The end of Europe

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So we have finally reached our last few days in Europe… for a while there I didn’t think it would come.

We have spent the past week in a tiny little village in the north of Spain called Tallo. It is actually a village of about 5 houses (and one hotel) a ten minute walk outside of a slightly bigger town of about 1000 people called Bellver. It has been wonderful. We have a balcony to sit on in the evening watching the sunset and feel like one of the family with Mum and her partner who run the place, Mum's daughter (about our age) who does fron of house and waitressing – bringing us our bottles of wine and endless supply of ice for our drinks and her boyfriend who cooks for us. It’s a tough life…

On first arriving we were a little worried about what we would do here for a week but we soon sorted that out when we visited the local horse show which involved watching horses try to pull trailers that get heavier and heavier as men put sand bags on them, until the horse can’t move them anymore (we estimated that most got to at least half a tonne!).

Then the crowd cheers the horse… hmmm. But besides strange horse stunts, Bellver puts on a fabulous market in which we ended up buying copious amounts of sausage, dried meats, meatloaf and sliced prosciutto straight off the bone – our assumption is there is no translation of vegetarian in this region.

So with lunches sorted for a bargain shop at the markets, and half board of breakfast and dinner costing $50 per day, we needed to find a way to spend our money, didn’t we? So we took ourselves off for a day trip to Andorra, a little principality on the border between France and Spain with no taxes – apparently it is joint owned by France and Spain and the word is they can’t decide how to split the tax revenue so don’t collect any (very tongue in cheek, but perhaps its true!).

Now we set off by bus, having made sure we had lots of cash for purchases, and one credit card if required, and everything else locked securely away in our suitcase in the hotel. We took one 40 minute bus, changed buses and settled down to watch the view on the next 40 minute bus ride. That was until half way in we got to the border… we weren’t too worried about this as having traveled through Europe for 3 months we have not needed our passports once. But then the bus stopped at a very new looking check point… and two big police officers bordered the bus and made an announcement to everyone who diligently went looking in their bags and started pulling out IDs. Oh dear. We asked the girl sitting next to us what was happening “you need your passport, we are entering a new country”. Oh dear again. I explained that we didn’t have them, she asked where we were from, and then said “I think you are in trouble”. Oh dear, especially as we were literally in the middle of nowhere and the buses only came once every few hours and we were a long way from the nearest town...

So I had our driver’s licenses and a reasonably low cut dress so I got ready to plead our case. I handed the officer our licenses and he asked for our passports – he wasn’t fooled. Then I tried to explain no one had told us, we didn’t need them to get into Spain, or France, or Italy or Germany etc. so left them in the hotel. The officer’s face didn’t change. He asked again for the passports, I tried to explain again. Then he asked how long we were going to stay in Andorra, I said for a day then showed him our hotel room key… I almost fell off my seat when his next question, in a low voice, was “do you have money?” What?!?!?! Yes, I have money but I would like to keep it, also I think by this stage everyone on the bus was watching to see what they would do with these clueless Aussies, so he wasn’t being overly discreet in asking for a bribe that way!! His partner saw my face and tried to hide a laugh, and then the officer corrected my mistake firmly but with a smile “this is NOT Africa! The money is not for me! I need to know you can eat and get home”. Well, everyone in the bus laughed and thankfully I did have money and not just the credit card. He and his partner shrugged and said that we could go shopping for the day and we were on our way. Phewf. Especially because we gave Andorra’s economy quite a little boost with perfume, cigars, sunglasses and alcohol purchases (1 litre of gin for just under $10 was the biggest bargain).

The return journey was slightly less eventful, with only a 5 minute period of nervousness as we got back to the Spanish border, the bus stopped, the driver got out to talk to the border police, they checked under the bus, walked along looking at us all from the outside… and then the driver got back on and we were on our way again…

So the moral is, lots of fantastic shopping in Andorra but take your passport!

Our stay in Spain has been quite short, as we had decided to take some more time making our way through the South of France rather than rushing through everywhere, and not seeing much. And we definitely stuck gold that way. With Aix-en-Provence having been on my to-visit list for years, I was disappointed when it was too expensive to visit. So we looked at the map and Arles was just next door – the city where Van Gogh spent his last years in an institution and died. So we spent two nights on a Van Gogh tour of the city, seeing where he painted houses, coffee shops, his house, his hospital and the river. Our hotel was just next door to where he painted “Starry night on the Rhone” so we got a bottle of wine, some cheese and bread and spent an evening with Vincent.

Our next stop was going to be somewhere between Arles and Barcelona, so again out came the map and google. It took only one minute to work out our next stop – Figueres. Just inside the Spanish border, direct train lines and the city that Salvidor Dali was born and died in. It was amazing! He was definitely not a poor starving artist in his time and so bought the old theatre in the city and transformed it into his own gallery, redesigning everything to display some of his best works. We spent hours and wished we were able to go back in again… but the time had come to move on to Barcelona… and Gaudi’s amazing, if not odd, architectural style.

Neither of us really knew what to expect from Barcelona, I had only seen pictures of the huge church, but had only heard Gaudi’s name, not seen his work. Well!! It is definitely different, and he certainly didn’t believe too much in straight lines! As well as buildings throughout the city, he was also involved in designing a park overlooking the city, with buildings and covered walkways etc. It was spectacular with sweeping views of the city.

And that in a roundabout way was our last two weeks of adventures. We are off to Bordeaux tomorrow, and will be spending the 16th there, with plans for a nice dinner and a relaxing day exploring. Then back up to Paris to fly to the US on the 18th…

Now I must run off because Theo, our chef, is cooking paella for us for dinner tonight, and I need to squeeze in one last pre-dinner cocktail on the balcony before the sun sets 😊
Love to all, we’ll be home soon
Steph and Joel xxoo

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Comments

[Tina Davidson]

what a fantastic journey you have both had through europe - truly a trip to plant in your memories and tour through at random over the next few years - because you will plan another,,...and another...once the wandering spirit is ignited you will want more and more - as steph has found!! so enjoy the US - it will give you a completely different experience to those balmy spanish nights.xxx xxxx