We are back in NZ

Well everyone, just a quick note to let you know we are back in NZ. A call telling us Brent's mum was gravely ill saw us take urgent flights back, sadly Mum passed away when we were halfway home. We will resume our blog when we return to Italy in approx 2 weeks.
Brent & rae

Tour de France

This is just a short update to let you all know that we are now parked up in Annecy awaiting the Tour de France to come through on Thursday 23rd July. We have the camper parked along side the road that the cyclists will be riding down doing the time trials around Lake Annecy. Watch out for us - we will have the kiwi flag flying!!

Ah The French Riviera

Bonsoir

Sunday 19th July

We are definitely back in France and are struggling to find access to the internet. We have got into the habit of writing the blog out on a Friday/Saturday and then updating it from there – as you can see it took us over a week to post the last blog, however we are staying in a camping ground tonight that has internet so will write this and then update it straight away. We updated our last blog at McDonalds earlier today which is quite good as they have free internet – you just have to buy a drink. We have spent the last week on the French Riviera and we didn’t come across any McDonalds or internet cafes – guess everyone holidaying there have flasher means of communications than we do. So there are now 2 blogs to catch up on and we’re up to date for those that have been enquiring!!

What a week we have had – we have learnt firstly that is the European summer holiday - people, people and more people!

After we left Gruissan last Sunday we drove to Millau (inland). Millau has the world’s highest bridge. We stayed in the town below the bridge and the following day we drove up to the information centre. It really is an amazing piece of engineering. It took 2 ½ years to build, at the highest point of the pier it is 343 metres tall – taller than the Eifel Tower! The span from pier to pier is huge, there are 6 at 342 metres and two at 204 metres. It is 2.46km long and cost 400 million euros to build. We watched the video on how it was made – Rae had already told Brent that they would just dig the concrete pylons into the ground and then put the concrete bits in between and after watching the video that was exactly how they did it. Yeah right!!!

From Millau we headed back out to the coast to Carro and stayed with 70 other campers right by the sea so went to sleep that night listening to the waves crashing. From Carro we thought we might drive through to La Ciotat just south of Marseille and spend the day at the beach– it was about 10.45am when we arrived – couldn’t believe it when we got there – there was a place for Rae’s beach towel about 100 metres down the beach and then a further 100 metres there was a place for Brent’s towel – needless to say we hopped back in camper and drove through to Ramatuelle(10km from St Tropez) and stayed there for a couple of nights right on the beach! We spent a day just relaxing and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea – at least we could put our towels together on that beach. Amazing just camping sometimes, here we had Germans one side and Italians the other. Brent tries to speak French but then struggled with niceties to our Italian and German neighbours. He managed to borrow a bike pump (pompa) from the Italians though without too much misunderstanding. We went for a walk around the Aire (camping area) and saw German, Italian, Belgian, Finnish, Dutch, Czech, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, French of Course , and one Brit number plate. This time when we saw the Brit number plate Brent cruised over for a chat, ostensibly to query whether they had any English novels to swap. Surprise, surprise they were Kiwis. A few drinks and swapping of places to see/stay followed of course.
Brent commented that, not unlike NZ, other campers wave to us when on the road but when in camping they struggle to come near us to try to talk. In saying that we have a Brit number plate and it feels like sometimes once people find out we are Kiwi’s that they are more approachable/friendly towards us???Thursday had us up early to find a parking spot in St Tropez – what a place – we chose not to take the helicopter as most people seemed to, so had to find a big car park for camper. We then unhooked the bikes and had a great ride around the port – oh how the other half live – the most beautiful luxury launches we have ever seen. We had breakfast overlooking the port and watching the staff of these launches polishing, cleaning, and setting up breakfast tables and sun loungers for the rich and beautiful– just stunning. From St Tropez we drove up to Menton – on the way driving through Cannes, Marseille, Nice, Monaco right up the French Riviera – we had some of the most amazing scenery on the way – just clean blue sea, blue cloudless skies with all the luxury launches just out cruising.
Menton is on the French/Italian border so we went to Italy on Friday – they have a huge market there that we wandered around for about 3 hours before having a fantastic Italian lunch – this has certainly whet our appetite for Italy. We caught the train in as it only took about 20 minutes and would have taken much longer to drive and of course no stress on narrow roads!
Yesterday we were up and about early as we took the camper down towards the railway station so that we could train into Monaco – we thought St Tropez had the most wonderful launches – Monaco was even more amazing – these boats would have had to have cost $200 million or more – Monaco wasn’t only boats – there were all the flash cars driving around as well – we saw Bentley’s, Rolls Royce’s (Raes pick the styley white convertible), Lamborghini’s, Porsche’s, Ferrari’s, Mercedes, Maserati, to name a few. Monaco just oozed money and testosterone!! The bigger, the better in this country, especially if you can show it off. After a great lunch watching all the comings and goings of Monaco we had to head back to the camper as our necks were very sore after all the rubber necking!!
Saturday night saw us in gorgeous wee town called Annot. We were quite tired by the time we arrived but decided to head into the town on our bikes – we are so pleased that we did as it was the cutest wee town with really steep narrow roads/pathways (where Brent tried to ride up and failed , bruises of course), that were lined with doorways which led up to some old old stone little houses where the locals all lived. The town had a river running underneath it so every now and then there were pretty water fountains with fresh water running from the taps.
Today Sunday we have driven to a little place called Chabotte which is 250km inland N/NW from the coast. We are heading to a place called Annecy which is further north and has a lake – we have been recommended by a couple of people to go there as it is very beautiful. Annecy isn’t far from the Swiss border or the Italian border so we are undecided as yet as to where we will head.

Hope this finds everyone well and warm!!
Au Revoir, Dag, Auf Wiedersehen, Arrivederci, Adeus, Adios, Goodbye (for now).

4 Countries in 1 Week

Saturday 11th July

Bonjour

Wow – what a week we have had – four countries in one week – we woke up last Friday morning in Portugal, then had some nights in Spain, one in Andorra and then last night in France! This also means 4 different languages (Andorra is predominately “Catalan”) – I think Rae was saying thank-you in Thai the other night. The translator and our phase books are definitely well used.
We drove from Riano to Laredo on the Saturday – the drive itself was very pretty as we followed the river, however the road was probably the steepest and narrowest that we have driven – unfortunately it was also raining – at one stage we met a big bus coming the other way – we both had to stop and pull in our mirrors – Rae could have easily touched the bus as it inched it’s way past us with only I am sure millimeters to spare. It was also a shame having the rain around as it stopped us going up a gondola which is one of the steepest in Europe – Rae thought that the cables the gondolas were attached to were the power lines as there were no pylons that we could see before it disappeared into the fog!!
We had a great day last Sunday exploring Bilbao - this is a great city that is well known for its museum Guggenheim which is in the shape of a hull of a boat and the body of a fish – we decided against going into it in favour of wandering around the old town which is full of cafes and bars. We had a memorable lunch which was the nicest tapas we have had sitting in the plaza with markets happening round us. We both enjoyed this town.
Monday we awoke to still more rain so the decision was made to head into San Sebastian – we are not quite sure what happened but somehow we bypassed it and were only 40km from Pamplona and we had driven out of the rain. Ah…..Pamplona…this was an absolute experience and if anyone young or not so young gets the opportunity to go – then you should!
Monday was the opening of the Running of the Bulls Festival (San Fermin Festival), this entails tens of thousands of people all dressed in white with red scarfs around their necks and red belts around their waists all in the plaza– they mayor declares the festival open and then there is a big sangaria fight – hence the white pants and tops are now pink! We managed to get a campsite with at least a couple of thousand others – majority of them Poms, Ozzies and Kiwi’s. The camp itself was like a mini Wild Foods Festival – with live bands and people just out for a great party! I think the average age would have been about 26 so we fitted in perfectly – we weren’t the oldest by a long shot. After heading to bed about midnight (our camper was right by the party lawn) it seemed only minutes before we were woken by the alarm at 4.15am – this was so we could be on the first bus into Pamplona at 4.50am for the first running of the festival – the sight that greeted as we arrived into Pamplona was people everywhere – many sleeping where they fell the night before after the official opening. We made our way to the entrance of the Arena where the bull running ends – we secured a place right by a waist high concrete wall and this is where we stayed for the next 2 ½ hours. Then at 8.00am you hear a gun fired – this means the bulls are let loose – then a couple of minutes later you hear another gun fired and this lets the 200+ runners (also all in red & white) know that the bulls are now running – it took them about 4 minutes to run to where we were standing – it was hilarious watching the people who were running – you could see the whites of some of their eyes – one person fell just by us and the next thing you know there are about 20 people all tripped over him as they were watching for the bulls – when all the bulls are in the arena they just shut the huge steel doors and those runners that are in the arena stay in there with the bulls and for the rest of the runners and crowds it is all over – so doesn’t take long. The only runners that didn’t finish were the 45? That needed some sort of medical treatment, one badly hurt and in hospital. This place is absolutely crazy. We have never felt the push of a crowd so strong as we did standing there – there were probably 10 rows of people standing behind us – all trying to see! So by 8.30am we were having coffee and toast in a café. We did a Google search on the bull running and there were pictures of the first running on http://www.life.com/?
After another party night at the camp we were back on the road again…….
We drove through to Boltana, a beautiful village with a pretty river running through it – we arrived there about 2.00pm and had a great roast dinner for tea along with an early night!!
From Boltana we headed into Andorra – which is a very small country that lies between the Spanish and French borders. Andorra is a shopping mecca and boasts that it has one shop per 40 people that live there – Christchurch probably has about one shop per 250 people! As the country is duty free the majority of the shops are electronic stores, perfumeries, booze stores, tobacco shops and all of your good label stores such as Gucci, Prada etc etc. We spent the afternoon shopping – Brent was disappointed that Rae had credit cards with her and he couldn’t buy a stun gun and pepper spray! The following morning after stocking up on groceries we headed out of Andorra as the Tour de France was coming through and the whole town was booked out and they were about to close off the streets.
On leaving Andorra we ended up driving through a couple of tunnel as we were tired of driving on narrow windy steep mountain tracks – the tunnels went right through a section of the Pyrenees mountains and were 8.7km long – whilst it was great they were also quite expensive! On coming out of the tunnel we were back in France.
We are now in Gruissan staying in an Aire (basic parking spot for campervans) with 126 other campers – the site is right by the marinas so we have had a good bike round this morning seeing how the other half live and after a relaxing afternoon in the sun before the English couple beside us persuaded us to have a wine with them – we had a great night and ended up on top of their camper van with a bottle of port watching the sun set.

A’bientot

Hola Amigos (in Spain again)

Friday 3rd July

Hola Amigos

First things first eh! A photo of our Grandson Kielan,(and Brooke of course). Brooke will have to get used to being a Mum and Kielan getting all the attention first haha!!
Zambujeira do Mar where we left you last time was a beautiful little village – the camping ground was about 2km from the beach and centro urbo (centre of town). We biked in there a couple of times to have a look around. To get into the town you had to bike through some sandy areas surrounded by trees – you should have seen Rae bike fast – she was scared there were snakes!! To be fair there was a dead one on the road.
From Zambujeira do Mar we drove round Lisbon and stayed in Sao Martinho do Porto – this town had a huge nearly enclosed bay – we had ridden our bikes down the hill from the camping ground (which meant riding back up) to the town – unfortunately it was really really windy so we didn’t stay long in the town – it would have been lovely if there hadn’t been as much wind.
From Sao Martinho do Porto we stopped at a lovely village called Obidos – which the town itself was a wedding gift to a Portuguese King’s new wife – beats a new toaster! This little town is also a fortified town completely enclosed with castle like walls – we climbed around the walls which we wouldn’t have been able to do in NZ – OSH would have closed it down, it was really narrow but had the magnificent views over the village and surrounding areas.

We then went to Figueira Da Foz where the camping ground was right on the beach – the beach reminded us of Brighton (ChCh) with the sand dunes, cold water and surf beach. We experienced a tropical downpour here – well Brent did – he ran to back to the camper to close all the windows and vents whilst Rae stayed in the bar catching up on some e-mails.
The following day we drove about 150km – this took us at least 3 ½ hours – the roads in Portugal would have to be the worst we have ever experienced – pot hole after pot hole. The roads aren’t as bad as the drivers though – there is only one word to describe them and that is CRAZY! We have since been told they have the worst road accident and death rate in Europe! If this is true it wouldn’t surprise us. It is great – they can create a third lane in the middle of a narrow two lane road!! They will overtake on a blind corner then in 100 metres they will turn off? We nearly had a souvenir of a Portuguese man on the front of the camper – we were driving through a small village probably doing 40km when this old fellow 80 odd just stepped out right in front of us – no hesitation from him at all. We were also driving into another village when Brent had slowed right down as it was narrow and there was a small truck coming towards us and he was not slowing down– next thing we heard a big bang and the screeching of brakes – the truck had a head on with the car two behind us - we ran back down the road and whilst the car was a real mess thankfully everyone was OK.
We spent the day in Porto – once again we did the Hop On Hop Off bus tour – even one of the bus drivers we had on a scenic trip of the city that you would expect to be at a slow pace had everyone holding on so they didn’t slip off their seats!
We both really enjoyed Porto – a beautiful old town that has a river running through it with a stunning old bridge that you drive over to get into the town – and of course it is well known for being the producer of Port. We tried and purchased some white port which neither one of us had tried before – very nice, a little bit like a late harvest or sticky wine.
From Porto we followed the Rio Douro (river) to Sao Joao Da Pesqueira (inland) . This is a little town right in the middle of the grape growing region. The scenery driving here was just stunning – with little villages on the river’s edge, even a church built on a rock -top, no other way to describe it really. The Portuguese built in crazy places, goes with their driving skills we guess!!. We don’t think they are use to tourists in this town – we were the only ones staying in the camping ground which could hold about 50 campers – we were also the only ones in a local restaurant which also had tables set up for about 50 people – the lady in the restaurant didn’t have any menus printed and didn’t speak any English – she ended up bringing us out the raw meat and fish to our table for us to decide what to have. We thought it was hilarious but I am sure she got the last laugh – as it turned out to be quite expensive.
The following day we continued our drive through the grape growing region – they grow grapes on just about sheer rock faces and then they step the areas up using schist stone – lots and lots of work.
After this we drove back into Spain – and whilst we have spent a few weeks here already we haven’t really spent any time inland – wow – what awesome views we have had – in the south it was desert like – now it is really green with the most magnificent mountains – we spent last night in Lago De Sanabria – the camping ground went right down to a lake – being 1000 metres above sea level we thought the lake would be freezing but it was surprisingly warm.
We are now in Riano – I am typing this overlooking a glorious lake which is surrounded with mountains – there are eagles soaring overhead and lots of other big birds flying around – there has also a been a baby wild black pig wondering around (hope that it’s parents aren’t around) – the town is just below us but a very steep bike ride up so not sure if we are that keen to head that way tonight.

Hasta Luego Amigos