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 stop wasn’t far from the hotel at Hendaye beach where again there were crowds of locals down watching the large sea and swell still running from the weather low north of the Bay of Biscay.It ... read more

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, the reception person seemed to be having trouble on checking people out too. At our check in they couldn’t seem to be able to get my passport number to fill the number of spaces they ... read more

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 broken and we could only understand part of what he said.So rather than trying to find what we thought he had said we simply retraced our path from yesterday and rejoined the A68 where we ... read more

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 and keep the record intact. We have left these thoughts a bit late as this morning we are supposed to be heading in a general northwesterly direction to the city of Lleida.And to add to ... read more

As we mentioned yesterday this hotel on the University campus is stylish.And we have a bidet!! We are now starting to rank our hotel stays in Europe by whether our bathroom has a bidet or not and we are seriously thinking of getting one installed when we get home!!Without getting into too much detail for those who haven’t experienced a bidet in their bathroom,they are a delight and so hygienic!!They are one thing that Europeans have over us Kiwis!! Anyway onto things more serious and our day in Barcelona. The weather forecast is for rain later in the day but we are hoping that if it does arrive it will be after dark so we can do the sightseeing we have planned without us having to put our ANZAC ponchos on to keep dry. Our hotel ... read more