A couple of vids to follow our last blog.

From the Lands End of Europe

We have just been to Cabo de St Vincente, the most south westerly tip, the ‘Lands End’ of Europe, and also the southwest tip of Portugal.

A view down the coast from 'Lands End' Europe

These guys are fishing off 'Lands End' for squid.....it must be about 150 feet down the cliff face to the sea!



That's some fishing line you got there Mr.

Over the past 2 weeks we have zig zaged our way down Portugal from coast to mountains to forest and back to coast. This period of our trip has been more about the coastal views and the inland countryside than historic monuments and churches.  Portugal is and feels like a very safe place to be, so we have been doing a lot of wild camping and just spending time enjoying what the country and Mother Nature has to offer.

We spent 3 days camped by a Barragem, which simply translates to dam. Portugal, in an effort to produce enough irrigation for its inland farming, vineyards and orchards has dammed literally hundreds of rivers to produce these reservoirs, called Barragem. It is often possible to get right to the water’s edge and camp, and often, if you can seek out a nice quiet Barragem, to be there entirely by yourselves.  We were lucky enough to find one such spot for our camp. We passed the 3 days and nights just watching and listening to the wild life spend the day around us. The only reason we left was because we were running low on supplies and fresh water.....ironic since we were camped on a reservoir!



Camping at the Barragem



Anyway the next stop was the supermarket to stock up. Now here’s a thing. We are making the shopping list and Fang, who loves her tuna for lunch, had managed to find a pack of 4 cans of tuna which are just the right size for a Fang lunch. They were also on special in the supermarket which is another thing Fang loves. She bought these in Spain and so has the Spanish/English dictionary out, ( we now have a French/English, Spanish/English & Portuguese/English dictionary on board), with one of the cans of tuna trying to work out what sort she needs to look for in a Portuguese supermarket. The next thing there is a screech from Fang and   ‘you must be kidding’ or words to that effect but with more words......she has discovered in her translation that the cans of tuna are not really Fang size, but apparently just the right size for a daily portion for kittens.......oh yes, Fang has been on cat food for lunch. Tuna is no longer on the lunch menu, and whenever I mention it, which I do a lot, she goes green, and I don’t mean sorting her plastics from her paper either. Since then I have had to put a tray of kitty litter in the corner of the Trundle Bus and leave the window open at night so that she can get back in. On the up side I no longer worry about mice, although fur balls are becoming a fractious issue.

We spent our first night in Portugal at a town called Braga. Just outside the town is a place called Bom Jesus do Monte. Here we climbed the extraordinary baroque staircase Escadaria dos Bom Jesus. The climb up is made of a variety of staircases dating from different periods of the 18^th century. The lowest is lined with 12 chapels representing the Stations of the Cross. Each chapel has lifelike terracotta statues depicting the story of the crucifixion.  Next the Escadaria dos Cinco Sentidos (Stairway of the Five Senses) feature fountains on each level with water gurgling from eyes, ears, nose and mouth of different statues. The highest is Escadaria das Virtudes (Stairway of the Three Virtues) with chapels and fountains on each level representing Faith, Hope and Charity. Climbing the stairways is a goal for thousands of pilgrims each year.



The amazing alter in the church at the top of the stairway

On our way south we kept passing loads of people walking along the road. We assumed that they must be on some sort of sponsored walk for charity, but there were literally hundreds of them strung out along the highway for miles and miles. The organisers even had periodic tent stations set up on the side of the road with food & water and medical assistance to help them on their way. It was not until we stopped at a town called Fatima, to have a look at its very impressive cathedral, that we got the story. On the 13^th of May 1917, three children from Fatima – Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta- claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin ‘more brilliant than the sun’. Only 10 year old Lucia could hear what she said, including her request that the children return on the 13^th of each month for the next 6 months. Word spread and by the 13^th of October some 70,000 devotees had gathered at the cathedral. Lucia asked the Virgin for a sign and just at that moment rainy skies opened and thousands of pilgrims reported seeing the sun turn into a whirling disc of colours that seemed to shoot rays down to the very earth. Since then on the 13^th of each month from May to October thousands of pilgrims from all over Portugal, and indeed the world, descend by foot on the cathedral in Fatima. We just happened to be going along the road to Fatima the 9^th May...how’s that for timing?  

The cathedral at Fatima

As I write we are again camped on an absolutely beautiful beach in the middle of one of the national parks, surrounded yet again, by cool surfing dudes and dudettes.

Days end at our beach

A week or so ago we met with some English Brothers (The Fraternity of the Brotherhood of Motor Homers known as ‘Brothers’) who gave us some fantastic spots for wild camping.

One of the tips they gave us was to spend the night at a place that has a spring water font. Here we managed to fill our tank with fresh spring water, and do some washing in the washing house with washing boards used by women in the village and still in use to this day, we washed our clothes the  way it has been done for centuries on this very spot.

Fang making like a local girl

For the last few days we have been working our way back north along the coast just going from beach to beach. I had my first dip in the invigorating Atlantic Ocean the other day. We decided to go down to the beach this particular afternoon as it was 28 degrees in the shade and about 40 degrees in the Trundle. As soon as we hit the beach I dash off into the ocean waves while the Fang selects a spot to plant our things......the next thing I see is my sun hat floating past me on its way to America. After performing a mid ocean rescue on my  headgear I turn back towards the beach......don’t ask me how, but Fang has managed to find a spot on the beach, put all our belongings down and then get half of them swept away on the incoming tide, all in a matter of minutes. There she is scrambling about the beach pulling everything out of the water and back onto dry sand. Meanwhile, the sun bathers are all sitting up and scratching their heads in Portuguese and trying to work out how this mad woman thought it would be a good idea to camp on the water’s edge on an incoming tide on a surfer’s beach with 6 foot waves crashing in from the Atlantic Ocean. In order to retain some dignity I got out of the water, put on my soaking sun hat, and wandered back up the beach past Fang tutting in Portuguese about mad tourists.

Now talking of mad tourists, here’s a thing. About a week ago Fang needed a post office to get some stamps. We are travelling along and pass through this very pretty fishing village. I say to her ‘This is nice, how about we find a parking spot and have a wander around to find a post office’ ‘Good idea’ says she. On the way into town I had noticed that there was a big car park so off we go to find it, which we did. However, its market day and the car park is chokers with cars and market stalls and none of the spaces are big enough for the Trundle. So I am following this one way system around the car park trying to find my way out, when instead I find myself right in the middle of the market at a dead end blocked in by a market stall selling, among other things, dried figs. I have to say, I did hear some shouting going on but thought it was the stall holders shouting out their wares, not shouting at me to get my ruddy motor home out of their market. So, here we are in the middle of this market closely surrounded by market stalls and the only way out is to reverse. Now let me tell you something about motor homing, everything is very nice and calm until you  send your partner to the back of the van with the instructions ‘just make sure I don’t hit anything’. Well........Fang is in the back of the van shouting out instructions in Fangees. The baker, the butcher, the lady selling vegetables and the one selling local pottery.....especially the one selling local pottery, are all outside shouting out instructions in Portuguese, and I sweating like a Portuguese pig on market day wondering if my insurance covers destroying markets in fishing villages in Portugal.  Somehow, and this is another mystery, I managed to wend my way backwards put of the market without doing any damage, and we beat a hasty retreat down the road leaving a bunch of market traders, arms akimbo, and shaking their heads in Portuguese.

Some more extraordinary pictures of storks making use of a gantry on a busy motorway!

And on telegraph poles

We are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of Brian, Molly and Ella on Friday, who are going to spend a week with us in the sun.

More adventures, more mishaps and more fun to follow shortly dear family and friends, until then we bid you adeus from delightful sunny Portugal.

And over another border

Oh yes we are still here on the road and still having the time of our lives. Since the last time we blogged (I have decided that’s a verb but not sure if it is) we stayed in a city called Leon in the Central North West of Spain. Not really much to report here as neither of us thought much of the place....we are becoming pretty fussy about how a town or city stacks up to a couple of bench marks that we have set, and I am afraid that Leon does not score very high on the ohhhh &  ahhhh scale at all. However, the one notable event in Leon was that we gave the Trundle Bus a wash and shampoo at  a local garage in one of those jet spray places. We managed to find out how to operate the thing from a woman in the next washing bay, or at least Fang did. So we start off by putting the 1 EUR in the slot for a shampoo and jet spray, I am holding the jet spray gun thing and Fang is putting the money in.....’Ok to start’ she shouts, ‘Yes go for it’ I shout back. Now here’s a thing, what I didn’t realise is that the Spanish version jet spray gun thing just starts off on its own accord without one having to press the lever, with the result that I gave the Fang a good spray down before starting on the Trundle. Luckily I managed to get things back under control before the shampoo started coming through, so I didn’t waste any of the soap on her. The rest of the task was left entirely to me as Fang was flying round the garage forecourt like a Spanish headless chicken shouting obscenities. The local office workers looking out of their windows, were so impressed with the display, that they immediately declared the rest of the day a fiesta.  The 27^th of April is now officially designated Fiesta de Pollo Chirrido.......The Festival of the Screeching Chicken. Talking of the impression Fang has left on Spain, here she is with her Spanish boyfriend. 

The next stop was Lugo. Now here is a city worth visiting. It has the best preserved Roman wall in Europe. The wall is 2.5 km long, 15 m high, surrounds the whole city and includes some of the original Roman entry gates which are still in use today. As you can see from the photos it is possible to walk along the whole wall, which is something the locals do as their daily exercise and to see and be seen.....we of course just had to join in. There was something very exciting about walking on the same the walls Roman soldiers did all those centuries ago.....what chance is there of anything we build today lasting 1000 years?.



Cathedral at Lugo




The Roman Wall at Lugo

 

Locals walking the wall



Got to dry the washing somewhere eh?

Just outside Lugo is a place called Castro de Villadonga, a prehistoric settlement which has been excavated on a hill top. You can see from the pictures that the settlement is very clearly marked out with the remnants of the buildings. The museum at the site has some absolutely incredible finds of not just ordinary household items of the day, but the most beautifully crafted jewellery. After thousands of years this stuff looks as though it is sitting in a jeweller’s window in the high street of today.



The settlement at Viladonga

 

On our way out of Lugo we are driving down a busy road and come across an old bell tower right on the busy street. Up on top of the tower Fang spots this incredible site of two Storks. There were four nests in the tower and we think there was a chick in each nest.

Our next expedition was to head for the beautiful rugged North West coast. The Rias Atlas, as it is known, is a feast of dramatic scenery. Driving through forests will lead you suddenly to views of sheer sea cliffs, wide open sandy beaches or medieval fishing villages. At every turn in the road there is a breathtaking vista. This is truly a stunning part of the world. One of the’ must sees’ of this coast is Cabo Ortegal. This is the most north westerly point of Spain and where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bay of Biscay.....the pictures say it all.

 As we were travelling along this wonderful coast line we spotted a nice white sandy beach that we could get the Trundle down to. This visit turned into a 3 day wild camp and we would still be there if we could. For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘wild camp’, it has nothing to do with brown bears, tigers, lions, jungles or even getting annoyed, it simply means parking up without permission! The beach is a surfer’s spot and we spent 3 days chilling with the surf dudes and just hanging out man, and catching waves, if know what I mean man.....except in Spanish. We spent the days walking the cliff tops or sitting on the beautiful white sand and then went to sleep at night with just the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach.  For two of the nights there was just us on our private beach.....anyway this was a very special time for us and we have named the place Sublime Bay, which it truly is.



The back dots in the seea are the surfer dudes

 


The white and blue dot is the Fang dude

 

The rest of our adventure through the Rias Atlas is best shown with pictures.

Our last visit in Spain was to Santiago de Compostela, the destination for the pilgrims following the Comino de Santiago (the Way of St James). It is said that the bones of the apostle St James are held at the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrims walk from the French side of the Pyrenees on a 50 day hike!  This is the same path that the pilgrims have used for the last 900 years.

We arrived at the cathedral just as they were holding the daily mass for the pilgrims. The singing of the mass was led by a nun whose voice I can only describe as angelic. Sitting in the cathedral full of pilgrims, who had completed such an onerous and challenging journey to be there, was a very humbling experience....another very special time.

 Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela



Back on the road and heading for the mountains

From Santiago de Compostela we have trevelled south again and arrived at our first campsite in Portugal, our third country! News of Portugal, the Portuguese, sights, sounds and no doubt other adventures will follow shortly. Until then dear family and friends we bid you adeus.

One final note......this is for Evie & Matilda.....this is Jimmy and Jemima who followed Nini and Grandpops all round the shops one day until we bought them an ice cream, and then they went home. XXXXXXX 

And on we go

Hola dear family and friends, yes we have crossed the border into Spain, to be exact the Basque country, but more of that in a second.

We spent last weekend staying with Fang’s cousin Denise and her husband Mick. Charming couple, however, I am a little suspicious regarding their motives for moving to France....... when they go out they always wear very big hats and very dark glasses, when they pick friends up from the airport they always insist on blindfolding them for the drive back to their house, Denise orders stuff from Asda in the UK and has it delivered to the house next door and Mick wanders around the house cracking his knuckles and muttering “I was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”. Mysterious past aside Mick and Denise are an absolutely delightful couple and we spent a wonderful weekend in their house (somewhere in France). They are without a doubt the  bestest host and hostess in the whole of France and possibly the whole of the EU. If you are looking for a B&B somewhere in France I can recommend a stay here.......for obvious reasons I can’t give out their details here but if you send me details of your dates and length of stay together with a stamped addressed envelope and £50 deposit I will forward you the directions and their terms & conditions......actually Mick and Denise only have one term & condition......don’t tell the rozers where you’re going on holidays.


Denise & Mick's pad somewhere in France

 Since our last posting we have moved on a pace but I am afraid that this is the first chance we have had to get an internet connection to update the blog as we are staying on a campsite for the first time in nearly two weeks.


The church at St Emillion built into the rock face

 Since our last blog we have travelled down along the south west coast of Brittany and on to a city called La Rochelle, where we can recommend a lunch of grilled sardines served on paper plates out in the open air at the harbour side. 

Harbour at La Rochelle

Then on to Arcachon,  a seaside town just south west of Bordeaux. Nothing to recommend Arcachon itself,  except that just outside the town, a little way down the coast is the biggest sand dune in Europe, a massive 100m high and 2.5k long. It is a fantastic sight and a brilliant slide down from the top, well worth the climb up!

 We then spent our last night in France in the middle of the National Park south of Bordeaux. This overnight stop cost us 2 EUR, for a pitch in the middle of the forest....brill.


Last overnight stop in France

 The next day found us over the border in the beautiful city of San Sabastian. The city is overlooked by an enormous statue of Christ sitting on the hill. He looks down on a white sandy beach which seems to be the focal point of this medieval city. Here we had our first experience of the Basque cuisine Pintxo in a city bar. You go in, order your drink and just stand at the bar helping yourself to the goodies. Then when you are ready to go you just tell chappy behind the bar what you had and he tots it up and off you go, great lunch.


Pintox in San Sabastian



JC overlooking San Sabastian

 After a night stop at San Sebastian we drove on to Pamplona, right into the heart of Basque country.

Now here’s a thing, we are driving around the city trying to find a parking space, bear in mind that with the 20ft Trundle Bus we need a larger than average space. There I am waiting at a set of traffic lights which I found a bit confusing, thought I was good to go on a right turn but not the case. I get pulled over by the Spanish fuz, they were sitting there right behind me but couldn’t see them tucked away behind the Trundle. Lady Spanish copper jumps out of squad car looking furious and starts giving me a rollocking in Spanish (funny thing was I knew exactly what she was saying), but nevertheless I shrugged my shoulders and said ‘Sorry I’m English’. The effect was that the rollocking went on but in a louder voice and a lot more arm waving, she must have read my first blog! Then her mate Mr Spanish copper comes up; he can speak a bit of English and asks me ‘what are you doing here’,  ‘just trying to find a parking spot to go and visit the city’ says I. There then followed a long discussion between them both at the end of which he says to me ‘you have to follow us now’. Well, I thought this was it, off to the cop shop, into a Spanish slammer and a phone call to the British Embassy it is then. Fang by this time is apoplectic, or whatever that is in Spanish. So into their squad car they jump and off we go and go and go. They seem to be just taking us around the city. At one stage I said to Fang that I thought they might be a bit lost themselves and couldn’t just find their cop shop (that went down like a lead balloon I can tell you). Next thing is we stop , Lady Spanish copper jumps out and tells me to go and park over there (this is all in Spanish and sign language you understand). Anyway I get the idea and do what I am told and park up, but the next thing Mr Spanish copper jumps out, says that’s no good and I have to follow them again. So now I’m thinking they are putting me through some sort of driving test to see if I can park my van! Off we go round and about for a bit and then into a back street where they both indicate to another parking spot. This time they seem happy with the result. Mr Spanish copper says to us ‘if you walk through the park there you will come to the older part of the city’. They then smile, shake my hand and off they go......bugger me if they hadn’t just spent the last 10 minutes driving round trying to find us a parking space, no ticket, no fine, no slammer, didn’t even want to look at any docs. Tell you what though, Fang’s not been the same since, she’s off her grub and can’t seem to put a coherent sentence together. Anyway for all that we had a very pleasant time in Pamplona although we didn’t take any photos just on the off chance there might be some by-law banning photo taking in the city on Thursdays.

Next stop was Vitoria which is the capital of the Spanish Basque Country, for an overnight stop. Vitoria is actually not much cop, we didn’t think anyway.

So, here we are on a little campsite just outside of a city called Burgos and its Easter Saturday.  We will be off to see Burgos in the morning and then heading for the north coast of Spain. Will keep you all posted again when we get the chance. Adios.

Crossing the Pyranees



Happiness is a nice lake & a good woman




Julia, photo's as requested..wish you were here, we must go to Honfleur! you seem to be the only person that's got to grips with leaving messages on the blog... would you be willing to help other's having difficulty by e-mailing or speaking to them..keep yours coming dol 

Bayeux



Mont St-Michel

Honfleur

Week one on the road

So here we are at the end of the first week of our travels, parked up by the sea, sun blazing, Fang cooking brunch of fried eggs (French) baked beans (Macclesfield) toast (French) and wondering why the heck we haven’t thought of doing this motor home lark before. I have to say this is like nothing we have experienced before...the freedom to go where you want, stop for lunch in beautiful spots and park up at night in the middle of the country side with just the birds as your alarm clock in the mornings is a delightful way to live. We are relaxing into this lifestyle so much that we no longer spend time planning our route. At some stage during the day we decide if we are staying where we are or moving on, if moving on we get the map out and pick a destination not more than 2 hours drive and off we go. It is so easy getting around France in a motor home as everything is set up for it, there is room in car parks and plenty of places to stay and service your home (get fresh water and empty grey waste).

On Wednesday we spent the night and a couple of days at a little place called Honfleur in Normandy. Honfleur is an absolutely beautiful little harbour town with old Norman buildings and narrow meandering back streets, very like a Tudor town in England but French. In the centre of the town is a stunning wooden church with two alters and two aisles side by side. We are not sure how this unusual configuration came about. The church was a place of age and serenity and one of those places where it is just nice to be.

We are now in Brittany just outside a little harbour town called Concanaue on the south coast. We are heading for Bordeaux but keep getting diverted off our route to go and see places we hadn’t planned on......in fact come to think of it we hadn’t planned on being in Brittany but here we are! Next stop who knows but we will keep you posted

Adventures / Mishaps Galore

Currently in Honfleur in Normandy....magic place and another spot Fang is going to move to (she does this in every place we visit but this time she says she is deadly serious). We are moving onto Bayeux to see the tapestry (actually just a bit of sewing a couple of french housewives did a few years ago). Trundle bus is fab, had our first shower this morning so we can go out in public again. Temp at around 23 in the shade so sun tans developing well. We now look like two lobsters wabbling around Europe.
Nini has lots of vids for Moll, Ell, Tilda and Evie wish you could all be with us love you all.

Welcome

Dear family & friends, we are off on our adventure on the 4^th April for 3 months travelling around Europe in our motor home. We will be posting news of our progress and adventures periodically here in our blog. We have absolutely no idea how this blog is going to work out as neither of has done one before, however, we hope it will be an interesting and perhaps  amusing diary of two old fogies bumbling around Europe with no real sense of direction and not a clue what any of the locals are saying . To overcome the language barrier I intend to fall back on the tried and tested English method of dealing with Johnny Foreigner......a patronising smile, lots of hand gestures and above all....shout (because all foreigners are deaf) in English that you don’t speak the lingo and could they please go and find someone who can talk properly, there’s a good chap. I expect that Fang, being a social worker, will prefer a more gentle approach and try to get to know them first, but I don’t think it’s necessary to get to know people before you start telling them what to do......

The outline plan is to travel down the west of France, over the Pyrenees into northern Spain, follow the northern coast of Spain and drop down into Portugal (drop down is a term we seasoned travellers use for ‘heading south’ and has nothing to do with falling over). We will then work our way down through Portugal and back into the south of Spain. The plan here is to ‘sort of’ head back north through the middle of Spain and back over the Pyrenees via Andorra. We are not entirely sure how long this is going to take as there are a lot of unknowns, such as....afternoon naps, sleep-ins, arguments resulting in ‘no talking’ for extended periods, left hand turns which should have been right hand turns and a general melee of getting lost, finding ourselves and then getting lost again. We keep saying to each other that we are going to be ‘fluid’ in our plans.....but if you visualise two old jellies wobbling around Europe you should get the picture.

So, the guide books and maps have been bought, a loading manifest for the van has been drawn up, TomTom has been set for Lisbon, clean nickers stowed and with phrase book in hand we are off to see the world.