Julie & Peter's Undoing

Been home a week, what shall we do?

2010-10-10T16:01:00.000+01:00

Just six days after returning home we were away for the weekend on a rally with the Bucks Caravan Centre. The rally was called "A Taste of Italy" so we thought we'd go along as we hadn't managed to fit Italy into our itinerary during our year away.

It was great to meet up with old friends and we were blown away by the welcome we received, including this amazing cake made by the lovely Sue Cooper.

Back home

2010-09-25T15:30:00.000+01:00

Following our lovely final two days in France with Tony & Claire we made the short trip to the Eurotunnel terminal for our crossing.

We didn't head straight home. I hadn't seen my mum for a few months and Julie hadn't seen her for 15 months so we spent our first 4 nights back in the UK in a small campsite in Abbess Roding (near Chipping Ongar). It was the nearest decent-looking site we could find to Hornchurch where my mum is in a care home. It was good to see her again - she's 93 now but is still physically fit and has an amazing appetite as we found when we took her to a local pub for lunch (3 courses and a vodka & tonic!).

The site was very pleasant but it was a bit weird being that close to home, especially for Julie who hadn't seen 60 Shelley Road for nearly 13 months, and was dying to get home.

Our journey home on Saturday 11th was slow (I have to say we really haven't missed the M25 while we've been away!) but uneventful and after 389 days on the road we finally pulled into our drive early in the afternoon.

We've had mixed feelings about coming home. It's been great to catch up with friends and family again but we are already missing the simplicity of the lifestyle we have had for the last year. We're determined that we're not just going to "settle back in" as if we'd never been away. We have some exciting plans for the next stage of our adventure and we will be spending the winter getting our house ready to put on the market next summer.

Although our travels have come to an end for the time being, it's not the end of "Julie and Peter's Undoing" and we are going to keep on blogging (although we may not post quite as regularly as when we were travelling).

La derniere etape

2010-09-15T18:00:00.000+01:00

Having spent a week being very impressed by what we saw at the Somme, we began to feel a little emotional. The year + was nearly at an end, we had achieved what we set out to do......undoing.......

We have both learnt so much. Relationships with people are the most treasured memories. Without the people we have met on the way our 'trip' wouldn't have been as much fun, or as interesting.

Without the support of our family and friends at home it wouldn't have happened. There have been times when we've felt homesick and thought maybe a year was too long, but in those times we have gained strength from one another and from our faith in God which has also led us to a new understanding of living. Some of the 'chats' we've had with our children have really pulled at our heart strings....wishing we weren't so far away....but that just confirms the love there is between us.

We've spent over a year living out of a 'box' which measures 4.7 metres by 2 metres, only able to carry with us what would fit in the the car and caravan - moving from place to place with everything in tow (literally!) - only being able to store provisions for 2 days at a time, so really relying on local shops, stalls, etc for replenishing foodstuffs -being lucky enough to have good weather nearly every day so the few clothes we had with us could be washed and dried quickly and no ironing for the whole year (might continue with that one!) ...........

...................... and we've loved it!!

We've adapted so well to this kind of environment....living simply.....that we now have a mission to transfer it to the house. Watch this space!

We couldn't have thought of a better way to spend our last 2 nights in France than to stay at one of our favourite "sites" - Chez Tony and Claire in a village in Nord Pas De Calais

We got to their cottage first and set up the van in their front garden.

Tony and Claire arrived late afternoon and we shared a meal recollecting their journey down to Porto to visit us, and the wonderful time we had spent together. (Just to remind you, this is the couple who refused to be prevented from coming to see us in Porto just because a volcano in Iceland had decided to let off steam - and drove for two days there and two days back just to spend three days with us)

Unfortunately the weather on our last 2 days in France wasn't as good as it had been in Portugal, but it didn't stop us from doing anything (apart from visiting the beach!) We even managed breakfast outside on the first day.

Baie de Somme

2010-09-09T16:01:00.000+01:00

The final stop at a French camp site on our journey home was at a very friendly, very French site on the outskirts of Saint Valery-sur-Somme. Why very French? Well we were now in low season and the only travellers we have come across in the low season were Dutch, German and English, with maybe a few Danes thrown in for good measure. This site was 98% French and it was full! Yet another new experience! It was as if we had been thrown back into the middle of July, the weather was just as good too.

This was another new area of France for us and it has been added to the list of places we will definitely come back to.

Saint Valery is on the edge of the Baie de Somme, an absolutely enormous bay which is now a nature reserve as it attracts hundreds of species of migrating birds as well as having its own colony of seals. We were very fortunate that the weather was calm and sunny while we were there as we’re sure it’s not quite so attractive when there’s a Force 9 gale blowing in from the Atlantic! The colours and the scenery changed depending on the tide and the time of day. It was the sort of vista that you could never get tired of viewing. At high tide many boats and guided canoes were out to see all the wild life and just have a good time. At low tide you could take a guided walking tour in borrowed wellies to see the wildlife and plants which are very special and the harvesting of them adds to the economy of this area. (One of our favourites is samphire - delicious served with fish.))

Benji enjoyed the open spaces but the beach, being on an estuary, was a bit muddy so much poodle cleaning was required!

The town of Saint Valery still has most of the old city wall intact and a fascinating old church with a very impressive set of gargoyles!

We also spent some time exploring the resorts on either side of the bay

We saw these horses racing on a beach on the Eastern side of the bay near Le Crotoy.

These pictures are from Cayeaux-sur-mer, a resort to the West, with its immaculate rows of beach huts fronting an enormous pebble beach.

The most surprising place we visited a bit further West. At Le Treport you have wide expanses of beach with flat land behind on one side but on the other side you have cliffs that rival Dover! These two photos were taken from the same place. Le Treport also has beautiful old seaside architecture and is brimming with restaurants. We only drove around here as we had already eaten and it was very busy in a friendly holiday sort of way, but it’s somewhere we will make a point of returning to in the future.

Honfleur

2010-09-04T11:18:00.000+01:00

On our route further north we hit the coast at Honfleur, and stayed on a site in view of the famous Pont de Normandie which spans the Seine estuary.

The town of Honfleur is very attractive, the port area particularly so with dozens of restaurants to choose from on the quayside, most offering a range of seafood but with Moules Frites (in many different varieties) the most common.

We have learnt that, in France, if you want a good table and haven’t booked in advance you need to arrive very early i.e. 12 or even just before (unlike Spain where if you arrive before 2 they think you’ve come for a late breakfast!). Most restaurants don’t start service until midday but they are usually happy for you to sit at your chosen table until then, so we sat at a quayside table for two and watched the world go by until they were ready to take our order. We’re becoming Moules connoisseurs now and we’ve come to the conclusion that of all the different sauces on offer, “a la crème”, done well, is the best.

The Sarthe Region

2010-09-04T11:11:00.000+01:00

France is a huge country as we all know, so choosing a route to take returning north was determined by cheap campsites avoiding the Paris route!

We have found the ACSI the most beneficial financially, and so used their guide book to pick out sites on our route home. (ACSI is a scheme that enables you to stay on member sites at a discounted rate outside of high season).

We have never stayed anywhere in between the Loire and Nord Pas de Calais before so we were on new territory. A site west of Le Mans, called Les Tournesols (The Sunflowers to you and me), in a small town called Sille de Guillaume was accepting ACSI from 17/08 so we thought that’s the place to pull in. It is a Dutch owned site which has every amenity you could wish for, if not on site, very close by. The welcome at the site was terrific—we were invited in for coffee where we were given so much information we couldn’t take it all in at once, but it didn’t matter as the owner was more than happy to repeat it as and when.

We were lucky enough to have arrived just before the end of an exciting month in Le Mans. The owner encouraged us to make the ½ hour drive into Le Mans during an evening to see the spectacle of pictures and music projected onto walls in the ancient city. Ancient City? We had only heard of the road race around Le Mans, we didn’t even know it had an ancient city. Wow, were we in for a treat. If you have never ever stopped at Le Mans before, make it a priority next time you are in the area. It’s beautiful and so unexpected. Even without the summer programme of events the ‘Old Town’ is well worth a visit. We will make it one of our priorities next time we come to France. Unfortunately we only went at night so we didn’t get any photos to show why we are so excited by it, but then that might spoil it for any one else.

In fact we didn’t realise just how much there is to see and do in the ‘Sarthe’ region of France. Much of it is likened to Britain, and many of the little villages are very much like villages you just come across at home. It is very quaint and beautiful and has a lot of history connected to Britain.

We spent a wonderful 2 nights at this site, but were out much of the time taking in all the surroundings. Below are a few photos of us using our newly-acquired paella pan for the first time and some pictures of the images that were projected onto the various walls in the old city of Le Mans. I know we have often said that our photos don’t do justice but it’s definitely true in this case as they were all moving images combined with either music or speech. Can’t say we understood everything that was going on but it was definitely worth seeing.

This is Julie cooking the Paella

...and here is the finished dish!

and this is a picture of Peter at the top of a tower in the middle of an oak wood giving an amazing view over the vast countryside, and can you believe it we were only 330kms as the crow flies from London!

The Loire

2010-09-04T10:50:00.000+01:00

As we travelled north through France we chose to stay on a site in the Loire valley near Saumur. We had stayed in Saumur for five days 6 years ago and had been impressed with the area.

The site itself was a little disappointing on first impressions – a rather scruffy field and they were obviously struggling for custom as there were no more than three caravans on site at any time and there was room for many more. (Apparently the recession has hit the French camping industry hard this year.)

But the owners were more than accommodating. On the positive side it did mean that we had as much space as we wanted and we didn’t need to put Benji on a lead. The site also had a pool which we made use of a couple of times and offered an on-demand restaurant service whereby the owner’s wife, given at least a few hours notice, could prepare a wonderful three-course meal.

The nearest town was Montreuil-Bellay, yet another picturesque French village (they do seem to have so many!)

We particularly chose this site to make a return visit to an amazing restaurant we had visited the last time we were in this region. The “Caves de Marson” is a restaurant inside a Troglodyte cave which serves a set menu of ‘fouees’, which are a cross between a bread roll and pitta bread, cooked in a massive wood oven in the cave, served with rillette (which is similar to potted meat), goats cheese, haricot blanc, Normandy butter and salad. In six years the price had gone up by 3 Euros, it was just a little more commercialised, but apart from that the food and the experience were just as good as we had remembered. Even the Maitre d’ was the same lady we saw when we were there 6 years before.

We were only a short drive from Saumur, which we visited on the Saturday morning. It was even more attractive than we remembered it and this time the scaffolding had gone from around the Chateau, so we made the climb up to the gardens and enjoyed a cocktail looking at the view of the Loire, which was very shallow as they have had precious little rain in the Loire district this summer.

They say ‘never go back’ which is why we had chosen to stay on a different site, on the whole we do try to visit different places most of the time. The week near Saumur not only enabled us to enjoy ‘Caves de Marson’ again, it also revealed to each of us one of the forces which pushed us to take this year out. To learn to live in the moment and enjoy each and every blessing which comes your way. OK, the site wasn’t quite what we had expected or wanted, but it met our every need and more. We had an excellent reflective week there which marked us in ways we were not prepared for.

Chilled or what!

2010-08-29T16:59:00.000+01:00

We are now on the north coast of France. To get up here we decided to cut up through the Vallee de la Sarthe. We've not actually been to that region of France before and we can reccomend it as a wonderful holiday destination, but more about our sight-seeing later. This is a blog about a little incident which happened while leaving the town we were staying in there.

We had decided on our morning of departure that instead of Peter nipping out in the car to fill up with fuel before we hooked the caravan up, we could do it on our way out of town. There was a 'Super U' supermarket we had walked to the day before so we knew there weren't any height restrictions getting into the car park.

We left a little later than originally planned as we'd stopped to talk at length to the owner of the site and a few other campers, but as our motto is 'there's no rush' it didn't bother us.

We pulled into the supermarket car park and round to the petrol pumps and that's where all the fun began.

There was a rather 'sharp right turn' as Emily-the sat nav would have described it, which also had a high kerb and a narrow passage into the parking area to re-fuel.

As Peter pulled into the re-fueling area there was a loud grating noise coming from the back of the van.

Now, because we had left later than envisioned, it was close to lunch time and the supermarket car park was becoming quite busy and everybody had to exit past the entrance to the fuel pumps.

I got out of the car to see what the noise was to find the motormover (a mechanical device to move the caravan, which is permanently housed in front of both the caravan wheels) perched on the edge of the high kerb.

We were already taking up the space for two vehicles, but cars could squeeze past behind us to get out.

There was only one way to get off the kerb and that was to back off. So while I held up the traffic Peter backed the car and van very slowly off the kerb.

We still had to get fuel so we tried again to pull over a little more to the left to clear the kerb. Success! But this time we were so close to the pumps that we couldn't take the caravan any further forward after we had filled with fuel or we would have lost the offside of the caravan.

In the meantime we had become a bit of a spectacle with some offers of help and a few raised arms and shrugged shoulders.

The only thing for it was to hold all the traffic up again and back completely out of the service station. I went to pay at the kiosk and explain what we were going to do, by this time people were saying hello to Benji popping his head out of the car window and discussing our best way forward.

Peter held his nerve and while I stopped the traffic backed expertly out of the narrow situation we had got ourselves into.

As I got into the car we both laughed and said "well that was another first", maybe not to be repeated. But what struck us the most was how calmly we had both dealt with it. Neither of us fussed or flustered, neither of us cared how long it took us to sort the situation out and no-one got upset. We can imagine we were possibly the talk of a few lunch-time conversations, and we probably haven't done a lot for Anglo-French relationships, especially if anyone was in a hurry, but we've learnt the French take most incidents like this with an air of que sera sera. Fantastic!

Bucks Caravan Club members - you would have been proud of Pete!

The adventures of Benji the wonder poodle!

2010-08-29T14:21:00.000+01:00

If you've been following our blog you will know that we have been accompanied on our trip by our faitfhul companion Benji. In fact you can't have missed him as our sons Dave and Paul often joke about how many of our photos and videos feature him in some way.

Some of you will know the story of how we acquired Benji--an ex Hearing Dog who made it most of the way through his training but didn't graduate at the end so needed to find an alternative career.

We've now been his owners for just over 5 years. When we first got him he was ever so well behaved and didn't act like a dog at all. This particular cross-breed (poodle/terrier) is renowned for its intelligence which is why they are often used as assistance dogs. During his training he had used his intelligence to learn to react to different sounds. When we first had him, if the phone rang, he would circle round the room and come and sit down next to us to let us know.

He also had an "off" switch at meal times where as soon as food was served at the table he would go and lie still in his basket until we had finished.

Hearing Dogs are trained by rewarding good behaviour and ignoring bad behaviour and although they learn very quickly the good behaviour needs to be regularly practised and rewarded to reinforce it otherwise the animals slowly forget their training. Of course from their point of view there is no "good behaviour" or "bad behaviour" - only behaviour that often seems to result in some sort of reward so seems worth trying again - and behaviour that doesn't.

So, had we continued to reward Benji's mealtime behaviour we would still have a dog who didn't scrounge. Unfortunately it's our discipline rather than his which has let us down!

In fact a year away with us in the caravan has turned him into a scrounging mutt. He no longer goes to his basket when we eat....instead you'll find him hoovering any crumbs which fall to the floor, and many do as we eat outside a lot - and yes we do sometimes "accidentally" drop other bits of food onto the ground so he really has no incentive whatsoever to stay in his basket!

We're still not sure that, given the choice, he really wanted to spend a year away from home but maybe he just wanted to be away for Christmas to avoid this sort of humiliation!

Not satisfied with being patient while we do the necessary chores around the van, as he always was at home, he constantly gets under our feet wanting us to play.

At night he tries his hardest to join us on the bed rather than occupying his own bunk at the far end of the caravan.

He's worse than any child for running away from wasps as he got stung within our first week away

He has got very used to his morning walk coinciding with visiting the camp shops or boulangeries to pick up a baguette, and now expects 'the knobby bit' as a treat for waiting outside.

He has been loved and adored by many other campers and campsite owners, which seems to have given him an elevated thought of where his rank is in our pack.........and he tries emotional blackmail whenever we go out and leave him behind by looking so dejected and hurt.

He reads our body language like a book and seems to know exactly what our plans are every minute of every day.

One thing which we've not lost from his previous hearing dog training is his reaction to the smoke alarm in the van. As you can image even making toast sets the thing of in such a small place, so if we forget to remove it before any cooking takes place it tends to let everyone know we're cooking something. Benji has a great dislike for its noise and has learnt that whenever Julie just lifts the lid to the cooker or opens the oven the alarm will probably go off, so he clears out before it has a chance and we usually find him hiding somewhere outside the van.

All in all he has been a marvellous travelling companion, and although having a dog with us has prevented us from doing some of the touristy things, we haven't regretted our decision to bring him with us at all. In fact we've been kept much healthier because we've gone out of our way to make sure he has a lot of exercise so we've had a lot of exercise too. We think nothing of a 10 km walk before breakfast......will this continue when we get home?

We think he misses home but we can't be sure. When we arrive at yet another new camp site you can sense him thinking "OK, so where are we now?"

It will be very interesting to see his reaction when we walk in the front door in a couple of weeks time.

But he has definitley enjoyed most of his time away and his favourite pastimes include sunbathing

and a day on the beach (river, lake or sea)

But when he ends up looking like this

he's not so keen on the mandatory visit to the dog shower

but after a wash and brush-up it's time for a visit to a beach cafe

and a sleep back at the caravan, guarding mum's favourite chocolates!

Camping a la Ferme

2010-08-22T18:50:00.000+01:00

For most of our travels we got used to the fact that we were outside of the main summer holiday season and so we didn't need to book ahead. We've really enjoyed turning up at sites and deciding after we arrive how long we stay. This approach has only let us down once and that was when we arrived at a site in a remote region of Spain - the problem wasn't that they were full, they just weren't open! (You've probably read the blog entry!)

For July and August we were more cautious. Before we left home last August we had already pre-booked a site in the Dordogne region for July and the first two weeks of August this year - and whilst we were in Les Landes we realised that we maybe needed to think about where we would head to after the Dordogne as it would still be school holiday time, so we booked ahead our next two stays, a week in the Poitou-Charente region and a week in the Loire Valley.

You would think by now that we would know what we want from a campsite but we are still learning. We were nervous about being on a large commercial site during the school holidays but on the other hand we do like a site to have a bit of life to it.

Despite websites and online reviews you never really know for sure what you are going to find when you turn up at a campsite but the site we've just left in the Poitou-Charente (La Renardiere) ticked most of the boxes.

The camping field is large and spacious with about eight caravans in a semi-circle on one side and a swimming pool on the other. The site was remote in the sense that it's not near any of the major tourist resorts or attractions but was fairly full and had a good buzz to it. On our first night there we were invited to join our neighbours for paella and the owners organised a barbecue on our final evening (not just for us - they do one every week!) which was great fun and everyone on the site attended.

Something else that we've really begun to value is wi-fi access. I find it hard to believe that at home I would be very upset if our internet service was unavailable for a couple of hours but we spent six weeks on a site with no internet access at all. A lot of sites provide wi-fi access, quite often just in a central area and some charge for it and some don't. The best ones are those who provide it free across the whole site which is exactly what we had at La Renardiere.

About the only thing missing was a morning bread delivery but apart from that we'd say it was pretty close to a perfect Camping a la Ferme. We'll be back!

Dave & Katie

2010-08-14T13:37:00.001+01:00

Although I flew home in April to see my mum and also met up with our two sons, Julie has not seen either of the boys since November last year. As we've mentioned a few times already in previous blogs we've really enjoyed (and still are enjoying) the travelling but we're both getting quite homesick and missing family and friends.

So you can imagine the excitement we felt when we knew that Dave and his girlfriend Katie were coming to see us. Unfortunately the site we had booked for July and the first two weeks of August was probably the least attractive for them to stay at. It was a very quiet, adults only site in the middle of nowhere. It was the only site we had pre-booked before we left the UK last summer as we wanted somewhere a bit out of the way for the main French season. But fortunately, about 20 minutes walk away from our site, was a family campsite which mainly catered for mobile homes but also had some camping pitches. Unlike our site it also had a bar, pool, snack bar etc. so we booked them in there for all but their first and last nights which they spent in a pop-up tent in our awning.

They had an early morning Eurotunnel crossing and drove all the way down to us in one go, just stopping for refreshment breaks. They arrived early evening looking absolutely shattered. It was great to see them and we had plenty of food and drink ready for them as we spent the evening catching up. We were all surprised at the completely over the top welcome they got from Benji who is not usually the most demonstrative of dogs, but it was lovely to see and has made us feel quite excited about his reaction to getting back home.

Because we'd been in the area for over four weeks before their arrival, we had a whole host of recommended activities that they could do if they wished. In the end, with only six days to spend with us they chose a mixture of chilling out, eating out, eating in and canoeing, with just a little sightseeing thrown in too!

We were usually so busy chatting that we didn't take many photographs but here are some from two of the activities during their visit.

Canoeing on the Dordogne, (which Julie and I managed far more successfully this time round, but Benji still wasn't impressed!)

On their final evening with us we went into Montignac to experience their Marché Nocturne which Julie and I had been to on a previous occassion, (the guinguette). The tables and benches were laid out in the centre surrounded on all sides by stalls selling a wide range of local produce. We decided to take it in turns to buy a plate of food then share it between us. During the course of the evening we managed to sample grilled duck breast, Creole-style sausages, Foie Gras, freshly-baked bread, a cepe omellette, coq au vin, hot cabécou cheese, crêpes and a variety of local wines and beers. The entertainment was provided by a lady singer who belted out some French favourites. All in all a great experience and a great way to spend their last evening with us. (That's Katie on the left and Dave on the right, nearest the camera)

Blog post number 100!

2010-07-29T15:53:00.000+01:00

A momentous occasion we think….did it ever cross our minds that we would write or catalogue so much information while travelling….I don’t think so!

Initially we had to learn how to use Blogger, and they have made it easier while we’ve been away. It used to take forever to upload photos, but now we’ve learned to do it quite quickly.

A lot of the sites we’ve stayed on haven’t had internet connection, so we’ve written it in draft to cut and paste when we’ve been able to.

Some experiences haven’t made it into the blog because we’ve left it too late to write about them before another new experience has taken precedence.

One thing is certain, what we have created is a very neat document of treasured memories.

Not that this will be our last….oh no, we still have 6 weeks left of this adventure with many more things to document, for instance………

Goose/Duck Stuffing

Now we’ve always been partial to a bit of Foie Gras, even though we’ve known that the feathered friends eat more corn than is good for them.

This trip we decided to visit a Foie Gras Ferme to decide once and for all how happy/unhappy the geese and ducks are. Rest assured, it isn’t a horrific experience.

The birds are brought up in the open air with all the comfort they desire until the last 15 days of their 4 month lives. At this point they are brought inside the barn to live in a pen with their friends and are given 2 feeds a day via a funnel, of about 200—250 grams of sweetcorn. They have fresh water constantly on tap, and other seeds and corn to peck at as they wish.

Now the gullet of a duck or goose does not have the gagging reflex we have. They totally relax and I must admit look as though they enjoy the experience. It’s not brutal or distressing, and each bird is fed by hand so the farmer can make sure that there is no ‘forcing’ the food into the bird.

We decided that ‘force feeding’ is a poor translation of what actually happens. I know we’ve only visited one farm and not every farmer will be as proud to let the public see how or what he does, but as with all animal food products, we can vote by choosing to buy only the reputable products where animal welfare is a priority.

The Guinguette
If you look this up on the internet it will tell you that it is an open air meal with some sort of entertainment, which died out last century.

Nobody has told the villages in le Perigord Noir that it’s a thing of the past. Every Marche Nocturne (night market to you and me) has a Guinguette. Rows of tables and chairs are placed in the middle of the market for everyone to eat the food and drink the wine which can be bought at the stalls around the edge. There is also a stage erected close to the tables and chairs for the entertainers to perform while you eat, drink and make new friends.

We have been to several now. The food is usually of a very high standard and a little different to the bars, cafes and restaurants. But the best part is chatting to the locals and tourists alike, spending time drinking in the atmosphere in the warm summer evenings.

Canoeing on the Dordogne

With Dave and Katie due to join us next week we thought we’d get some canoeing practice in before they arrive, so yesterday we booked a fairly short (10 Km) trip. We were told it should take about 2 hours if we canoed non-stop but we had a picnic lunch with us so arranged for the minibus to pick us up 3 hours later.

We are so pleased that we had this trial run as we learnt quite a lot! The river flows at about 5 Km an hour and of course all trips are downstream – you either get a lift upstream and end up back where you parked your car or you get a lift back to the car park at the end of your journey.

Lesson 1 – book a trip where you start upstream and end up back at the base – that way you don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time. We thought we would have plenty of time but of course their time estimates assume that you travel in a fairly straight line. Our constant series of ziz-zags, pirouettes and emergency stops (to avoid serious injury to other canoeists) meant that we probably covered nearly double the distance.

Lesson 2 – when given the option of single-ended or double-ended paddles choose the double-ended ones. We thought that with one of us rowing on one side and the other one rowing on the other we would travel serenely down the river in a straight line. Wrong – next time we’ll take it in turns using double-ended paddles – not sure if it will help but it couldn’t be any worse!

Lesson 3 – just because your dog is a good swimmer don’t assume he is a good sailor. For some reason Benji didn’t seem to enjoy sitting in a puddle in the middle of our canoe for three hours. He endured it but attempted to strike out for land whenever possible.

Lesson 4 – appoint a captain. One of you has to be in charge – it’s the only way it can work even if the other person isn’t that happy about doing what they’re told!

Lesson 5 – if you’re looking for a quiet day out choose another month or another river. The Dordogne in late July is as busy as the M25 on a Monday morning – canoes and swimmers as far as the eye can see with the odd 50-seater tour boat doing it’s best to pick it’s way through the throng without drowning anybody.

The World Cup

2010-07-25T11:13:00.000+01:00

I’d known for quite a while that we would be in France during the World Cup. Like most England fans, my head told me that we had very little chance of doing well this time round but my heart told me that I had to watch, just in case things turned out better than expected.

We don’t have a TV in the caravan but we do have a USB tuner which enables us to watch local TV on our laptop. We’ve not used it much because our language skills are not good enough for us to enjoy Spanish/French/Portuguese TV programmes, but it was one of my options for watching the England games.

The site we were on for the first game against the USA was remarkable in that it was the only site we have stayed on that had no internet access, no mobile phone reception and not even a hint of a TV signal. Fortunately however they had Satellite TV in the bar. Unfortunately, the only other people on the site vaguely interested in watching the game were a Welsh couple. Now to give them their due they were not particularly anti-English, bit I think it’s fair to say that they were slightly amused by the ineptitude of England’s performance whereas I was just embarrassed and faintly annoyed.

By the time of the next game against Algeria we had moved to a site which had good TV reception and I decided to watch the game on my own at the caravan rather than seeking out a bar in town – a wise decision.

For the final group game against Slovenia I was heartened by the fact the England’s fate was in their own hands and although there was no way that I wanted to take the risk of watching it in a public place surrounded by French, Dutch, Germans etc. I was looking forward to watching it.

I duly tuned in to the same French TV channel that had shown the previous England game only to find that they were showing the other game from our group – USA v Algeria! I scanned through all the other channels but none of them were showing football. So I missed the only game that England won in their 2010 World Cup campaign.

I’m not going to say too much about the Germany game – like everyone else I was annoyed about the disallowed goal, frustrated at the ineptitude of the England team and faintly thankful at the end that it was all over. At least from now on I could just enjoy the football without worrying too much about who wins.

We decided that with England out we should support the teams of the countries we’d visited in our year of travelling. France were already out so that left us with Spain and Portugal who played each other in the next round leaving us just Spain to support.

On the evening of their semi-final game against Germany we had been invited for drinks with some other people on the new site we were on, so I only caught the second half but one of the other guys on site, hearing that I had the football on, came and joined me.

We decided we had to do something special for the final so Julie and I organised a World Cup Final barbecue with the option of watching the game on our not very big screen. We had a really good turnout and it was great to watch the game with other football fans.

And it was great to watch Spain win after the disappointment of the England games.

P.S. I do have to be careful though as there are lots of Dutch on holiday in this region and I have occasionally found myself inadvertently humming a few bars of “Viva Espana” while shopping in the supermarket.

Bastille Day…….14th July

2010-07-17T15:51:00.000+01:00

We have been in France a couple of times before on Bastille Day and have enjoyed the festivities enormously.

This year was also very enjoyable.

Here in Perigord Noir it began on the evening before. The nearest town had organised an evening of entertainment to suit all tastes. It began at 5pm, but as the first few events were comedians and poets we decided that we wouldn’t venture in until the music started at 9pm ish.

We walked in with friends we’ve made on site, a couple from New Zealand, Gary and Rae.

The town was buzzing, there must have been about 1,000 people and the town is only small, a church, a ‘salle de fetes’, a Logis, with a few houses in between. It’s called St Amand de Coly, and is famous for its church which used to be an Abbey.

We arrived in time for what we were expecting to be a mime to the music of ‘Peter and the Wolf’.

I didn’t recognise the music, it certainly was a much more modern rendition of the old classics, but the mime and dance were spectacular.

There was just a man and a woman, but the props they used were extraordinary. The audience was spell bound, even the 50 or so little children who had sat in a semi-circle at the front of ‘La Place’. It lasted for about ½ an hour.

We wondered towards the Salle de Fetes after the mime, to find trestle tables set up with chairs for people to eat. There was also a music band playing here. Around the car park were several stalls selling walnuts and walnut products, foie gras, pancakes, sugar covered peanuts……the usual sorts of foods we’ve come to expect from this region, but between them all was a butchers van….how odd we all said!

At the back of this area there were 2/3 huge griddles and bbq’s. Talking to the ‘cooks’ we found out that you choose the meat you want to eat from the butchers and pay for it, then they will cook it for you at no extra cost to have with salad and chips which you could also buy if you wanted them. There were also stalls selling wine by the glass or bottle and a beer tent.

We sat and had a couple of drinks while listening to the music, waiting for the big finale to commence at 11pm.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect as the leaflet we had said it involved 56 comedians, a band and some acting, ending with fire works.

The field it was all happening in had had about 50 oil drums erected in a triangle, and there was stage lighting
set up aimed at the oil drums!

At 11pm we wandered over to the outskirts of the town along with everybody else.

It’s very difficult to describe what happened next, because it’s one of those times when you really have to be there, but we will try!

From the other side of the field we could see and hear the band start up. The music was in the style of Pink Floyd, and was very good. The band were set up on the back of a flat bed lorry which had blue and pink fluorescent lighting adorning it everywhere – the lighting making it look more like a train than a lorry.

It took a while for the lorry to come around to where we’d decided to stand, but as it did we were treated to a magnificent spectacle.

All the performers were covered with a blue die like woad. Many were pushing empty oil cans along the ground for effect and sound. They had fire crackers and flares which they let off to enhance the lighting of the lorry.

As they pushed their oil cans along the ground they began to roll over them creating an image of destruction, others came along eating lettuce and drinking blue liquid from glasses with straws, while all this was happening the band were playing and the oil drums were being used to add a percussion sound. The atmosphere was electric, no one quite sure where the next flare or fire cracker would be.

After a while they all regrouped and headed off to the erected oil drums in the middle of the field. Once everyone was in place, music playing all the while, the beat unified and there was an enormous bang. All went silent and black, and then the wall of oil drums came tumbling down.

The procession began again with the music and the actors/comedians/musicians all making their way toward the church which became the most magnificent back drop for a wonderful firework display which ended the night.

I got the feeling that it symbolised a modern version of the French Revolution. An almost nuclear experience, re-enacting the fall of Versailles, but who knows…….it was something well worth being a part of. The pictures only capture a fragment. A little like our whole experience really—there’s too much that can’t be explained, but has given us some incredible memories.

We walked back to the campsite along a track in the dark with head torches on, for another night’s sleep before going to St Genies the next evening (again with Gary and Rae),for another ‘Bastille Day’ celebration, which was a lot tamer, but we had a marvellous meal sitting along the trestle tables along with many other European nationalities, eating the food we watched cooked on the griddles and bbq’s, drinking good wine and enjoying good company!

One year on!

2010-07-09T21:23:00.000+01:00

It’s been nearly a year since we moved into the caravan at the bottom of the garden for the ‘change over period’ of 60 Shelley Road, to Paul, Rach and Dave.

In fact only 5 days short of the year!

I can’t quite remember how I felt back then as we had Lighthouse and all that it entails, to look forward to, Explorer ‘B’ camp which we had also committed to, not to mention leaving everything we’d known to travel through France, Spain and Portugal.

I can remember being in a frenzy getting rid of a lot of our ‘stuff’ to make room for Paul and Rach moving back in.

Frenzy is not a word my brain or body is familiar with now! I hope I will never ever ‘get into a frenzy’ again, there’s absolutely no need.

Reflecting on where we are now to where we were then, there’s a vast difference. It has been helped by the lifestyle we’ve led over the past year, but this lifestyle has also taught us some very important lessons.

We left High Wycombe hoping to learn how to ‘be’ instead of just ‘doing’ or responding to situations which we found ourselves in the middle of. Also, to live without clutter, as a caravan doesn’t lend itself to useless articles or items!

Being—has not been that easy to learn, and we now wonder if many people actually accomplish it. We’ve realised that we enjoy having a purpose to our lives, and although neither of us see ourselves going back into paid employment, doing something which is fulfilling will be very important to us when we get home.

Living without clutter is much easier. I still have far too much ‘stuff’ in the caravan, and on setting up a new home when we arrive back in the UK I will certainly make sure only the items which are regularly used will accompany us!

We’ve also realised that being content with who and where we are is also a major part of living. It’s something that doesn’t always come naturally, you have to accept things which aren’t always easy to accept, and put up with niggles without moaning, but if you can accomplish that and be thankful for what you’ve got, life becomes a lot brighter.

The hardest part of this adventure for me (Julie), has been not being an everyday part of our children’s lives. Not that we were before we left, but being too far away to make an immediate difference in helping them has been particularly difficult. They, on the other hand, have probably been pleased we’ve not been around to interfere!!

Have we accomplished what we set out to achieve?

A 20 year dream was to travel through Portugal, and yes we’ve done that, although now we would like to do it again in a motorhome. (Access to the more remote parts would be easier.)

I’ve already talked about ‘being’ and ‘decluttering’.

We now have bags of experience to continue to go ahead with what we feel we’re called to do next, which is to find some land and make it an enjoyable venue which can be used for us to live on and host family, friends, friends to be, the local community, and whoever else wishes to use it to relax and ‘be’.

Where that land will be is yet to be determined, but we still have 2 months of this experience left to enjoy, and enjoy it we will!!

Have we any regrets?

None whatsoever. When we first set out I thought I was ‘doing’ this for Peter. ( He had always wanted to spend a long time travelling, I never had.) As time has gone on I have gained so much from this experience, lessons which I couldn’t have learnt in any other way, and I’m so thankful that I’ve had this opportunity.

Menu du jour!

2010-07-09T21:21:00.000+01:00

Having spent many years travelling the length and breadth of France as our summer holiday destination, I must admit to not having enough confidence in my abilities to speak French, to pull into an Auberge for a meal. Even though that’s all I’ve wanted to do. Something has always prevented me from doing just that. I’ve been more than happy to settle for a café or a restaurant where a menu has either been on display or placed in front of me.

This trip, an ambition was to turn up unannounced at an Auberge to have a meal.

We have accomplished it more than once! What a fantastic experience it is--if you don’t mind that the china doesn’t match, or you use the same knife, fork and plate for nearly every course.

Mostly we have found these places filled with French labourers having a hearty meal before going to finish their day's work.

For us……we have been presented with a five course meal…….soup, in a terrine to serve yourselves as much as you wish, followed by a salad or pate course, or maybe a goats cheese tart, again eat as much as you like!

Then along comes the main meal which is usually meat/fish /egg based with a mixture of vegetables.

Then for us the ‘piece de resistance’, the cheese board! We have had various cheese boards placed in front of us, some just huge chunks of delicious cheese on a plate with a knife, others, presented with homemade jams which have complimented the cheese perfectly.

Before you can say ‘pas de desert’ a pudding is presented before you with a coffee to follow.

Usually the wine is included in the meal, it is either in a carafe or a bottle without a label, of half-decent red which has never disappointed our now trained palates.

I hasten to add that we have begun to eat just once a day as it takes us all afternoon and evening to feel hungry again!!!

(So much cheaper than going to the supermarket where you buy more than you need just to throw it away before you’ve used it as it’s gone bad in the heat! Environmentally friendly too as we don’t have to heat our water to do the washing up!)

Bon appétit!

91st Felibrejada dau Bornat dau Perigord Montignac Sur Vezere 2,3,4 de Juliet 2010

2010-07-05T10:37:00.000+01:00

What’s all this about?.... we hear you ask!

We have arrived on the one site we booked before we left the UK. It is a small 8 van paradise, 4 miles from Montignac in the Perigord region, and we were lucky enough to get here in time for their annual celebration of all things Perigordian!

The town has been completely shut off to traffic to enable the towns folk and surrounding villagers to gather in national dress through the last 100 years to celebrate their culture and produce, and what a variety it is…..all mixed together with lots of walnuts in one form or another.

The decorations throughout the town are very colourful, and the warmth and friendliness of the people is everywhere.

We are staying on this site now until the French school children go back to school—in six weeks time, when we will start to move off again, though not before being visited by Dave and Katie for the first week in August.

We have actually booked our crossing back home too. We leave this lovely country to arrive back in the UK on 7th September, where we will be heading straight to Essex to spend some time with Peter’s mum for a few days.

But we’ve lots to see and do before then…below are a few photos of Montignac in all it’s finery. (We’re also lucky enough to still be here when they celebrate ‘Des Hommes Pareils’ in the last week of July, for want of a better translation, it means ‘equal men’ and it’s a festival celebrating music and dance from around the world. Peter and I will certainly be attending some of the festivities then.)

Truffle virgins

2010-07-05T10:31:00.000+01:00

While walking around a small but vibrant market in a little town called Limogne, I spied an elderly lady with just a small table displaying 4 or 5 boxes of truffles.

Now when I say boxes I mean little cardboard cartons like the ones we used to buy strawberries in before everything was packaged in plastic.

I’ve only ever seen truffles for sale before at Isle sur La Sorgue in Provence, and they were on a stall laden with black and white truffles which cost an arm and a leg.

I was intrigued by the labels which were hand written on the boxes which said…….50g / 5 Euro, 100g/10 Euro……not really believing you could buy truffles that cheaply I asked her for 50g.

She then proceeded to ask me which truffles I wanted.

Having never knowingly eaten truffles or cooked with them I wasn’t sure how to go about choosing the best ones.

She carefully showed me how to feel and smell each truffle to decide which I wanted. I chose my 50gs worth and true enough it only cost me 5 Euros.

I then had to find an Internet café to download some information on how to use them.!!!!

We have just finished eating the last of my 50gms worth, and I must say it was 5 euros very well spent. I grated some into a casserole, Peter ate some raw, I fried some truffle shavings with some lardons for breakfast one morning and the last of them I placed in my box of eggs overnight before cooking them for brunch the next day….delicious.

We are now trying to train Benji to hunt for truffles, the trouble is he’s not interested unless they come with a squeaky toy!

St Cirq Lapopie

2010-06-30T15:38:00.000+01:00

For the last week and a ½ we have been staying in ‘The most Beautiful Village in France’, or so they say. I'm sure there are others who would lay claim to that as well but it is certainly in the top 10!

It is high up a cliff with the River Lot flowing through the valley below. Our campsite is on the banks of the Lot, where there is a small shingle beach enabling us to swim in the cool waist-high waters….so refreshing. The village is a 700 metre climb either along the road or through the woods—it’s 700 metres whichever way you go.

During our first week the weather wasn’t very good and we found ourselves back in jeans and jumpers, but since 21st June the sun has come back with a vengeance and we’ve had to swim 2/3 times a day just to keep cool. Our pitch is right next to the river which makes it easy, even though we have a small laurel hedge just in front of us.

The owners are very friendly and helpful and they have a small restaurant which cooks our meals whenever we want them to!

St. Cirq-Lapopie is now described as a ‘craftsmen’s village’. It really is quite unique with a photo opportunity at every corner. Most of our photos of the village itself were taken at ten o’ clock at night when we went for a meal there it gives the village a deserted feel and also you don't get to see the hues of the sunlight pouring through the streets. During the day it is filled with visitors and everywhere is open, which gives it a real buzz, but the heat put us off making the climb during the day.

That's our caravan and awning in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture

and these are some of the views from our pitch

What a difference a week makes!

The next picture shows nearby Chateau des Anglais - doesn't look much but the minimalist exterior hides a labyrinth of rooms and tunnels which give access to the top of the cliff - was apparently used by the English to hide in after they'd fought with the French in St Cirq.

La Terrasse Romantique

2010-06-24T21:15:00.000+01:00

While touring the immediate area, admiring the sites….Grotte Peche Merle, an underground cave with pre-historic drawings and some pretty impressive rock formations, Chateau De Cenevieres, a 13th century castle which is still lived in and open to the public, but was closed for lunch!!!! It also reminded us that we hadn’t eaten anything except a bowl of cereal at breakfast. We spotted a sign advertising Restaurant “La Terrasse Romantique”, sounded intriguing.

At first we thought it was just down the road, but soon realised it was a little further in Calvignac, yet another beautiful hilltop town overlooking the River Lot. It took about 10 mins. to get there and after a long climb in the car we parked and walked the final few hundred metres. We were a bit concerned that we may be a little late as by now it was 1.30pm, but were re-assured by the menu outside which stated that lunch was served until three.

The restaurant terrace was quite small, on two levels. The higher level had a table for 4 and a table for 2, and the lower level had a table for 6, a table for 4 and 2 tables for 2. Each table had a ginormous umbrella which offered very welcome shade as you sit admiring the view of the Lot a couple of hundred metres below. It was only about half full. We chose a cosy table for two and after about 15 minutes, during which time we struck up an interesting conversation with four Aussies on the next table who had hired a houseboat on the Lot for a week, monsieur presented us with the menus.

We ordered two savoury crepes and a pichet of wine. The Aussies left and we sat and chatted to each other. After a while we realised that a table of three that had ordered before us still had no food on their table. When their first course finally arrived it looked very good and our mouths were watering in expectation of our crepes.

An hour and a half after first sitting down, fortified only by a jug of iced water, our crepes finally arrived together with a basket of bread (we had to remind him about the wine!).

We debated between us as to why it was taking him so long to cook and serve each dish, considering that everyone there was eating either crepes or salad. Julie was convinced that monsieur was on his own, having to cook and serve everything. I am sure I heard him speaking to someone in the kitchen but on reflection he may well have been talking to himself.

And then we realised that although the “Vue magnifique” was one of the big selling points of the restaurant it wasn’t the view that made it romantic. The amount of time you had to wait for your food would be enough to force any couple, no matter how distant when they arrived, into intimate conversation just to pass the time away.

The funny thing is, we actually enjoyed the experience – the food, when it eventually arrived was excellent, and nobody complained as everyone could see that monsieur was rushed off his feet and doing his best. We might even go back but if we do I think we’ll make sure we arrive at 12 prompt so we can be home by 3!

Nice views but have I said something to upset him??

Bergerac

2010-06-23T12:32:00.000+01:00

It wasn’t until we were actually back in France that we began to think about where we wanted to visit. Originally we thought we would head back to the Pyrenees to a campsite we found on a previous trip 5 years ago. That was before we spent longer in Spain than we had planned and ultimately longer in Portugal.

Our eagerness to leave the Spanish Basque country brought us further north on the west coast than we had originally planned as well.

All well and good because we found that we really liked Les Landes, and it’s people, and will certainly be visiting it again for future holidays.

While in Les Landes region we changed our minds several times before settling on the places we wanted to visit before the summer holidays in Montignac. Cahors had always been on our itinary, and having spent a couple of summers when the boys were younger near Sarlat we thought we’d pretty much done ‘The Dordogne’. So once we’d left St. Emilion we headed to camp sites both east and west of Cahors to visit ‘The Lot Valley’ and find all its treasures.

The Dordogne and the Lot rivers are much closer together than I realised and the territory between them is filled with Bastide towns and villages which are enchanting. It is quite easy to drive the distance between the two rivers which is only 40/50 kms.

While staying on the campsite to the west of Cahors we had a lot of rain…and I mean a lot of rain. So apart from holding up in the caravan we went driving……

It was while we were out driving to Ville-Neuve-sur-Lot (which we were both disappointed with) that we thought about going back to the Dordogne to spend the day in Bergerac.

We have only ever driven through Bergerac before and so many people have told us what a lovely town it is. This was our chance to visit it at our leisure.

Below are some of the photo’s we took which don’t capture the specialness of the ‘old town’, but do give you an idea of what an amazing place it is.

Here I am posing in front of Cyrano!

The bells on this church have their own balcony for servicing!

As you will see from the last photo, the Dordogne river was flooded so there weren’t any boats running to give tours along the river, but it didn’t prevent us from enjoying the character of the place.

Lot What Nots

2010-06-21T09:17:00.000+01:00

Of course the only reason that we decided to spend some time in the Lot valley rather than the nearby Dordogne is because “Lot” rhymes with so many more words than Dordogne – in fact the only one I can think of for Dordogne is Bourgogne as in;
Drinking a glass of Bourgogne, watching the river Dordogne.

The Lot provides far more opportunities. So, we could have posted an entry about Villeneuve-sur-Lot which, despite its position, is one of the most unattractive towns we have seen for a long time, with the title “A blot on the Lot”.

The recent cold and rainy weather could have inspired an entry entitled “not so hot on the Lot”.

Julie has already cringed at me saying, at the end of a riverside walk, “well that’s your Lot then” or saying as we approach yet another “sur-Lot” town “I’ve heard there’s a Lot to see around here”.

I could go on but it doesn’t seem fair to subject our blog readers to any more bad humour. Mind you, it won’t stop me thinking up Lot(s) more bad puns to subject Julie to – and you can understand now why the poor girl is so looking forward to coming home in September!

Incommunicado

2010-06-20T18:24:00.000+01:00

We are now on a very pleasant campsite on the banks of the Lot River in a village called St. Cirq-Lapopie. About 20 kms east of Cahors.

We arrived here last Thursday after spending 11 nights on a camp site mid way between the Lot Valley and the Dordogne Valley. That campsite didn’t have any wifi or mobile phone reception and it was very strange being totally incommunicado for so long. Which also caused a little anxiety through the family as it was while the worst of the rain hit France and there was a lot of flooding. We knew very little about it, just that we were caravan bound for a few days due to the unusually heavy rain.

I want to write a couple of blog entries about the places we visited there, but please be patient while Peter rids himself of the need to make continuous jokes about ‘The Lot’!

‘This is your lot for now’!! More to follow very soon!

We're OK

2010-06-17T15:26:00.000+01:00

We've received a few worried text messages and emails from people who have seen the news about the devastating floods in Southern France so just thought we'd post up a quick blog entry to say that we are OK. The region we are in has also had torrential rain and some flash flooding but no loss of life. The two major rivers in this area, the Lot and the Dordgone, have both risen to levels that have caused some local flooding but everything seems back in control now and, for the first time for quite a while the sun is shining again today!

Gastronomy

2010-06-14T11:32:00.000+01:00

Now, you might well believe that we have seen and tasted some very different and wonderful foods since leaving Wycombe, and you would be right…..I think it’s time we mentioned just a few!

In Kent near to where we were staying there was a fantastic little farm shop and bistro. The food was simple but outstanding, light and delicious, in fact I’ve recreated some of the dishes we had there while we’ve been on our tour.

Whilst we were in Spain we were very disappointed with the vegetables. Now here is a country which has a wonderful climate throughout the year so has the capacity to grow different vegetables throughout the year too, but concentrates on oranges and olives! But we have to say they were without doubt the best oranges and olives we’ve ever tasted. In fact I was shown how to pick good oranges on a Spanish market and the knowledge given to me there has not let me down since.

Portugal has to be renowned for their portion sizes. Peter and I were given some sound advice by a waiter in Portamao…..that Portuguese restaurants are very happy to sell you ½ and ¼ portions. We never ordered more than a ½ portion of anything, and were always amazed at how much we were given to eat. Vegetables were more abundant than in Spain, and the food though delicious and beautifully cooked was quite plain.

Travelling through Spain and Portugal Peter and I both managed to lose a satisfactory amount of weight. We put it down to more exercise and the warmer climate, but we are again in France where they certainly know how to cook, not only in the restaurants but also the shops have so much choice. I was reminded just recently that in France they have approx 27 different micro-climates and very good produce is grown within each of them. There’s no need to import food, they have all they need!

Say no more, I have noticed the weight we’d lost travelling so far, has slowly started to creep back on!

We are still very active, (more so than in Wycombe), but unless we step up the exercise and cut down on the portion size we will come back home larger than when we left!

Of course the very good wines have nothing to do with it as we do limit our intake of those too…….. ;-)

Whether you eat in a supermarket café or a good restaurant the presentation and quality of the food is remarkable. We have our favourites in the markets too, which usually present us with some gastronomical delights we’d never think of trying.

Vive La France!!

Bordeaux

2010-06-04T20:22:00.002+01:00

Here are a few pictures from a lovely day we had in Bordeaux earlier this week. Great city, highly recommend it if you're ever in the vicinity.

Wine School

2010-05-30T15:47:00.001+01:00

Last Thursday we attended ‘Wine School’ for a 2 hour lesson.

All the wine shops in St. Emilion resemble the lower ground floor at Harrods….the Food Hall……

They have many unique decanters and glasses for sale alongside the row upon row of bottles of Grands Crus Classes (that means flipping expensive to you and me!).

Some of the shops are quite intimidating; you feel you should know your Merlot from your Cabernet Franc with your eyes shut. Nearly all of them have beautifully written signs outside inviting you to ‘Entre Libre, degustation’…but you get the feeling that the tasting would lead to either buying some very expensive wine way beyond what we would feel happy paying for a bottle, or the embarrassment of leaving swiftly when you catch sight of the price.

Going to ‘wine school’ has given us the basic information to at least understand what the vendors are expecting from us. We also got a lot more from it……………..

………we have always bought wine to drink and enjoy, because that’s what we think it’s there for, but here in St Emilion we have found out that, leaving aside Table Wine (which our tutor dismissed as being not worth drinking), in the Bordeaux region the Merlot grapes grown on the ‘Right Bank’ of the Gironde and the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown on the ‘Left bank’ are all about creating a drink which can be left to mature for up to 30 years. But we’re getting too old to want to wait that long!

We also learnt a lot about vintages and what it is that makes a good year – apparently 2009 looks like being one of the best ever vintages but it will be at least 10 years before they can be certain!

We were guided through the smells and aromas that can be found in wine, some more welcome than others, and finally we got to taste some. We were expertly guided through the process and it made us realise just how many visual and olfactory clues there are to how good a wine is going to be before you get anywhere near tasting it. The only downside when we got to actually taste the wines was that we were encouraged to spit them out so that the alcohol intake didn’t affect our judgement. However, the tutor saved the best wine to taste until last which meant that everyone made sure they swallowed that one!

We’ve always realised that wine is a very important part of French life and culture but visiting St Emilion has opened our eyes to the extent of importance placed on growing the right grapes in the right region, taking all the factors into account, the soil, the micro-climate etc. to produce the best that can be made from the raw ingredients. Quite eye opening really, when all we’ve wanted is something to drink that tastes good and gets you merry at the same time!

We have bought and drunk some expensive wines here, and we can’t deny that you drink them with reverence and slowly to enjoy every mouthful, but if we’re totally honest, we think drinking wine in good company is more important than the quality of the wine.

So when we return home you can be sure we will be sharing a bottle or 2 while you listen to the bits of our adventure that didn’t make it to the blog!

St Emilion

2010-05-26T11:28:00.001+01:00

Driving along the narrow lanes flanked on both sides by row after row of neatly coiffured vines with a different Chateau around every bend, has given us a true feeling of being in France. It has been enhanced even more so by the stillness and silence of the site we are on now.

Do any of you remember the French ‘arty’ films which were sometimes shown late evening on BBC 2. There would be precious little talking, but lots of film of maybe one possibly two people sitting or lying in long grass in the middle of the countryside with the sounds of cicadas and bees buzzing around, and the occasional cuckoo amidst the other chirruping birds, sometimes in the distance you would see a small car or motorbike or possibly a bike riding by…? Well that’s exactly what it’s like here—

St. Emilion, the town is lovely, very quaint filled with restaurants and upmarket wine shops selling ‘only the best wine’!

We took a trip on a ‘Petit Train’ around the walls of the town and off into the surrounding vineyards. We stopped at one for a tour of the cellars and a degustation…it’s the only one left in the area which is owned and run by the original family.

There are 5,500 hectares of vineyards in the St. Emilion appellation alone, most viticulteurs have at least 30/40 hectares of vines. The one we visited today has only 3. But they say they are in one of the best positions i.e. the best soil, drainage, sunlight, etc.

Most of the other vineyards use centralised vinification and bottling centres but the owners of this particular vineyard…..Chateau Rochebelle, grow, harvest, mature and bottle everything themselves by hand. The wine stays in French oak barrels for 18 months before it’s bottled. It’s good stuff - you don’t buy their wine to be drunk that night with a take-away, it needs to be left to mature in the bottle for anything from 8 to 30 years.

We have booked ourselves into ‘The Wine School’ on Thursday afternoon to learn how to taste wines properly. I will be very sorry to ‘spit’!!!! We’ll try and write up about that experience on Thursday, but knowing us we’ll leave the school and head straight to a bar for a drink we are allowed to swallow, so our blogging will have to wait!!

Allo allo

2010-05-22T22:49:00.001+01:00

We’ve found it much more difficult to write any new blog entries since we’ve been in France. We think it’s partly to do with the fact that we are back in our favourite holiday country and, even though we are exploring some new parts we have never visited before, a lot of the experiences are familiar to us.

We’ve tried to think up ways of making our blog more of a comedy type script, but we think that will become boring in the end, so, we’ve decided not to worry about any of that and to press on blogging regardless!

We have spent the last two weeks on a site in the Landes Sud region – on the West coast of France up a bit from Biarritz. It’s a region we have never explored before and we would definitely come back. (But not in July or August!)

As well as the walks and the scenery we have really enjoyed returning to French cuisine and French culture. We enjoyed the varied and new experiences of eating out in Spain and Portugal but the quality of French food (from baguettes to foie gras) really does surpass its neighbours. They know how to cook and how to serve whatever you are looking for, whether it be a snack or a full 4 course meal!

The choices of food on offer in the supermarkets and street markets also far outweigh anything on offer in either Spain or Portugal.

A couple of days ago we passed a very friendly restaurant which happened to have Arcachon oysters on the menu. Well this time last year Peter tried oysters for the first time and wondered why he had waited so long. So for lunch the next day we cycled back to this restaurant for Peter to sample some for a second time. A fairly expensive choice in the UK, but here, along most of the Atlantic coast, it’s a big oyster region, you can have 9 large fresh oysters for just 10 Euros, cheaper than your average take away pizza. Funnily enough I opted for the ‘tapas selection’ of meat and cheese……..so Spain did rub off on me! (Although it was Portugal that got me hooked on ewes’ milk cheese, and that is also what’s produced big time in this region….mmmmmmmmmmmmm! They call it Brebis here and it is especially good with cherry jam—France’s influence).

Tomorrow we move on to St. Emillion, just east of Bordeaux. As many of you will know it’s a BIG wine producing region, and we are staying on a site in the middle of the vineyards—can’t wait for yet again another new experience.

Seven years ago Peter’s brother bought him 50 vines in a vineyard in Bordeaux (for his 50th birthday). Unfortunately at that time we were too busy in our working lives to actually get to Bordeaux to see how they were doing, but we’re looking forward to visiting the vineyard sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Below are a few photos from the last couple of weeks

!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-18T20:13:00.000+01:00

Peter wanted to write a blog on ‘Gas bottles across Europe’. He has really enjoyed finding out all there is to find out about which and what type of gas bottle with fitting is available in what country. So if you want to know more….rather than read about it on our blog I ask that you email him and make him happy with a question about his recommendations!

Northern Spain (otherwise known as the Basque country)

2010-05-17T19:54:00.000+01:00

We left the Camino de Santiago campsite to head in a north—easterly direction towards San Sebastian. We had stayed there once before when David was 10 and Paul was 7. Although it had been a beautiful city 20 years ago, we hadn’t appreciated the Spanish culture back then and had got frustrated with the tapas bars and late restaurant opening hours. We thought it would be good to revisit the city with our new knowledge of late eating and ‘proper’ knowledge of how to order tapas!

The camp site was 30 minutes from San Sebastian on the coast close to a village we couldn’t pronounce—Itziar.

The site itself was lovely, the owner very friendly and helpful, and the scenery magnificent. Beautiful green rolling hills/mountains with the sea to the north, very fertile and productive. The gradients in every direction were steep either uphill or downhill!!

We thought we would spend 3 nights here before crossing the border into France……(something I was biting at the bit to do!)…..The middle night we were planning to go into San Sebastian to sample a tapas bar or two and have a meal.

What makes you think it didn’t happen?

The day after we arrived we headed into town for some provisions, as we have got travelling light down to an art form.

As we drove to the larger of the two towns nearest us….Zumaia, we realised the Spanish we had learnt had no bearing whatsoever on the road signs or anything else for that matter. We were in Basque country and that was what was on all signs, it didn’t resemble any language we had come across so far. In fact we would go as far as saying it looked more like Russian to us!

Even looking at menus outside restaurants we couldn’t decipher what was on offer. And we remembered that that was the other thing that had made it so difficult 20 years ago.

Thinking back now it might sound as though we were a couple of wooses, but we wanted, needed something familiar, so instead of staying 3 nights at the site we cut our losses, forgot about San Sebastian and headed straight for the French border the next day.

How wonderful to be in a land where we can understand the language and the culture, in fact where we embrace the culture. We have now been in Vieux Boucau in the Landes region (the South-West corner of France) for a week and have just booked in for a second week.

From here we plan to go to St. Emilion for 2 weeks then back down to Cahors for a month. Roll over Peter Mayle, and get ready for ‘The Ebsworths’ adventures a la Lot, Dordogne et Loire!’

Whatever happened to Esperanto?

2010-05-15T15:24:00.000+01:00

I’ve never really had an aptitude for languages. I was always good at English at school but as soon as it came to learning foreign ones I was useless.

As we’ve travelled around Western Europe I knew I could rely on Julie’s French to get us by in France.

Neither of us had more than a smattering of phrase book Spanish before we arrived in Spain but two hours of lessons a week took us to beginners’ standard.

We knew Portugal would be the biggest challenge. I’d bought a “teach yourself” CD and book some months before we left home with the intention of learning some Portuguese before we arrived in Portugal, but as with many good intentions it didn’t happen.

So what have I learnt?

• Of the three languages Spanish is the easiest to learn as most of the grammar and pronunciation follow standard rules (which also made us realise just how irregular a lot of English grammar and pronunciation is and how hard English must be to learn)

• It’s true what they say in the guide books – most people appreciate it if you try and speak to them in their own language, although of course the French tend to only appreciate it if you manage to get the pronunciation exactly right.

• Portuguese is a very strange language. In written form it looks very similar to Spanish and the two languages share quite a few common words but it sounds completely different, more Eastern European than Western. Which explains why Spaniards find it so hard to understand and Romanians find it easy to learn.

• Away from the Algarve where almost everyone can speak English, many Portuguese have French as a second language (apparently many Portuguese left Portugal to go and work in France during the post-war period). We had a couple of occasions in Portugal where we were trying to converse with someone who couldn’t speak any English (and our Portuguese vocabulary is so limited as to be useless) – and after struggling for a while with gesticulations and sign language they asked “parlez-vous Francais?”.

• On our journey from Portugal across Northern Spain we did have a brief encounter with Basque. Now, compared with Basque, Portuguese is a walk in the park. Basque bears no relation whatsoever to any other European language and in the Basque strongholds it is the only language they use for road signs, restaurant menus etc. At least in Wales most signs are in both English and Welsh but in Basque country they seem to make little or no allowance for those who can’t speak the language - it’s hard to believe you are still in Spain. It is the second time that we’ve visited this region and both times we’ve wanted to move on as quickly as possible.

Coming back to France has made me realise that my French vocabulary is fairly good. I still struggle with verbs and tenses and genders and but I’ve decided in the four months we have here to just go for it. If I can make myself understood I’m happy to accept that they may not be impressed by my French pronunciation with a “Norf Lundun” accent, but hey – that’s their problem!

Camino de Santiago.

2010-05-14T16:40:00.001+01:00

This is a route neither Peter nor I had heard of before meeting a lovely German guy who was in a motorhome in ‘our calle’ (street) in Alicante. His name was Peter and he was 70 years old. He had walked the whole route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It is a pilgrims route and many people walk it each year.

It is believed that the remains of St James are buried in Santiago de Compostela so whenever St James’ day (the 25th July) falls on a Sunday the year is designated as being a holy year. And if you complete the walk during a holy year you are presented with a certificate which states that you have been granted absolution from all your sins so this year there are even more walkers than normal!

Peter was going to walk it again this year and as far as we know he has but completely by accident we found ourselves in a camp site on this same Pilgrims route.

The camp site is called Camino de Santiago, named after the Pilgrims route - it’s in a village called Castrojeriz and is quite an amazing place.

As well as being a camp site with a café, loos and showers it also provides a facility called an albergue, a large barn full of bunk beds for the walkers to use.

The café was a great place to sit and hear the stories of some of the walkers. We made friends with a few of them as they passed through the site during the three days we were there. There were all nationalities walking, all different denominations too. One lady we struck up quite a relationship with had come from South Africa to do the walk, another from Canada.

We walked just 6 Kms along the route ourselves and realised how committed these people are who walk the whole 780 Kms, averaging 30-35 Kms a day and carrying all their belongings with them.

It was a very humbling experience and one we will remember as being a highlight of our trip.

The road from Northern Portugal into Spain.

2010-05-13T15:41:00.000+01:00

Cast your minds back to our episode with the ‘not yet opened site’……we can’t move forward until I’ve described the beauty of the countryside we travelled through to get there.

We left Portugal on the main A7 and A24 and entered Spain on a little A road which is the A532.

The colours of the heather on these roads this time of year is breathtaking.

We have been in the Peak district when you turn a corner and are faced with a hill side of purple heather, well this was similar but on a much grander scale. Unfortunately I haven’t got a photo to show you, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, but I recommend these wonderful roads, free of traffic and tolls. Easy towing apart from a few steep inclines and such a joy to behold.

The Procession of the Crosses

2010-05-12T21:24:00.000+01:00

We made our final visit to Barcelos on Monday 3rd May to see the procession which marks the end of the week-long “Festa da Cruzes” celebration.

It was a long solemn procession with representatives from churches around the area carrying crosses or displays based on the cross. We’ve included some pictures of it below.

What was perhaps most striking was the reverence and respect of everyone watching. Even the guys working on a building site near the procession route downed tools and stood and watched in silence as the procession went past. Thousands of people in and around the procession and yet you could hear a pin drop.

We both found it a very moving experience and a fitting finale to our time in Portugal.

The Barcelos Cock legend explained!

2010-05-08T19:57:00.001+01:00

Julie vs Emily

2010-05-08T19:14:00.000+01:00

To help me find my way driving around Western Europe I have two navigation aids – my wife Julie, and my Sat Nav Emily.

They have many similarities. For example, they are both female and give directions in a firm clear voice. They both show displeasure if their instructions are ignored although Emily tends to get less emotional about it.

When Emily tells you to turn left in 400 metres you know that she means left – with Julie it is always best to double-check by asking her to point which why she wants you to turn. Emily gives clear instructions to turn off a road well before you reach the junction – Julie’s instructions are often retrospective – “I think you should have turned left back there”.

Although Emily has street level mapping for the whole of Western Europe she doesn’t know about all those new roads the Spanish have been building in the last couple of years – “go to nearest road” is not the most helpful instruction when you are on a dual carriageway wondering which exit to take. She also doesn’t know about the weekly market that closes one of the main roads through a French town or the cycle race which involves a major detour for motorised traffic.

When we realise we have taken a wrong turn Julie’s and Emily’s tactics vary considerably. Julie tends to concentrate on recent errors of judgement on my part – “I told you Emily was taking us the wrong way” whereas Emily will keep repeating “perform a U turn when possible” which when towing a caravan down a narrow country lane is no more helpful.

There is a third option I have sometimes taken, usually with disastrous results, and that is to ignore both Julie and Emily and make my own decision about which road to take – a sure way to upset both of them. Being a stubborn man I will often just keep driving with the combined sounds of “perform a U turn when possible” and “turn that stupid thing off” ringing in my ears until we find somewhere to stop and consult that tried and tested navigational tool – a map!

Battle of the Flowers

2010-05-07T09:18:00.001+01:00

We had first heard of Barcelos from our friend David Haylor, explaining about the legend of the Barcelos cock, the origin of the Portuguese cockerel symbol.

As we moved further north, reading our guide books, Barcelos featured rather a lot.

There was the famous market we’ve already mentioned and throughout the first week in May they have a special celebration ‘Festas das Cruzes’. Guess what, we were due to be around Barcelos the first week of May.

We stayed on a site north of Porto which was just 15 kms from Barcelos.

A very helpful lady in Tourist Information pointed out three events which she recommended as her favourite and the ones which were most typical Portuguese – the Battle of the Flowers on Saturday afternoon, the firework display on the medieval bridge at midnight on the same day and the final procession on the Monday.

As advised we turned up early for the Battle of the Flowers and managed to park about 15 minutes walk away from the centre. We took our place at the side of the road in the central “Avenida de Liberdade” and waited for the action to begin, not really knowing what to expect.

We’re still not sure what the significance of the event is (all our guide books say that the Portuguese don’t need an excuse to throw a party and enjoy themselves!).We knew there would be a carnival type procession and were probably expecting just floats of flower strewn lorries. Well we were partly right! There were two processions of people, animals, vehicles and large buckets and baskets of flower petals starting from different areas of the town and meeting in the Avenida de Liberdade. One procession starts from one end of the road, the other procession from the opposite end. We were astounded by the lengths they had gone to to decorate the floats - they were truly beautiful.

As they passed each other, going in opposite directions, they hurled flower petals at each other and the crowd. The smell was exquisite and there were petals and bits of stem everywhere including all over us! There must have been at least a 4 inch thick carpet of flower petals by the time the whole thing came to an end. Everyone taking part seemed to enjoy it immensely and so did we!

Barcelos Thursday Market

2010-05-06T17:08:00.000+01:00

The guide book told us that this was the biggest market in Europe. Now we're not ones for big markets, too much walking and tatty merchandise. This market however is like markets of old in the UK. Sheep, cattle, goats, chickens etc. We decided to give it a go.

As always market days in any town makes for a lot of traffic and precious little parking space. Barcelos was no different, but we managed to park in a side street just out side the main part of town and walk in.

The sites and sounds were amazing. We had got there too late to see the cattle being sold but there were chickens and rabbits in abundance. It was a real education watching the Portuguese men weigh up which fully grown hens to buy. The rabbits also looked fully grown but what intrigued us was that none of them tried to escape or run away. They lay very quietly side by side along with the hens waiting to be bought. We don't know, but expect that they would be bought to place in a pot, not to be reared and loved!!!!

The flowers at this market had to be seen to be believed. Every colour, size, shape and scent. We learnt after visiting the tourist office that on the Saturday there was going to be a big annual celebration called 'Battle of the Flowers'. Whether there were more flowers on sale than usual because of this we don't know, but it was lovely to see so many.

Below are some of the photos we took of the rabbits and chickens at the market. They don't do it justice because you can't put atmosphere in the pictures, but will give you a feel for it.

Latest adventure!

2010-05-05T15:26:00.001+01:00

This is all out of sequence and we’ll catch up on the wonderful sights and sounds we experienced in Barcelos, but I just had to write up what has happened to us over the last 24 hours.

We are now in Spain, but we left our last site—Rio Alto—just north of Porto, at 11.30 yesterday morning to drive 280 kms to the next stop. Peter had picked it from our Alan Rogers book. It was in the middle of the Sanabria National park. The write up sounded wonderful added to the fact that it was the only site on our route for many kms.

The roads to get through the northern mountains of Portugal were very good indeed, but there were few places to stop and have a break. We ended up stopping just 50kms from the new site to fill up with fuel and have a sandwich.

The sandwich itself deserves a mention. I had all we needed in the van to make lunch but as the first stopping place we found was at 3pm I decided to ask the café next to the filling station to make me a ‘jamon y queso bocadillo’. The owner duly obliged and gave me a whole large white loaf filled with wonderful ‘jamon’ and cheese. When I got back in the car I spent the rest of the journey thinking up imaginary ways of using the half Peter and I couldn’t finish.

The last 10kms up to the campsite were indeed beautiful. We were really looking forward to staying in this area for 2/3 days to have a really good look round.

As we pulled up to the entrance the gates were closed….lunch time?.....day off?......the site was deserted and there was no one around. It looked like it hadn’t yet opened for the season, despite the Alan Rogers guide saying that it was open all year.

We knew there wasn’t another campsite for miles but we got all the books out of the car to start a desperate search. We toyed with spending the night outside the gates but it was quite an incline so binned that idea.

Peter believed he had seen a signpost with a tent on it a few kms back, so we drove back and sure enough it was there so we followed it…..now for those of you who are used to towing you’ll know that it isn’t always as simple as following a signpost when you’ve got your home trundling along behind you…….so it was with some trepidation in my heart that we travelled down a single track road with rivers and ponds on each side looking for a place to camp. However the track ended at the most idyllic spot on the edge of the lake. (But no campsite!)

To begin with we began to look in the campsite guides again to see how far we would have to travel to say in a proper site, but we had picked the only sites for the next 2 stops because they were the only ones on our route and that meant driving on another 280kms. Too much!!!!!!

The lake looked wonderful and I knew that if the boys had been with us they wouldn’t have missed an opportunity to stay there…..so we thought…..we can do this!

We unhitched, got some lake water for the loo and washing up. We still had a couple of litres of drinking water left from the drive so we thought if we’re careful and only drink beer tonight we will have enough water for a cup of tea in the morning!

At 8.30pm, after sharing 2 large bottles of beer between us and eating the rest of the bocadillo a park ranger came and told us we couldn’t stay where we were. We HAD to move! He told us we could just park up in the middle of the village a few kms away…….which is fine if you are in a motorhome but not so clever if you are travelling in a car and caravan.

When we got to the village we decided we wouldn’t be happy staying there overnight so we decided to just keep going. I drove as Peter had already driven 280kms and was feeling tired. Again the roads were brilliant with only a few lorries using them. We pulled into the next site on our itinerary at 3 minutes past midnight and to our (pleasant) surprise there were still people in the café/reception. The main gates were shut though. Peter got out and asked if we could stay outside for the night, but they said there was no need - they would open up and let us in, all they needed was our passport numbers.

We pulled onto the nearest pitch, put the legs down and got into bed. We’ll be staying here at least 3 nights to rest and recuperate, we’ve not worked so hard for a long time!!!!!!!!

The Market Garden of Portugal

2010-05-04T10:16:00.000+01:00

Heading north of Porto the land use changed quite dramatically. No longer were there fields of sheep, goats and cattle. Poly tunnels were the main vista along with very neat rows of small plots of cultivated land. A bit like Kent but with much smaller plots, each growing a different crop.

The one thing that has amazed me throughout the whole journey north from the Algarve is how beautiful all the flowers are and how much the Portuguese enjoy their flowers also. Most gardens are very well kept with a variety of blooms which come in every colour of the rainbow.

We are now 30-40kms north of Porto and along all the roads are tractors with trailers filled with all sorts of very fresh vegetables. Next to each of these is a small wizened Portuguese woman wearing a typical black hat, usually sitting under an umbrella to protect her from the sun.

They say we are fussy about how our veg looks in the supermarkets at home, but if you could see how large and clean this veg is straight from the grower it would put our supermarket veg to shame. It also tastes fantastic.

Unfortunately the roads have been very busy as we’ve been driving along so we haven’t got a photo of the ‘tractor stalls’ but below are a couple of photos taken just along the road from our present site to give you an idea of the scale of the arable farming. (Small very well cared for plots with a poly tunnel and a family taking care of their land. The equipment they use is also very primitive compared to UK standards. Everything we’ve seen is planted and reaped by hand.

Another unusual thing about this area is the use of cobbles. We have got used to coming across cobbled streets in cities and towns, but here all the country lanes are paved with cobbles………it makes for interesting towing!! (Although on the plus side it does mean that there are very few pot-holes.)

Aveiro

2010-05-03T12:12:00.002+01:00

I’ve already mentioned that while Tony and Claire were staying with us we were on the Atlantic side of a large lagoon. On the opposite side of the lagoon is a town called Aveiro.

It is described as being Portugal’s ‘Little Venice’ as it has 3 canals running through it. They were originally built to help transport the salt gleaned from the lagoon to salt houses further inland. Now it is a university city which is quite modern, but has also held onto its charm.

We had wanted to visit it while Tony and Claire were with us, and if the flights hadn’t been disrupted, giving them the full week with us we would have gone. As it was 3 days wasn’t enough to do everything!

So Peter and I went to Aveiro the day after Tony and Claire left.

3kms from our site was a small car ferry, very like the one at Sandbanks, Dorset to take us across the lagoon. We had been told that with the same ticket you could get the ferry as a foot passenger and there would be a bus to meet us on the opposite side to transport us into Aveiro.

We were expecting a short 10 minute ride, but in actual fact Aveiro wasn’t just the other side of the lagoon, it was further inland and the bus journey took a good ½ hour. (We’re so pleased we didn’t take the bikes to cycle in!)

Aveiro didn’t disappoint us and rather than try to describe our day I’ll leave you to look at the photos……

Porto

2010-05-03T11:57:00.001+01:00

While Tony & Claire were with us we had a day trip to Porto. Unlike Lisbon, where you need a few days to see all the sights, Porto is quite a compact city and we managed to see all the important sights and have a lovely meal in one of the riverside restaurants where Tony had his steak cooked at the table and I had the best squid I've ever tasted - scrummy!

Ever since we starting planning our adventure Julie has been looking forward to going to the Port caves, particularly the Sandeman one as that is her favourite tipple, so the first picture is Julie looking very happy after enjoying a guided tour and a tasting (of course!).

What volcano?

2010-05-01T10:50:00.002+01:00

By April 10th we had driven northwest to a very quiet and peaceful site about 40 Kms south of Porto, Sao Jacinto. We were expecting our friends Tony and Claire to come to visit us from 16th—22nd April, and knowing that they had been working very hard, were very happy with somewhere where they could just chill out, (emails had suggested that a very peaceful site was the order of the day), this site seemed to dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s.

On the day before their arrival we were making final preparations for their visit when another English couple staying on the site told us that they had just heard that an Icelandic volcano had erupted and the resulting ash cloud had caused the closure of all UK airspace.

Now as we have already said this site was ‘peaceful’ and where as most other sites we’ve stayed at have had some sort of internet connection--this site didn’t. With our limited Portuguese and the site managers limited English we managed to work out where the nearest internet café could be. We turned up there only to find it well and truly closed.

The manager had told us of another one in the other direction, so off we trotted and eventually found it.

Sure enough the headline news was about the volcano erupting in Iceland and that due to the ash cloud forming there would be no flights in northern Europe. We also picked up two emails from Tony & Claire, the first saying how much they were looking forward to seeing us, the second saying that there may be a problem with their flights.

At this point we felt really flat……nobody could have foreseen a geological problem happening which would disrupt in this manner.

With not having internet on the site we were now relying on text messages for any future updates.

The following morning we received a text saying “Stansted airport closed, looking at alternatives.” We had been really looking forward to Tony and Claire coming, but were accepting that we had to face reality and just move on. Flights were grounded and knowing their very busy diaries we wouldn’t be seeing them in the near future.

Then, just after midday, we received another text which said

“At Dover, catching ferry, can you text the exact address to put in the SatNav”.

Surely, we thought, they’re not going to drive – maybe they’re going to catch a train or get a flight from a French airport……so we texted them back to ask them how they were travelling, (Tony has a motor bike which he often uses to travel to France, but I couldn’t see Claire agreeing to travel all the way to Portugal as pillion passenger!)

Our response to them said ‘Gobsmacked, car? bike? Train?

They texted back saying ‘car’, and that’s what they did! – 17 hours of driving over two days, well over a thousand miles. They stayed with us three nights and then drove back again. Completely mad, but typical of them – there was no way they were going to let a volcano prevent them from spending time they had already earmarked as being with us.

We tried to give them a chance to chill out for a while but also managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing including a day in Porto which deserves a blog entry of its own.

One of the highlights of their stay was the Monday evening when we decided to have a bonfire on the beach and watch the sun set into the sea.

Off we trekked along the path to the beach (2km) with food, a couple of bottles of wine and some kindling to get the fire started. No need to take any wood as we knew the beach had plenty of wood of all types, washed ashore by the Atlantic waves.

The fire was enormous, the sunset magical and all in all it was a fantastic evening that we will remember for a long time to come.

East to West

2010-04-25T11:41:00.001+01:00

We are trying to experience as many different areas of Portugal as possible during our stay here. Having spent a great 10 days at "Gary's", adjacent to the Spanish border, we headed west and up a bit on a B road thorugh the inland hills and across to the west coast. We had identified an area we thought would be a good stopping place for Tony and Claire (colleagues from St. Andrews days-actually Julie's boss!) to come to stay for a week. It is 30 or so kms from Porto yet still south enough to visit the Coimbra region.

The camp site was on a spit of land separated from the mainland by a 'Ria', a lagoon. This spit of land is a couple of kms wide and all of 20 kms long. We were at the very end of it, near the small town of Sao Jacinto, which made it extremely peaceful.

The Ria provides the local people with fish, a special seaweed for fertilizer, and salt. These are the main industries in the area (which by UK standards is fairly poor). As the tide goes out each day we watched fishermen in special boats lay their nets to catch mostly squid, and on the opposite bank gather in the seaweed. At the mouth of the Ria as it joins the Atlantic there is a huge salt extraction works.

This all sounds very industrial but actually it was quite serene and a different and more simplistic way of life than we are used to.

Still Trekking

2010-04-25T11:05:00.000+01:00

Having been without the internet for the last 2 weeks we thought we'd better give a quick precis of the ground that we have covered, and to let you know that we are still alive! We'll go into more detail in further blogs.

At the moment we are north of Porto in a small resort called Rio Alto.

Since Gary's we have travelled the width of Portugal and up a bit! Been visited by friends whose flight was cancelled so they drove to see us!! Negotiated the ring road around Porto towing, and have settled for me (Julie) to stay by myself with Benji so Peter can fly home to see his mum!

The story continues........

Casa Gary

2010-04-15T18:34:00.000+01:00

We have already posted a blog about Easter and the washing facilities. What we haven’t really gone into any detail about is the wonderful site we stayed on while experiencing those other things.

Every one calls it ‘Gary’s’ because it’s difficult to say Asseiceira. ‘Camping Asseiceira’ means ‘camping little hamlet’. It is a small 10-14 van site just 5kms from the Spanish border NE of Lisbon. The nearest large town is Portalegre, which is 23kms away.

As we travelled towards this campsite we could have been in the Peak District, if it hadn’t been for the cork trees. The dry stone walls and the undulations of the land, not to mention the green of the grass looked like it had come straight out of an episode of Postman Pat!

‘Gary’ is a very friendly guy from Buxton, who gave up work in the UK to follow his dream…….doing something which made him happy! (Sounds familiar!)

Camping Asseiceira consists of a plot of land amongst cork, olive and cherry trees, with a small stream flowing between the camp field and Gary’s property, which also has a pool and sunbathing area. He also has 5 rooms for B&B guests, a cross-eyed cat called Clarence

and a completely mad Portuguese water dog called Miah. Next door is a small farm where we bought really fresh eggs. The farm has 2 donkeys which pull the plough to rotavate the soil. Benji particularly liked the brown donkey.

500 metres into the village there is a very good café/restaurant which served excellent lunches, a small mini market, a butchers and a hair dressers. The village also had its own bull ring, but the fights didn’t start until the end of April, so we didn’t see how popular it was.

There were abundant walking opportunities throughout the area as each field had a drovers path next to it. One morning we set off to give Benji a quick walk before breakfast and found ourselves so captivated by the scenery we ended up walking 11kms, all before breakfast!

A baker’s van used to come to the site every morning to sell bread and cakes and pastries….delicious! On every Wednesday a guy selling fish called by the site. All in all it was pretty perfect, which is why we extended our stay there for as long as we could before being near Porto to meet up with friends.

Castelo De Vide

2010-04-13T12:51:00.001+01:00

As well as having Marvao in walking distance from our site we were also only a 20 minute drive from the much larger town called Castelo De Vide, another place steeped in history and with a castle (hence the name!).

It’s a great place to explore any time of year but over the Easter weekend they have some extraordinary traditions, so we made a couple of trips to see them.

The town had a whole programme of events during Holy Week and the following weekend and although they were centred around the Christian celebration of Easter there were lots of other elements to it as well. All the local restaurants put on a special menu of regional dishes, there was a tennis tournament for children, the tourist office organised a 10Km ramble through the countryside and so on.

We went to see two of the events – the first was the blessing of the sheep and goats on Easter Saturday. An age-old tradition – local farmers bring one or two of their flock to the church for a blessing – they turn up in all sorts of vehicles and the priest goes around splashing holy water on them all. It was fascinating to watch - the only sad part being the farmer who turned up on the tricycle in the picture below with two sheep in the back, struggled in the pouring rain to get his vehicle up the kerb onto the square where the other farmers were, only to discover that he’d missed it – he looked devastated.

I might be wrong but I suspect he hadn’t put his clocks forward the weekend before – this is a very rural area and he would only realise the next time he came into town.

After the blessing of the sheep and goats we stayed on to see the reconstruction of an eighteenth century market with locals all dressed in traditional costumes and had chickens and rabbits in baskets. Bunches of herbs, home made cakes and honey, flowers picked from their gardens, eggs and cheeses.

The second event was the Easter Sunday procession. This was a strange combination of solemnity and celebration. All those taking part in the parade – and every organisation in the town was represented – marched in a fairly formal manner, but at the same time the church bells were ringing out a celebratory peal.

The procession did a lap of the town and ended at the church where everyone went in to celebrate Mass together.

There was a “whole-town” feel to it which was very moving.

The Local Launderette

2010-04-07T14:58:00.000+01:00

Dotted around this area are fonts which take water from natural springs. They provide two purposes. Firstly they are a lovely source of pure clean drinking water and secondly they serve as the local launderette!

The water that overflows from the drinking font runs into a large bath which has stone scrubbing boards around the edge. The local women still use them to do their laundry - the lady who lives next door to our camp site has a washing machine in her house but in the summer prefers to use the communal launderette because that's where she gets a chance to chat to all her friends and neighbours.

Here's a picture of Julie using the one just outside of our site - she said it was a really easy way to rinse the clothes that she had handwashed but didn't seem too impressed by my suggestion that we could install one in the garden at home and dispense with our washing machine and tumble drier!

Marvao

2010-04-07T08:43:00.001+01:00

On a rocky crest just across from our campsite is Marvao - we have a good view of it by day and an even more spectacular one when it is lit up at night. It takes about an hour and a half to walk there but it is a very steep climb so we opted to take the easy way and drove to the top.

It's played an important part in many battles between Spain and Portugal and the views of the surrounding land mean that it would have been impossible for any invading army to sneak up on them!

There are only 159 inhabitants, a tourist information shop, a couple of 'pousadas' (special Portuguese hotels-special because they will have been converted from monastries or convents, etc, to very beautiful properties with amazing views over the surrounding countryside or incredible rooms and courtyards within), a souvenir shop, a museum, and a cafe, but it's wandering around the tiny cobbled streets, many with steps because they are so steep, that really transports you back in time.

All the small white-washed properties are squashed together in a higglety pigglety way most with tubs of beautiful flowers outside them. It is quite a magical place.

Camping Asseiceira

2010-04-06T11:50:00.001+01:00

We’ve stayed at about 20 sites since we left home last August and all have had some merits but the one we are staying on at the moment is definitely one of the best.

The site itself is small, taking a maximum of a dozen tents and caravans, and it is situated in the most amazing location, on the edge of the Serra de Sao Mamede mountain range and natural park, near the small town of Santo Antonio Das Areias. The town itself has a shop and two excellent restaurants serving authentic Portuguese food. The landscape around us is stunning and there are numerous walks available directly from the site. From the site we have a marvellous view of the hilltop town and fort of Marvao and we are just a short drive from Castelo De Vide, a fascinating town with Moorish, Jewish and Christian origins going back to the 12th century. To cap it all we are only a few Kms from the border with Spain beyond which lies more amazing scenery.

There’s so much to write about that we thought it best to write lots of short blogs rather than bore you all with a long essay, so for now here’s just one photo

Lisbon

2010-04-02T18:22:00.000+01:00

While we were staying in Evora we had a day trip to Lisbon as it was the nearest we were going to be and we couldn't tour Portugal without paying a visit to the capital.

We had a great day although of course you can't really do justice to a city of that size with a day trip. It has a very spacious airy feel to it and everywhere was spotlessly clean.

As you can see Lisbon still has, and relies on, its tram system, which is brilliant.

For very few euros you can get a one day ticket which means you can hop on and hop off these trams throughout the city.

It also has an impressive castle at the top of the hill which only charge 5 Euros to enter, but gives you somereally wonderful views.

We have found during our visit to Portugal that castles are very well maintained and open for the public to browse to their hearts content (unlike the UK where you're charged a fortune to get in if they are still standing and if you're not charged, it's because they are in ruins!).

We also had a wonderful lunch in Lisbon. Portions are huge over here so it's quite common to ask for a half or a quarter portion. You are charged accordingly to the size you require. Peter and I had a half portion each of turkey in cream and mushroom sauce and sword fish on a bed of tomato rice. Both delicious, both the size of a meal we'd eat at home. It's amazing we haven't seen many large people over here. It's obviously down to the sun and fresh air!!

To sum up....would we want to come and see Lisbon again? Definitely, but without the dog as dragging him around a city isn't much fun for him!

Time Travel

2010-04-01T08:39:00.000+01:00

We're staying on a small site just a few kilometres from the border with Spain which is very handy because although the sun sets at around ten to eight here it doesn't set until ten to nine in Spain. So, every evening as the sun starts to go down, we get in the car, drive over the border, and enjoy an extra hour's daylight.

Evora

2010-03-30T21:23:00.000+01:00

We have spent the last week on a site on the outskirts of Evora - a walled city about 130kms east of Lisbon. It has a very good university apparently, so there are a lot of young people around. The town itself is quite amazing. It is built within a huge wall which is still very much standing and has several 'portals' in which to enter and exit it by.

All the streets within, and some outside the walls, are cobbled. You would be hard pushed to get a vehicle much wider than our 'Smart' down a lot of the streets. It is wonderful to see how they have mixed the 'old' buildings with the 'new', nothing seems out of place, dating from the 1st Century to the present day. Just outside the wall they even have a brand new Bull Ring!

Palm Sunday weekend saw the first 'Bull Fight' of the year in Evora. We happened to be in the vicinity of the ring, not quite aware of what was going on. During the afternoon they had a special 'Family event'. Many, many families turned up to bring their young boys to compete with the matadors. We don't exactly know how, but we saw the cows/bulls being dropped off at the ring and the children dressed as Matadors. We heard the jubilation within the ring as presenters told who and what was going on, obviously everything was in Portuguese so we didn't understand!!!!! We left the area to have a wonderful ride in a horse and carriage.

The evening event was for the 'grown ups'. It was a full Portuguese 'Bull Fight' which we made sure we were not around to observe!

The site we were staying on is the only one near Evora. Many people use the site as a stop over on their way to Lisbon or Spain or the Algarve and only stay one night which is a shame because there is so much to see and do - both in the walled city itself and in the surrounding countryside.

Here are a few of our highlights:

We took a trip out to see some of the megalith sites around the city - the area is known as the "Iberian Mesopotamia" and this particular stone circle is one of the oldest and largest in Europe. It was good because you could walk around and among the stones, rather than just gaze at them from behind a fence as you have to with Stonehenge.

Next, on to the aqueduct - an amazing construction originally built in the 16th century to transport much needed water from a spring 19kms away straight into the heart of the city. Although a large section of it had to be replaced in the 19th century the most ornate part nearest to Evora is still intact and the aqueduct is still in use and is the major source of drinking water for the city.

And then we saw one of these offering tours of the city

So we went for it and what a good decision it was - a 45 minute tour of all the major sites of the city - absolutely brilliant despite a few hair-raising moments battling with car drivers for right of way - there is no concept of "slow down for horses" in Portugal - if anything they speed up and zoom past as fast as possible!

And here's Julie enjoying a refreshing drink after our tour with the Roman

temple in the background

One thing we had to do while we were in the city was to visit the Capela dos Ossos (chapel of bones) in the church of St Francis. The chapel was built in the 15th century by a macabre monk and is decorated with designs made from the bones of 5,000 human skeletons. And, just to add to the atmosphere, in addition to the hundreds of grinning skulls, there are the shrivelled corpses of a man and child hanging from the wall at one end of the chapel. There seem to be many stories about the purpose of the chapel but most of them agree that it is to do with reminding us all of our mortalilty - an inscription in Portuguese above the entrance to the chapel translates as "we the bones lie in wait for yours"

It wasn't anything like as spooky as we expected it to be just very very odd!

Evora is definitely worth a visit should you find yourselves east of Lisbon. We spent 6 nights there and still didn't do/see everything the town has to offer. One thing which we found particularly wonderful on the site, was the amount of small tents which arrived at the beginning of the Portuguese Easter holidays - families with very small children happy to camp in simple 'pop up tents' with very limited facilities.

29 years of married life and we’re still together ...........

2010-03-26T21:04:00.003Z

.............. despite travelling in very close quarters for the last 7.5 months!!

We spent most of our anniversary at Almograve which has all the ingredients for the Ebsworth idea of paradise:

       1. a cliff top walk

       2. fine soft sand

       3. rock pools

       4. surf

       5. very few other people!

       6. our own picnic

       7. sunshine

       8. low tide at midday

We shared a wonderful day, the first anniversary we’ve had in temperatures of 25 degrees. Some of you who were at our wedding will remember the wind and the rain in March 1981.

While we were on the beach we watched a few men brave the surf and fish from the top of the rocks quite a way out from the safety of the beach. They were fishing for bass and bream.

We watched one in particular as he landed 4 bass in about an hour. You could tell he was keeping an eye on the tide as he leapt about the rock hoping for a bite. We wondered if he was thinking of staying out there until the next low tide, especially as a couple of the waves nearly knocked him and his catch back into the water.

After landing his fourth big fish he reluctantly packed his catch very carefully in a duffle bag, swapped his trainers for flippers and let the waves carry him back over the smaller rocks to the safety of the beach. Talking to him when he was back on the sand he admitted that it was getting too dangerous to stay where he was and he was disappointed that he’d only caught 4, but at least they would have fresh fish for Sunday dinner!

Enjoy the photos!

Zmar (the eco friendly site) update!

2010-03-24T20:13:00.000Z

Well we did go to the restaurant on site on Saturday evening and what a wonderful meal we had. Actually what we hadn't realised and what made it so good was, they carry the whole eco-friendly thing through to the reastaurant. Nothing is cooked before you want it, which is why the food displays looked so empty when we visited it earlier in the week.

They had a fresh meat and fish grill, a pizza grill and a stir fry grill ready to cook what ever you wanted.

We decided to have a pizza each which was a bit of a mistake because we found it hard to finish. But we did!

We watched the whole process from start to finish which only took about five minutes. They took a small round of dough from the fridge which grew to a stunning 15/20 cm round on which they proceeded to place whatever we wished....scrummy....yum! It was then placed into a very hot revloving oven (350 degrees C +) which only took a couple of minutes to cook. We took our pizzas to the checkout where they weighed each plate! You pay for what you've decided to eat, which is a whole new way of thinking for the UK market. It really works. We could have had 2 or 3 smaller plates of food for the same price - a bit like tapas really!!

The next day, our wedding anniversary, we had on our now favourite beach........more about that in our next blog. Here are some photos taken on our pitch at Zmar.

Odemira

2010-03-20T19:13:00.002Z

We’ve now started our journey northwards up from the Algarve and are staying in a site which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town is Odemira, a pleasant but unremarkable town built around the river Mira.

Although we enjoyed our stay in the Algarve it was far too English for our liking – pubs and bars offering steak & kidney pies and carveries. Having said that there were a few genuine Portuguese restaurants and we had an excellent lunch in one of them on Mothers’ Day. But by the end of our stay we were looking forward to seeing more of the real Portugal.

We’ve not driven that far north, but the differences are marked. It’s very rural, the roads are quiet and the whole feel of the area is more peaceful. We have also noticed a big difference in the type of ‘eateries’ on offer. On my birthday (Thursday) we had lunch in a local bar/restaurant – a busy place with lots of locals in attendance (always a good sign). We had the usual olives and bread while we ordered followed by a very good homemade soup. (Soup is a speciality in Portugal, it is always on the menu as a choice of starter, and there are usually 3 different ones to choose from…fish, meat and veg.) The daily specials were in Portuguese but with the help of our handy Franklin translating machine we managed to decipher it – Julie ordered the ‘hen’ (a very well stewed redundant layer!) and I went for the mixed grill. The food was excellent, too much for us to finish, even though we tried very hard to wash it all down with a litre of white wine! We finished with coffees and all for less than 20 euros.

The site we are staying at is one we have been looking forward to since we started planning our trip. It’s a brand new (opened in 2009) Eco-friendly site. We particularly wanted to investigate the ‘eco’ bit as we have stayed on sites that need you to take all your own rubbish away to sites that provide containers for everything from glass to potato peelings. We’re enjoying our stay but have to say that the site is a bit of an enigma – some things are done very well but others are not so good.

Due to the unusually wet winter the pitches are too muddy to use so we are parked on one of the gravel link roads. No problem with that and we are next to a grassy area with a picnic table which in high season would be a shared communal area but at this time of year it’s all ours. Lovely!

They’ve also opened all the toilet/shower blocks which means that have our own personal block to go with our personal picnic area, but….unless we’ve missed something important to press/turn on/do… the showers are cold. Actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration – they’re not cold – if you run them long enough they get to lukewarm but then just when you are steeling yourself to step underneath they run cold again! Which is really odd seeing that they have 3 massive solar panels on the roof and the weather’s been quite sunny!

But having so much space around us is brilliant – we’ve not had to keep Benji on the lead as we are a good 100 metres from the next caravan, and he has also enjoyed the thick grass to roll and play on.

Five minutes walk from our pitch is the piece de resistance for Zmar. An area which includes a massive lounge and a large indoor pool with a wave machine (we’ve also discovered that the showers in the pool changing rooms have hot water so use those now). There’s also a gym and free wifi and a spa. We’ve been a bit reluctant to use the bar and restaurant as there never seems to be anyone else in there but as it’s the weekend and there are more people on site we are going to give it a try this evening.

While out sightseeing we’ve visited a few of the local beaches. One in particular we have fallen in love with…….

……and we will be spending tomorrow, our wedding anniversary, there with a picnic.

It’s been good to see this area, so close to the Algarve, but very different. Tuesday sees us moving inland away from the coast to prepare for the lead up to Easter.

The Wild West

2010-03-11T19:42:00.001Z

We are staying on a site which is about 30 Kms from Cabo de Sao Vicente which is the Southwestern point of mainland Europe. It's an amazing place and we've been there a couple of times. Last time we went late in the afternoon to see the sunset and watch the Lighthouse come on. It was too cloudy for a dramatic sunset but it's one of those places which is mainly about being there - pictures don't really show that so I haven't included any!

Yesterday we took a trip up the West coast which is renowned for it's long uncrowded beaches and for surfing. It was actually a poor day for the surfers as the sun was shining and the wind was light so the Atlantic breakers weren't as powerful as they usually are but it meant we could explore the area without the need to wrap up warm to protect ourselves from the wind.

The beaches are amazing - this first picture is of one of the main surfing beaches

This is the beach bar situated on a stretch of sand between the river estuary and the sea

another view of the beach

a picture of the next bay

Another beach nearby which we had to ourselves and a seal (who unfortunately was dead and beyond resuscitation!)

And this is one very happy dog after a day on the beach!

Portimao

2010-03-08T13:00:00.001Z

Our last trip to the Algarve was over twenty years ago - a two week holiday in June, and one of the things we did on that holiday that we were looking forward to repeating was to eat Sardines in one of the restaurants on the quayside in Portamao.

We had fond memories of watching the sardines being hauled up from the fishing boats straight on to the waiting charcoal barbecues that each restaurant had set up to cook the fish, the sight of row after row of tables and chairs set out for lunch and the unmistakeable smell of woodsmoke and oily fish.

The modern map we were using had "Sardine Restaurants" marked on it so we headed for that area but it didn't look the same as we had remembered it. Gone were the restaurants next to the fishing quay and instead a new block of restaurants had been built upstream, away from the harbour. Gone too were the outside barbecues - all the cooking was now done indoors in conventional commerical kitchens.

We decided to stop for lunch anyway and went for the traditional dish of grilled sardines, boiled potatoes, bread and salad while our waiter explained how and why everything had changed. He looked to be in his 70's and spoke with fondness about how things used to be. Apparently, seven years ago it was decided that the combination of wet fishing nets, tables and chairs next to a steep quay, hot unguarded barbecues and hundreds of people milling about was too dangerous to continue.

So now the fish are landed on the quay 300 metres away from the restaurants, delivered by roadway to the backs of the restaurants, cooked in convential kitchens and then served.to the customers.

It's still a nice place to sit and have lunch but the magic has gone. I know some people say "you should never go back". I'm not sure if that's always true but perhaps if you do go back you have to expect that it won't be the same.

Quiz Night

2010-03-03T14:42:00.002Z

Tonight we're off to a local bar/restaurant to take part in their Quiz Night which they hold every two weeks. We went to the last one while Diane and Dave were with us and thanks almost entirely to them our team of four won amid muffled cries of "ringers" from some of the locals. Our winnings paid for almost half of the meal we had together. The team name we chose last time was "The Undone" - tonight we think we'll name ourselves "No chance now". We'll let you know at a later date how we get on.

We had a lot of laughs with Diane and David, and as with a lot of 'care-free and happy youngsters' a few catch phrases seemed to permeate the week that would cause us all to explode in fits of giggles. Our last Friday together we had a BBQ in the awning and were asked/ordered in no uncertain terms, to be 'silent' at 11pm, due to Peter and Diane practicing their pronunciation of Portuguese words.

We thought it would be good to post a few photos that Dave took, sent to us via email, from the week he and Diane spent with us (plus a couple of our pics)

Yes, that is me and Benji walking along the side of the waterfall

and no that is not Peter surfing! (or Dave)!

However we do have some wonderful footage of David dancing with a Brazilian beauty at Carnival on Shrove Tuesday, but we did say we wouldn't post it on our blog (but Dave we've not received the money yet so watch this space!)

Lost and Found (2)

2010-03-02T12:29:00.000Z

As it has been so wet, we still haven’t found a suitable dog walking area which isn’t waterlogged. There is also the added complication of many, many stray dogs wandering constantly from place to place. Bearing this in mind we woke up Sunday morning to wonderful sunshine and decided to pop in the car off down to our nearest beach to give Benji a really good run with his ball. (He loves the beach, but you can only really take him there first thing in the morning or late afternoon as most beaches in the Algarve don’t allow dogs.)

It was already 17c at 8.30 in the morning, so I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. As the wind blows in off the Atlantic I put a gillet jacket on over my t-shirt and off we went.

It was glorious. The tide was right out and it was the first time we’d seen so much of the beach. Benji had a fantastic time. On the way back we though we’d buy a couple of Danish pastries to have for breakfast before going back to church in Luz.

Peter disappeared off to the shop leaving me to open up the caravan and clean off the dog!........problem………I had put my keys and mobile phone in the shallow pockets of my gillet……..they were no longer there! I hurried off to meet Peter to grab the car keys from him to search the car……..they weren’t there either!

I don’t think Peter believed that I’d taken them with me, as he wanted to search the caravan, but I was insistent we get straight back down to the beach to look for them. We left Benji behind this time and went as fast as we could. Why is it when you want to get somewhere in a hurry all the traffic lights are against you?

I began to pray with vigour as thoughts passed through my mind of the inconvenience of only having one set of caravan keys.

As we came down the hill into Luz bay we could see the sea had come in quite a bit since we left 15mins earlier.

My prayers became a lot more urgent!

Having parked the car in exactly the same place we ran the route we’d walked back to the car with Benji.

Now Luz bay is made up of some lovely fine golden sand, but at the end of the beach we had gone to there were also a lot of rocks and pebbles before the sand starts. I began to look near to the rocks/pebbles while Peter went straight out to where the tide was advancing at a rate of knots now!

Within seconds the most wonderful Portuguese lady approached me and asked if I was looking for the bunch of keys she had in her hand. Wow, what an answer to the prayers I had said.

I couldn’t believe it. She had found them soon after we had left the beach the first time and had spent the 15/20 minutes or so wondering up and down the bay looking for the owner of them. She was as pleased to reunite me with them as I was to receive them. She hadn’t found the mobile with them though.

To my mind losing a mobile was a lot less inconvenient than losing the keys. Peter and I continued to search for it, but the tide was nearly right up to the rocks by this time. Peter had his mobile and decided to go back to the car for another look. This time he tried to ring it. It didn’t ring in the car, but a lady and gentleman just a little way away from him answered it and said they had rescued it on the beach just before a wave had got to it.

My, did we feel looked after!

I must admit I did pray with much more fervour to find the keys and the mobile, than I did when I lost Peter in Lagos!!

We thought it might be fun to write up about these two incidents, but as I’ve read them through I can’t finish without saying just how close we have found God in all we’re experiencing. We have lost count of the times we feel He has seen us through what could have been ‘not such good experiences’.

Lost and Found (1)

2010-03-02T11:19:00.002Z

One day last week we drove into Lagos to try and find a pet shop that could supply Royal Canin dog food. We were driving towards one that we had been told about on the outskirts of the town but on the way through we spotted one with a Royal Canin sign outside. It was on a busy narrow street with nowhere to park so I dropped Julie off and said I'd find somewhere to park and then walk back to meet her.

Now Lagos is a very pleasant town with a large historic centre made up of narrow cobbled streets, most of them one-way as they were designed for the days of (slim) donkeys and (narrow) carts. Parking is at a premium. Those who know me well know that I have absolutely no sense of direction so I did my best to keep driving in a straight line so that I would be able to find my way back - but after half a dozen no entry signs had forced me to turn left or right I realised I was hopelessly lost. I finally managed to park next to a church at the top of a hill and started to try and re-trace the route back to the pet shop. Well, one windy narrow cobbled street looks very much like another and after about 20 minutes I realised I was unlikely to find it. Also, I realised that Julie would be getting very cross by now - a little worried as well maybe but mainly just very cross!

Then I had a brainwave - I knew where the Tourist Information office was - it was in the centre and well signposted - I'll go in there, explain the situation and ask them to show me on a map where the pet shop is. I manged to find it OK but they had just closed for lunch! I was starting to panic now - I normally carry my mobile phone with me but on this occasion I'd left it back at the caravan, but I was fairly sure Julie had her's with her so I set out to find a public telephone. I eventually found one - it took a good five minutes to work out how to use it, mainly by trial and error because of course all the instructions were in Portugese (how inconsiderate!). Julie's first words to me were "where on earth are you?" to which I could answer with some confidence - "in a phone box".

We agreed to meet in a cafe we had used before and sure enough 5 minutes later we were re-united. Now all we had to do was find the car - I had taken the precaution of remembering the name of the church I had parked near to so we opened the detailed map of Lagos which Julie had been carrying only to find that it didn't give the names of the churches. But as we left the cafe a stroke of fortune - Julie was attracted to a shop at the end of a side street (it was a handbag shop - Julie loves bags and Portugal is a major leather producer so moving through shopping centres can be very very slow). While Julie went in to have a look around the shop I looked up the hill and thought I recognised the building at the top - as we reached the top I could confirm that it was Sao Sebastian church and there next to it was our car. Phew!

The Rain in Spain (& Portugal)!

2010-02-26T17:33:00.001Z

In speaking to many fellow travellers over the last couple of months it seems that we made a wise choice staying just south of Alicante for December and January. The central and south-western areas of Spain and most of Portugal have had a much wetter than average winter.

Yesterday to went to visit a few sites to decide which one to move on to when we leave here. One site in particular which we've always hoped to be able to stay at is a brand new five-star site near to Odemira in the Alentejo region. When we arrived we almost turned round and drove back again because it looked like the site was closed. Fortunately we decided to drive in and enquire at reception and found that the site was open but that they were struggling to cope with the flooding. We were offered a tour of the site in a 4X4 (that gives you a clue how wet it was!) - the caravan pitches were unusable and caravans and motorhomes were only being allowed to park on the roadways rather than the lovely lush grass (underwater) pitches.

If that was all the site had to offer there is no way we would consider staying there - it would be like Humilladero all over again! However, we were then given a tour of the inside facilities which were amazing and lived up to the brochure and website (http://www.zmar.eu/index.php?lang=en if you fancy a look) so we are going to give at a go next month.

The lady who gave us the guided tour said that October and November had been unusually dry and then in December it started raining and since then it has hardly stopped - they have never known a winter like it but then it seems that just about everywhere around the world has had unusual weather this winter.

Since leaving the eastern Meditterannean coast of Spain we have encountered a fair bit of wet weather and we have experienced some torrential downpours since we arrived in Lagos - but when the sun does come out which it does most days it is really warm and at night-time the temperature only drops to about 15 so we can't complain. Having seen what happened on Madeira we count ourselves very lucky that the flooding here has only been annoying rather than life-threatening.

Bom Dia

2010-02-22T19:00:00.000Z

We are now well and truly settled on our site in the Western Algarve and have just said goodbye to our friends, Diane & Dave, who flew out to stay with us for a week.

The original plan had been for them to sleep in a pop-up tent in our awning but we thought they would be more comfortable with a proper bed so hired a small chalet on the site for them. That turned out to be a very wise decision as the weather during the week was akin to a tropical rainforest - lovely warm sunshine interspersed with torrential rain - so much rain that the water started to come up through the awning floor.

But we still had a lovely week with them. We will update the blog with some of our experiences so far in Portugal but just thought we'd publish a quick post to let you know that we are alive and well.

Humilladero

2010-02-12T16:09:00.000Z

We had identitified a site to stay at which was pretty much on a straight line route from Granada to Seville - an ideal stopping-off point for us to visit Julie's sister in Marbella without having to tow the caravan all the way down to the coast and back.

In the guide book the site sounded ideal - a brand new purpose-built site with excellent facilities. Well, when it's finished I'm sure it will be lovely but unfortunately in between placing an ad in the 2010 Camping Cheques book (which they probably had to commit to in mid-2009) and the beginning of 2010 all building work came to a standstill. We're not sure of all the details but the current owners told us that they had taken over the site from the local council and were now doing their best to make it ready.

To be fair, the essential facilities were all in place - a shower/toilet block, fresh water & electric points etc. but the site itself consisted of a series of gravel roadways radiating from a central road. These roadways were meant to provide access to the pitches but all there was on either side was rather soft red soil.

We stayed for eight nights and actually quite enjoyed it because for most of the time there were only two or three other caravans/motorhomes on site so we had plenty of peace and quiet. Except that is for Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon when the site hosted a Spanish caravan rally and 60 more outfits came on site. It was quite good in a way to see a bit of life and watch Spanish families enjoying a weekend away similar to ones we have experienced with the Bucks Caravan Club Centre in the UK. The only downside was that a group of young boys decided that the series of unmade roads made a fantastic off-road cycle track and proceeded to use their wheels to spread large amounts of red soil across all areas of the site, including the toilet blocks!

We witnessed two unusual sporting activities in the town's communal area just outside the site. The first was a greyhound track - nothing unusual about that - but this was was dead straight which meant that all the dogs had to be walked up to one end of the track with one of the owners carrying the "hare" which was attached to a long cord. The other end of the cord was attached to a spindle driven by a motor-bike engine - the speed of the hare could be regulated by using the throttle on the bike engine. Basic - but it worked!

Also in the same area were small concrete towers with pictures of pigeons with coloured wings painted on the sides. When we first came across the reason for these towers we thought we had discovered a new species of bird but it turns out that pigeon racers in Spain actually paint their birds with their team colours so that they can easily see whose birds are whose. I'm not sure if it does the birds any harm or not but it certainly makes for an amazing spectacle when you seem them all come racing home.

Heading West!

2010-02-12T15:31:00.001Z

After enjoying the delights of Granada we sadly packed up to move further west. We did decide that at some point in the near future we would like to spend a long weekend staying in the city centre itself, but that is something for 2011/2012.

We are now 1,732 kms (1,076 miles) as the crow flies from 60 Shelley Road.

This is the furthest south west we will be bringing the caravan. Day trips will take us further but when we leave here we will be heading (oh so slowly) towards home.

Getting here:
From Granada we travelled on the A92 towards Seville. My sister has an apartment near Marbella, and as we haven't seen her since we left, we aranged to meet up together for an overnight rendevue. We 'parked' our caravan at a brand new site in a small town called Humilladero, due north of Malaga, to meet up with her on Monday 7th February.

Humilladero was a town like no other, but I will leave Peter to tell you all about that!

It took us 1.5 hours to drive to Tricia's apartment through heavy rain, fog, low cloud, sunshine......you name it we had it....but not snow!

Our sat-nav found her address without any problems, (which is surprising as we have travelled many miles out of our way because of this contraption).

We had a lovely time catching up on family news and seeing the south coast of Spain. (Thanks Trish and John for your hospitality.)

We headed back to Humilladero on the Tuesday to continue our adventure. We had decided that it was possible to drive from Humilladero all the way through to Lagos, Portugal in one go. It meant a total of 5/6 hours driving but we were now hungry to leave Spain and get to our premier destination...Portugal. This is where the dream began......22 years ago....to tour the whole country.

We have settled on a lovely site about 4 kms west of Lagos. Our nearest beach is Praia da Luz, about 2 kms, easy walking!

We have friends from Wycombe coming to stay with us on Sunday for a week, and we think we will remain here for at least a month, possibly longer, we'll see how we feel as time progresses.

Benji's hair is slowly growing back, so he'll probably need another haircut within the month, but I will do it myself.

I need to pass the computer to Pete now for him to fill you in on our week at Humilladero.

Hopefully we will have Wi-Fi access more regularly now so we can keep the blog updated.
J x

The Alhambra

2010-02-12T08:29:00.000Z

The Alhambra is one of the reasons we decided to include Granada as a stop over on route to Portugal. We had been informed that when you buy your ticket you are issued with a timed slot to enter the Nasrine Palace, if you miss that time slot you can’t get in…..and it’s better to view it in the morning as you are allowed to spend the rest of the day wandering around at your leisure.

On arriving at our camp site I asked if they could book our tickets for us, but was informed that as it was low season there wouldn’t be any problem just turning up there on the day. For some reason this caused me a little apprehension but we went with it and decided to visit the Alhambra on our last full day in Granada.

On Sunday, still feeling a little apprehensive about finding our way on public transport, I went to reception to ask exactly how to get to the Alhambra. Thankfully there was another English lady paying her bill at the same time and she had been to see it the day before, so Peter and I got some wonderful instructions on how to get into Granada, what direction to walk in and how to find the shuttle bus which takes you to the gate. (So there was no need to worry.)

We knew we wouldn’t be able to take Benji, so Peter got up early to give him a long walk, and we left the site to catch the bus at 9.30am. (early for us!)

Spanish buses are marvellous. They are cheap, run on time and never come in threes!

Having been dropped off at one bus stop we duly made our way on foot through the city to the plaza where the shuttle bus would take us up the steep incline to the entrance of the Alhambra.

I was looking forward to ‘a bit of culture’ because so many people had told us that it was not to be missed, and we had seen it from the other side of the valley lit up on Saturday night – and it looked spectacular.

But to be honest both Peter and I were a little disappointed. The architecture and mosaics are amazing, and I’m pleased we went, but it didn’t have the appeal of the Albaicin. (Like many National Trust properties in the UK, it’s a monument to life created for the wealthy.)

We prefer to be around people and places which teem with everyday life, which is probably why we loved the Albaizin so much. The buildings are very old but it is still full of life today and you can imagine what it was like a couple of centuries ago.

Having walked a lot of Kms, we got back to Benji at about 2pm. What a welcome!

We slowly began to pack up to move off on the Tuesday morning to the next part of our adventure…………..to be continued!

A few pictures of the Alhambra below ..........

Flamenco

2010-02-12T08:06:00.000Z

To be honest, a Flamenco show was not high up on my list of things to do but Julie had done her research and assured me that Granada was home to real Flamenco and we had to go and see some while we were here.

We booked on a tour from our camp-site which offered transport to Granada, a guided walking tour around the Albazin (the old part of the city) and a Flamenco Show in a venue in the Sacramento caves.

Our site was about 4 Km outside Granada and waiting outside at 9 pm as promised was a rather luxurious 20-seater coach/minibus – at that stage we were the only passengers but over the next 45 minutes we wended our way through the busy Granada streets stopping at hotels to pick up the rest of the people on the tour.

Our tour guide gave a commentary as we drove through the streets towards the Albazin – mainly in Spanish as everyone else on the coach was Spanish, but also stopping every now and again to explain in English to us.

Having driven down the ‘Calle de Darro’ a single lane cobbled street, and it certainly couldn’t accommodate anything wider than our minibus! ( In fact we had to stop to allow pedestrians to pass by!) It was a beautiful alleyway next to the river Darro with the rock rising up on our right which was the foundation of the Alhambra and little buildings on our left.

We were dropped off on the edge of the Albazin, which is the old Moorish part of Granada. We were then taken on foot to tour through the narrow cobbled streets and plazas. With archways and sharp right and left turns, supposedly to prevent horse-back riders from entering in an attack.

The night-time view of the Alhambra from San Nicolas, a former mosque, changed into a church by the invading Christians, was breathtaking, but the best was yet to come.

Now when we had originally booked this I had imagined that the Flamenco show would be good but that it would be something scripted and rehearsed – the same show every evening for the tourists. Wrong! The entire troupe consists of about twenty-five dancers, guitarists and singers and each night a small group of them perform together.

The atmosphere was undoubtedly helped by the venue – there were about 30 of us sitting on small seats around the edge of a long narrow cave (by the way, inside these caves the temperature is always 21 degrees Celsius – cool in summer, warm in winter). In the middle was the “dance-floor” - a well-worn piece of wood, about 2 metres long and a metre wide.

The performers sat with us and after a while the guitarist started to play a few chords, the singer sang a few laments, the dancers started some rhythmic clapping. As a Flamenco virgin I wasn’t sure whether the show had started or they were just tuning up, but then one of them got up and started to dance, if dance is the right word. It’s more of an interpretive dance than anything pre-rehearsed and there is an incredible interaction between the guitarist and the dancer, neither controlling the other but both influencing what would happen next.

Four dancers who each performed twice, each very different in style, gave us a taste of real Flamenco – it’s raw, intense, showy and sometimes aggressive – they weren’t just putting on a show - they were showing-off. It was fantastic and I would definitely go and experience it again but we won’t get a chance this time round.

Back on-line!

2010-02-11T21:51:00.000Z

We've been nearly two weeks without Internet access so apologies for the lack of new posts - well be trying to catch up over the next week or so.

We are now in Portugal on a lovely site between Praia de Luz and Lagos.

The mountains of Andalucia

2010-01-30T18:03:00.003Z

On Thursday morning when we walked the dog. there was a thick frost and ice on the roads, which made us think we would need to wait for the sun to thaw the frost before we began our decent towing down the hairpin bends, back to Alhama and the A7 the next day. So on Friday we were very happy to wake up to temperatures of 7 degrees and sunshine, which meant no frost!

We took it very slowly, as before with lots of prayer and playing our Tim Hughes CDs very loud! After an hour we finally made it down through all the hairpin bends from Sierra Espuna to the A7 to continue our journey west to Granada. The scenery along the way was fantastic but we did keep wondering whether we would eventually have to drive through snow as we seemed to be constantly gaining altitiude and heading straight for the snow-covered montains. The snow was banked up either side of the road where the snow ploughs and gritters had done their job but thankfully the road itself was clear. The scenery along this stretch of motorway is quite astounding and the rock formations are a wonder to behold. If any of you get the chance to travel from Murcia to Granada you'll not be disappointed.

We are now staying on a site on the outskirts of Granada, about 4 Km from the Alhambra. We'll be here until Tuesday and plan to do a couple of touristy things while we're here. Tonight it's a guided tour of the Albayzin, the oldest part of the city which also provides stunning views of the Alhambra at night, followed by a Flamenco Show in the Sacromonte Caves. On Monday we plan to visit the Alhambra itself - it's supposed to be amazing and it's always been on our "must see" list while we are visitng this region.

Hairpin bends!

2010-01-27T14:39:00.002Z

Having chosen a site to stop at to break up our journey to Granada I had one last look in the book to see how to get there. As I read the last sentence my heart missed a beat, and I asked Peter if we should choose another site.....it read......'if necessary help is available at the last incline, just call!'.......

Peter said 'let's just go, it can't be too bad.'

As we drove off the slip road of the A7 the town beyond, Alhama De Murcia, looked quite accessible with nice wide streets. As we went through the town and out the other side we hit the hairpin bends.

Now, I'm not a good passenger at the best of times, but to cut it short, I spent most of 20km with my eyes shut and praying like mad.

Dave Cooper- you would love it here! Your 4x4 would have a field day! Our Tucson managed very well, it's just as well we had the tyres changed before leaving Alicante!

All of the other tourers on site are small motorhomes. We did make it, and without help, and I must admit it is more than worth the missed heart beats to get here. The scenery is beautiful and the actual village the camp site is in--El Berro--have their houses all built into the rocks. (Very biblical!)

Being so high up we are experiencing the coldest weather yet.....only getting up to 4.5c today, with snow just above us. The packet soups I bought with us are very warming! Benji needs his coat on nearly 24/7.

The peace and quiet is only interupted by bird song and the site has a chalet with a big roaring log fire and beer on draught.

We were only going to stay 2 nights here, but as it's so lovely we've decided to stay 5, (or is it that I can't face towing back!!)

The area itself is full of almond trees and the blossom is just beginning to show, another month and it will be fully out. Speaking to the owner this morning she has been receiving phone calls from Spanish families to find out if we are snowed in as they all want to come and experience snow....it's a rarity here!!!

Below are some of the photos we took on our walk this morning.

East Coast Sunrise

2010-01-27T13:06:00.001Z

It was great having the beach on our doorstep at our last site and before we left I was determined to get up early enough one morning to see the sun rise. Being an East-facing coast the sunrises look very similar to a West coast sunset. I took loads of photos but this one came out the best.

Up Sticks

2010-01-23T22:18:00.000Z

Well, after 3 months on the same site we are moving on tomorrow, next stop a small site in the mountains south-west of Murcia for two nights, then on to Granada.

We've enjoyed our stay here and we've met lots of lovely people - it's going to be difficult saying goodbye to them all tomorrow - but we are also looking forward to moving on and embarking on the next stage of our adventure. We've learnt a lot while we've been here - Spanish lessons, art classes, swimming lessons - we both feel we've had the chance (and the time) to develop new skills and abilities.

It may be a while before our next post as we don't know what Internet access will be like at the next few sites but we will leave you with one anecdote from our last week here.

Julie took Benji to have a trim at the same place we had taken him to when we first arrived here, mainly because they did such a good job first time round. However they had employed a new groomer and when Julie arrived they insisted on taking Benji away and wouldn't let Julie stay and watch as she had done the first time.

When Julie went back to get Benji she found that they had given hin the full poodle cut treatment - pom-pom wrists, ankles, thighs, head and tail. Julie was furious and managed to persuade them to remove the worst of the fluffy bits. But they had also shaved the rest of him down to his skin and there was nothing they could do to rectify that.

We have to put a coat on him if it gets a bit cold and he shivers at the slightest breeze.

At the moment he doesn't look like our Benji but we know it will grow back soon enough.

We decided not to to take any photos as we really don't want to remember him in this state. But from now on, Julie will take back her responsibility as chief Benji groomer!

Elche

2010-01-18T08:33:00.000Z

Elche is one of the larger towns 15 km from where we are staying and it is the 'home of the palm tree'. The existance of date palm trees in Elche goes back 2,500-3,000 years. They were brought over by the Phoenicians. Now, in their municipal park, which is only one of many parks there, they estimate there are 200,000-300,000 palm trees.........that's an awful lot of trees folks!

Today we decided to have a day exploring the parks there, (which is only fitting as today is our last Sunday in this part of Spain, and we spent our first Sunday here in October in Elche).

We had a lovely day. The weather excelled itself, we started off in trousers and shirts and ended in shorts and t-shirts.

Apart from the beautiful gardens what really amazed me was the amount of Spanish families out together enjoying the sunshine and their environment. All the children were dressed like children (girls in pretty dresses and socks, and the boys in shorts and jumpers/cardigans) and everyone seemed to have their Sunday best on. It was like going back into the 50's in England (so I'm told as I'm too young to remember!)

Below are some of the photos I took of the gardens. They really were enchanting, and a gardeners delight.

Swimming Lessons

2010-01-15T21:26:00.002Z

I have always been someone who enjoys splashing about in the water but who can't really swim - I mean I can lift my feet off the bottom and thrash about a bit and make some sort of progress but it's not pretty to watch and because of that I've never been happy to go out of my depth either in the sea or in a pool.

Until that is I happened to mention this to one of our neighbours, Wolfgang. Turns out that he was a coach to the German Olympic Team many years ago and is currently writing a book that recommends a radically different approach to teaching people how to swim.

He absolutely loves taking on a challenge and he has taught a whole range of people using this technique, from very young children to 90+ year olds. To begin with I was a bit reticent about being his next challenge but three one hour lessons later I have to say that his tutoring has produced amazing results.

I can now swim a length of the pool using either breast-stroke or crawl and - now this is the most amazing bit because this has always been a "bete noire" for me - I can float and swim on my back!

We've only got another week at this site and I'm hoping to get in a couple more lessons before we go, but even if we don't I now feel confident to take what he has taught me and continue to develop and improve on my own.

He keeps telling me during the lessons that "the water is your friend" and I'm beginning to believe him and it might sound over the top to say this but I think for me this could be one of the most life-changing episodes of our trip away so far - so thanks Wolfgang,
Peter.

Going Dutch

2010-01-07T19:07:00.001Z

We've talked a fair bit about the different Spanish traditions over Christmas and New Year but on New Year's Day we took part in an annual event which has nothing to do with Spain. We don't know if this is something that the Dutch do wherever they happen to be on New Year's Day or whether it is something they only do when they are in a warmer climate but notices went up around the site in mid-December advertising a mass "run into the sea" at midday on New Year's Day.

The basic idea is that all those brave or mad enough to take part line up in one penned-off area of the beach and then, after a countdown, everyone runs into the sea together. How long you spend out there is up to you but on return to the beach there are steaming hot cups of Gluhwein to resuscitate you.

Having already had a swim on Christmas Day I thought I'd give it a try. It was sunny but a lot colder with a strong North wind blowing across the beach so the worst part was standing around waiting for it to start.

When the countdown reached zero we all made a mad dash into the sea. It was cold but the biggest problem was trying not to get crushed in the rush - there was no allowance for the more tentative like me who'd prefer to get wet slowly!

But it was great fun and after some warming Gluhvein we continued the day with a BBQ on the beach.

Absolute bonkers!

2010-01-02T22:58:00.000Z

We've tried not to write too much about how cheap it is to eat and drink here but we just have to relate the tale of our meal today.

We had a day in Guardamar with some friends and visited a Chinese restaurant for a late lunch. Like most restaurants they do a "Menu del dia" but whereas most restaurants offer a very limited menu for a fixed price, with this one you could choose from about 40 different main courses varying from €5.75 to €7.95. But that price didn't just buy you the main course, it bought you:

A glass of Sangria
A plate of prawn crackers
A starter (choice of spring roll, salad or two different soups)
Rice, noodles or chips to accompany your main course
Half a bottle of wine
A dessert or coffee
A liqueur

The food and the service were excellent, the portions were very generous and at the end we were presented with a bill for the four us which came to €28 - that's about £6.50 a head.

To cap it all, just before we left they asked if we wanted wine or points. Apparently, if you spent more than €12 you were entitled to either a bottle of wine or a point towards some gifts that they had on show in a display cupboard. We opted for wine and were presented with another two bottles of wine to take away.

Hence the title of this blog entry - absolute bonkers! (but I think we might have to go back just to check it wasn't a dream)

Traditions

2010-01-02T18:47:00.022Z

We are really enjoying finding out about the traditions which the Spanish culture enjoy at this time of year.
There are certain foods which are also mainly eaten around the Christmas/ New Year period as well, just like at home. As food is a very important part of our experience here we fully participate in everything we can!
We knew before we got here that Epiphany or Three Kings (6th January) was the day that the Spanish children receive their presents, but we now understand why.......
....The three kings brought Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, so thats the day 3 people dress as kings in each village/town/community etc and parade through the streets collecting the children to give them their presents in the local square/town hall/meeting place. Some towns use horses to parade the kings, others use flat bed vans or lorries, one for the kings and another for the presents.
If the children have been naughty they get charcoal. There is also a special cake which is eaten on 6th January called 'Roscon de Reyes'. It is shaped like a very large donut with a hole in the middle where a crown is placed and somewhere in the cake (which is filled with cream) is a miniature model of the three kings. If you receive this in your portion you are supposed to have good luck throughout the year.

Buildings and apartments have models of the Kings' Pages climbing up the outside with sacks on their backs to deliver presents to the people inside.

They look very lifelike as the Pages are all made from black material and the sacks are in bright red.

Uvas......another tradition on Nochevieja-New Year's eve is to eat a grape at every toll of the bell. They actually sell tins of 12 grapes which have been de-pipped and skinned......of course we bought some!
Polvorones are a sweet biscuit which explodes in your mouth, polvo means dust, (and that's what they taste like) why these are eaten at this time of year we haven't found out yet, but it's not worth it. It's like having a mouthful of sand!

Resaca is the spanish word for hangover.....I wonder how I found that out!!!!!
Traditionally many people suffer from a resaca on New Years day as I did this year. It's the worst I've had in a long time and I've decided that it was all because of the grapes I ate at midnight!

We saw the New Year in with the rest of our street. Having had a BBQ in the street at lunch time we continued to drink moderately through to 1.30 the next morning. We celebrated Spanish New Year at 12 (and ate our grapes) and then sang Auld Lang Syne at 1.00 as Big Ben tolled midnight in the UK. The grapes put me over the limit. Here is a picture taken of Peter and myself just after midnight.

Murcia

2009-12-31T10:01:00.017Z

A couple of days ago we went on an outing to Murcia with some of the people from the church we attend in Torrevieja. The idea of the trip was to see some of the nativity scenes put on by the local churches. Our "tour guide" was the pastor, Rafael, who has lived in Murcia for many years so we received an expert tour of the city.

The nativity scenes were worth seeing,

as were the Christmas lights,

but the highlight of the trip was a visit to the Plaza Belluga, a massive square in the centre of the city.

For five evenings around Christmas they have performances from professional opera singers. Each performance is quite short, just three or four minutes, and they were all well-known "songs" (if that's what you call them - I'm not much of an opera expert!). The acoustics are amazing and to add to the effect they use the walls of the buildings around the square to project moving images.

I've put together a few pictures and video clips of the evening - as always they don't really do it justice but hopefully you can get a feel of the delight we had watching and listening to these performances in the open air with thousands of others.

There's nothing like a nice bit of culture every now and then!

We did it!

2009-12-30T15:42:00.018Z

Our plan had always been to have a swim in the sea and a BBQ on the beach on Christmas day. If the weather hadn't been warm enough I think we would still have done it, but....the sun shone and although the sea is obviously a bit colder at this time of year (17° C we were told), the beach was packed with people in various fancy dress costumes, tables, chairs and BBQs!
Here are a few pictures to prove 'we did it'.

We didn't expect to see so many others on the beach Christmas morning, as every other morning we've had it to ourselves.

We did put our shoulders under as well but it wasn't captured on camera!

Although it felt a bit chilly in the sea, we felt warm enough when we came out to stay in our swimming stuff for half an hour while we cooked our starters on the BBQ
The couple on the right are our neighbours, June and Geoff. The couple on the left are their friends who have an apartment in the village. We have had some lovely evenings together and we will miss them all as we move on.

After eating hot dogs and chicken legs on the beach we slowly packed up and returned to the caravan where we spent time contacting various members of the family. We ended the day with a candle lit dinner for two. Who knows how we will spend Christmas next year!

Partido de Calle

2009-12-26T18:54:00.006Z

Well, despite the weather we did manage to have a very succesful street party on Christmas Eve.

It didn't look promising to start with as the grey skies and occasional light rain meant that many of our neighbours were reluctant to put their noses out of their caravans / motorhomes.

But us Brits are used to forging on with our plans whatever the weather so we started to arrange food and drinks on tables in the street.

As our neighbours looked on at us 'foolhardy' Brits, it took them a while to decide to join in and at one stage Julie said she was going to encourage them to show a bit of "Dunkirk Spirit" until she realised that was a little inappropriate in a street of mainly German residents!

However, we soon realised that their delay was due to cooking/creating some wonderful food for us all to share and eventually everyone from our street joined the party, each contributing something to eat and drink and some of them meeting each other for the first time.

We began with traditional Christmas music but as the afternoon wore on we switched to party songs which resulted in a fair bit of "Dancing in the Street".

Have a go

2009-12-26T18:05:00.009Z

Having given up art in the 3rd year of senior school, believing I had no talent at all, drawing is always something that has fascinated and intrigued me. I was so pleased when Paul showed signs of being interested in art--with some talent too! I bought him a few books on how to draw etc, but as always teenagers don't necessarily follow through with their parents dreams, and quite right too.

Having dabbled a tiny bit when we've been away on holiday I was really pleased to see the site we are staying on at the moment offering free art classes.

I turned up the first day only to find the teacher was German and so were the rest of the class of twelve. Six was the maximum Barbara (our teacher) wanted to have in a class, but she eventually decided as we were all so enthusiastic she would persevere with twelve.

Being the only English person I also posed a little bit of a problem........(Barbara is fluent in German, Dutch and Spanish, and I think her English is brill, but she doesn't.)

Anyhow, I have gone along each week and learnt a lot of German, but also picked up a few points on how to draw. Some weeks I feel completely out of my depth, but spending time looking at what Barbara is asking me to do and thinking about it I manage to come up with something.

Below are some of my attempts......the reason I am posting this blog is to encourage each of you to have a go....if there has been something you have always wished you could have learnt, it's never too late....just do it!

Julie x

Happy Nochebuena

2009-12-24T08:07:00.001Z

Today is Nochebuena - a day of celebration - Spanish families get together and prepare a sumptuous meal and celebrate well into the night. Like many other European countries tonight is the bigger celebration and tomorrow everyone just chills out and enjoys a quiet day with the family.

We are having a street party and if it is anything like the one we had on Julie's birthday I will probably need a little "plink, plink, fizz" tomorrow!

Nativity scenes

2009-12-23T17:50:00.017Z

Well no luck with El Gordo, but then we never got round to buying a ticket which probably didn't help!

We're really enjoying the build-up to Christmas in a different country with a different culture and traditions. The nativity scenes on display are amazing - not just a few figures in a crib but a complete model village. The camp site staff here spent ages building a wonderful nativity scene which is now on display near the entrance. A couple of days ago we went to Torrevieja to see another one that we had heard about. It's in a square outside a church (which is also beautifully decorated) and the detail is quite incredible.

It depicts every scene from the story of Jesus' birth - beginning with the angel Gabriel visiting Mary through to his birth and the events of his early life. I'm not sure if the pictures do it justice but I've tried to include some to show the scale of it and others to show the detail, and one of the church as well.

Red Knickers

2009-12-18T09:36:00.006Z

At our Spanish lesson yesterday we learnt about "La Navidad en Espana".

The festivities start on the 22nd with "el dia de la loteria" where winning lottery numbers are drawn live on TV from 9 in the morning until midday in a special Christmas Lottery. Although there are lotteries all through the year this one is the biggest, not just in Spain but in the world.

It is very different from the National Lottery at home. Firstly, despite the fact that ticket sales exceed 3 Billion Euros there are only 85,000 different numbers to choose from. But each number is given to 180 different "series" where each ticket costs €200. But as that's too expensive for most people each ticket is then divided into 10 "Decimas" costing €20 each. With me so far?

If you buy a Decima and your 5-digit number is drawn you share that prize with 1,799 other people which sounds like you wouldn't win much but the top prize (El Gordo, "The Big One") pays out €300,000 to each Decima.

On the morning of the 22nd Spain pretty much comes to a halt and the normal noise and chatter is replaced by the sound of children singing... Why? It is one of the strange traditions that each year children from a junior school are invited to "sing" the numbers as they are drawn from two very large spherical cages. In one a ball for each number from 00001 - 85,000 is placed and in the other 1,787 balls representing the prizes. Over the course of the morning prizes and their corresponding numbers are drawn. The tension and excitment lasts all morning and the 1st prize, el gordo, can be drawn at any stage.

It is very much a shared experience as from around mid September onwards, when the first tickets go on sale, clubs, societies, bars, offices and factories choose a number and that number is then purchased by everyone belonging to that organisation. Also, the street sellers in any one town will only have one or two different numbers to sell which is why you often hear about a town winning the lottery as everyone who shares the top prize will be from the same area.

Buying a ticket isn't just about choosing the right number, it's also about wearing the right clothes. Wearing red underwear over the Christmas period is supposed to bring you good luck which explains why the local market stalls have been full of red pants, bras and knickers over the past few weeks. I'll have to have a rummage through my drawers to see what I can find!

Twelve Days of Christmas

2009-12-16T13:57:00.007Z

OK I know we are not absolutely right with the title but hey!

Well what a turn around in the weather. The same weather system which has you caught up in freezing temperatures and possibly a white Christmas has also come south!

Everyone here can't believe it--we have snow on the hills 10 minutes drive away from us! As Peter drove the car into a garage for its service the engineers were playing snowballs in their lunch break, from a car brought in from the mountains.

We still have nearly 2 more hours of day light than the UK, but it has made it feel more like Christmas.

We were in the mountains the day before the weather changed and joked about the snow-pole markers we saw along the roadside. I've only ever seen them in Germany and Scotland before and I certainly didn't expect to see them here, where we are planning Christmas day on the beach.

Here is a view from Guadalest, a pretty little village in the mountains above a reservoir and dam. Had we left our visit another day we wouldn't have made it....snow on the hairpin bends would have been too dangerous.

And these are the mountains which are now covered in snow!!

Great plans are happening here for the holiday. Our 'street' are having a street party on Christmas eve, some of us are having a BBQ on the beach on Christmas day and some are going to the local restaurant. We will probably all meet up in the restaurant on site late evening as they are putting on some great 60's, 70's and 80's entertainment.

Tonight we are going to a united Carol concert of all the English speaking churches in the area. It should be wonderful....I hope.

5 minutes from us towards Guadamar there is an Iceland which I have kept away from because we are in Spain to experience a different culture and different food. But on Monday we were busy sorting out Christmas cards by email and I had a craving for mince pies and mulled wine, an Ebsworth tradition while writing Christmas cards.....in fact it's just an Ebsworth tradition, you don't need to be doing anything! I couldn't believe it, they even have all English staff. It was like being transported back home. Everything you would expect to find in Iceland's at home was there. The English prices were also on everything, though of course we had to pay a bit more than that....travelling expenses!

I must be honest, Monday was our first day of rain and Iceland did make me a little homesick, but reading the emails we've been receiving from many of you it sounds better to be looking at snow on the hills rather than stuck in the snow on the hill! (Carver Hill).

NEXT DAY!

Last night was superb. There must have been over 500 of us in a very new and welcoming modern church building. There was a brass band and a magnificent choir. Apparently, some of the people there had travelled a long way just to hear this choir sing the Hallejujah chorus and they were right - it was amazing and sent a tingle up our spines. The whole event lasted nearly two hours and gave us a real feeling of Christmas.

Today the sun has come back and we were in T-shirts and shorts again - lovely! Maybe Chritmas Day on the beach is still on the cards!

A weekend apart

2009-12-08T14:53:00.005Z

We've been quiet over the last week, which doesn't mean we've not been busy.

We started the week listing all the things we wanted to do and see before leaving this part of Spain. We've still got 6 weeks left here, but the time is flying past especially with so many Spanish holidays/fiestas leading up to Christmas and beyond.

We have also made some great friends here and so doing things all together is very pleasant, but finding days that we are all free (due to the extensive programme of activities we are all signed up for) is a bit of a mission. Then there are things like fitting the car in for a service, booking the dog into the vets for his annual vacinations, all the things which, no matter where you are, have to be seen to.

Amidst all this Peter got himself ready to fly back to the UK to visit his mum. It was a little more than a social as she is now no longer happy looking after herself - her brother who she has lived with for five years has been ill for some time and is now in hospital, which has left her on her own. He went back specifically to help her decide and choose a 'retirement home' to live in, which would still allow her to be close to her brother.

Peter had a very successful weekend with his mum, but was pleased to get back to the hotter climate over here rather than the wet, dark, cold weather of Devon.

Let's face it, one of the reasons we are doing this 'gap year' is to sample the climate of southern Europe.

We have met Brits over here who have sold up, or rented their property out, so they can travel all year round, and there we were thinking we were doing something unique!

It is fascinating talking to them though, they spend 3 months here over winter, possibly going home to see family in the UK for Christmas. Then disappear to somewhere like Cyprus for spring, going back to the UK for the summer months in a caravan, only to come back out here the following autumn.

Don't worry.......Peter and I have already decided that we definitely know we will be staying in the UK. This is just a wonderful opportunity which we are making the best of for this year....anyway we may have a wedding to come home for next December!

While Pete was in Devon, people couldn't have been kinder to me here. I was invited over for dinner from the couple opposite us, which started at 2.30 in the afternoon, till gone 8pm. I did pop back and feed the dog and walk him at 5-ish!

As I've already written, there are 14 units in our cul-de-sac, and I was inundated with well-wishers throughout the weekend. In fact the only time I had on my own was when I walked Benji or shut all the blinds and closed the door.

It's not only in our little street that everyone is so friendly. Everywhere you go on site you always get a greeting in some language or another, and there is always a lovely smile to go with it.

I don't know if the Spanish realise how lucky they are in this climate. OK, they haven't got rolling green fields, but to be able to live outside because it's warm enough, does mean there is more social activity between neighbours, whether you are in bricks and mortar or a less permanent dwelling. One of my favourite activities at home is doing the front garden, because you get to see people.

Although the days are longer here than at home it is still dark by 5.30 so we are looking forward to getting the shortest day over with and the days starting to get longer again.

We're still not sure how we are going to spend Christmas Day and New Years Eve. There are lots of different styles of celebration on offer in the local bars and restaurants but we may just do our own thing. Church followed by a picnic on the beach still seems favourite for the 25th.

Tabarca (aka Tabby arca) Island

2009-12-01T18:58:00.015Z

After the family left us on the 22nd Nov everything seemed a little quiet so we planned a day out.

Tabarca Island was our choice...a pleasant boat trip, on a glass bottomed boat, a walk around the only inhabited island in the Costa Blanca, ( thoughts of Meryl Streep jumping from a balcony were on my mind), lunch on the island and finishing off with another pleasant boat trip back to Santa Pola.

The day got off to a good start with an exhilarating ride in a much smaller boat than we were expecting, a (very) fast launch rather than one of the large catamarans that ply backwards and forwards during the main season.

We knew it was low season so not everything would be open but we weren't expecting it to be as quiet as we found. It felt a bit like one of those unmade streets in a small Mexican town where nothing is happening but could at any minute (except it didn't!)

A one horse town without the horse!

Within minutes of stepping onto the island it was clear that there were a lot of un-neutered male cats. As we ventured further into the streets from the small port area we also came across many kittens. These weren't your normal Spanish, half starved kittens and toms, oh no....these were very fat kittens and toms, well fed from the many fish restaurants on the island.

Fish restaurants a plenty, but very few open on the day we chose to visit!!

It took us all of 10minutes to explore the town,

a square....which again was inhabited by fat cats and kittens but no people,

a couple of even quieter streets and a church which was closed for refurbishment!

There were two restaurants vying for the limited business......

we chose one in the sunshine with a sea view, and guess what....lots of cats!

The owner was very friendly and couldn't be more helpful....seeing our predicament with a small dog who didn't know whether to try and chase the cats or cower from them, he sent his dog to guard us, but he soon gave up as he realised he was heavily outnumbered.

Peter didn't help by ordering sardines from the menu, which were scrumptous, but attracted the entire feline population of Tabarca.

To top it all the pigeons, who were not scared of the cats because the cats were so well fed, came to eat the crumbs of bread from under our feet. Benji ended up sitting on my lap - a quivering wreck unable to contain himself.

After a good but eventful lunch we decided to call it a day and get the earlier ferry back to the mainland without exploring the less inhabited (is that possible?) parts of the island.

Observing the characteristics of the cats and how they engaged with each other we now know where Disney came to get all the ideas for 'The Aristocats'.

It was fascinating watching the tomcat hierarchy in action and trying to spot which cats were related to which among all the cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, mums and dads (brought back vague memories of a holiday in Cornwall!)

A day to remember for mixed reasons - great boat trip, good lunch, shame about the island!!

Julie's 50th in pictures

2009-11-25T17:03:00.027Z

I woke up to beautiful flowers on Thursday morning
Lunch at our local bodega/tapas bar - Dave keeping tabs on our wine consumption...!

Rather a lot of barrels to get through as you can see behind us!

A notice on the wall advised us to try 'Grandmother's Herbs' (she's just decanting them!)

.......so we did......

....Delicious......we were given a bottle to bring home....mmmmmmmm

As the meal came to an end we were all more than satisfied with the real experience of Spanish tapas and bodega!

The party continued back at the caravan, with the whole street coming to wish me best wishes....

as the cava flowed!

The party continued into the late evening....

and moved inside the awning...

When everyone had gone it was time to open some pressies......which were more than wonderful.

..beautiful jewellery and an album of special photos..not to mention a host of art equipment as I am learning to draw here in Spain - fantastic.

We then went back to the kids' chalet where the boys and their dad relaxed with a cuddle knowing they had given me the most perfect birthday anyone could ever wish for.

The next night....saw a happy, relaxed Peter with a favourite friend, a pint of beer......

and the beautiful girlies....

and last but not least .....
our happy family!

The whole week was wonderful. It was more than any mother could wish for, so thank you David, Katie, Paul and Rachel, and of course, Peter. I feel so blessed to be loved so much.

And thanks as well to all of you who sent me birthday wishes by email, which also made my week so special.

Thank you all so much.

Julie x