Diary - January 2018

13th January 2018, 6pm and we are parked at Poole Quay to find a nice pub for our evening meal. An old fashioned tavern suits us well and we are now parked up with three other vans for our overnight stay near to the ferry which starts boarding at 7.30am.  Alarm clock set for 6.30 not needed as we are knocked up by an official telling us to move forward to the check-in desk.....better get dressed then, and obviously no time for breakfast until we are cleared through.
The crossing was uneventful and we arrived in northern France to sunshine......hooray!  Our first stop is in Grand-Fougeray ( which has an enormous medieval tower) between Renne and Nantes, a nice quiet night.
15th and 16th January and we are really just travelling down the motorways staying at a little village surrounded by vines near Bordeaux and then on to San Sebastian. We have done a bit of shopping in France, some wine and their lovely tins of Cassoulet for emergency rations, we love it. No real hold-ups except the usual heavy traffic around Niort and Bordeaux in heavy rain and then a nice stroll to stretch our legs along San Sebastion bay. We realise we have been sitting down for days!

San Sebastian 

18th January. We're using the Spanish motorway through this lovely mountainous area and feel we are outnumbered 10 to 1 by the lorries but at least we are making good progress and after two breaks for coffee and lunch near Burgos, we arrive in Aranda de Duero, another wine area but Spanish this time with lots of history and surprisingly interesting.  Our first foray into an old Spanish bar complete with lovely marble table tops and we realise we need to get our few Spanish words in our brains and stop using French!

Aranda de Duero
Medieval bridge


It's not far to Segovia but because we have heard there might be a market on in our parking area beside the bullring on Thursdays, we make a detour to medieval Pedraza and a coffee in the Parador and Palicio la Granja, built by Fillipe V on Versailles lines.  It's becoming quite clear there has been a lot of snow recently and at 1200 metres the air has that lovely mountain feel. It's  very pretty now but we are pleased we missed it falling. Perhaps that's why the Chocolatier's hot chocolate offerings were just pure melted chocolate and far too thick for me........I know, I can't believe it either!


Pedraza town square

Gardens out of bounds today!
Palicio La Granja

19th January and we are parked next to the bullring in Segovia and it's just a short walk into the town alongside the famous Roman Aquaduct - what a sight. It brought water underground from 13 kilometres away then over this aquaduct before disappearing underneath the city towards the Alcazar. 




We've  spent the day wandering around in the sunshine and partaking of a Menu de Dia,  three courses with wine €10 each.....and very nice too!  Now to rest up, no driving today, a nice change.

Segovia Alcazar


View over the city


20th January. A quiet night and a little bit of a lie in only to feel a nudge from another motorhome leaving the site. Les shot put of bed in his PJ's as it felt quite bad, luckily the surprised Belgian had only clipped the bike rack and no damage done.  We had decided a route down to Caceres which involved a very twisty road which we weren't looking forward to. However we checked the map again at our coffee stop and found a minor road which took us over to the free motorway above Palencia, much better.

The snowy coffee stop

Still at 1200 meters and skirting the snow capped mountains the route was very pretty and a long downhill brought us to our destination only to find no room at the inn!  The parking Aire was full so we were very pleased when a Frenchman offered to squeeze us in beside him at a jaunty angle! We strolled into the old town, remembering our visit 5 years ago and by the time we got back there were 6 or 7 more vans parked at the bus bays, popular place!

Main square Caceres


Historical area 

Les looking bored!


















We're off to Trujillo on this sunny  morning, our guide book tells us it's the most attractive town in Estramadura it's topped by a stronghold castle built in 1100, numerous Conquistador mansions and stork-topped towers. The bells seems to chime our arrival in Plaza Mayor and as we  climbed up we weren't disapointed by the views. Unfortunately, and perhaps as it was Sunday, the cafes looked inviting but none were open, we had to return to the van and make our own coffee.




Onwards now through banks of mist hoping it will clear before our next stop just north of Seville in a very small village called Real de la Jara, it has it's own castle too as do most of the small villages around here. There are large birds in the fields which we can only guess are Purple Herons (per our bird book) might have to check on the internet later, there are quite big anyway! We've since found out the birds were common cranes wintering here in the south, just like us.
We should be at the coast tomorrow, looking forward seeing the sea at last!


22nd January. Our last long drive down to Tarifa was surprisingly pretty. Think about the green open fields of Wiltshire, then very variable farming land interspersed with vines....oh!  and the odd field covered in white daffodils.


The marshy salt laden area near Cadiz had pink flamingos paddling around too.  We are at the southernmost town of Spain and should be able to see Morocco quite easily when we venture out.

Tarifa beach


23rd January.  A very interesting visit to Tarifa old town yesterday afternoon and yes, we could just see Africa through the haze.  The white painted buildings in the old town make it look very fresh and attractive after those further north.


 We decided to get on our bikes this afternoon as the sun is out again and try the cycle path heading west. It's only 4 kilometres long and leads us to a nature reserve with boarded pathway and the odd beach bar.



Here we met a German couple on a short holiday and had a nice chat, not sure how Brexit and Auschwitz came into the conversation but it was all very amicable....!




One of those beach bars
24th January and we are further up the beach at a kite surfing spot. There's just enough room for us in the car park and we're not sure yet if we can stay the night, let's hope so. There are kite surfers here of all ages and a kite-surf school too which uses the small lagoon so that the beginners don't have to face the waves. We have to be happy playing with Les's kite which looks rather pathetic against all these big sails but we had loads of fun. There were even two guys jumping off the high sand dunes with their para-gliders by the time we returned to our van. 




Les's cap and kite


25th January. Well, we did stay the night and saw the twinkling lights across the sea to Morocco in the distance, however the weather has changed,  rain and wind is forcast so we have decided to visit the Roman ruins just up the coast at Bolonia.  In Roman times it was known as Baelo Claudia a walled city producing all things tuna related, a specialised fish paste called Garum among them which was highly regarded back in Rome.

The fish preparation area

Forum

We drove onwards towards Cadiz hoping to see Cape Trafalgar, where Nelson won the battle but lost his life, but the car park was closed and it was too far and too windy to walk. We have to be satisfied with a poor photo of the lighthouse.  We are over-nighting in Conil a summer beach destination. 

26th January and what a difference the weather makes. Today the town looks quite cute and we are bird watching along the beach and small estuary spotting a number of first timers for us, sand martins, a bonelli's warbler and loads of wading birds including a black winged stilt. I know, we are becoming sad old things!

 We have driven over to Cadiz and parked over the bay at El Puerto de Santa Maria where the sherry from Jerez was exported until the train took over. There are still numerous sherry bodegas including Osborne's where one simply must partake!  A fried fish meal in the evening and we are set up ready for the trip over to Cadiz tomorrow. 



28th January and we have driven for half and hour to Chipiona, the best place you've never heard of...... at least we hadn't!  The usual Sunday afternoon quiet in Spain is ignored here and the main street comes alive with bars and small stalls, such a surprise for us as we walked along the promenade towards the lighthouse. We then found out this is another small town with Sherry bodegas on every corner so we have joined in with the locals for a swift glass. (note the handy shelf on the wall for drinks) Not sure we chose exactly what we wanted but, hey-ho! tasty enough - well, mine was anyway!






 It's still rather cold with a brisk north wind so the cycle path is not on the agenda for now. Instead, we are doing a bit of washing at the marina and have given the van a quick clean.

Chipona church
29th January. The wind is still blowing here at the coast so we have decided to travel east of Jerez to Arcos de la Frontara it's like a mini Ronda with stairs up to the old town and lovely view over the green countryside. After doing the touristy bits we found a cute bar serving tapas etc. and for €2.90 we had a coffee, a Sherry (me) a small tapas and some breadsticks.... bargain!

View from the top of the town

Tiles in the bar

Continuing on to our overnight stop at El Bosque through the Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema, the views across to the mountains are quite beautiful and not at all what we expected of Spain, it's so green. I think we will be staying on in this area for few days at least but hopefully not straying onto the twisty mountain roads. 



31st January. After our cycle ride yesterday (see the blog) and a quiet night, we negotiated the steep hill without problem and continued on to Osuna through very dramatic scenery at 500 metres. Again quite unlike we were expecting and quite beautiful - craggy rocks and hills with sweeping meadows and olive groves. At Osuna we had decided we would try a local "menu del dia" at a Tapas bar/Restaurant, €9 for three course including wine. Trouble is, most Spanish don't eat lunch until about 2.30pm so one has to wait ages, a) for them to open up, and b) to see if they are popular.  Having chosen our establishment were no English was spoken at all, we made our choices. Our starters arrived but the accompanying bread rolls looked very underdone and almost as if they had only been put in the oven once an order was placed, so if it was a quick to prepare starter, then the bread was almost pure white!.... very tasty all the same. It was at the choice of deserts where we really had trouble - all types, so long as it was made with eggs and custard it seemed. Mine was creamed with nutmeg and a biscuit (soft of course) but it was Les's "Mushes of Grandmother" that had us falling about. He liked it though and by the time we left at 2.45pm the place was buzzing.


The town has some lovely 18th century palaces to admire too, now mostly put to other uses. Altogether a really nice place to be.




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