Week two
The following day we said our farewells to our friends and drove 400kms just past Paris. We know we need to be in Madrid by next Saturday so wanted to put in a couple of large drives in to make sure we made good time (and because France is massive). Unfortunately we got stuck in the 5 o’clock rush hour traffic and sat on the motorway for at least an hour just stopping and starting. Grhhh! Once through the other side we settled in the nick of time (literally the reception was closing) at a camp ground in Dourdan, our second attempt following a previous camp ground requesting extortionate money (30 euro/night). We settled at the camp ground in Dourdan for 18 euro which seemed more acceptable. We settled in for the night with a home cooked meal and a hot shower –heaven after camping at a festival!
After realising the next day would be driving through the Loire Valley (where we had a family holiday last year), we decided to put in another long days driving in to get as far south west as possible. After breakfast on the run (stopping at a patisserie for our first croissant and pain au chocolat) we drove through some beautiful countryside, filled with castles and chateau’s before stopping for groceries and petrol (always entertaining when you have to guess what the instructions are on how to pay for your petrol). We drove 550km to Bordeaux which I have to say is quintessentially French; rolling hills and vineyards everywhere. We settled into a campsite near Bordeaux lake, where we will stay for the next couple of nights. Time to start the sight seeing.
We caught a bus and tram into the centre of Bordeaux to be pleasantly surprised at how grand the town is. We arrived outside the Place de la Bourse, which was a semi circular building facing the best water feature we have seen. Basically this flat concrete surface changed between very fine sprays of water to flooding-which created a glass like reflection of the buildings, so beautiful.
We visited the Cathedral St Andre and the opposing Pey Berland, both of which were beautiful gothic styled buildings. After a tasty sandwich and strawberry tart we walked to Palais Gallien, the old Roman Amphitheater dated to 260AD before stocking up on wine and cheese and heading back to the campsite, via the beautiful public gardens, where they had all these cute wine bottles on decoration in the park. Was a lovely day.
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Driving South of
Bordeaux we visited Europe’s largest sand dune, called Dune de Pyla. It was
huge, approximately 150metres tall and we had to take a staircase up to the
top! It was insane as from the top you had the view of the sea and local oyster
farms and opposing that, a view of the forest. We made the most of it by
running down (well James anyway), I chose a comfortable walk! It was pretty
tricky to run it as you sunk to your calves on each step. Was a random find.
We then drove south to
enter Spain and headed directly to San Sebastian on the coast. It turned out to
be a beautiful old town with lovely beaches and a waterfront walk into the
town. We explored the town and found a lovely viewpoint from the seafront hill,
bumping into a few antipodean tourists along the way (everyone was getting
ready for the running of the bulls the next day). We ended the day at a Tapas
bar, where they have their selection of snacks (all served with bread) on
display on the counter. It was heaven and a great choice to try out things we
weren’t sure what their names were! Our favourite was a hummus stuffed pepper.
We walked the pier taking night photos before heading back to the campervan. We
decided to free camp along the waterfront, given many other campers were doing
the same.
After an early rise,
we drove to Pamplona and parked Dusty around 2km away from the city centre. It
became evident that the battery was not sufficiently charging the fridge so
after a couple of hours working out where the fuse was we realised we needed to
replace it. Thankfully we can run the fridge off gas so we did that, hoping to
find a fuse somewhere soon. EVERYONE was dressed in the recommended colours of
white with red scarfs around their necks and red accessories. We felt fairly
left out given we didn’t have these colours so walked into a local shop and
purchased two outfits for 30 euro (this included white underwear for myself) so
it was a steal. We walked into the old city two hours after the first bull run.
It was packed with people celebrating and drinking sangria and many were also
looking rather pink from it being splashed about. The streets were incredibly
sticking and smelly from the stuff and the lack of toilets too! People were
also gathered outside their flats having a shared meal, a true street party. We
walked the streets and discovered where the bulls are released from, where the
runners start (around 20 metres up the hill from the bulls) and how narrow the
streets really are. Lets just say it really doesn’t look like good odds for the
runners.
There were many street
acts on offer and considering all the sangria drinking and drunk youths
(including all the antipodeans from the tour buses) there were many families
out too. They also had a carnival on which we walked through after a long day
walking the streets, sampling the sangria ourselves and sussing out a spot to
watch the bull race from tomorrow.
We woke early (after waking to someone shaking our camper van-the joys of free camping on the local streets!)and
walked in to the old town to try and get a spot to view the bull run. Even at
6.30am the streets were already three deep with people so it was impossible to
find a place to view it from. Our camera also broke at this point so we were
left frustrated that we only had our mobiles to take any pictures. We were offered a balcony view for 20
euro each but it was packed with people so we decided against it. We ended up
watching the bull race in a local pub. It was crazy, we saw one person get
caught on the bulls horn and get dragged into the stadium…although he did run
away afterwards. The streets were absolutely filthy and it became evident that
for the Spaniards the festival is more about partying than the bull run itself.
We left straight after the bull run and drove to Madrid where we meet our
friends, Emma and Maneesh who had spent the previous night camping. The
campground was packed with families, who were allowed to use the facilities
during the day so they were making the most of the pool, bbq’s and a few drinks
with friends. It was a busy but nice feel to the place. We parked up for the
night and had a home cooked dinner together.
We caught a bus into
Madrid and walked the local antique, art and food markets. We tried
empadadillas (a dry bread/pastry filled with meat) which weren’t very tasty,
followed by toast, a toasted bread topped with various toppings. We tried the
chicken schnitzel with sweet pepper and the anchovies with tomato. Tastier. We
then walked the tapas bars and tried three tasty tapas before viewing the city
palace and gardens. The good news
of the day was that we managed to find an electronics store and purchase the
same camera (just a much newer and sophisticated model). However the instructions are not in
English! The joys of buying electronics in foreign countries. After walking
around in 29 degree heat all day it was a nice break to relax in the shade. We
then parted ways with Emma and Maneesh and James and I payed 20 Euro’s to watch
a bull fight. We had to pay for a cushion each too as the stadium was concrete
seating and burning hot too. It
was close to half full. Apparently it was not a hugely popular night in terms
of who the Matadors were so tickets were readily available. I didn’t realise
that there are about 10 Matadors in the ring at any one time with the bull,
four with pink capes, three with nothing (who largely hid behind a barrier),
two on horses (the horses are blindfolded and padded on the sides who supported
two men holding spears) and one Matador with a red cape. They basically wear
the bull out and injury it well before you see the Matador with the red cape do
any of the dancing with the bull. Really brutal sport and the bulls are
completely outnumbered. On the third fight we actually saw the bull make
contact with the Matador and severely injury him, lifting him into the air and
trampling him. The other Matadors rescued him and ran him out of the
arena. Even though the bull had
won, it was not granted the right to live and was still put down, shame we
thought as the bull clearly won. We even saw the bull attack the horse, who
fell on its side and needed help to get up. What a crazy and uncontrollable
sport. It was an experience, not a nice one I have to say but given it is a
part of Spanish tradition I appreciated being able to see it. James now has
strong feelings the sport should be banned.
The next day we left
Madrid and headed south to Santa Elena and stayed in a countryside campground
surrounded by olive trees. After a short walk around the small town, including
a smaller bull ring, we spent the afternoon by the pool, where half of the
town’s resident’s appeared to be, followed by a drink at the bar with a
beautiful view of the forest. We ate out at the camping ground restaurant,
after discovering the fridge in the van was not running well on battery and the
chicken packet expanding to a maximum, all of us sampling tortilla, Russian
salad (potato salad with beans, carrots, ham and asparagus included) and
iberico ham baguettes.
We woke early and got
on the road to avoid the midday sun. We drove 140km to Cordoba, a very wealthy
town with designer stores and walked the streets. We managed to find a nice
restaurant, which had been nominated for a Michelin star and sampled some tasty
dishes of cod with orange and olive oil, rolled ham and honey aubergine,
followed by a nice ice cream. We walked the streets and saw the old Jewish
courters and the blue mosque, which was converted to a catholic cathedral.
There was also a lovely tower and roman bridge leading to it. We stayed the
night in the priciest campground yet-48 euro for four people with a tent and
the campervan-without electricity and shared a picnic dinner of duck pate,
cheeses, tomatoes, olives, meats and yummy nectarines and watermelon for
dessert. Honestly the fruit is so fresh and tasty I don’t know if I want to leave
Spain-ever.
The next day we drove
to Conil, level with Gibraltar, after a fabulous detour to Carmone, a small
town on the hill side with old ruins of the old town walls. We had some very
average tapas here despite its quaint attraction. We settled in at Los
Eucalyptus camping ground, by the beach which had a great sea breeze and
enjoyed our own picnic dinner of Spanish cheeses, olives, salmon pate, chorizo
and bread.
We left Los Eucalyptus
early and drove to Tarife, which is the closest point to the top of Africa.
Morocco was clearly visible and is literally 14km away from shore to shore. Our
first sighting of Africa. We contemplated taking a ferry across for a day trip
but the reviews were that is was overpriced and not a good cultural experience so
we decided to change our minds. After a few more photos we drove on to
Gibraltor for what was (and probably will be our only) pedestrian crossing into
another country. We parked just outside the customs office and were pleasantly
surprised when the British Customs officer checked Emma’s passport and said
“Oh, I am from Napier too”. Turns out he meet a Spanish girl in London and
moved to Gibraltar. Small world. He kindly offered to stamp our passports too,
which is a huge help for James and I. He mentioned that we would hear English,
Spanish and Spanglish being spoken in Gibraltar and gave us a few tips of where
to go.
With British
sovereignty it looked every much the mirror image of a British town, with all
the same shops and fish and chips on sale everywhere, except for the weather.
We took a cable car up the 410m rock and found the apes hanging around the
viewing platform. There were around 30 apes so you really had to watch where
you were walking as they were very tame and came quite close. James nearly stood
on one! It was hilarious watching the apes play with each other and trying to
steal plastic bags off tourists (they associate this with food). We took a lot
of photos. The cable car lookout was perching right on the tip of the rock and
the other side was a shear cliff face which resulted in the clouds being pushed
up past the top of the rock, creating an awesome steam/geothermal effect. We
also enjoyed a nice lunch of fish and chips and mushy peas before driving onto
Marbella and checking into a local campground before Emma finished the night by
cooking up a tasty omelette and salad for us all.
Unfortunately Marbella
was predominantly spent in the camping ground, trying to work out why the
fridge was not running well on battery AND NOW electricity (turns out we think
a switch was turned too far when running off electricity) but we did get a
pleasant surprise when a pastries truck pulled up, so we at least had a nice
morning tea! As we left the camping ground we agreed to go to the beach if we
could find a park. Thankfully we did and walked onto the sandy beach to find
very calm water, almost like swimming in a pool. There was even a nudist
section with mostly nudist men! It was hard to fight back a smile. With many
topless female bathers, the boys were fairly happy and we all stayed for a swim
(away from the nudist area)before driving inland to Granada. The heat was
sweltering, at least 40 degrees. We pulled into a quaint campsite (the site had
20 odd pitches) and arranged a flamenco show in town that evening. The rest of
the day was spent poolside before cooking cabonara in the van. We noticed we
were camping beside a British family (the number plates are a great help that
way) and ended up introducing ourselves to the mother, they were a family from
Scotland on holiday. When we hoped on the bus to attend the show it turned out
the Scottish family were with us also, so it was nice getting to know them and
sharing travel tips. The flamenco show itself was incredibly touristy-although
we did not expect any less. The dancers were very talented, and it reminded me
of my tap dancing days where the moves were very similar (and their shoes were
too-just without the tap plates). We saw a tango- which was fabulous. The
dancers looked so pretty swirling their dresses around. The outstanding
performer for me was a male dancer who could tap so fast you could barely see
how he could move his feet so quickly. James enjoyed the Spanish guitarist.
Everything about it was colourful and loud, a similarity of the Spanish from
our experience. We ended with a night tour of the Moorish courters (at 11pm at
night), overlooking the Alhambra, a Muslim palace and gardens.
The next day we woke
early and headed straight to the Alhambra, a fortress that dates back to 11th
century. The Palace was huge and the gardens rivalled ones we had seen at
chateau’s in France. It was interesting to walk around a Muslim palace viewing
all the geometric designs despite it being little more than a stand alone
building. For lunch we started with Tapas, which were free when you bought a
drink but soon discovered we were more hungry and ate a set menu instead at a
very touristy spot so the meal was nothing to write home about.
We stayed a second
night in Granada then drove to Cabo de Gata National Park. On the way we came
across an accident. A lady had lost control on a straight piece of motorway and
had driven off towards the centre garden partition. She was alright, walking
around after knocking her head. Emma and I took to the road to slow down traffic
(which was all we could do given we don’t speak Spanish and there was no need
for CPR). Following this we picked up lunch supplies, including baguettes and
pastries (some stuffed with dates, bacon and coconut and a few empanadas-a
smaller version of a pasty with a bean/lentil sauce inside) and found a beach
recommended by a kiwi couple a few nights ago called Los Muertos. It was a
pebble beach and the clear water dropped off straight away, just beautiful. The
only down side was it was beside an industrial area so the view was spoiled on
one side. Apparently this beach
was well secluded but given it was Sunday, half of the locals from the
neighbouring town were there. Never mind, we spent four hours/day there, leaving
after realising we had all seen too much sun. We drove to Las Negras and found
a camping ground, Nautico La Caleta which had a direct link to the beach, 100
metres away, along with an ice cream and takeaway stand in the camping
ground-how awesome! After another beach swim and pool swim we ate a home cooked
meal, had a few drinks (the boys continuing to taste test as many beers as
possible and Emma and I drinking bino tinto and limonata-a half and half mix of
red wine and a fizzy lemon drink) and agreed to a sleep in.
