Promise of Photos

Hope to have some photos in next post.

Now We Are In Spain

Typed Monday 28April 2014

 

In Maccas on the edge of Burgos and the signal is very unreliable.  Don’t expect to be able to send this off today.

 

Pamplona was lovely, and it turned out to be the city’s birthday, so we got to see a lot of he locals in national dress dancing in the plazas. 

Coffee in Plaza Mayor, Pamplona

Deer and fowl in the old moat

View from the ramparts of the old fortress overlooking Pamplona.  Our van was in the car park on the left.

Gardens in the old fortress of Pamplona

Both of us at the entrance where the bulls enter the bull ring in Pamplona after their run through the old town

Kenny being a bull at the Plaza de Toros

Locals dancing to celebrate Pamplona's birthday

 
We didn’t see any bulls, but we did walk the route of the run and the bull ring.  Beautiful gardens throughout the remnants of the ancient fortifications, with a large pond inhabited by chooks, ducks, turkeys, swans, peacocks and deer.  Quite lovely.  The peace of the morning was shattered by the ringing of the church bells - it was Sunday - and a more discordant lot of bells I have never heard!!  What a jarring note in an otherwise beautiful old city.  There is of course a vibrant new city around the old one, but we were not really interested in that.

 

 

Having had our look around there, we headed for Logroño where we had a quick look around, but could see little that interested us.  The old part of the city was very small and the newer stuff was unexciting.  Spent the night in the little village of Luenmayor, a little south of Logroño.

Gateway to Old Town, Logrono

 

Today we continued to follow the path of the Comino de Santiago (the pilgrims’ walking trail to Santiago do Compostella) toward Burgos. 

Statue to pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago at Logrono

We bypassed that city as from the highway it did not look terribly promising - we are really NOT good tourists.  Old cities, churches, etc are starting to lose their appeal already - you have seen one you have seen them all.  However, the countryside we are passing through is very interesting. 

 

We are coming down from the Pyrannees now, and the geology of the region is changing somewhat.  Will explain what I mean by that in the next post.  Signal has just come back and I want to post this before it goes again.

 

Talk again soon - hopefully

 

Keep well

 

 

 

 

Typed 26 April 2014

 

I am writing today from Pamplona in Spain.  Since I wrote last we have visited with Joyce and collected our mail, crossed from England to Spain and visited a few lovely spots.

 

We left Torquay late in the morning to make our way to Portsmouth to catch the ferry.  As is often the case, the GPS (now known as ‘Mongrel’) took us by the shortest route, which was not the narrow winding way we had arrived, but involved a narrower road unsuitable for heavy traffic which went up hill and down dale for several miles until it got us back to the road we needed, which we had been on earlier that morning without the stress!!!  Stayed at Monkton Wyld camping on the way to Dorchester.  Refilled the gas cylinder as it ran out as we tried to boil the kettle for our morning cuppa.  That was good, because it means that our English cylinder is full and will last us about 10 weeks and we can use the European one as an emergency.  When the European one runs out we can then refill it.  Having the gas for the heater when we are not in a camping park is great, because it puts a terrific amount of heat.  Had fun trying to remember how to get the regulator off.  Consulted a few folk staying at the park who, though they tried, were not helpful.  In the end it was as simple as pressing a button and we worked I out ourselves.  I have put together a manual on the van so that Bea and Peter will not have to guess about this sort of stuff.

 

We were underwhelmed by the A35, which is the main/only road between Exeter and Dorchester on our way to Portsmouth.  The route was very hilly (13% grade in one place) and winding, and although marked on the map as a red road (which is supposedly pretty good - one step down from a motorway) it really only equals an orange, which is pretty dreadful.  There were places so narrow our mirrors touched the trees alongside the road. And several times we had to follow the poo-truck (a tractor pulling a trailer load of cow manure) for several miles  - and that’s always fun - as the farmers have no alternate way to get from one spot to another along the way.  Fiona (the van) performed well on the hills, much improved since we had the exhaust manifold fixed, although Kenny collected a following which I now call “Kenny’s Fan Club”, who were please to see the odd spot to overtake - there were virtually no overtaking lanes.  The poo-trucks have a bigger fan club than Kenny!!! 

 

We were amused by the quaint names of the villages along the way; Litton Cheney, Lower Compton, Winterbourne Abbas, Puddleton, Poole, Piddlehinton, Upper and Lower Bockhampton.  We didn’t actually SEE any of the villages, but I thought Winterbourne Abbas had a classy ring to it, and I it would be my pick of places to live.  Kenny says “Yeah, but who would want to live in this weather and with these roads”.  Good point.

 

We passed a lovely looking pub called the Botany Bay Inn, with murals of Captain Cook and the First Landing on its outer walls.  Kenny wanted to stay there and said that if we missed the ferry we would come back to it.

 

We got to Portsmouth and booked the ferry and then went and did the shopping.  I was pleased to get the booking done because had the ferry been booked out, we would have had to wait till the following Saturday (today) for the next one.  Had lunch and read our books in the shopping centre car park.  Then down to the ferry and off.

 

As I think I said last time, I was a bit nervous about the crossing as I had hear horror stories about the seas in the Bay of Biscay, but that turned out to be no worry at all.  We had very smooth seas.  Unfortunately, I have been suffering with sinus congestion since we got over to the UK, and THAT caused me a great deal of trouble.  Fay you will identify with this.  We sat in the bar for a while and had a drink or two, then retired to our tiny little two berth cabin to go to bed and read our books.  When I woke up and got up to go to the loo, I was smitten with vertigo.  I immediately retired to my bunk again and didn’t get up until about 2 o’clock in the afternoon when Kenny (who had no problems at all) took me up to the bar area and I stretched out on a lounge for the duration of the trip.  Every time I sat up I got head spins and felt very dizzy.  Fortunately my stomach sat very quiet for the whole trip.  I was glad to get off and felt better immediately I did.

 

Whilst I was feeling unwell, Kenny got chatting to Malcolm, an Englishman who was travelling on his own.  Malcolm was a mine of information on good spots to free camp, and he recommended a little town not far from Santander where we had actually planned to find a camping park.  So when we  disembarked the ferry, we went as planned to Santillana Del Mar, and spent the night in the main square - next to Malcolm’s van - and after he had shown us around the old town (it turned out to be quite a tourist spot, because it was quite lovely), we all went and had dinner in the bar by our vans, and had our first Spanish meal of the trip whilst we watched Real Madrid beat Bayeux Munich in the football finals on the TV with most of the men of the town.  Had a great night - Kenny learned to asked for 2 red wines in Spanish - and really enjoyed the meal of paella for him and anchovies for me.  Yes that is right - just anchovies.  But they were bigger and not as strongly flavoured as at home.  This area is apparently the world’s largest producer of anchovies for the market - and I just put them on chunks of crusty bread with some of their oil they were served in and it was lovely.  Kenny was a little disappointed that his paella was of noodles rather than rice, and can’t wait to have another go at it along the way.  We must get his glasses fixed!!!

Wendy in Santillana Del Mar

Charming street in Santillana Del Mar

Wendy and Malcolm in Old Town square

Church in Santillana Del Mar

 

Next morning we took the Autovia Cantabrico from Santander to via Bilbao to Vitoria-Gesteiz and thence Pamplona.  Couldn’t believe the difference in the roads between here and the UK.  Three lanes each way, 6 major tunnels through lower Pyrenees and huge modern bridges.  There are tolls, but they are not big (€4.50 for 50 kilometres) and well worth it for the great quality roads and road systems.  I am always nervous and anxious when travelling in mountain areas, but we have hardly noticed the climbing as the road is so good.  The van is dealing with it beautifully, and we are making really good time - unlike in the UK.

 

Along the way there are lovely roadside stops for picnics, etc.  Proper pull-ins with a lane each way, and lovely treed areas with picnic tables, etc.  Just lovely.  Lovely the place already.

 

We thought we would stop at some lovely little village for the night, but found ourselves in Vitoria-Gasteiz before we knew it.  We did our shopping at a huge Eroski shopping centre and were about to continue on to our little village, when we noticed as we returned to the van, than one of our tail lights (blinker and brake light) and gone missing!!!  Fortunately, the Eroski complex included a Feu Vert (auto parts store) where we managed to explain our situation to the one member of staff who UNDERSTOOD English, and he gave us the address to get it fixed.  We then had to wander into the middle of town to find the repair centre.  When we got there, imagine our amazement to discover that the place only operated from 4pm to 8pm three days per week!!  Luckily that was one of the three days and we sat and read our books in the van until the workmen turned up.  They were great - one of the guys had SOME English, and installed a replacement for us.  As we were fixing up the bill, we discovered that, like me, he had bad French, so we could have managed the communication a little better.  We have discovered since that French is a good alternate language to try as it is more similar to Spanish than English, and not many people have much English here.

 

After we got the light fixed, we told the GPS to take us towards Pamplona - where Kenny wants to see where they run with the bulls.  He is NOT going to, but he wants to see where it happens.  Anyway, we were on our way out of town - and it is about 7pm by this time, but still broad daylight - when we spotted about 20 motor homes in a car park on the main road.  We quickly went round the block and pulled into the car park which turned out to be an Aire de Stationmente for Autocaravanas.  Just like in France!!  And you could stay for 2 nights.  Way to go.  Kenny wandered around chatting to other travellers and found a Scotsman who had the book with all the Aires de Stationmentes for Autocaravanas for Spain AND Portugal.  He lent it to us and I entered several of them into the GPS as Favourites. Kenny just happened to mention that the Scotsman was on his way home, and I said “well, he won’t need his book anymore”.  So Kenny offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse (it was worth it to us) and came back with his book.  What a man!!  Other information that he picked up whilst visiting with the neighbours, was that Vitoria-Gasteiaz was worth a closer look, so we decided to stay an extra night  - especially seeing the parking was free and we could use the services in the Aire (in this instance, toilet dump, garbage drop and fresh water for our tanks).

 

We were glad we did.  Vitoria-Gasteiz is lovely.  It is the capital of the Basque area of Spain, and is a very appealing city.  It is laid out in grids, and all the population seems to live in the CBD area, mostly four or five storey apartment buildings whose ground floor is all shops.  Because the population is so concentrated, there is a great tram and bus service, which results in little traffic, but the roads are (mostly) broad treed avenues with separate bicycle lanes and trams running through central traffic islands - in some places through lawns.  The city was Europe’s greenest city in 2012 and it is easy to see why.  There are parks and gardens throughout and it is lovely to look at, and easy to live with.  We caught the modern tram into the city from just across from the Aire, and explored the old city with its winding lanes, narrow buildings, old churches and quaint shops, bars and restaurants. 

Heading for the Old City

Inside the Cathedral

Typical street in Old Town Vitoria Gasteiz

Part of the old city walls

Stairway and up-escalator in the old city which is full of narrow steep lanes

New Cathedral in Vitoria Gasteiz

 

We had a Menu De Dia (Menu Of The Day) at a tiny little one-man restaurant and had so much to eat we couldn’t eat dinner.  This particular deal was for €10.50 and you got a choice of salads for entree, a choice of five different main courses, dessert, bread and a glass of red wine, and a tea or coffee.  We accidently got a BOTTLE of wine, which we then had to drink of course, (fortunately we were travelling on the tram), and so straight after lunch we returned to the van where we settled down for a little nap.  Lovely day.

 

Wendy waiting for a tram in Vitoria Gasteiz

Today we left Vitoria-Gasteiz and have come to Pamplona, where we are settled into a camping park just out of town.  We have done the washing, sorted the photos, (updated the blog to be ready for wi-fi somewhere - it is too dear here), and tomorrow we will drive into the edge of town and go for a wander.  A couple of hours is enough for us to see what we want to see, and then we intend to move on to Logrono. 

 

Travelling through the foothills of the Pyrannees - looks cold?  It was!!

This is the furthest east we will be until we get down south, and Logrono is west of here.  We have almost decided to give Portugal a miss, but will reconsider that as we go along.  At the moment the plan is to visit cities towards the Portuguese border and hopefully interesting little villages in between.  As we have discovered already on this trip, talking to other travellers helps you to find out where the interesting places are.  We are looking forward to more surprises.

 

Since we got to Spain the weather has been a decided improvement on England.  We have had sunny days with a chilly little wind that is too lazy to go around us.  This is to be expected up here in the hills I guess.  We have had a couple of rainy nights, but are mostly managing to wander bout without our big jackets on.  It will hopefully get warmer when we come downhill and move further south.  Looking forward to that.

 

I think I have bored you all enough for now, so will sign off for a few more days.  Hope I am not boring you.

 

Keep well till next time.

 

Goodbye to Ireland. England and off to Sunny Spain

Today we are at Torquay on the English Riviera - it is raining.  And cold. 

 

We drove from Fishgard yesterday morning and arrived here at a campground which we have stayed in before at about 3pm.  The weather yesterday was very pleasant and the locals were quite delighted with it.  In fact the lady who runs the onsite bar set up a pergola outside to shelter her patrons from the sun - oh that fair English skin!  

 

We did a load of washing and settled in with an internet connection that cost £6 for 48 hours - ‘not bad’, I hear you say.  I got the laptop out and downloaded my email from the server and went to set up Kenny’s only to discover that I could only use the internet on one device for that 48 hours - ergo I am doing a long blog update and assorted other stuff.  WHY do they make it soooooo difficult?  Anyway I have downloaded lots of points of interest relevant to us in Portugal and Spain onto the GPS and am getting my money’s worth out of their bloody wi-fi connection.

 

It got cold again during the night and started to rain this morning.  Hasn’t stopped.  We planned to catch a bus into Torquay proper to see Joyce today, but the buses don’t run on Sunday and Monday is a bank holiday so the buses don’t run then either!!!  So much for worrying about all the holidaymakers being a pest.  So we decided to stay in a catch up on stuff today and we will leave here tomorrow and drive in to visit Joyce and pick up our mail.  We were trying to avoid driving in because the roads there are VERY narrow and the traffic heavy and the parking non-existent.  However we have managed before and will do so again.

 

After a catch up with Joyce we will hit the road towards Portsmouth, where we plan to catch the ferry to Santander (yes Paul, you were right, it is NOT San Sebastian) on Tuesday evening at 1715.  It will be an overnight crossing of the Bay of Biscay and we will arrive at Santander at 1815 on Wednesday evening.  Hope the wind and weather are fair as I have heard some horror stories of that crossing.

 

Hopefully, once I get this posted I will be able to get the book-keeping done to see how the money is going.  Then I will be able to rest on my laurels again for a while.

 

Looking forward to getting to Spain, where, hopefully the weather will start to improve.

Two old ruins

Wendy on the main street of the folk village at Bunratty Castle

Wendy and gypsy wagons at Bunratty Castle folk village

Inside the solar at Bunratty Castle

 

 

Notes from Tablet

 

·         As we drive along, I am using the Tablet to voice record some of our thoughts.  I am now putting these thoughts down on paper, so hope I don’t confuse anyone.  This year’s blog seems very uncoordinated to me and it goes quite against the grain, but I am learning to deal with that.

·         Driving from Galway to Ennis, we passed by and passed up the Cliffs of Moher - the landscape was rugged and rocky and we had heard the roads were awful and that we would have to walk miles along the top of the cliffs when we got there - points against it:

1.    Bad roads equal stress and we don’t do that to ourselves or the vehicle (henceforth known as Fiona)

2.    Walking (I don’t do that), and

3.    Walking along the top of cliffs (I don’t do that either).

4.    The weather was still cold and windy (we don’t fancy exposing ourselves to that either)!!

·         We noticed as we got closer to Ennis in Donegal, and past Enistimon, the type of rock has changed.  In Galway and all through in north all the stone fences (and that’s the only sort they have) are made from big irregular chunks of rock.  Further south the stone fences and stone gateways are made from slices of rock more like slate tiles.  Either way there is no shortage of rock of one sort or another in this country.  How they ever cleared enough of it to utilise the land for farming is hard to imagine.

Wendy outside St Munchins Church in Limerick

·    

King John's Castle in Limerick

Inside King John's Castle in Limerick

   

Kenny the Celtic warrior (note the beanie under the helmet)

  As we travelled east again, just through Clonmel in County Tipperary, we came around the corner and there were hundreds of large silos.  We could not imagine what could be stored in them in what did not appear to be a wheat growing area.  We soon saw the sign “Bulmers”, and realised that this was indeed at cider factory - the silos must have had millions of litres of apple juice in them - enormous.  That’s an awful lot of cider and the headaches that go with it.

·         In County Kilkenny we stopped for lunch in what we hoped would be a charming little village called Ballypatrick.  Very ordinary.  Expected charm and got 3 barns and a cowshed.  As soon as we left it we came across 3 or 4 charming villages we could have topped for lunch without even leaving the road.  This is standard for us.  As sure as we decide we need to stop and will stop at the next possible parking, we stop in some odd places.  When we start off again, we almost always find that we have stopped moments short of a gorgeous parking place, or MacDonalds, or whatever.  We get a laugh out of it every time.

·      I was looking forward to seeing Kilkenny because when wewere children my mother would say that my siblings and I would fight like Kilkenny cats - I was curious to see them - I never saw a cat the whole time we were there.  It makes me wonder what else my dear mother made up!!!.  All the poor starving children in India who would be grateful to have m y revolting Swedes to eat!!! 

Kenny having a Kilkenny at a pub in Kilkenny

·         Coming out of Kilkenny.  We could come back to this city because it is quite charming.  They make a good beer, and good music.  Lots of quaint old buildings, and winding lanes, lovely castle and nice people.  Cork ordinary and confusing.  Prefer Kilkenny and wouldn’t mind coming back there.  Had a great night in the pub with two different lots of Irish musicians keeping us greatly entertained.  Spent the evening chatting with Patti and Lee from Mobile, Alabama, USA.

·         Noticed throughout Ireland a lot very big, modern and new looking houses - nothing like the cottages we were expecting.  The bus driver when we did the Ring of Kerry told us that during the Celtic Tiger years housing prices went up 25% per year and banks were lending money at the bat of an eyelid.  Come 2008 the banks of course were in deep trouble and the government had to bail them out.  People are now in a lot of debt as current prices are 57% of Celtic Tiger days.  Bankruptcies are expected to be in their thousands within the near future and there are already many ‘ghost estates’ which were built with great enthusiasm in some quite questionable locations, and have been empty - never occupied - for years because no one has the money to buy them.

·         The hedgerows.  The first time we came to Ireland was about 20 years ago and we drove from Dublin to Belfast in a little hire car.  We could see nothing because the hedgerows.  In the van we are above the hedgerows and can see the panorama of the countryside.  It is lovely to be able to take in the whole feel of the place.  At the moment the furze or gorse is in bloom.  It is used in many places as hedgerows or ornamental plantations at intersections or along roadsides.  It has a vibrant yellow flower and reminds of the wattle at home in the spring.  Against the vivid green of the fields it makes a beautiful picture.  We have been unable to take a photo to do it justice.  Kenny keeps bemoaning the fact that it is a weed and it has taken untold years to control it - ‘and now they are just letting it go’!!!

A small patch of gorse

Wendy in the bogs of Ireland

·         Met an Irish lady who had been to Australia (one among many) - thought our roads were just WONDERFUL.  Kenny reckons she must have been amazed to see roads straight for 10 kilometres ‘cos here you would be lucky to see 10 kilometres of straight road in the whole country as all the roads are quite serpentine.  He reckons if the road is straight for more than 500 metres they land aeroplanes on it.  We had a big discussion with her on Irish roads and their shortcomings.  Overall though, the roads we have travelled on have been a darn sight better and fractionally wider than those we were on in Cornwall.

Wendy at Blarney Castle

·         We have found the units of distance quite confusing over here.  In the UK they are in miles, but buy their fuel by the litre and pay in metric pounds sterling.  In the Republic of Ireland one travels in kilometres and pays for fuel by the litre in euros, but many of the road signs are still in miles.  In Northern Ireland it is the same as the UK, except that the currency they use is Irish pounds, although they will accept pounds sterling or euros and give you change in Irish pounds - not sure who comes out of that deal better.

·      

Kenny kissing the Blarney Stone

   We are not quite with things on this trip.  We were on the ferry before we realised that it would be taking us to Fishgard in Wales, NOT Milford Haven in Wales as we thought.  Not a problem as it is only about 30 miles north of Milford Haven anyway.  Such a smooth crossing that I didn’t even realise that we had cast off until I looked out the window and saw nothing but water.  We arrived in Fishgard on schedule at 0015 (12.15am) and went straight to the long term car park where we propped and spent the rest of the night tucked up in our cosy bed.

That’s it for now, keep well till next time.