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

The Fasthotel might be cheap and the room small(the shower/toilet)is like a cubicle they added after the room was built,a bit like what you would buy at Mitre 10 and have installed except a bit bigger because it has a toilet and washbasin as well.The cubicle obviously wasn’t completely and firmly attached as it rocks a bit when you walk or should I say step in there because there isn’t much room to do anything else.However we must say the water pressure in the shower head is very good and we have tried out a few showers over the past 7 months!! It is time to bring out the long sleeve shirts and put them on top of the shirt pile in the Kathmandu shirt bag and relegate the short sleeve shirts to the bottom probably ... read more

Tuesday 3rd November Avignon to Carcassonne This hotel in Avignon might be a cheap one but it has been comfortable and quiet which was a pleasant to change to our stay in Trets with a couple of nights of boom boom music. The weather looks like it’s going to be a changeable and we may get showers on our drive.At least for the present it looks OK and we plan to spend an hour or so in the old part of Avignon before heading for Carcassonne. With a good distance ahead of us we hit the road early into the city and found a car park within the walls of the old city.We were quite surprised to see just how quiet the old city was and devoid of tourists although we guess that Avignon is more ... read more

Sunday 1st November Canyons at the Gorges du Verdun,Provence The loud music returned in the early hours of the morning and this time we were both woken by it.After lying in bed for a while hoping that those who were playing it might soon give up and go to bed.However,a half hour went by and there was no let up so I got dressed,grabbed our Kathmandu torch and headed outside to track down from exactly where the boom boom was coming from.I wasn’t sure what I was actually going to do if and when I found from where the music was coming. I walked around our apartment block which has about 20 units on two levels but there was only one unit that had a light on and there was no noise coming from it. Perhaps ... read more