the van and go and pick a pitch, so as I was blocking the entry I moved the van forward and over a bit. Some Dutch people we were preventing from entering pulled in. We picked a very nice spot and went back to register it and get the van. As I drove up the Dutch were in the process of nicking it, it really was a good spot, and they got very uppity when I told them it was mine. But having watched me move my van to let them in the wife accused me of arriving after them! Silly cow.
The Frenchman opposite helped me find the electricity point and after that he and his wife were very friendly. That evening when he was leaving with a huge fishing rod I managed to refrain from saying, going fishing?, and just kept to 'Bon chance’ The next day he came over and showed us some pictures of him with an enormous fish. We were genuinely impressed and made all the right noises. That night after dinner he brought over some homemade Calvados from 1986 and we both slept like logs even though it was soo hot.
Later that night we were wandering around the site and met an English couple called Rod & Diane who insisted on us having a drink with them, we sat and chatted for several hours. It was nice to chat in English without having to work out what to say first, although I think our French is a little improved. The following night we invited them for a return drink and had another good night especially as when Joan mentioned something about her 60th birthday they were shocked. They said they had tried to guess her age and had decided 53 or 54. (NO, Joan says it wasn’t because they were drunk) Again our French pal came over with some homemade grappa from 1983 made from grapevines. I got him to show Rod & Dianne the pictures of his catch and he told us all nine people sitting around his table had had a meal from it! Sadly we blotted our copy books and stayed up until one o’clock chatting! Somebody suddenly said shush and we realised our mistake. There is a very loud disco until about 12pm and we should have stopped then. The next morning we worked out an apology, wrote it down in French and went to all our neighbours who all laughed and said it was not a problem at all.
The next morning started as always with bright sunshine then all of a sudden a huge downpour started and it looked as though that was it for the beach. Fortunately as Rod had said, it cleared up and we got several hours in the warm Med. Rod and Diane told us about a fish restaurant just outside the campsite where the food was really good so that evening we got ourselves all tarted up to go out. Joan looked stunning and I of course was my usual suave self. We enjoyed a very pleasant 3 course meal with a nice bottle of wine, lovely, thanks you two.
We still don’t know who shushed us but we were glad we had apologised. I am not sure that the French was quite right because they looked very hard at it before they understood what we wanted to say. Still when we left the next day they came out, all smiles and said bon-voyage to us, nice people. Rod and Diane also came round to say goodbye, little did they know!
What happened next could only happen to me! As we left we wanted to get our Monday paper with Saturday’s crossword answers plus a baguette. So as we approached the shop Joan jumped out and I continued to the next roundabout to return and pick her up, easy, NOT! Having nipped off the slip road to go underneath and return the other side I found myself on a dual carriage way. I had to travel some way before I could return the other side. Now as I have said before, Joan and her sat-nav tell me where to go so I could not remember where we had been, something plage. I know I thought, I’ll ring her. No reply. Her bloody phones not on, again! Then another bright idea, we always put the site number on our calendar so we can remember it later. I frantically searched for a possible stopping point only to end up at a place called Agde which is a bloomin port with a huge boat. I must have been miles off course as the biggest thing I’ve seen in the last week is a pedalo. By now I am really worried that Joan will think I have had an accident, and I still don’t know where I am. Lost in France! I’ve got this vision of her standing at the roundabout bottom lip trembling thinking I’ve gone off with her hairdryer and lipstick!
Finally able to stop, now what? Oh of course, silly arse, the co-ordinates will be in the sat-nav. Grab it, turn it on, oh God she’s cleared it! I get out of my seat to run back for the calendar and fall over her bag with, yes you guessed, her phone in it. On finding the calendar, Oh joy of joys she has not filled it in. Ok calm, we stayed at a campsite called Napoleon camping, so just look in the book and it will be easy. IT’S NOT THERE, but I slept there for the last few nights? Later I learn it is called that but the address is different. Suddenly my phone rings, after waiting half an hour Joan has gone back to find our friends Rod and Diane and borrowed their mobile phone.
Where are you? She says.
I wish I bloody knew I say but more to the point where are you?
I am at Vias Plage, just put it into the sat-nav pet.
Well I tried, I said, but the sat-nav will not let me in, so I threw it. Oh wow, just seen a signpost for Vias Plage, be with you very soon.
As I finally pulled up bless them, Rod and Diane had walked back with Joan and were standing at the roundabout with her. Rod knows exactly what I have done as he’s done it too. We thanked them and Joan jumped back in, grabbed her handbag and sat-nav, the blasted thing promptly worked and we were off again, phew! I had managed to do 22.5 miles and we left an hour later than planned.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until we got to the Millau bridge. We had been over it on our way south but the weather was not good and Joan’s pictures left a lot to be desired. This time we went into the specially provided rest area and observation point which had fantastic views of the bridge and surrounding countryside. This was ideal as we had lunch there and climbed up to get some good pictures as well, hopefully they are ok. Finally after a 202 mile day we arrived at our campsite only to be confronted by what looked like a vertical drop down to a riverside. I really didn’t fancy it but Joan felt it was alright so down we went, which was ok but my worry was that we would have trouble getting back up tomorrow.
The site was very nice and we had our pick of spots so we chose one near the loos next to a French couple with a lovely dog which I made a fuss of. Imagine our faces when as Joan was about to put our meal out, the gentleman appeared at our door all smiles with 2 of the biggest barbecued sausages I’ve ever seen on metal rods in his hand, so kind. They were actually delicious and we made all the right noises. Plus when I was washing up I said how good they were to his wife who was delighted. I later gave the dog two biscuits, not a bad exchange really.
This morning Tuesday 7th I awoke to a bleary eyed Joan, she has been awake since 4am worrying if we will be able to get up the hill! In the event the van was up and out no trouble at all, but I must admit I had been a little concerned. Tonight we are on an ‘aire de repos’ with free electricity, a toilet and water laid on. Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing our friend Kaye from last year who has or is opening a B&B in a small village about 50 miles further on.
Well it’s a long one but hopefully you have enjoyed it, we did.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Précis for those with little time=
Saw Julie, Khaled & Hannah off, met return flight, safely returned the animals and enjoyed lots of good food, drink and fellowship. Met Khaled’s oldest friend and new wife, very nice. Saw old towns, took pictures. Carried on to seaside resort, lay on beach, met new friends. Broke camping club noise rule, enjoyed meal out. Got lost in France and worse, lost small one. Visited Millau Bridge again another €11.50
Worrying about image as everybody giving us drinks, and now food?! XX
The full story for our loyal fans.
I have just realised that nowhere have I mentioned Julie’s departure or for that matter Khaled’s, suffice to say they both caught their respective planes on time. Also we should have mentioned that their good friends Arfan and his new wife Annamarie who were expected to call in after they had been to Barcelona suddenly arrived on Friday. This was not a problem as they were expected, and their room was ready for them. The only problem was we were not sure if they would like the food we had prepared but we need not have worried, they are a lovely couple and just sort of joined in with us. They left on Monday morning to visit Barcelona and returned Tuesday night late.
On Monday we visited another of Julies recommendations, a small village called Minerve which is an ancient Cathar stronghold. When you arrive you are directed all around it and appear to be going out into the country. Then you arrive at a car park which is but a short walk downhill to the town. It is constructed on an outcrop of rock with a deep gorge on both sides that eventually meet so it must have been almost impregnable in the old days. Sadly it is overrun with “art shops” and I said to Joan ‘baa’ as we could see them looking at us as we walked in ready to be shorn! Still we had a very nice visit and enjoyed a mid-day Pizza and a drink then returned home. Wow! Sam, assisted by his lovely girlfriend Yolene, is cooking dinner, a very delicious spag bol. It was not until the next day we discovered he had used enough meat for about 6 people. Still as he is about to become a student he will rapidly learn I am sure.
Tuesday is a funny one, Julie and Co return and relieve us of our duties. In a way we will miss doing them, but at least all the animals are still here and appear to be healthy. As Julie phoned and expressed concern about all the luggage they had, I asked Arfan and Annamarie to join us on the airport run and of course they were only too happy to agree.
Khaled, Julie and Hannah have had a really good time but are really knackered as every moment has been filled, which is as it should be. So I did the animals for the last time, and cooked a Thai curry for them all, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. We were going to leave Thursday but were persuaded to stay for lunch. Khaled and Arfan did a great barbecue which we ate out in the garden in a special shed originally constructed for Pablo the donkey. It rained for the first time since we’d arrived but we were fairly sheltered although Khaled needs to attend to the roof to cover all the holes! By the time we’d finished lunch and had a few drinks we decided to leave on Friday. Arfan said he was really pleased as he had been saying he wanted to cook us a meal because he felt embarrassed that we’d cooked for them. They always said we will help you cook, and did make us an accompaniment one day, so Thursday we offered to help and were told to relax. He made us all a lovely Syrian meal which we ate outside on the upstairs decking. It was a very pleasant evening indeed and a perfect end to our stay. As always tearing ourselves away from chez Shbib was very difficult and they don’t make it any easier to leave. They did however express their thanks for our looking after everything while they were away but we both agreed it had been very enjoyable indeed.
So what next, well we had intended to go along to St.Tropez and spend some time just lying on the beach. However when we stopped to look at all we had to do with the remaining time we had, we realised it was not such a good plan. We really wanted some beach time so we went to Vias Plage which is not very far from Julie and Khaled’s but was almost right on the beach. Some people would not like it at all as it was a bit like Blackpool but it was just right at the time for us. With temperatures always in and around the mid 30’s and a very short walk to the beach we allowed ourselves to just chill. On the first day when we arrived we were asked to leave the van and go and pick a pitch, so as I was blocking the entry I moved the van forward and over a bit. Some Dutch people we were preventing from entering pulled in. We picked a very nice spot and went back to register it and get the van. As I drove up the Dutch were in the process of nicking it, it really was a good spot, and they got very uppity when I told them it was mine. But having watched me move my van to let them in the wife accused me of arriving after them! Silly cow.
The Frenchman opposite helped me find the electricity point and after that he and his wife were very friendly. That evening when he was leaving with a huge fishing rod I managed to refrain from saying, going fishing?, and just kept to 'Bon chance’ The next day he came over and showed us some pictures of him with an enormous fish. We were genuinely impressed and made all the right noises. That night after dinner he brought over some homemade Calvados from 1986 and we both slept like logs even though it was soo hot.
Later that night we were wandering around the site and met an English couple called Rod & Diane who insisted on us having a drink with them, we sat and chatted for several hours. It was nice to chat in English without having to work out what to say first, although I think our French is a little improved. The following night we invited them for a return drink and had another good night especially as when Joan mentioned something about her 60th birthday they were shocked. They said they had tried to guess her age and had decided 53 or 54. (NO, Joan says it wasn’t because they were drunk) Again our French pal came over with some homemade grappa from 1983 made from grapevines. I got him to show Rod & Dianne the pictures of his catch and he told us all nine people sitting around his table had had a meal from it! Sadly we blotted our copy books and stayed up until one o’clock chatting! Somebody suddenly said shush and we realised our mistake. There is a very loud disco until about 12pm and we should have stopped then. The next morning we worked out an apology, wrote it down in French and went to all our neighbours who all laughed and said it was not a problem at all.
The next morning started as always with bright sunshine then all of a sudden a huge downpour started and it looked as though that was it for the beach. Fortunately as Rod had said, it cleared up and we got several hours in the warm Med. Rod and Diane told us about a fish restaurant just outside the campsite where the food was really good so that evening we got ourselves all tarted up to go out. Joan looked stunning and I of course was my usual suave self. We enjoyed a very pleasant 3 course meal with a nice bottle of wine, lovely, thanks you two.
We still don’t know who shushed us but we were glad we had apologised. I am not sure that the French was quite right because they looked very hard at it before they understood what we wanted to say. Still when we left the next day they came out, all smiles and said bon-voyage to us, nice people. Rod and Diane also came round to say goodbye, little did they know!
What happened next could only happen to me! As we left we wanted to get our Monday paper with Saturday’s crossword answers plus a baguette. So as we approached the shop Joan jumped out and I continued to the next roundabout to return and pick her up, easy, NOT! Having nipped off the slip road to go underneath and return the other side I found myself on a dual carriage way. I had to travel some way before I could return the other side. Now as I have said before, Joan and her sat-nav tell me where to go so I could not remember where we had been, something plage. I know I thought, I’ll ring her. No reply. Her bloody phones not on, again! Then another bright idea, we always put the site number on our calendar so we can remember it later. I frantically searched for a possible stopping point only to end up at a place called Agde which is a bloomin port with a huge boat. I must have been miles off course as the biggest thing I’ve seen in the last week is a pedalo. By now I am really worried that Joan will think I have had an accident, and I still don’t know where I am. Lost in France! I’ve got this vision of her standing at the roundabout bottom lip trembling thinking I’ve gone off with her hairdryer and lipstick!
Finally able to stop, now what? Oh of course, silly arse, the co-ordinates will be in the sat-nav. Grab it, turn it on, oh God she’s cleared it! I get out of my seat to run back for the calendar and fall over her bag with, yes you guessed, her phone in it. On finding the calendar, Oh joy of joys she has not filled it in. Ok calm, we stayed at a campsite called Napoleon camping, so just look in the book and it will be easy. IT’S NOT THERE, but I slept there for the last few nights? Later I learn it is called that but the address is different. Suddenly my phone rings, after waiting half an hour Joan has gone back to find our friends Rod and Diane and borrowed their mobile phone.
Where are you? She says.
I wish I bloody knew I say but more to the point where are you?
I am at Vias Plage, just put it into the sat-nav pet.
Well I tried, I said, but the sat-nav will not let me in, so I threw it. Oh wow, just seen a signpost for Vias Plage, be with you very soon.
As I finally pulled up bless them, Rod and Diane had walked back with Joan and were standing at the roundabout with her. Rod knows exactly what I have done as he’s done it too. We thanked them and Joan jumped back in, grabbed her handbag and sat-nav, the blasted thing promptly worked and we were off again, phew! I had managed to do 22.5 miles and we left an hour later than planned.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until we got to the Millau bridge. We had been over it on our way south but the weather was not good and Joan’s pictures left a lot to be desired. This time we went into the specially provided rest area and observation point which had fantastic views of the bridge and surrounding countryside. This was ideal as we had lunch there and climbed up to get some good pictures as well, hopefully they are ok. Finally after a 202 mile day we arrived at our campsite only to be confronted by what looked like a vertical drop down to a riverside. I really didn’t fancy it but Joan felt it was alright so down we went, which was ok but my worry was that we would have trouble getting back up tomorrow.
The site was very nice and we had our pick of spots so we chose one near the loos next to a French couple with a lovely dog which I made a fuss of. Imagine our faces when as Joan was about to put our meal out, the gentleman appeared at our door all smiles with 2 of the biggest barbecued sausages I’ve ever seen on metal rods in his hand, so kind. They were actually delicious and we made all the right noises. Plus when I was washing up I said how good they were to his wife who was delighted. I later gave the dog two biscuits, not a bad exchange really.
This morning Tuesday 7th I awoke to a bleary eyed Joan, she has been awake since 4am worrying if we will be able to get up the hill! In the event the van was up and out no trouble at all, but I must admit I had been a little concerned. Tonight we are on an ‘aire de repos’ with free electricity, a toilet and water laid on. Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing our friend Kaye from last year who has or is opening a B&B in a small village about 50 miles further on.
Well it’s a long one but hopefully you have enjoyed it, we did.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
We try our hand at animal husbandry
20th – 28th June
The journey to Julie and Khaled’s was fairly uneventful and straightforward. The amazing thing was just before we reached the French border it was just like something out of the Wild West. It appeared that the whole place was full of French people, every car had a French number plate, and every few kilometres there was a restaurant with a supermarket attached which was basically a booze store. It was also the last place to get cheap petrol/diesel before France as it’s about 25p a litre cheaper in Spain, so the garages were full.
On our arrival in Canet we were given the usual full-on Shbib welcome and as I walked in the door a beer was thrust into my hand, very nice. It was then decided that it would probably be best to take our van around to the back of the house, where it would be fine, unless of course it rained heavily. In which case we will be here for some considerable time!
As Julie and Hannah were leaving in 2 days time it was obviously very important that we begin right away to learn about the eating habits of the various animals we were to be left in charge of. I say ‘we’ when really I mean me as the small one is very happy to remind me of the various feeding points and when to feed them but not to actually handle any of it. Her attempts to interact with them have met with mixed reactions. The dogs think she’s great and even although she does not continually throw things to be brought back, they will always be found lying around her reclining chair in the garden.
The cats do from time to time get a stroke but on the whole do not crave our company much. However the donkeys bless them are to say the least somewhat puzzled by her. This is because we have been shown how to stroke and pat them and they seem quite taken by us. An electric fence goes for miles around the property, (I mean miles!), so that they cannot wander off. An important portion of this fence is of course around their paddock which can be shortened by moving one arm of the fence, which is always live.
These poor defenceless creatures were delighted when Joan went up to them then suddenly I heard a cry, help I’ve been Pablo’d, poor Joan was stood there covered in dust all down one side where he had rubbed himself against her as a sign of affection. Later Pablo came over to be stroked, she was soo pleased with this that she leaned towards him, just as her hands start to stroke under his chin she makes contact with the electric fence! They both jump back in shock and it took sometime before she could convince him it was a mistake. Finally he and Poppy, the baby, came over to her and blow me if she didn’t do it again! They are now a little wary of her unless she is inside the fence.
I of course spend lots of time inside the fence feeding, locking in, letting out and of course removing the piles of poop. All the donkeys seem happy if a little cautious of me and my only problem is that Annie does keep sort of leaning on me and it is difficult to remain on ones feet. So here we are settled well into the farming life with cats, chickens, donkeys, Guinea pigs and birds first thing in the morning and the same in the evening plus the dogs and collecting the egg’s and watering the garden.
During the day our time is our own and we have visited a few places recommended by Julie, one was a Mediterranean garden which has been cut out in the side of the mountain. We arrived at lunch time and walked steeply uphill from the car park to a minute bistro with 4 tables, 1 chair either side in the street balanced precariously on a piece of decking. After a very pleasant meal and a carafe of chilled rose wine we set off again almost vertically up until we arrived at the entrance to the garden. To our surprise the lady who had been sitting next to Joan in the restaurant was waiting to sell us a ticket. Later we found out we could have come on a slightly easier route but it was much longer, we know because we came down that way. The garden itself is like all these things, a work in progress, but even if you were not interested in the garden, for the €5 entrance fee it was more than worth it for the incredible views in both directions along the river.
On Sunday we went to Narbonne market where we managed to buy four pairs of shoes, some underwear and a pair of sunglasses, none of which sadly fit me but Joan bless her has said she will wear them, what a trooper! We then went to Narbonne beach for an hour which we thought was a couple of miles from Narbonne but is actually 10 miles away? With the temperatures up in the 30’s we tend to spend our other time either sitting under the trees in the garden, staying inside which is nice and cool or out driving, thank God Julies car is air conditioned. Well that’s about all for now, it’s good to see Reena has put a nice meat curry on her recipe blog, it will go nicely with all this hot weather we are having at the moment.
Oh, and welcome home to Pam & Colin, hope the holiday was as good as it sounded on the phone.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan
XXXX
The journey to Julie and Khaled’s was fairly uneventful and straightforward. The amazing thing was just before we reached the French border it was just like something out of the Wild West. It appeared that the whole place was full of French people, every car had a French number plate, and every few kilometres there was a restaurant with a supermarket attached which was basically a booze store. It was also the last place to get cheap petrol/diesel before France as it’s about 25p a litre cheaper in Spain, so the garages were full.
On our arrival in Canet we were given the usual full-on Shbib welcome and as I walked in the door a beer was thrust into my hand, very nice. It was then decided that it would probably be best to take our van around to the back of the house, where it would be fine, unless of course it rained heavily. In which case we will be here for some considerable time!
As Julie and Hannah were leaving in 2 days time it was obviously very important that we begin right away to learn about the eating habits of the various animals we were to be left in charge of. I say ‘we’ when really I mean me as the small one is very happy to remind me of the various feeding points and when to feed them but not to actually handle any of it. Her attempts to interact with them have met with mixed reactions. The dogs think she’s great and even although she does not continually throw things to be brought back, they will always be found lying around her reclining chair in the garden.
The cats do from time to time get a stroke but on the whole do not crave our company much. However the donkeys bless them are to say the least somewhat puzzled by her. This is because we have been shown how to stroke and pat them and they seem quite taken by us. An electric fence goes for miles around the property, (I mean miles!), so that they cannot wander off. An important portion of this fence is of course around their paddock which can be shortened by moving one arm of the fence, which is always live.
These poor defenceless creatures were delighted when Joan went up to them then suddenly I heard a cry, help I’ve been Pablo’d, poor Joan was stood there covered in dust all down one side where he had rubbed himself against her as a sign of affection. Later Pablo came over to be stroked, she was soo pleased with this that she leaned towards him, just as her hands start to stroke under his chin she makes contact with the electric fence! They both jump back in shock and it took sometime before she could convince him it was a mistake. Finally he and Poppy, the baby, came over to her and blow me if she didn’t do it again! They are now a little wary of her unless she is inside the fence.
I of course spend lots of time inside the fence feeding, locking in, letting out and of course removing the piles of poop. All the donkeys seem happy if a little cautious of me and my only problem is that Annie does keep sort of leaning on me and it is difficult to remain on ones feet. So here we are settled well into the farming life with cats, chickens, donkeys, Guinea pigs and birds first thing in the morning and the same in the evening plus the dogs and collecting the egg’s and watering the garden.
During the day our time is our own and we have visited a few places recommended by Julie, one was a Mediterranean garden which has been cut out in the side of the mountain. We arrived at lunch time and walked steeply uphill from the car park to a minute bistro with 4 tables, 1 chair either side in the street balanced precariously on a piece of decking. After a very pleasant meal and a carafe of chilled rose wine we set off again almost vertically up until we arrived at the entrance to the garden. To our surprise the lady who had been sitting next to Joan in the restaurant was waiting to sell us a ticket. Later we found out we could have come on a slightly easier route but it was much longer, we know because we came down that way. The garden itself is like all these things, a work in progress, but even if you were not interested in the garden, for the €5 entrance fee it was more than worth it for the incredible views in both directions along the river.
On Sunday we went to Narbonne market where we managed to buy four pairs of shoes, some underwear and a pair of sunglasses, none of which sadly fit me but Joan bless her has said she will wear them, what a trooper! We then went to Narbonne beach for an hour which we thought was a couple of miles from Narbonne but is actually 10 miles away? With the temperatures up in the 30’s we tend to spend our other time either sitting under the trees in the garden, staying inside which is nice and cool or out driving, thank God Julies car is air conditioned. Well that’s about all for now, it’s good to see Reena has put a nice meat curry on her recipe blog, it will go nicely with all this hot weather we are having at the moment.
Oh, and welcome home to Pam & Colin, hope the holiday was as good as it sounded on the phone.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan
XXXX
Friday, 19 June 2009
A Dutch kilometre is very much like a country mile!
12th – 19th June
When we arrived at the campsite at Salamanca we were at loggerheads, guess why? Yep you got it, the bloomin sat-nav had just had us driving around a local SMALL housing estate! It didn’t help that I was very tired I suppose but the final straw was when the small one admitted she had overruled the sat-nav some way back!!!!! It is of course impossible to be annoyed for very long as it takes too much energy so by the time we were all set up and sipping our beer/shandy we were friends again. Our neighbours were mostly Dutch people but as usual most of them spoke pretty good English. We enquired about getting into town and were assured it was a matter of but a few kilometres along a nice riverside track, more or less flat all the way, just like Holland, trust me. Ha! It was great for about ½ a mile then it became this very narrow almost none existent track through stinging nettles along which Joan refused point blank to ride.
I must admit it was pretty scary and in places there appeared nothing to stop you falling into the river so we pushed the bikes until such time as it widened a little. After a while a tremulous voice said, look this is not fun, when do we get to that road he mentioned? I of course immediately whipped out my crystal ball.....no actually I replied that pushing the bikes made it seem far longer and we would probably get there very soon. Eventually we did of course and to our delight found ourselves in the middle of a market where we were able to buy not one but two pairs of leather sandals, whoopee! With our spirits restored we of course instantly went the wrong way into town and finally made it to the Cathedral where of course the tourist info was. Now unlike lots of tourist info places we have been to where they are amazed (a) that anybody found them they are so well hidden and (b) that you actually want to know about their town etc. In Salamanca as soon as we entered, they whipped out an info sheet with details of hotels, sights, eateries (is that a word Carole?)etc.
What I am going to tell you now will appal you and we certainly did not ask the lady because we were looking for ssh (Mc Donald’s ) only because they have free wi-fi, honest. Our campsite wanted to charge us £4 for an hour and it seemed really excessive. Why is it that whenever we are looking for somewhere in a town or city, that particular road is the one they are digging up or just about to renew the sign? We saw the sign which said it was 300 metres and gave the actual Plaza it was in, but when we eventually found the place, no sign of (Mc Donald’s). We did find it eventually but decided it was far too far to come back to later. After all as we told our Dutch Friend 11½ miles is not our idea of a simple couple of kilometres. We had though returned by the road which was mostly downhill freewheeling once we had found the right one.
The next day was spent recovering and a visit to the pool helped. We also saw our Dutch friend who had the most horrendous swollen foot from a bite he must have got going along by the river. On seeing this I was informed we would be leaving in the morning. Frankly if we had not seen so many wonderful sights along the way we may have been more impressed by Salamanca but we had seen it and felt it was time to move on. Having driven for 170 odd miles we were pleased to pull straight into our campsite at Riaza. According to the book it is only 2 star but it was really super and appears to be brand new. This meant all the facilities were spotless and it was a shame we would only stay one night but I wanted to go to the seaside!
Joan who is concerned for my welfare had planned the next stop at a place called Caspi about 235 miles from Riaza leaving a shorter trip the following day. When I looked at the map it seemed daft to detour there and then drive the next day so as I was feeling pretty good I elected to drive the 328 miles straight through to Cambrils so as to be by the sea in the morning. Suffice to say I was totally knackered the next day and the one after, not entirely my fault as we were on a single track trunk road most of the way and huge tracts of it were dug up which didn’t help at all. We had long delays and there were hundreds of lorries as far as the eye could see in both directions, so not an easy drive. Finally, totally fed up and worried because they were all driving like nutters to make up time. Joan plotted a route to the toll road for the last 30 miles, a fiver well spent we both agreed.
All of you will recognise the words “I told you so!” The married men will and of course, all the women will remember that particular lesson at secondary school where they had to do it over and over out loud to get the right tone!! Joan got an ‘A’plus
I had NOT been looking forward to getting to this site as we had heard it had some low trees. What they didn’t say was the main entrance was only 3.2metres high,(we are 3.1!). They lied, it only had low trees and with my track record, plus having driven all that way, I was hyperventilating within seconds of driving in. Fortunately the small one rises to occasions like this without too many adverse comments, and we now know it is possible to drive our van at 1 inch per minute leaving plenty of time to check heights/ widths etc. What the people who told us about this place didn’t lie about was how nice it was and how nice the beach and promenade are.
Since then we have been cycling along the prom, swimming in the sea etc as you do when the sea is the only place to cool down a bit and the temperatures are in the high 30’s.
Another example of the road up business, we were told there is an amazing place for fruit and veg run as a co-op by the local growers. Armed with a map from the office we set off to find it and of course did so, IN THE END. Why? Because the road we should have gone down is being dug up, ho hum.
So that’s yer lot dear friends, we have another 3 nights here and then we set off for Julies, back in France at last!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Happy Birthday to Joseph, we hope that new bicycle goes very fast! X.
When we arrived at the campsite at Salamanca we were at loggerheads, guess why? Yep you got it, the bloomin sat-nav had just had us driving around a local SMALL housing estate! It didn’t help that I was very tired I suppose but the final straw was when the small one admitted she had overruled the sat-nav some way back!!!!! It is of course impossible to be annoyed for very long as it takes too much energy so by the time we were all set up and sipping our beer/shandy we were friends again. Our neighbours were mostly Dutch people but as usual most of them spoke pretty good English. We enquired about getting into town and were assured it was a matter of but a few kilometres along a nice riverside track, more or less flat all the way, just like Holland, trust me. Ha! It was great for about ½ a mile then it became this very narrow almost none existent track through stinging nettles along which Joan refused point blank to ride.
I must admit it was pretty scary and in places there appeared nothing to stop you falling into the river so we pushed the bikes until such time as it widened a little. After a while a tremulous voice said, look this is not fun, when do we get to that road he mentioned? I of course immediately whipped out my crystal ball.....no actually I replied that pushing the bikes made it seem far longer and we would probably get there very soon. Eventually we did of course and to our delight found ourselves in the middle of a market where we were able to buy not one but two pairs of leather sandals, whoopee! With our spirits restored we of course instantly went the wrong way into town and finally made it to the Cathedral where of course the tourist info was. Now unlike lots of tourist info places we have been to where they are amazed (a) that anybody found them they are so well hidden and (b) that you actually want to know about their town etc. In Salamanca as soon as we entered, they whipped out an info sheet with details of hotels, sights, eateries (is that a word Carole?)etc.
What I am going to tell you now will appal you and we certainly did not ask the lady because we were looking for ssh (Mc Donald’s ) only because they have free wi-fi, honest. Our campsite wanted to charge us £4 for an hour and it seemed really excessive. Why is it that whenever we are looking for somewhere in a town or city, that particular road is the one they are digging up or just about to renew the sign? We saw the sign which said it was 300 metres and gave the actual Plaza it was in, but when we eventually found the place, no sign of (Mc Donald’s). We did find it eventually but decided it was far too far to come back to later. After all as we told our Dutch Friend 11½ miles is not our idea of a simple couple of kilometres. We had though returned by the road which was mostly downhill freewheeling once we had found the right one.
The next day was spent recovering and a visit to the pool helped. We also saw our Dutch friend who had the most horrendous swollen foot from a bite he must have got going along by the river. On seeing this I was informed we would be leaving in the morning. Frankly if we had not seen so many wonderful sights along the way we may have been more impressed by Salamanca but we had seen it and felt it was time to move on. Having driven for 170 odd miles we were pleased to pull straight into our campsite at Riaza. According to the book it is only 2 star but it was really super and appears to be brand new. This meant all the facilities were spotless and it was a shame we would only stay one night but I wanted to go to the seaside!
Joan who is concerned for my welfare had planned the next stop at a place called Caspi about 235 miles from Riaza leaving a shorter trip the following day. When I looked at the map it seemed daft to detour there and then drive the next day so as I was feeling pretty good I elected to drive the 328 miles straight through to Cambrils so as to be by the sea in the morning. Suffice to say I was totally knackered the next day and the one after, not entirely my fault as we were on a single track trunk road most of the way and huge tracts of it were dug up which didn’t help at all. We had long delays and there were hundreds of lorries as far as the eye could see in both directions, so not an easy drive. Finally, totally fed up and worried because they were all driving like nutters to make up time. Joan plotted a route to the toll road for the last 30 miles, a fiver well spent we both agreed.
All of you will recognise the words “I told you so!” The married men will and of course, all the women will remember that particular lesson at secondary school where they had to do it over and over out loud to get the right tone!! Joan got an ‘A’plus
I had NOT been looking forward to getting to this site as we had heard it had some low trees. What they didn’t say was the main entrance was only 3.2metres high,(we are 3.1!). They lied, it only had low trees and with my track record, plus having driven all that way, I was hyperventilating within seconds of driving in. Fortunately the small one rises to occasions like this without too many adverse comments, and we now know it is possible to drive our van at 1 inch per minute leaving plenty of time to check heights/ widths etc. What the people who told us about this place didn’t lie about was how nice it was and how nice the beach and promenade are.
Since then we have been cycling along the prom, swimming in the sea etc as you do when the sea is the only place to cool down a bit and the temperatures are in the high 30’s.
Another example of the road up business, we were told there is an amazing place for fruit and veg run as a co-op by the local growers. Armed with a map from the office we set off to find it and of course did so, IN THE END. Why? Because the road we should have gone down is being dug up, ho hum.
So that’s yer lot dear friends, we have another 3 nights here and then we set off for Julies, back in France at last!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Happy Birthday to Joseph, we hope that new bicycle goes very fast! X.
Friday, 12 June 2009
A Portuguese marathon
I have titled this a marathon, so for those with limited time to spare I will précis. We stayed at a site to visit Lisbon from, it had a nice beach after a long walk. The maps they give you for seeing Lisbon are NOT to scale and we walked a lot. It rained a lot. When we went to the beach we got very wet! (see picture) At Fatima Joan took part in a candlelight procession. Also at Fatima we witnessed some incredible sights at the children’s festival. Somebody’s van lock was damaged. We left. It rained, we left Portugal and it got very, very hot in Spain, the end. J&B X
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
A Portuguese marathon
I have titled this a marathon, so for those with limited time to spare I will précis. We stayed at a site to visit Lisbon from, it had a nice beach after a long walk. The maps they give you for seeing Lisbon are NOT to scale and we walked a lot. It rained a lot. When we went to the beach we got very wet! (see picture) At Fatima Joan took part in a candlelight procession. Also at Fatima we witnessed some incredible sights at the children’s festival. Somebody’s van lock was damaged. We left. It rained, we left Portugal and it got very, very hot in Spain, the end. J&B X
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Wind and rain were definitely NOT in her plans!
1st to 5th June
Today we decided to cycle to town for a paper (doesn’t arrive till Tuesday!), and a couple of minor supplies and then come straight back to spend some time on the beach. However with all this fresh fish around it seemed silly not to buy some. Having cycled all the way to the port and found the shop, we were just inside the door when Joan decided we should not cook fish in the van as it will stink for days! Then she saw the prawns, oh lets have those for lunch she said. So we bought a kilo of giant prawns for €3.50 (honest). I always thought that if they were pink they were ready to eat but when we got them home to the van and opened the bag they were definitely pink but still did not look right. My local fish expert announced that they would need cooking further but decided to peel them first. This took absolutely ages but when they were done she immersed them in boiling water and almost immediately they became a little pinker and were pronounced edible. This was a good thing as by now our backs were breaking, our legs ached and we were starving! About half way through we realised there were far too many and so tomorrows lunch was sorted.
Next after a brief rest it was time for the beach and a dip in the sea, lovely stuff. However our time there was cut short as it was becoming very windy and so it was back to the van where we could sit in the sun with a little shelter from the wind and of course enjoy a beer.
Tuesday arrived like an early March day except of course it was sunny but quite cold, the small one was not amused and who could blame her, we were ninety odd miles from bloomin Africa and it was cold! If in fact you got out of the wind the sun was pretty hot so as this was our last day here we were determined to enjoy it. Another quick trip for a paper, this time successful and then off to the beach only to be driven back by the wind which was threatening to sand blast us it was so strong. Being English of course we attempted to hunker down in the dunes but it was really hurting us so reluctantly we returned, had lunch and went to the swimming pool on the camp site. This proved a really good move, we got our swim after all as the water was really warm, and as it was a little sheltered we were able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
That evening we returned to the pool as it is possible to see the sunset over the wildlife area behind the site. This is one of those rituals that we do and for the life of me I cannot see why, although the sunsets can and do on occasion look really nice. I still remember when we drove all the way down to Key West in Florida and at the appointed hour gathered together with all the other people at the farthest point to witness it. Just before it happened a bloody great cloud covered it and we all went home disappointed. Fortunately we were there another couple of days and did get to see it but those who were only there for a day were gutted. Oh well I digress.
We left fairly early Wednesday for Portugal and with only 96 miles to do, arrived nice and early at Praia da Luz near Lagos on the Algarve. We had a nice lunch in their restaurant and were about to check out the pool but the wind really got up and was just blasting through, so we retreated to our van, and planned the next day. Ever since we arrived at the south coast of Spain from Gibraltar along to here, the wind really gets up especially in the afternoon and although it keeps us cool it’s not very pleasant. It’s very hilly round here which means we can’t use the bikes so today we got the hourly bus into Lagos and had a really good day wandering around the marina, the beach and the old town where we had lunch in a lovely square and watched the world go by, smashing.
On our return we made our plans to spend the next day on the beach nearby and then to set off for the most south westerly point of Europe, Sagres. All of this would depend on the weather improving slightly because it was quite cold as we prepared for bed. When we awoke it was cold and grey, then it started to rain! That’s it we are leaving right away, just get us unplugged and I will go and pay, said the small one raising herself up to her full 5ft1½inches, I am NOT putting up with this, it’s warmer at home. This of course was a slight exaggeration but it was a bit depressing to have come all this way for cold wet weather so we packed up and left without seeing Sagres in the rain. We drove the 186 miles to Lisbon along a motorway that cost us €32 but we did it in just over 3 hours and were at our new campsite and all set up sitting outside in the sun by 3.30pm.
I was just a little traumatised as this site is full of twisted gnarled trees with huge low boughs and branches so with my track record I was petrified. As we drove in we passed some pitches near a road and hadn’t gone there in case of noise. We tried to negotiate a couple of places and I actually managed to get into one with a lot of help from Joan but then when we got out and looked, we realised that if somebody parked opposite us we would not be able to leave! So we carefully extracted the van from that pitch and returned to a very nice one near the road but sans trees, phew.
Tomorrow we will wish Eleanor a very happy 4th birthday then take a bus to Lisbon for the day. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan XXXX
Today we decided to cycle to town for a paper (doesn’t arrive till Tuesday!), and a couple of minor supplies and then come straight back to spend some time on the beach. However with all this fresh fish around it seemed silly not to buy some. Having cycled all the way to the port and found the shop, we were just inside the door when Joan decided we should not cook fish in the van as it will stink for days! Then she saw the prawns, oh lets have those for lunch she said. So we bought a kilo of giant prawns for €3.50 (honest). I always thought that if they were pink they were ready to eat but when we got them home to the van and opened the bag they were definitely pink but still did not look right. My local fish expert announced that they would need cooking further but decided to peel them first. This took absolutely ages but when they were done she immersed them in boiling water and almost immediately they became a little pinker and were pronounced edible. This was a good thing as by now our backs were breaking, our legs ached and we were starving! About half way through we realised there were far too many and so tomorrows lunch was sorted.
Next after a brief rest it was time for the beach and a dip in the sea, lovely stuff. However our time there was cut short as it was becoming very windy and so it was back to the van where we could sit in the sun with a little shelter from the wind and of course enjoy a beer.
Tuesday arrived like an early March day except of course it was sunny but quite cold, the small one was not amused and who could blame her, we were ninety odd miles from bloomin Africa and it was cold! If in fact you got out of the wind the sun was pretty hot so as this was our last day here we were determined to enjoy it. Another quick trip for a paper, this time successful and then off to the beach only to be driven back by the wind which was threatening to sand blast us it was so strong. Being English of course we attempted to hunker down in the dunes but it was really hurting us so reluctantly we returned, had lunch and went to the swimming pool on the camp site. This proved a really good move, we got our swim after all as the water was really warm, and as it was a little sheltered we were able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
That evening we returned to the pool as it is possible to see the sunset over the wildlife area behind the site. This is one of those rituals that we do and for the life of me I cannot see why, although the sunsets can and do on occasion look really nice. I still remember when we drove all the way down to Key West in Florida and at the appointed hour gathered together with all the other people at the farthest point to witness it. Just before it happened a bloody great cloud covered it and we all went home disappointed. Fortunately we were there another couple of days and did get to see it but those who were only there for a day were gutted. Oh well I digress.
We left fairly early Wednesday for Portugal and with only 96 miles to do, arrived nice and early at Praia da Luz near Lagos on the Algarve. We had a nice lunch in their restaurant and were about to check out the pool but the wind really got up and was just blasting through, so we retreated to our van, and planned the next day. Ever since we arrived at the south coast of Spain from Gibraltar along to here, the wind really gets up especially in the afternoon and although it keeps us cool it’s not very pleasant. It’s very hilly round here which means we can’t use the bikes so today we got the hourly bus into Lagos and had a really good day wandering around the marina, the beach and the old town where we had lunch in a lovely square and watched the world go by, smashing.
On our return we made our plans to spend the next day on the beach nearby and then to set off for the most south westerly point of Europe, Sagres. All of this would depend on the weather improving slightly because it was quite cold as we prepared for bed. When we awoke it was cold and grey, then it started to rain! That’s it we are leaving right away, just get us unplugged and I will go and pay, said the small one raising herself up to her full 5ft1½inches, I am NOT putting up with this, it’s warmer at home. This of course was a slight exaggeration but it was a bit depressing to have come all this way for cold wet weather so we packed up and left without seeing Sagres in the rain. We drove the 186 miles to Lisbon along a motorway that cost us €32 but we did it in just over 3 hours and were at our new campsite and all set up sitting outside in the sun by 3.30pm.
I was just a little traumatised as this site is full of twisted gnarled trees with huge low boughs and branches so with my track record I was petrified. As we drove in we passed some pitches near a road and hadn’t gone there in case of noise. We tried to negotiate a couple of places and I actually managed to get into one with a lot of help from Joan but then when we got out and looked, we realised that if somebody parked opposite us we would not be able to leave! So we carefully extracted the van from that pitch and returned to a very nice one near the road but sans trees, phew.
Tomorrow we will wish Eleanor a very happy 4th birthday then take a bus to Lisbon for the day. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan XXXX
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
A fishy tale and a ferret?
31st May to 1st June
Just been reading Reena’s new web site of lovely recipes and cannot wait to try a couple but we may struggle to find the ingredients here. If you fancy having a look it’s = http://coconutraita.blogspot.com/
As we are staying here until at least Wednesday because the beach is so good and the whole atmosphere totally relaxing, I thought I would just mention a few other things that have happened. As some of you may know Joan is somewhat partial to fish which is apparently due to being a Piscean. Isla Cristina is the second biggest fishing port in Spain so it should certainly be fresh, how fresh we were to find out! We are convinced the locals will be dining out on our visits to their restaurants for some time to come. I should point out that our Spanish does not improve and this is one of the few places where they speak no English.
I am firmly convinced that if you want to know what’s good you should ask the locals in the office and look out for places that are packed with locals - not rocket science. The second part rather falls down as they do not eat until about 10pm and remember we are cycling there and back. The young lady in reception said, well it’s not pretty but there is a traditional bar down near the port where the fish has just been landed and I eat there all the time, and she drew us a route on our local map. At the same time fortunately she showed us where a more traditional restaurant was situated where she also goes and the food is good.
Off we went about 6.30pm cycling all around the back streets of the port. Being so narrow they are all one ways which made it more difficult, it all looked very dark and dodgy. There was not a soul about but like a horror film there would be a sudden noise, a crash or a shout then nothing. When eventually we found the bar it was firmly closed and did not inspire the small one who said could we please go to a street with lights and just a few people?
I of course pretended to be all brave but agreed and we got out to the main road asap. So now we had a problem, we were hungry! Worse, Joan had been promised a wonderful fish meal and it was so far not in sight. Time for plan ‘b,’ the restaurant. This actually did not prove quite as difficult to locate although it was again up a side street, there were lots of people around though. Sadly it was firmly closed but some of the windows were open and when I enquired if it would open soon, a lady sitting on a step in the street said octo something which I seem to remember meant 8pm. So we nipped off to take a look at the beach and get a soft drink to return after eight. What a transformation, all the windows were open now and blinds down over the road with tables and chairs outside in the road. There were no other customers though which was probably a good thing as we took up all the waitresses time. Although it was a glorious night with the sun still shining brightly they were amazed that we wanted to eat outside. Secondly the waitress proudly produced a menu and stood beaming expectantly, she was soo very patient and tried to go through it with us. As far as we could ascertain there was a huge selection of fish but we could not understand how it was priced. She said ah you see, and pointed to her eyes, then when Joan went to follow her she said no and motioned that she would bring it to us. Then we heard lots of shouting in the kitchen and she returned with a selection of fish on a huge tray for Joan to pick from.
Now I know nothing about fish but it looked as though it had been swimming 10 minutes earlier, and the small one was delighted, but as far as we could tell she had to buy all of whichever fish she picked. Well some of them were frankly enormous and would have given her enough food for a couple of days at least. What they had not yet grasped was that we were not going to share it. People often wonder why I go to a fish restaurant, they don’t realise I am strange. Finally she picked a medium sized fish and the girl now whipped the tray away inside and returned to me with a friendly but resigned look on her face.
The only thing on the menu I could attempt were prawns which apparently come cooked several ways. She nipped back inside and returned with a tray of six giant prawns and engaged me in a very complicated conversation of which I swear I did not understand a word! However with all her experience and possibly psychic abilities she left nodding and smiling, while we sat in nervous anticipation. Next she reappeared all smiles with a small plate each, a bowl of olives, some bread and the six huge prawns. Is it your meal or your starter or our starter wondered Joan. Anyway she had one I ate the rest, then suddenly Joan’s fish was served with salad and chips followed by another plate of 10 very large prawns cooked another way apparently for me! Having said all that the small one is still talking about how good the fish was and the prawns were delicious. By the time the poor girl had managed to get our order the restaurant had several customers and judging by the laughter when she went inside I think we were good value, plus we gave her a tip and asked the lady on the campsite to thank her next time they visit.
The next afternoon/evening we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach when the sun had lost a bit of its heat. So we saunter down and as we get onto the sand, as I am sure everybody does, your eyes sweep around to take it in and pick a spot to go to. What happened could only happen to us I swear, directly in front of me is a one legged man so I quickly move my eyes to see a woman getting undressed. Shifting my gaze rapidly I next see a man take off his trunks and finally having given up but found a place to sit, a young lad and his girlfriend appear with a ferret on a lead!
I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan
XXXX
Just been reading Reena’s new web site of lovely recipes and cannot wait to try a couple but we may struggle to find the ingredients here. If you fancy having a look it’s = http://coconutraita.blogspot.com/
As we are staying here until at least Wednesday because the beach is so good and the whole atmosphere totally relaxing, I thought I would just mention a few other things that have happened. As some of you may know Joan is somewhat partial to fish which is apparently due to being a Piscean. Isla Cristina is the second biggest fishing port in Spain so it should certainly be fresh, how fresh we were to find out! We are convinced the locals will be dining out on our visits to their restaurants for some time to come. I should point out that our Spanish does not improve and this is one of the few places where they speak no English.
I am firmly convinced that if you want to know what’s good you should ask the locals in the office and look out for places that are packed with locals - not rocket science. The second part rather falls down as they do not eat until about 10pm and remember we are cycling there and back. The young lady in reception said, well it’s not pretty but there is a traditional bar down near the port where the fish has just been landed and I eat there all the time, and she drew us a route on our local map. At the same time fortunately she showed us where a more traditional restaurant was situated where she also goes and the food is good.
Off we went about 6.30pm cycling all around the back streets of the port. Being so narrow they are all one ways which made it more difficult, it all looked very dark and dodgy. There was not a soul about but like a horror film there would be a sudden noise, a crash or a shout then nothing. When eventually we found the bar it was firmly closed and did not inspire the small one who said could we please go to a street with lights and just a few people?
I of course pretended to be all brave but agreed and we got out to the main road asap. So now we had a problem, we were hungry! Worse, Joan had been promised a wonderful fish meal and it was so far not in sight. Time for plan ‘b,’ the restaurant. This actually did not prove quite as difficult to locate although it was again up a side street, there were lots of people around though. Sadly it was firmly closed but some of the windows were open and when I enquired if it would open soon, a lady sitting on a step in the street said octo something which I seem to remember meant 8pm. So we nipped off to take a look at the beach and get a soft drink to return after eight. What a transformation, all the windows were open now and blinds down over the road with tables and chairs outside in the road. There were no other customers though which was probably a good thing as we took up all the waitresses time. Although it was a glorious night with the sun still shining brightly they were amazed that we wanted to eat outside. Secondly the waitress proudly produced a menu and stood beaming expectantly, she was soo very patient and tried to go through it with us. As far as we could ascertain there was a huge selection of fish but we could not understand how it was priced. She said ah you see, and pointed to her eyes, then when Joan went to follow her she said no and motioned that she would bring it to us. Then we heard lots of shouting in the kitchen and she returned with a selection of fish on a huge tray for Joan to pick from.
Now I know nothing about fish but it looked as though it had been swimming 10 minutes earlier, and the small one was delighted, but as far as we could tell she had to buy all of whichever fish she picked. Well some of them were frankly enormous and would have given her enough food for a couple of days at least. What they had not yet grasped was that we were not going to share it. People often wonder why I go to a fish restaurant, they don’t realise I am strange. Finally she picked a medium sized fish and the girl now whipped the tray away inside and returned to me with a friendly but resigned look on her face.
The only thing on the menu I could attempt were prawns which apparently come cooked several ways. She nipped back inside and returned with a tray of six giant prawns and engaged me in a very complicated conversation of which I swear I did not understand a word! However with all her experience and possibly psychic abilities she left nodding and smiling, while we sat in nervous anticipation. Next she reappeared all smiles with a small plate each, a bowl of olives, some bread and the six huge prawns. Is it your meal or your starter or our starter wondered Joan. Anyway she had one I ate the rest, then suddenly Joan’s fish was served with salad and chips followed by another plate of 10 very large prawns cooked another way apparently for me! Having said all that the small one is still talking about how good the fish was and the prawns were delicious. By the time the poor girl had managed to get our order the restaurant had several customers and judging by the laughter when she went inside I think we were good value, plus we gave her a tip and asked the lady on the campsite to thank her next time they visit.
The next afternoon/evening we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach when the sun had lost a bit of its heat. So we saunter down and as we get onto the sand, as I am sure everybody does, your eyes sweep around to take it in and pick a spot to go to. What happened could only happen to us I swear, directly in front of me is a one legged man so I quickly move my eyes to see a woman getting undressed. Shifting my gaze rapidly I next see a man take off his trunks and finally having given up but found a place to sit, a young lad and his girlfriend appear with a ferret on a lead!
I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan
XXXX
Sunday, 31 May 2009
The planes run across the road!
26th – 30th May
After the last marathon blog hopefully this will not be quite so long but you’ve all had a weekend off so should be ready for it.
With another 100 miles left to do to get to La Linea we made damn good time but at some point as we approached it Joan decided that the sat-nav lady did not have a clue and directed me to ignore her. What followed was a very extensive drive around the surrounding area until we returned to the point where the sat-nav had said turn left, and within a couple of miles we found the campsite. (I’m saying nothing!).
On our various detours trying to find it we had spotted several motorhomes parked apparently for the night and we were tempted to join them, thank God we didn’t. The next day when we cycled to Gibraltar we had to pass through a huge market set up where they had been, phew. As they were all French we now think they must have been waiting to catch the ferry to Tangiers.
La Linea campsite turned out to be combined with the local social/sports centre, this at first worried us but we soon realised that it was manned 24 hours a day and so was pretty safe. On the evening we arrived the temperature was somewhere in the thirties, but the next morning we were subjected to the Levant wind and a lot of cloud so the small person was definitely not amused. We spent the whole day wearing our coats which we’d put away a couple of weeks earlier!
As I said, we visited Gibraltar on our bikes and it was very strange as we were in this sort of manic rush of traffic and people trying to get on and when we returned it was just the same to get off again. The other thing is the road goes straight across the airport runway so it seems worse. We were stopped for passports and then had to wait while a plane taxied out and then returned and took off, the barrier opened and I thought somebody had said free pound notes for the first 4 across! Although there was a so called cycle way it was full of people and scooters, amazing. The small one was quite frightened.
Those of you still awake and who have been following this, will remember that I was attempting to find an ex-colleague who I believed lived here and we decided to try and find him first. We did not succeed but it was not for the want of help from the authorities. The lady on the door of the civic centre sent us to another building across the road and also went and scoured the phone books for us. Meanwhile at the other building which was the Parliament we were given access and helped to search the electoral roll. When we left the first lady came over and handed me a piece of paper with a possible phone number on it, which was kind of her. However we had a pleasant time there and it was certainly an experience. I did try the phone number at different times and got no answer but I’ll keep trying.
On the way back the wind was so strong that we kept to the back streets away from the coast to try to get some shelter as we were peddling against it. We were exhausted when we got back but just then the sun came out and it was red hot again. Having thought we might stay a while I was suddenly informed we were leaving in the morning! Actually we did look at the beach and it left a bit to be desired really.
So on Thursday 28th May we set off for our last stop before reaching Portugal. It was just over 200 miles so we tried to leave early and for once managed it. Ever since we arrived here at Isla Cristina it’s been good. I can’t explain it but it is just perfect, so much so that after one night we extended our stay to several days and I am not sure we won’t stay even longer. One couple in a caravan near us are here for the 5th year and have been here 7 weeks. Although very few people in the town speak any English at all they are all so friendly and helpful. We’ve got temperatures in the 30’s, free wi-fi, nice neighbours an amazing security system, the sea is warm and is only about 200yds away! A typical example of our stay here is we had a really nice German couple called Joe and Ingrid parked behind us in a Hymer van like the one we first owned. I am not sure how but we got chatting, I think Joan commented on the van. Over the next few days we spent a lot of time together especially in the evenings. They were so lovely, both had a brilliant sense of humour and spoke good English. We got on really well, so much so that they have invited us to come to Germany next year where they will introduce us to some nice beer gardens. Sounds good to us!
Some other good news is that we have heard by email from some of the St Reverend Boule club 2008 and we will be seeing them when we hit France again.
Happy 30th Birthday to John Bell, hope it’s a good one!!
Lots of love,
Joan & Bryan xxxx
After the last marathon blog hopefully this will not be quite so long but you’ve all had a weekend off so should be ready for it.
With another 100 miles left to do to get to La Linea we made damn good time but at some point as we approached it Joan decided that the sat-nav lady did not have a clue and directed me to ignore her. What followed was a very extensive drive around the surrounding area until we returned to the point where the sat-nav had said turn left, and within a couple of miles we found the campsite. (I’m saying nothing!).
On our various detours trying to find it we had spotted several motorhomes parked apparently for the night and we were tempted to join them, thank God we didn’t. The next day when we cycled to Gibraltar we had to pass through a huge market set up where they had been, phew. As they were all French we now think they must have been waiting to catch the ferry to Tangiers.
La Linea campsite turned out to be combined with the local social/sports centre, this at first worried us but we soon realised that it was manned 24 hours a day and so was pretty safe. On the evening we arrived the temperature was somewhere in the thirties, but the next morning we were subjected to the Levant wind and a lot of cloud so the small person was definitely not amused. We spent the whole day wearing our coats which we’d put away a couple of weeks earlier!
As I said, we visited Gibraltar on our bikes and it was very strange as we were in this sort of manic rush of traffic and people trying to get on and when we returned it was just the same to get off again. The other thing is the road goes straight across the airport runway so it seems worse. We were stopped for passports and then had to wait while a plane taxied out and then returned and took off, the barrier opened and I thought somebody had said free pound notes for the first 4 across! Although there was a so called cycle way it was full of people and scooters, amazing. The small one was quite frightened.
Those of you still awake and who have been following this, will remember that I was attempting to find an ex-colleague who I believed lived here and we decided to try and find him first. We did not succeed but it was not for the want of help from the authorities. The lady on the door of the civic centre sent us to another building across the road and also went and scoured the phone books for us. Meanwhile at the other building which was the Parliament we were given access and helped to search the electoral roll. When we left the first lady came over and handed me a piece of paper with a possible phone number on it, which was kind of her. However we had a pleasant time there and it was certainly an experience. I did try the phone number at different times and got no answer but I’ll keep trying.
On the way back the wind was so strong that we kept to the back streets away from the coast to try to get some shelter as we were peddling against it. We were exhausted when we got back but just then the sun came out and it was red hot again. Having thought we might stay a while I was suddenly informed we were leaving in the morning! Actually we did look at the beach and it left a bit to be desired really.
So on Thursday 28th May we set off for our last stop before reaching Portugal. It was just over 200 miles so we tried to leave early and for once managed it. Ever since we arrived here at Isla Cristina it’s been good. I can’t explain it but it is just perfect, so much so that after one night we extended our stay to several days and I am not sure we won’t stay even longer. One couple in a caravan near us are here for the 5th year and have been here 7 weeks. Although very few people in the town speak any English at all they are all so friendly and helpful. We’ve got temperatures in the 30’s, free wi-fi, nice neighbours an amazing security system, the sea is warm and is only about 200yds away! A typical example of our stay here is we had a really nice German couple called Joe and Ingrid parked behind us in a Hymer van like the one we first owned. I am not sure how but we got chatting, I think Joan commented on the van. Over the next few days we spent a lot of time together especially in the evenings. They were so lovely, both had a brilliant sense of humour and spoke good English. We got on really well, so much so that they have invited us to come to Germany next year where they will introduce us to some nice beer gardens. Sounds good to us!
Some other good news is that we have heard by email from some of the St Reverend Boule club 2008 and we will be seeing them when we hit France again.
Happy 30th Birthday to John Bell, hope it’s a good one!!
Lots of love,
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Teddy, splodge and cookie
Another picture from when we were at Julies just to make sure we can work it.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Lots of wonderful old buildings plus a key moment
21st to the 26th May
We apologise for what follows as it is several days and thus a very long blog.
However for those with a squeamish disposition here is the short version. We got out of the village without mishap, went to Granada and the Alhambra. Then up to Cordoba to see the Mezquita, had a problem with a key, nipped to Malaga and ended up near Gibraltar. But you could read it in full. J&B x
Now having slept reasonably well, the small one awakes Thursday morning and immediately says, are we going to get out all right? Of course we are I answer and then as we left the lady stops us and says, you can go to the right which is very difficult and narrow and bendy, but the villagers want you to go up the hill (1 in 3!) behind and along the back of the village! Right we say. Now I must say that a German chap took a big van up to the right and we saw him a few days later so he managed it, but I was told in no uncertain terms NO! Joan and I agreed that through the narrow streets of the village was the way to go so we did! So Poo! This worked out extremely well and we were through in no time at all safely and I could feel her relax immediately. Very soon we were back on the main road to Granada and for the first time had no trouble finding the campsite, we arrived and were set up by 1pm.
Although it was a wee bit expensive it was a delightful little site and as soon as we were set up we enquired about buses and tickets for the Alhambra visit. The bus stop is right outside and there is a standard fare. We were told that the earliest they could fit us in was Saturday at 2pm with the Royal Palace at 7pm, so we would need to stay an extra day. There was apparently a chance that if we went at 8.30am Friday we may be able to book a ticket as they retain some for sale that day but most tickets are booked on the web by hotels, travel agents and campsites. As it was still early we thought we ought to nip into Granada and check it out, thank God we did. It took us ages to locate the tourist info and find out where to get the bus for the Alhambra, plus they convinced us to let our site book for us. After spending a pleasant few hours in Granada and enjoying a beer, we returned to the site and began a typical Joan & Bryan saga.
We were supposed to get wi-fi in the van and had paid for it but it did not work, so they gave us our money back. When we arrived back from Granada Joan went straight in and tried to book the Alhambra but they were fixing the internet. So began a saga of her popping over every half an hour until finally at 9.45pm she got our booking sorted. Phew, they close at ten! I of course as any red-blooded male would do, had slept through the entire process. So Friday we decided to just chill and pop over the road to the supermarket for a look around. BUT! It turned out to be a small shopping mall, Yippee! she said, but actually I got a couple of things and she got nowt. A first I assure you, but Joan having tried lots on was happy and we returned to the important business of chilling out plus helping the sales of San Miguel.
Saturday morning arrived and not only was it a bit chilly but it kept threatening to rain with several heavy rain drops then as soon as Joan got her brolly out it stopped. I tried to point out that it was perfect weather to go sightseeing but ‘we’ were definitely NOT amused. I should explain that our tickets for the Alhambra allowed us to go into the main area at 2pm but the palace is strictly controlled and they only allow a set number in every half hour. Our tickets were for 7pm which seems odd but we only just managed to see everything and returned in time to join the queue with 15 minutes to spare.
Rather than waste the morning we decided to go into Granada early and be poised for the bus to the Alhambra at 2 o’clock. Our intention was to wander around the old town but after a visit to the cathedral we were pleasantly surprised by a huge carnival procession. We had earlier noticed some women in extremely figure hugging dresses with lots of frills and boys and girls also in traditional costumes. Suddenly everybody started lining the street so we joined them. First came the horsemen/women followed by lots of the ladies in costume dresses, then to the small ones looking an absolute delight then a couple of huge bulls pulling a large cart with more ladies in it. Next came about 30 brightly decorated floats, all apparently to celebrate the ascension. We suddenly realised it was time for our bus and as far as we could tell it had to go right through the centre of the procession? However it arrived on time and we made it to collect our tickets on time.
It would be difficult to explain how wonderful everything we saw was without boring everybody stupid. The Alhambra is one of those places that you just have to see for yourself. One thing we will be taking up with Andy and Carole is how bloomin fit you need to be to do the full tour as some of the steps are pretty high! As we staggered out absolutely cream crackered around 8pm we both agreed it had been well worth the trip. On that note we were pleasantly surprised at how cheap it actually was and how well organised, I’ve been told to say the loos were spotless as well. After a lovely meal in town we headed home for a final brandy.
Sunday 24th May. We are still not sure about going to Gibraltar as we leave Granada but after a few miles decided that we could not possibly come all this way without seeing Cordoba and visiting the Mezquita. This involves a quick bit of map reading and a consultation with the sat-nav lady plus of course the ACSI book for a campsite. I merely keep driving and await further instruction. It turned out that we could not find a campsite in and around Cordoba but there was one about 15 miles to the north. As we entered the city we were amazed at all the beautiful fountains and waterfalls but it was also wall to wall traffic and impossible to park so we left and headed north. The campsite was good and as always the young lady seemed only too glad to help us with bus times and the best place to catch it. The thing was that the bus left at 8 or 9.30am then 2.30pm the return was 3.30, 6 or 8pm. At 7am when the alarm went off the sleepy little person complained bitterly but we had tried the walk to the bus last night and it was a fair distance. When we finally arrived at 9.05am, 25 minutes early along with several Dutch couples it appeared that all the husbands had committed the same sin!
On arrival in Cordoba we made straight for the old city and the Mezquita which is an incredible building and did not disappoint us at all. Lunch was genuine Tapas, something I have certainly never had before and it was excellent. That night getting ready for our trip the next day, I managed again to mess things up. It all happened because our on board water was not working properly and I wanted to empty it all and refill. Having located a suitable tap, not an easy task as it turned out as it was located behind some holiday flats, I asked permission and was told it’s not drinking water, just for washing etc which was fine. We moved the van, drained it and refilled it, everything worked fine, hurray. Then this geezer appears and starts having a go in foreign, then brings the girl from reception over both yammering on. I thought I had done something wrong and got her into trouble so I hastily packed my hose away and shut it into the locker with the gas bottles. As I shut the door I realised the water stopper with the KEY in it was resting on the gas bottles, something I’m paranoid about not doing! Oh Joy! We had realised some time ago that the spare is safely in a draw at home. So Joan got the massive hump with me and I started trying to dismantle the van, this worked and all’s well etc, but it was touch and go. I had visions of asking Jacqueline to send the one from home by DHL! Later she said it was Pam’s fault as she had spoken to her 20 minutes earlier on the phone and Pam asked whether there had been any more mishaps with the van and Joan said confidently, no, none.
We then continued with our original plan to go to Gibraltar but decided it would be nice to have a few days near Malaga first. We headed back down through Cordoba for the only ACSI site on the south coast near Malaga which had a good write up in the book. We made reasonable time but when we finally found it, it was not very appealing and was actually 15 miles east of Malaga so we headed for La Linea, the border crossing for Gibralta.
Lots of love,
Bryan & Joan xxx
We apologise for what follows as it is several days and thus a very long blog.
However for those with a squeamish disposition here is the short version. We got out of the village without mishap, went to Granada and the Alhambra. Then up to Cordoba to see the Mezquita, had a problem with a key, nipped to Malaga and ended up near Gibraltar. But you could read it in full. J&B x
Now having slept reasonably well, the small one awakes Thursday morning and immediately says, are we going to get out all right? Of course we are I answer and then as we left the lady stops us and says, you can go to the right which is very difficult and narrow and bendy, but the villagers want you to go up the hill (1 in 3!) behind and along the back of the village! Right we say. Now I must say that a German chap took a big van up to the right and we saw him a few days later so he managed it, but I was told in no uncertain terms NO! Joan and I agreed that through the narrow streets of the village was the way to go so we did! So Poo! This worked out extremely well and we were through in no time at all safely and I could feel her relax immediately. Very soon we were back on the main road to Granada and for the first time had no trouble finding the campsite, we arrived and were set up by 1pm.
Although it was a wee bit expensive it was a delightful little site and as soon as we were set up we enquired about buses and tickets for the Alhambra visit. The bus stop is right outside and there is a standard fare. We were told that the earliest they could fit us in was Saturday at 2pm with the Royal Palace at 7pm, so we would need to stay an extra day. There was apparently a chance that if we went at 8.30am Friday we may be able to book a ticket as they retain some for sale that day but most tickets are booked on the web by hotels, travel agents and campsites. As it was still early we thought we ought to nip into Granada and check it out, thank God we did. It took us ages to locate the tourist info and find out where to get the bus for the Alhambra, plus they convinced us to let our site book for us. After spending a pleasant few hours in Granada and enjoying a beer, we returned to the site and began a typical Joan & Bryan saga.
We were supposed to get wi-fi in the van and had paid for it but it did not work, so they gave us our money back. When we arrived back from Granada Joan went straight in and tried to book the Alhambra but they were fixing the internet. So began a saga of her popping over every half an hour until finally at 9.45pm she got our booking sorted. Phew, they close at ten! I of course as any red-blooded male would do, had slept through the entire process. So Friday we decided to just chill and pop over the road to the supermarket for a look around. BUT! It turned out to be a small shopping mall, Yippee! she said, but actually I got a couple of things and she got nowt. A first I assure you, but Joan having tried lots on was happy and we returned to the important business of chilling out plus helping the sales of San Miguel.
Saturday morning arrived and not only was it a bit chilly but it kept threatening to rain with several heavy rain drops then as soon as Joan got her brolly out it stopped. I tried to point out that it was perfect weather to go sightseeing but ‘we’ were definitely NOT amused. I should explain that our tickets for the Alhambra allowed us to go into the main area at 2pm but the palace is strictly controlled and they only allow a set number in every half hour. Our tickets were for 7pm which seems odd but we only just managed to see everything and returned in time to join the queue with 15 minutes to spare.
Rather than waste the morning we decided to go into Granada early and be poised for the bus to the Alhambra at 2 o’clock. Our intention was to wander around the old town but after a visit to the cathedral we were pleasantly surprised by a huge carnival procession. We had earlier noticed some women in extremely figure hugging dresses with lots of frills and boys and girls also in traditional costumes. Suddenly everybody started lining the street so we joined them. First came the horsemen/women followed by lots of the ladies in costume dresses, then to the small ones looking an absolute delight then a couple of huge bulls pulling a large cart with more ladies in it. Next came about 30 brightly decorated floats, all apparently to celebrate the ascension. We suddenly realised it was time for our bus and as far as we could tell it had to go right through the centre of the procession? However it arrived on time and we made it to collect our tickets on time.
It would be difficult to explain how wonderful everything we saw was without boring everybody stupid. The Alhambra is one of those places that you just have to see for yourself. One thing we will be taking up with Andy and Carole is how bloomin fit you need to be to do the full tour as some of the steps are pretty high! As we staggered out absolutely cream crackered around 8pm we both agreed it had been well worth the trip. On that note we were pleasantly surprised at how cheap it actually was and how well organised, I’ve been told to say the loos were spotless as well. After a lovely meal in town we headed home for a final brandy.
Sunday 24th May. We are still not sure about going to Gibraltar as we leave Granada but after a few miles decided that we could not possibly come all this way without seeing Cordoba and visiting the Mezquita. This involves a quick bit of map reading and a consultation with the sat-nav lady plus of course the ACSI book for a campsite. I merely keep driving and await further instruction. It turned out that we could not find a campsite in and around Cordoba but there was one about 15 miles to the north. As we entered the city we were amazed at all the beautiful fountains and waterfalls but it was also wall to wall traffic and impossible to park so we left and headed north. The campsite was good and as always the young lady seemed only too glad to help us with bus times and the best place to catch it. The thing was that the bus left at 8 or 9.30am then 2.30pm the return was 3.30, 6 or 8pm. At 7am when the alarm went off the sleepy little person complained bitterly but we had tried the walk to the bus last night and it was a fair distance. When we finally arrived at 9.05am, 25 minutes early along with several Dutch couples it appeared that all the husbands had committed the same sin!
On arrival in Cordoba we made straight for the old city and the Mezquita which is an incredible building and did not disappoint us at all. Lunch was genuine Tapas, something I have certainly never had before and it was excellent. That night getting ready for our trip the next day, I managed again to mess things up. It all happened because our on board water was not working properly and I wanted to empty it all and refill. Having located a suitable tap, not an easy task as it turned out as it was located behind some holiday flats, I asked permission and was told it’s not drinking water, just for washing etc which was fine. We moved the van, drained it and refilled it, everything worked fine, hurray. Then this geezer appears and starts having a go in foreign, then brings the girl from reception over both yammering on. I thought I had done something wrong and got her into trouble so I hastily packed my hose away and shut it into the locker with the gas bottles. As I shut the door I realised the water stopper with the KEY in it was resting on the gas bottles, something I’m paranoid about not doing! Oh Joy! We had realised some time ago that the spare is safely in a draw at home. So Joan got the massive hump with me and I started trying to dismantle the van, this worked and all’s well etc, but it was touch and go. I had visions of asking Jacqueline to send the one from home by DHL! Later she said it was Pam’s fault as she had spoken to her 20 minutes earlier on the phone and Pam asked whether there had been any more mishaps with the van and Joan said confidently, no, none.
We then continued with our original plan to go to Gibraltar but decided it would be nice to have a few days near Malaga first. We headed back down through Cordoba for the only ACSI site on the south coast near Malaga which had a good write up in the book. We made reasonable time but when we finally found it, it was not very appealing and was actually 15 miles east of Malaga so we headed for La Linea, the border crossing for Gibralta.
Lots of love,
Bryan & Joan xxx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
