The Mediterranean Road Trip Continues

We pick up our trip again crossing over the border to Spain, travelling down the east coast. Our first night was in Girona, but not before a lunchtime visit to the Dali Museum at nearby Figueres. This was a really interesting exhibition, giving great insight into this artist’s innovative and wide-ranging work. I knew very little of Dali’s art other than the infamous melting clocks motif, but I was amazed at how varied it was and across many different mediums; I especially liked the jewellery display…with everything from the wonderful to the downright weird…

We then carried on to Barcelona; this was my second time visiting here and but it is a city I could very easily come back to again and again. We enjoyed lunch at Park Guell and had a good look around Casa Vicens, one of the many stunning Gaudi houses in the city. For dinner, we went for a pintxos crawl- trying out various pinxtos (tasty concoctions on sticks, see below) along the Carrer De Blai (aka Pinxtos street!) We were staying at a pretty nice central hostel, however, that night we had the downside of hostel life- as various people in our dorm left the room from 4am onwards = a pretty rubbish nights sleep.

Our next drive was north to Zaragoza, a pretty city with the vast Basilica in the centre, surrounded by cobbled streets. Rather exhausted from the previous night/drive, we decided to have a chilled evening in and an early night – watching a few episodes of Line of Duty (which if you haven’t seen already, is amazing!!) Unfortunately, it turns out our Airbnb was above a club, which got going at around midnight and was pretty much constant loud music until 6am… probably should have just gone down and joined in!

A little blurry eyed, we continued up the north coast of Spain to Santander, with a lunchtime stop in the Rioja wine region. This was one of the best detours we have done and we had a great time trying out various Riojas – our favourite vineyard being Muga Bodegas. On reaching Santander, we checked into a lovely apartment, thankfully on a quiet street (no sign of any clubs here!) We then had a nice wander along the seafront, before picking up some fresh clams from the local seafood market and making a rather tasty Spaghetti Vongole.

Our next drive was a short one- east, to nearby Bilbao, a lovely city with a great mix of old and new architecture. We visited the iconic Guggenheim Museum, which was interesting, though I have to say, modern art just isn’t my thing… There was a whole exhibition from a guy whose speciality was making a slash through different coloured pieces of canvas, who knows what this was trying to portray… For dinner, we had another great pinxtos fuelled evening at the main food market and Puetta Nueva square, before being caught in a bit of a crazy tropical thunderstorm on the way home!! However, given this was the first rain we had in the whole trip, we couldn’t really complain!…

From Bilbao we continued along the northern coast of Spain to our last stop, the city of San Sebastain. On arriving, we took the funicular rail at Monte Iguledo, where we had a panoramic lunchtime view overlooking the city and it’s incredible shell shaped bay and beach. In the evening we grabbed some drinks from a bar on the waterfront and took them out on to the pier to enjoy the sunset. For dinner, we went to a fab little resturant called Galancia, sampling some delicious dishes – seared Tuna, roast duck and Iberica Pork, San Sebastian definitely lived up to its foody reputation!

The next leg of the trip took us back into France and to the pretty seaside city of La Rochelle (with a mandatory stop off en route, at an Irish bar to watch England win their first game of the Rugby World Cup- Come on England!!) In La Rochelle we had a nice wander around the harbour front and fitted in a cheeky game of crazy golf – I won, but of course it’s the taking part that counts :p

From La Rochelle we travelled up to the Loire Valley region, famed for its grand chateaus and vineyards. We stayed in a very nice apartment in Amboise, a typical picturesque town, situated on the banks of the Loire river. We arranged a visit to the nearby sparkling wine vineyard of Bouvet Laudabay, for a tour of their cellars and a very generous wine tasting session, with six different sparkling wines! Another day trip we did was to the stunning Chateau de Chenonceau or ‘the ladies castle,’ where we explored the extensive grounds and learnt about how many powerful historical female figures had held the castle in the past.

Our final port of call before crossing back over to England, was in the cute fishing town of Honfleur in Normandy. Here we had a lovely last meal at La Fleur Du Sel- the highlight being the rack of lamb main .

We have just taken the Eurotunnel home, and are briefly back in the UK for our friends Maddy & Sam’s wedding in York. Then the flights begin, starting with a jump across the Atlantic to Vancouver, Canada.

See you next on the other side of the pond! Over and Out.

Chris

The Start of Another Adventure!…

After a three year hiatus, the travel bug has taken hold again and following years of Zo and I talking about, debating and planning our route, we are now well into the first leg of our 6 month trip! After spending the first couple of weeks unwinding, I decided to restart this travel blog- as a nice way of remembering it all, whilst hopefully also providing some light entertainment for anyone who cares to read it!

So here goes…

We’ve had an awesome first two weeks, taking in many sights and culinary experiences along the way. The journey starts with a road trip through France and Spain in Zo’s trusty old Renault Clio…

After taking the Eurotunnel to Calais, our first drive took us to the pretty cathedral city of Rouen. Following the early start and long drive, we were pretty knackered and hungry, so much so, that after a brief wander round, we ended up having dinner at the first restaurant we could find open. The food was good, but the glass of champagne to celebrate the first day of our trip was definitely the more memorable part of the meal.

Our next day took us to the mustard capital of the world – Dijon, via my favourite excursion so far – Monet’s stunning house and gardens at Giverny. This really is a
wonderfully kept sight. The gardens have the most amazing array of flowers and the Japanese lily pond garden is particularly beautiful- you can see why it inspired so many of Monet’s paintings.

 

We also did some mustard tasting whilst in Dijon (when in Rome…) and discovered Tarragon mustard – which was delicious! We were soon on our way again, down to Lyon – famed as being one of France’s gastronomic capitals…it did not disappoint! Here we had
one of our standout meals of the trip so far, at an amazing seafood restaurant called Ani. The main courses – sea bass and tempura style cod, were the highlights of a fabulous
dinner. The next day, feeling virtuous, (and trying to work off some of the food we ate the night before) we went for a run along the Rhone river to the Musee Des Beaux Artes, which boasted some amazing Impressionist paintings.

Our next drive, down to the south coast of France, Les Sablettes near Toulon, was a long one – taking around 5 hours, but was well worth the trip. We have
stayed at a range of apartments, air bnbs and bnb type hotels so far, but we managed to get this on Hilton points, so treated ourselves to a night at the Grand Hotel des Sablettes, and it was one of the best- with beautiful views out onto the Mediterranean.

We then travelled along the south coast to an apartment on the outskirts of Marseille, which was to be our base for the next few days. Before reaching Marseille, we stopped
off at a small seaside town called Cassis (unrelated to the liqueur), where we had a packed lunch on the beach with an incredible view.

From Marseille, we had two day trips into Provence. Firstly to Chateau La Coste – a chateau with an interesting mixture of traditional and modern architecture.
Our second trip out, took us to the historical city of Avignon, where we visited it’s bridge that extends partially across the River Rhone, left uncompleted as a
memory to how many times it fell in the past (due to the strong river currents), and the imperious Palais des Papes – the Papal residency in the 14th century.

In true travelling spirit we have tried to be as economical as possible, including surreptitious using of bread, ham and cheese for lunch at hotels where breakfast has been included, which has gone unnoticed so far…However, we weren’t so lucky trying to sneak a peak of the famous Pont Du Gard – an ancient Roman viaduct, and got caught
by a rather irrate French guard and unceremoniously sent back to the car park!

We continued our travels west to Bordeaux, with a stop in the pretty university city of Montpellier, where we walked through the beautiful gardens and saw the colonade Peyronie. This was my second visit to Bordeaux and it’s definitely one of my favourite cities in France; filled with beautiful architecture and teeming with restaurants, coffee shops and bars overlooking the river. Whilst in Bordeaux, we thought it would be rude not to stop to sample some wine, so arranged a tasting at a small chateau and also popped into a wine shop in nearby Saint Emillion. After trying a fair few red wines, we managed to pick out a couple of choice bottles to purchase, before sobering up over lunch for the drive home. Our last night in Bordeaux was another meal highlight of the trip, we went to Mets Mots, where we had an amazing array of courses including a stand out roasted duck main course.

After Bordeaux, Zo arranged a canoe trip on a river near Bergerac, thinking it would be a nice, leisurely float down with the current- unfortunately this was not the case- it was pretty hard work!…Though still fun nonetheless! We were initially a little useless at paddling – rather out of sync, but by the end of the 2km trip we found our rhythm.

From Bergerac we headed south to Toulouse, which was a city neither of us knew much about, so we decided to book in for a walking tour. Unfortunately the morning events did not pan out brilliantly; we were already running late, before making a bit of a hash of the parking (highlight: having to reverse back up a one way ramp, also managing to clip a bollard), we then ran the rest of the way to make the beginning of the walking tour to discover it was not taking place at all. Despite this, we had a very nice wander around the city, seeking out all of the main sites and making up our own walking tour as we went.

The final stop of our first two weeks, took us to the sleepy village of Nebias, perched in the foothills of the Pyrennes, just a couple of hours from Spain.
Here we joined my Mum and Dad, staying with our family friends for a long, relaxing weekend. It was lovely to not have any big drives for a few days, and we got to
enjoy fresh water swimming, some interesting hikes (visiting an ancient Cathar Fotress), sampling delicious produce from the local markets and fresh patisseries
brought to the door every morning by the roving local bread van!

We now head across the border to Spain where I will pick up the journey again in a couple of weeks.

Over and out

Chris