The day is starting out with a thick fog which is probably made worse by the large lake below where our cabin is located.And there is absolutely no wind to blow the fog away so we will hope that once we get on the road and away from the water the fog may lift. The road away from Larche wanders through a mix of empty farmland and forest for a good distance until we crossed over the top of A20 which runs from Paris to Barcelona. We then went onto the D840 and took a break in Martel,another medieval town with [View Full Entry]

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We have 4 one nighters(one night in each town)on our way back to Marseille where we have to be by Saturday to drop OO back and get ourselves ready for the train ride to Paris on Sunday morning. So we plan to wander through the French countryside, taking in the sights as we do so and not overstretching ourselves with too much mileage each day. We must say we have enjoyed France even though we were personally not looking forward to having to interact with the people who we thought would be arrogant towards English speakers like ourselves who have only [View Full Entry]

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We are not planning for a busy day today but one of sightseeing in Bazas this morning then out to the countryside in the afternoon. So with that in mind we are enjoying a lie in and just hope that they don’t come to service our room too early. The weather remains dry although there is still a bit of high overcast out there but the temperature is nice in the high teens as we climb into OO for the short drive down the hill to the town. When we arrived yesterday there was hardly anyone around and especially when we [View Full Entry]

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We are still fizzing after the All Whites fantastic victory over Bahrain yesterday which sees them qualify for the World Cup finals in South Africa. But we have a journey to get underway and a couple of hundred kilometres to travel to Bazas,south of Bordeaux. The day has dawned with a heavy overcast although it isn’t raining and the temperature is still not too bad in the upper teens. We have decided to travel up the coast road for as far as we can in the daylight we have available and then switch to an inland road across to Bazas. First [View Full Entry]

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Last night we thought we had two options set up to watch the big game between New Zealand and Bahrain,the winner of which would be going to the World Football Cup in South Africa next year.So when we awoke the first instinct was to try them both again and see what sort of online streaming of the TV we might be able to get. The first we tried wasn’t any good but the second had sound and a picture that came and went making it rather difficult to see the game. We noticed in the corner of the screen on the [View Full Entry]

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We have a fairly short run ahead of us today to our next destination and so there is no hurry to be on the road. The hotel here in Areatza has been very nice and being only open two months they still have a few things to sort out like the smell from the indoor swimming pool and spa area in the basement which seems to permeate throughout the three floors of bedrooms. You couldn’t smell the chlorine in the room thank goodness only when you stepped into the passageway and up and down the stairwell. As when we checked in, [View Full Entry]

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We must surely be in a very relaxed mode because we didn’t wake up until 8am this morning.That is after 10 hours sleep!!!Or perhaps the 3 days on the road from Barcelona had taken the wind out of our sails and last night was catch up time. We headed for Bilbao in the late morning with the plan to take in the Guggenheim and the old city and anything else that we see in between. The drive into Bilbao is along a narrow valley similar to the one that we travelled on to reach Areatza yesterday. People here are housed in [View Full Entry]

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The shutters that are installed on the windows of most hotel rooms in Europe certainly keep the early morning light out and leave you to sleep.Again,we have slept in and of course the sun is rising a little later every day as well. We were the only guests in last night but the staff,all 3 of them,are still dusting and sweeping.Still if it keeps the place looking pristine then the hotel will keep getting good reviews. We asked the guy on the reception desk the most direct route back to the road we had been on yesterday but his English was [View Full Entry]

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We thought the destination we had chosen for last night’s stay was remote enough but we think we are outdoing that for tonight’s!! And the hotel we are staying in is a converted convent!!! The BBA is certainly trying to vary things up. Our hotel room here in Lleida has been so quiet and peaceful we have again slept in,this time we didn’t wake until 8am!!Perhaps it was the spa we had last night that put us in the relaxed mode as it does at home. However,no problem with rising late as breakfast is on at the hotel until midday,not that [View Full Entry]

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Now without looking at your atlas or opening up Google can you say exactly how many kilometres it is from Barcelona to Lleida and in which direction from Barcelona is this city nobody has ever heard of except those that live there??? We have been watching the weather forecast for the past couple of days and rain has been predicted for the next several days on Spain’s Atlantic coastline.So we have started to have second thoughts about travelling in that direction as we have avoided any sustained periods of rain for the past 7 months and we would like to try [View Full Entry]

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