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Published: September 12th 2011
Vendome
Half a loaf!16/09/2011:
Travelled to Abbey Wood Caravan Club site on Friday. Visited Bethan over the weekend. It was lovely to see her and Rob.
18/09/2011
We had a lovely dinner on Saturday night, Megan came over, and lunched on Sunday by the Thames. (No boats though!) Tomorrow we head for France.
19/09/2011
Travelled to Dover today and managed to catch an earlier ferry (10:25). Easy crossing, in glorious sunshine.
Made it to an “Aire Du Camping Car” in Forges-Les-Eaux, after a shopping and fuel stop. Weather sunny but breezy.
Heading for Tours tomorrow.
20/09/2011
Well, what a night. We spent 2 hours frantically trying to locate a rotten eggs smell in the van. No, it wasn’t Mike! Eventually we discovered the leisure battery was “frying” and the smell was battery acid! Switched it off and wafted a towel around and the smell disappeared. Joy!
Got up late, still on UK time and travelled a long way, some of it in the right direction as well, operator error on the satnav, to Vendom, camping Au Coeur de Vendome. Cycled into the lovely old town. Warm and sunny, sat outside a cafe and had a beer.
Bergerac
Bergerac 23/09/2011
Wednesday, what a day! Decided to replace the leisure battery, 195€, eye watering. Then cracked the screen on my e-reader, Jayne lost a filling and Tom rang to tell me I had an appointment to see the Orthopaedic specialist on the 29th September. The letter I asked my doctor to send, has obviously worked.
Stayed in Camping de l’Islette, Fondettes, Tours, close to where I used to work. Sunny and warm, barbecued and ate outside.
Thursday: Visited Invacare in Fondettes, nice to see all my old colleagues.
Travelled down to Civray, where we had our first Gite holiday in 1983, it hadn’t changed. Sunny and warm, we cycled along the river into town.
Judith, very kindly, has booked a return ticket for Mike to fly back from Bezieres on 28th September, flying back out on 30th. Jayne will park the van in the departure lounge for 2 days!
Friday: To the Dordogne, Bergerac precisely. Campsite on the river bank, 5 minutes walk (limp) from town. Even better today, 25⁰ and not a cloud all day. Lazy afternoon reading and sleeping. Jayne did the reading bit.
More Dordogne tomorrow.
28/09/2011
We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday
Beynac
Busy campsite! just outside Beynac et Cazillac, fantastic campsite, again on the bank of the Dordogne. Huge site, practically empty, lovely swimming pool. Weather is stunning but it is strange sitting in the sun with the autumn leaves falling all around us! We can see three Chateaux from the site, the one at Beynac is breathtaking.
Tuesday: Long drive to Beziers for Mike’s flight on Wednesday.
01/10/11
It was a long drive, about six hours. Eventually found a fantastic campsite, Les Sablons, near Portiragnes. One problem though it closes for the season on Friday. The same Friday Mike returns from UK!
Mike had a six hour delay flying to Bristol, Thomas, bless him, made two trips to collect him from the airport.
Medical assessment went well, they found a heart and everything! Return flight faultless.
Jayne survived on her own, although, we were both glad to be reunited.
Set off immediately for Spain and Figueres in particular. Salvador Dali’s home, gallery and museum are there.
Camped for 2 nights in the hills, at a place called Capmany, about 12 km from the city.
02/10/11
Travelled into Figueres on Sunday morning, it was closed!! The city I mean.
So set our sights on Tarragona, the other side of Barcelona. (The satnav has us in hysterics with it's pronounciations of the place names like Taragonarrrrr and Barcelonarrrrrr.) Found an excellent campsite, Torre de la Mora, with a beach and pool. We lazed by the pool and swam in the Med. Weather perfect.
Monday: The site and weather are so good we decided to stay for a few more days. Jamie’s Spatch- cocked chicken on the barbecue and Campo Viejo Rioja a great success.
08/10/11
We eventually stayed for 3 nights at Torre de la Mora, we don’t often say this but we agreed we would like to go there again. Adjacent to our pitch were a couple from LLantwit Major! When we said we were heading south they recommended a site in Peniscola called Eden Camping. The castle on the headland was used in the Charlton Heston film El Cid so this intrigued us.
Wednesday: We packed up and headed for Peniscola. Another gem of a site with a lovely pool and a 100 metres from the beach. The bay, in contrast to Torre de la Mora, goes on for miles. We hadn’t heard of
Peniscola
Jayne re-enacting the final battle scene in El Cid this resort before so we suspect the Spanish keep it to themselves!
Wednesday afternoon we cycled along the prom and walked up to the castle. Great view from the top. A village, with very narrow cobbled streets, chaotically surround the castle on three sides,
The endless shops sell touristy tat, the bars compete with jugs of Sangria and very loud Canal+ Sports on huge flat screens. A bit like British pubs I suppose.
Thursday: Pool in the morning and beach in the afternoon. Idyllic.
Friday: Overnight the wind freshened and we had 11 drops of rain! The morning continued breezy with thin cloud. We packed and left for Alicante. The site we aimed for came from the Caravan Club Book and it stated that the site was a little small for the bigger vans. How right they were, it was ridiculous. We tried to get a pitch but it was too tight so we tried a second site. This was poor and they wanted 30€ so we abandoned Alicante and carried on to Murcia, Camping La Paz. Big pitches but a little run down which was made worse by the Spanish obsession with shade. I’ll explain. The
people who live in the cities tend to keep a caravan on a permanent basis at a campsite, like La Paz. They then build a tubular framework over the entire pitch and cover the whole thing with black or green material. On the sunny sides they also make walls of the same material. So the permanent residents area of the site looks like a shanty town. The owners arrived on Friday evening for the weekend driving some very flash cars. Really quite strange.
Saturday: Cooler this morning. We set off for Granada, the drive was amazing, the scenery breathtaking. Huge mountains, wide valleys and vast plains. Much of the countryside is verging on desert, heavens knows the last time they had rain here.
The campsite, Camping Sierra Nevada, was found very easily and is excellent although disappointingly the pool was closed. Booked tickets to visit the Alhambra Palace tomorrow.
Weather is back to normal so sat outside the van.
13/10/11
Sunday: Quiet morning around the van then caught a bus into the centre. The town is lovely, wide, prosperous boulevards leading to the old town with narrow cobbled lanes and squares full of street cafes and souvenir
Seville
Cathedral Front Door shops. There are also some very swish streets with all the top names in them. Fortunately we didn’t see them until we were back on the bus!
After coffee and people watching, we walked up to the Alhambra Palace. It’s a huge complex, the lavish Moorish architecture of the palace is amazing and definitely the best part. What is really clever is how cool the rooms, courtyards and gardens are. Fountains, pools and water courses are everywhere and of course this adds to the coolness.
Sangria and Tapas back in the old part of town ended the day.
Monday: Quiet day around the van.
We booked a Flamenco evening with dinner and a bus picked us up at the campsite. The dancing was very good. The dinner was poor and it was all a bit hurried.
Tuesday: Packed up and headed for Seville. It’s great driving country. The motorways are amazing and everywhere you look they’re building more. They’re also building a spectacular railway line from Granada to Seville it follows the road, but goes through mountains and soars on spindly viaducts weaving it’s way west
TomTom found the campsite easily, the satnav has been brilliant all trip.
Really nice site and with temperature showing 31⁰, we were pleased to see the pool was open and spent the afternoon there.
Wednesday: Judith drove down from Merida and we spent the day by the pool.
Thursday: Barbecued spare ribs last night, yummy! We drank too much wine, hence a slow start today. Eventually we drove into Seville in Jude’s car. Took the bus tour, excellent way to see the city. Lunched in McDonalds! We were all still feeling hung over. We then visited the cathedral. Wow, one of the best we’ve seen. It’s massive and so ornate. We then went on to the Plaza De Espania, a lovely building with ceramic tiles everywhere.
Visited Ikea on the way back, Judith wanted some more things for Mike to put together! Jude dropped us back at the van and then went home. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool.
Friday: Packed up and drove up to Judith’s house in San Pedro. We’ll stay there for a week or so. Barbecued sardines for dinner, lovely, sat outside until late.
Saturday: Wales lost 9 – 8 to France, Jayne was devastated. Mike couldn’t watch so he
Jude's House
Chef finally gets to eat some sardines. went down to the village for coffee and “tostado”.
Did some DIY for Judith.
A lost day really, the twins were sad.
Sunday 161011: Jayne and I cleaned the van inside and out. More DIY. Marisol and Falli, Jude’s friends came for Sunday lunch. It was nice to see them again. Weather still very good although Marisol said it would get cooler by next weekend, down to 26⁰!!
22/10/11
Monday to Friday: Weather remains excellent. We spent the last few days doing some DIY in the mornings, shopping to buy more stuff for DIY, laying in the sun, dining on the balcony and sitting outside ‘till late enjoying the stars. Only downside is getting bitten by the mozzys! Jayne was attacked viciously when in southern France. It’s Mike’s turn now. I think we’ve discovered a new species of mosquito! They have developed stealth capability, the swines!
Saturday: We were all invited out to a late lunch at Marisol and Falli’s in Prosepina. They live very near the lake there. It was lovely. The weather has changed, it is cooler and later in the evening we had a thunder storm.
Sunday: Starting our journey
DIY
The head on the right! home, travelling early to Salamanca. We arrived about lunchtime and cycled up to the old town. Another amazing cathedral! We've seen so many in our time but they still never fail to impress us. Their sheer enormity and the skill and devotion required to build them, stunning!
There's a lovely central square, unfortunately there was a book fair on and they had constructed a lot of very modern stalls there so the effect was a little spoilt.
We intended staying near the city overnight but the weather being showery we decided to carry on up to Santander. A long drive but we managed eventually to find the campsite just outside the port about a hundred yards from the beach. Although the sea looked grey and uninviting!
Monday:
We drove into the port with not a little trepidation. Mike had seen the shipping forecast on the net and "Biscay: Gale force 8 increasing 9 later" did nothing for our moral.
The sea in the harbour was calm and peaceful although it was raining and the skies looked threatening. We boarded the ship, found our cabin, had a shower and changed and went to the bar. The ship sailed, we
Proserpina
Marisol and Falli had a drink, we headed into open water and people started groaning and shrieking almost straight away. This huge ship, with state of the art stabilisers was being tossed about like the proverbial cork. Twenty minutes after sailing Mike was in bed and Jayne was lying on the floor, unable to stay in the top bunk! We stayed there for 14 hours. The ship was actually breaching like a whale, the prow would leave the water and then we'd wait for the crash as it nosedived back in making an explosive "crump" noise and sending a huge white wave crashing over the ship. It calmed down a little in the early morning and we spent the time until we docked by leaving the cabin for a few minutes to find supplies and then staggering queasily back to bed.
Never again will we trouble the good people at Brittany Ferries on the Portsmouth to Santander route!
Like never!
We drove back to Bridgend through torrential rain and arrived home at about 7 pm on 25/10/2011. We travelled 2850 miles and averaged 23 miles per gallon. More importantly we had a great time.
Will we go again? You
Santander: Pont Aven
Queuing for our sick bags! bet!
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Nae
Annette Ruth Johnson
Hi!
Pleased to hear ur both okay. Chris and Alex back from Rhodes today. Hope everything goes okay at your appointment!! lol A xxx