Nat & Ben Do Europe: Breaking out of hibernation

14th - 16th February – Villasoy Camping, Benidorm - Spain

Benidorm! During our travels through the UK and parts of Spain and Portugal (when the satellite picked up the signal) we were “lucky” enough to watch an English comedy show called Benidorm. Basically showing the English behaving badly in all matter of sticky situations usually involving booze. We can now say that they are not far off at all.

Our Spot

This place is a crazy town full of old and young people out to have a good time no matter what time of the year (although was a little quiet this time of year). We arrived on Friday afternoon and managed to get a camping within walking distance to town and beach. We booked the show at the Benidorm palace for 8pm so we headed to the esplanade for a beer before we got ready.

The show was amazing! It started around 8.30 with dinner and then the actual show started around 10pm. Very similar to the shows in Paris, they had flamingo dancing, Irish dancing, some boobies naturally, a juggler (ping pong balls out of his mouth) and an awesome laser light show. It was pretty damn good.

After being cooped up in the Marjal camping for a few weeks I perhaps celebrated the beginning of our next chapter of the trip a little too hard and proceeded to get very very drunk. So after few beers, a few bottles of red and that damn Bourbon I was apparently providing Nat with as much entertainment as the show. The only reason I know this is because she was filming me for most of it.

Anywho, Nat escorted me home after I was going a few tired nods at the table and tucked me in. It was still a good night even if we missed the very end of the show….

Before

During

After (apparently)

The second day we headed to the beach and grabbed some lunch on the esplanade and enjoyed the sun. The group behind us last night was sitting on the table next to us. Apparently I was joking with them last night signalling that Nat was crazy but can’t really remember. We kept to the main beach for much of our stay but walked to the lookout to check the second one out. In the process we saw the largest seagull in the world. They make ours look like robins.

Second beach

Main beach

That night we headed into town to try and find some bars and clubs but was a little quiet. We had a couple of beers at the Aussie bar and then stumbled into a Rock n Roll bar which had some live music. Full of oldies but the music was alright until some guy was just standing up there singing to a backing track, getting all emotional with the classics, not the most entertaining but it was ok.

The next day we set out for a bit of a picnic on the beach……which mainly contained ham wraps and a packet of Doritos, we went all out. With the intention of sitting and relaxing for the day, we lasted about 20 min, got restless and headed to the busiest bar for a “couple” drinks and ended up staying there most of the day. It was enjoyable watching the drunk brits. After the drinks we (Nat) didn’t really feel like cooking so we headed out for some chinese (cheap and nasty but ok).

We've decided to leave Benidorm after our 3 nights otherwise we will just continue going out ruining our budget and liver.

17th - 20th February – Calpe, Spain

On our way to Calpe we drove through Guadalest and Altea. Guadalest is up in the mountains with an old castle. Small cosy town with some great views.

View from the town of Guadalest

After we drove down through Altea where we wanted to stay but the camping was packed out and not much in the way of free camping available. So we continued our drive to Calpe and on the way to finding an actual camping place we found a pack of campers parked on the street so we stayed there for the night.

Our free camping spot in Calpe

After a bit of lunch we walked towards the Calpe harbour. Brought back lots of memories for Nat who had been there with the family for a few months many years ago. Now I could finally picture it.

Just by chance the fishing boats were coming in so we watched them unload all types of fish and then checked out the fish auction they had going in one of the buildings. Basically the fish travel through on the conveyor belt, the screen details the catch and shows a close up of them (all cleaned up) and the price starts counting down until someone, on their automatic remote control thing, presses the button. I imagine many or all of these are buying for restaurants and shops.

The Ifach

Fish auction

The next day we were intending on the climbing the Ifach but it was really overcast and some of the clouds looked pretty dark so we opted to wait till tomorrow. We checked into the campsite just up the road from the free parking and then headed into the town. We walked through the small streets and followed some tourist route through the town, Nat seemed to recognise a few of the streets and buildings. Some painted stairs and a 3d painted wall in particular.

Caravan Spot

The next day we climbed the Ifach. We headed off about 11am from the camping and it already took us 30 min just to get to the bottom of the Ifach to start the climb. The first bit up until the tunnel was pretty easy going with a path but as soon as we got to the other side of the tunnel it was extremely rocky and close to the edge of a deathly fall….ooooohhhhhh

Tunnel before the climb

On the way up

Took us an hour in total to get up there and it wasn’t really too difficult but it was cool in some areas as there were no designated path and you had to climb up some rocks every now and again. So although you weren’t rock climbing you did feel like you were climbing the rock if you know what I mean. It felt good to reach the top, felt like we conquered something, until you see the oldies up there as well then you realise anyone can do it. Once at the top the view was amazing, the day had turned into a sunny one with blue skies and scattered clouds. Perfect really. (Luckily Ben listened to Nat and went today and not yesterday)

The top was pretty smelly from way too much seagull poo and random homeless cats. There is nothing really up there for the cats expect tourists with their lunches I guess.

View from the top

After a bit of a rest we headed back down, testing the knees and drivers. There were so many seagulls on the Ifach with some very strange noises, in peak breeding season they say they can swoop and attack. The Ifach is actually part of a national park.

Al in all, it was a 2.5 hr trip up and down with 30min rest but then we still had to walk back to the camping. Considering the amount of ‘points’ earned we treated ourselves to a lunch on the esplanade.

That's actually a grimace not a smile

Don't know what that is...

After finishing our clothes washing and emptied and filled BB, we thought we would head down to the same free camping spot down the road for the night. Weather was nice but Nat was feeling a little sick so we just stayed in.

21st February – Free camping, (near Valencia), Spain

We arrived at a free camping spot by the beach, again a bit of a nothing day which involved a nap and eating….pretty nice actually. Nat was still feeling a little sick too

22nd - 23rd February – Coll Vert Camping, Valencia, Spain

After all the campers left the free camping spot early this morning, we thought we'd better park BB up at a camping rather than leave him by himself while we ventured into Valencia for the day. Arrived at the camping around 10ish and then took the bikes into town. It was a nice ride along the beach, all on bike lanes and then through a park way that went from the coast right into and through the town.

Valencia spot

There was a collection of nice architectural buildings (3d cinema, museum, exhibition hall etc.) on the way into town. We checked out the square by the cathedral and then walked towards the central market. Kind of similar to ours in Adelaide so we left for some lunch.

The market

Our first Paella's in Spain, apparently the paella’s dish originates in this region. I went for the chicken mix and Nat had the authentic one. Pretty nice but small for the cost. It did give us the energy to ride home into head wind (which we also had on the away into the city??)

The second day we stayed in BB and watched the Canadians win the men’s ice hockey gold medal. We bumped into Steve who we'd met at Cabo de gato after they arrived here this morning and caught up with them in the afternoon. No nap today damn it!

24th - 25th February – Spa Natura Camping, Peniscola, Spain (Cataluna)

Short drive to Peniscola camping which Nat’s Dad had told her about. Camping with a “heated” pool but shrank me to a peanut, although I did enjoy going down the kids slide to Nat’s amusement. They had various farm animals here, cool colourful parrots and random monkeys, donkeys and horses.

Working girl, we would have seen at least 6 to 8 in one drive

Our spot

Peniscola

26th - 27th February – Artcava Winery Near Villafranca, Spain (Catalunya)

Arrived at the winery (recommended by a friend of Nat’s Dad yesterday) to be met by an older Spanish guy who couldn’t speak English. He welcomed us in and after we told him we were Aussie he came out with a didgeridoo. Very Random!

Our spot for a couple of nights

The man took us into the winery and showed us his collection of sand pretty much from all over the world including Bondi beach and Uluru. We sort of got talking to him which was difficult considering the language barrier.

The collection of sand

He broke out a bottle of cava for us to try and brought a younger guy in to chat who could luckily speak English. We got talking about Spain and various other things and he told us some interesting stuff about the history of Spain and how Catalunya is similar to the Basque land in that they want to separate from Spain (As they originally were a few hundred years ago). He said 25% of the government income from tax comes from the Catalunya region but they only spend 6% within Catalunya. They have their own prime minister and can decide a few things within the region but not how to spend their money.

He said their customs are very different from the rest of Spain (we didn’t really see a huge difference mind you). On the 11th September this year, it will mark 300 years since they were their own country. Last year on the 11^th September they formed a human chain along the full length of Catalunya, some 4 million people took part for a 400km chain, a world record. From the border with France down to just north of Valencia. You can see the Catalunya flags everywhere.

Anyway, 2 hours later we bought some cava and got back to bb, it was freezing. Luckily for us we'd just manage to fill up the gas so the heater went on!!

Trying some cava

Not the first time Nat has had a couple of eager males at the door

The next day we took a walk through the vineyards and then decided to head to Montserrat which they said was a popular tourist destination. We had no idea what this place was or what was at the top. We drove through the hills and found the gondola station and parked BB. Nat was still feeling a little sick so she was going to stay in BB while I hopped in the gondola and checked it out

View from BB, didn't look like much up there

I thought there would be a small café or something up there with an awesome view. It turns out to be a whole village on the top with hotels, schools, cafes shops etc. The train (very steep cable car type train) and bus both head up there and back. So I convinced Nat to leave BB and catch the gondola up and we looked around. Awesome views and a cool church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Once at the top, there are other trams that can take you further

At the entrance to the church, more photos bellow

That night we headed back to the winery for the night ready to head to Barcelona the next day, when we rocked up the same old guy greeted us and had no idea who we were.

28th – 29th February – Villanova la Geltru, Barcelona, Spain (Catalunya)

Barcelona, where do we start?

BB resting in Barcellona

First day we caught the bus into Catalunya square and made our way to the Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral designed by Gaudi. This was the one more cathedral/church that Nat was willing to go into and she was not disappointed. It was amazing.

It has been under construction since 1882 and it’s still not finished. Apparently it relies on donations and the entry fees. It was also slowed down due to the Spanish Civil War

Sagrada Familia

Windows everywhere made the inside much more bright than other cathedrals

The inside looks like trees

We are in front of the façade that Gaudi saw finished

At the moment it has 6 towers but when finished it will have another 12, including at massive one in the middle. It will be amazing when finished which they say will be in 20 years. They are actually aiming for completion by 2026 to mark the centenary of Gaudi’s death. Gaudi's inspiration for many things was nature which you can see all through the interior. Each facade represented a different theme. The birth of Christ, death of Christ, passion etc. Guadi only saw one façade complete, “Birth of Christ” before he was killed by a tram at 76 years old. Poor bastard. He knew that he would never see the finished product and the work since his death is from his drawings and descriptions of his vision. After this, we caught the bus back home.

1st – 2nd March – Catalonia Diagonal Centro Hotel, Barcelona, Spain (Catalunya)

Today we got off to a late start but we've booked ourselves into a hotel for 2 nights to enjoy Barcelona to its fullest. This not only saved 2 hours of commuting every day but gave us a bit more freedom at night as the last bus was at 8pm!

To Nat’s delight the hotel was in the middle of the shopping district, yee haa! Managed to find me a t-shirt and jumper and Nat bought a colourful scarf from Desigual. We then headed back to the hotel for our champagne for an early anniversary celebration in town. Dinner at Brown on the shopping street and then down the ramblas for a night out. We caught the metro and popped up in a place that wasn’t too happening, then walked through the gothic area to a small pub for what we since realised were really cheap and big sprit mixes for only 4 Euros. We then found some obscure rock/metal pub with headphones throughout should you want to listen to the song. I was in heaven!!! Especially since beers were 2 euro as well. Needless to say the headphones stayed on most of the night.

oohhh yeah

I think she was enjoying the song, seems to be in the moment

After many hours (and Nat filming me again!) we made our way home around 3.30am. Sunday was a complete right off, I haven’t seen Nat like this for a while. Which was bizarre since she was drinking water at the metal bar. We both think the enormous cheap vodkas and gins we had at that place was the tipping point. It couldn't have been the number of drinks we had after that......

Come 5pm we were feeling a little better so we headed out for some lunch and then back to the hotel to get ready for the soccer.

FC Barcelona vs Almeria in Camp Nou. Really good game (although one sided), with 5 goals, one of them by Messi from a free kick outside the penalty box. The atmosphere was awesome, although I think 20 to 25% of the crowd would have been tourists. One of the highlights of the trip thus far.

Camp Nou

3^rd – 4^th March – Villanova la Geltru, Barcelona, Spain (Catalunya)

I finally get my “hop on hop off” bus tour. Got up at 9am and didn’t get back to BB until 9pm that night.

We saw the sights of Barcelona including the Olympic area, gothic area, las ramblas, port vell (walked out of a restaurant for our second time ever because they hadn’t even noticed we were there) and to Park Guel which for 8 Euros each didn’t really give you any more access than the free areas. The park was originally going to be an English Garden style residential development but didn't take off, there are only a few buildings and structures but were all designed by Gaudi.

At the end of the day I visited the Casa Batllo (also known as the house of bones) while Nat grabbed our bags from the hotel. It was a house/apartment block designed by Guadi which is evident from the outside and the inside.

Nothing in the building was "normal" or straight

The next day we relaxed and got things ready for our journey north, bring on the cheese and baguettes once again!!

5^th March – Carcassonne, France

So the hibernation in Spain for the Winter had finished and it was time to head north into France and then into Italy. The 3 months in Spain has been good to us for the winter with only a few days of rain and with the temperatures we are experiencing in France now, we seemed to have timed it perfectly.

We managed to wake up early today and leave by 9.30am to get through the 'scary' route from Barcelona to France. Apparently this is bandit country and many camper goers have been robbed. We usually don’t get sucked into the hype but have heard many stories from people who have heard it from the victims. One guy stopped because he thought he did a tyre but the little bastards threw sack full of something at the back of the campervan to make it sound like a blown tyre. When he got out to inspect they stopped and robbed him. I’m sure it does happen but there are hundreds of campers on the road so I don’t think it’s very common. In saying that we had all our doors locked, out battens and pepper spray at the front and ready!

We drove through Vic and Olot and then back to the coastal route through Figures and into France. It was a nice drive in the end. We wanted to stay just outside of Narbonne but the place we had in our books was just a supermarket. We then tried just outside of Carcassonne but it was closed so we finally drove into Carcassonne and found one close to the old town walls and castle.

Our spot just a short walk from Carcassonne

We headed into the town and tried to take some night shots of the perimeter walls. Pretty cool place. The town is surrounded by Europe’s longest walls (nearly 2 miles, although we have seen some larger walled cities so we are not sure about this.)

6^th – 7^th March – St Pierre de la Mer, France

Got up early-ish to walk around Carcassonne by daylight and then headed back to Narbonne to find a place to overnight. Not much in Narbonne so we headed to the coast to an aire. Not a bad one, open and near the sea. Just hung out all day. Got the juggling balls out for a bit, got some sun (pretty nice weather at moment, clear blue skies and about 16 degrees), finished the last beers in BB and relaxed with much the same the next day. The day also included some bird watching, well what we thought were birds turned out to be bloody mosquitos, they were huge!! Thankfully they were also slow and stupid.

8^th March – Private property, Nimes, France

Left around 10ish for our drive to Nimes. Somehow it ended up taking us all day again, not arriving at our final sleeping point till 3pm. Got to Nimes and unfortunately there was nowhere for us to leave BB to go in and check out the town, so we kind of drove through it to get to our sleeping point. Our sleeping place ended up being someone's farm land. We parked up for the rest of the day.

9^th March – Aire (free camping), Avignon, France

Left direction Orange today. Stopped through to check out Port du Gard, a 2000 year old roman aqueduct which was awesome. It was constructed in the 45 B.C and used until the 4^th Century, it carried water more than 30 miles from the Eure River to Nimes. It was a really nice setting with lots of families having picnics. If only we'd known to bring a sanga.

We then headed to Orange, there was meant to be an aire but it was a carpark in the town so we parked BB, had a quick look around and headed onto Avignon. Orange seemed nice with lots of little cafes and some old roman amphitheatre and an arc de triumph.

First impressions of Avignon were good. Looks very pretty and parked BB just over the river in a free spot for the night.

Avignon

10^th – 12^th March – Camping, Avignon, France

We checked into the campsite which was just down the road nice and early. Hooked up and then walked across the bridge into town. It was another beautiful day, about 20c with blue skies and full sun.

We walked around the town, up to the Popes Palace and then down to a large square. There were three artists selling their work which we checked out and walked away with a water colour painting of Avignon with the Pont de Avignon (old bridge) and the Popes Palace in the background.

We walked back to BB to drop off the painting and then headed back to check out the Popes Palace and bridge which are the two main attractions in town. The bridge was built back around the 1100’s (there was a roman timber bridge before this) to cross the rhone river which back then was a lot more vicious. They build the bridge because some guy was instructed by God, true story.

Most of the bridge got knocked away with now only 4 archs remaining. Where the camping site was is actually on a river island (one of the biggest around) and the bridge extended over this island an over the river on the other side. The bridge was knocked down by the severe flooding which seemed to occur up until the mid-90’s. Now there are damns and pumping stations to control the river and I don’t think they have had much trouble since.

After the bridge we checked out the Popes Palace which was also pretty cool. Apparently it was home to 7 consecutive popes at odds with the courts in Rome through the 14th and 15th centuries and thus became the Christian capital of the world at the time. Massive rooms all with their set functions. Where the pope changed his jacket, where the pope put his funny hat on, where the pope watched the footy, you know the usual stuff.

Once the Popes wanted Pizza instead of Baguettes, the palace was used for a prison and army barracks which saw some of the palace knocked down. They are now trying to restore it back to its original glory.

The next day was chilled, took a bike ride along the river and found a spot for lunch.

Day three we headed back into town to complete some of the recommended walking routes but it turned more into a shopping spree again. Nat found a shoulder bag from Longchamp with a matching purse which apparently she had to have. The purchase was actually cheaper than what you would pay in UAE. Even cheaper again when she managed to get her dad to pay for it for a birthday present. She wasn’t the only lucky one, I went to Celio to buy a jumper and walked out with an entire wardrobe of clothes.

13^th – 14^th March – Free camping, Arles, France

It was pretty easy drive to Arles today and for once the camper place was decent and had room for us to stay.

We had some lunch and then walked around town. Nice place along the river as well. Van Gogh spent time here and painted some 200 pieces while he lived here in 1888. This is where he cut off his ear and you can even visit the hospital where he admitted himself. It wasn’t a big place so it didn’t take us long to tick it off the list.

The next day we set off for a drive around the Camargue national park which is a 30min drive south of Arles. The sun was out again so it was a beautiful day and we managed to finally find the road that took us along the waters edge where we saw pink flamingos, ducks, coots, bulls and white horses.

We headed back to the airs in Arles for the night and decided to head into the town for a drink. We found the famous Place du Forum of which Van Gogh painted the iconic Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, apparently. We enjoyed some wine and felt quite lucky to be where we were.

15^th – 16^th March – Aix en Provence, France

Aix en Provence, which is pronounced ex orghn proughhhfffffffooouughnnnnce whilst swallowing your tongue, was again a nice town and we opted to at a caravan park about 8km from the centre. This was great because we were then close to the Montagne Ste-Victoire (big mountain) which we ended up hiking the next day.

But today we parked up BB and headed into town for the afternoon by bus. Our ‘1000 things to see before you die’ book said this was perhaps the most perfect town in the Provence. We walked around and stopped for a drink to soak it in. Nat found a Longchamp store again and wanted to exchange her large purse for a smaller one (one which the previous store said didn’t exist) Luckily longchamp said she could swap it despite Nat not buying it from a Longchamp store which I thought was pretty lucky. Good move by them because in the morning the next day we walked out with the smaller purse and yet another bloody hand bag!!!! No help from the father in law on this one unfortunately.

Our exercise the following day

Our view for lunch

17^th – 19^th March – Villeneuve Loubet (Hippodrome Caravan Park)

After we turned Nat’s frown upside down with the exchanged purse we drove towards Cannes. We had picked out a caravan park to stay but when we got there they said the ASCI spots were gone and they only had large ones for 30 euros, she then dropped it to 25 which was still too high so we went back to the supermarket up the road where we saw lots of campers parked. When we arrived the police were there and unfortunately for us they said you couldn’t stay overnight so we were off searching again and again and again.

We went further towards nice for 15 kms to find a camperspot in the book but it didn’t exist or we couldn’t find it but it was nowhere near anything and in some suburb area. We then thought we'd try another one further up which was absolutely choccas and again not is a nice spot to explore the area.

We soon realise that the nice small villages with rolling farm land that we have become accustomed to in France has disappeared as it was all a lot more dense. We eventually found a campsite which was almost central between Cannes and Nice so it was good spot to explore the area.

The next day we caught the longest ever bus to Cannes. Cannes was nice but not really overly interesting. I think the best and only time would be during the film festival. We walked up the main street and down along the promenade, had a drink and caught the bus back.

The next day we rode our bikes into Nice, nice ride with a bike lane all the way. We walked around Nice, saw some sights that somehow we completely missed last time and had our last croissant in France overlooking the harbour. We continued our loop and grabbed some lunch in the centre and started our hour long bike journey back home.