Travels

Surprises at Tarascon, France

An hour before we left Guissan we found the  biggest market ever!! We were late giving the keys to the owner because I wouldn’t stop looking at bargains. Neverthe less… we ended up on the road at 11am and stopped at Aigues–Mortes on the way to inspect the beautiful fortified village by the sea. We ended up there until quite late and arrivede at Tarascon at about 5pm… hot and weary from walking in the sun.

Our accommodation at Tarascon was a little more shabby than Guissan but comfy enough. We took off to have tea and when we turned the corner, there were 2 huge castles to be found. What a surprise!!

We will save them until tomorrow as by the time we had tea and arrived back at 10pm we were zonked (and here I am on the computer typing a blog post!).

Tomorrow we inspect Arles , which has a massive ampitheatre built by the Romans and it was fashione in the style of the Coliseum.and is still used for bull fighting (it’s in better condition than the Coliseum obviously!!).

We also have Nimes and Avignon on the agenda for the next couple of days.

Hooray!! I have fast and free wifi here.

Gruissan oui oui!

Guissan pron: ‘Gwissen’.

I’m glad these blog posts were prepared before departure. The internet is both expensive and slower than dial-up!!

After parting from our new friends at Estagel B&B, we arrived at Guissan to meet the owner of the appartment we are staying in for a week. He had carefully written out translations on a piece of paper such as ‘follow me’. If we tried to divert from his limited translations he got very flustered. We, of course, are very used to playing French charades and managed to get out point across as usual. We have extended our French vocab no end. Now we can say ‘Fromage’ (cheese), and many other useful words. We need to learn how to say ‘We are lost please help us’, although most of the time we can’t define where it is that we are going to. Most likely the questions would be ‘Where did we park our car?’ or ‘where is our accommodation, which we cannot remember the name of or pronounce properly?’.

Gruissan is where we hit the wall. The first morning I woke up at 10am which is the latest I’ve ever woken up in my life!! After spending 2 weeks climbing mountains to the castles on top, walking up stairs and hills all day in the hot sun, we hit our beach side accommodation, where we are staying for a week and passed out. Sitting on the beach and walking on flat ground is just what the doctor ordered for this stage of our journey.

Last night we were strolling along the beach at about 8.30pm, when we discovered a French rock band playing. They were wonderful and played The Easybeats, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling stones. They had the English accent and pronunciations almost perfected. Col was in his element. We were the only ones who knew the words and called out ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ after the Easy beats… (like a couple of deadbeats!). The band played until midnight non-stop and our weary bones were even wearier at the end… which is why I slept until 10am this morning.

Our list of places to visit this week are Agde (2nd oldest village in France), Carcassonne, Narbonne and Beziers with about 6 other small villages thrown in if we have the energy. Right now I’m planning a day on the beach…my favourite place on Earth. The internet access remains a problem as the Careforre mobile card I bought in Spain doesn’t work in France. Stooged!

Estagel (in the Pyranees somewhere)

A little village called Estagel

Learning to speak French by full emersion is not working too well but we seem to get by with a lot of laughter and animation. If we say ‘oui oui’ and ‘voila’ a lot they are happy and we feel competent. This morning we chatted to a guest at our B&B by pointing to the food on the table and saying the name. If it got any deeper than this we had no idea what was going on.Remarkable conversation!

Our B&B in Estagel is set in a small village in the Pyranees mountains, France. Mature aged women sit on each street corner nattering on their deck chairs, sometimes with knitting and often planted square in the middle of the narrow road. The men do a similar thing but with their arms folded and a frown on their foreheads. After exploring Callouire and Ceret on the way we were quite weary but webdiscovered that the B&B was unattended, apart from by Blanc. the Border Collie. The neighbouring matured aged women offered their sympathies (in French) and assured us she would be there soon. Alas, after wandering the streets for a while, Michelle arrived apologetically explaining that her husband was in hospital having an op for cancer.

The B&B was a 300 year old building which has been restored beautifully. We took a great shine to the owner and her dog and she whipped us up a gorgeous meal for dinner where we chatted to the other guests who couldn’t speak English. The miming and charades were quite hysterical.

We stayed there for 4 nights, and felt quite a part of the village, exploring the Cathar castles during the day and other small villages, with the exception of Perpignon, which is a large place which we promptly got lost in. After a French lunch in Perignnon, at an Australian bar (where the menu was in French and nobody spoke English). At the point when we realised we had no idea where the car was, a massive storm hit the town with flash flooding and thunder and lightening. We were trying to shelter under a small canopy but got drenched regardless. Eventually we found the car and decided we were better to stick to castles and villages!

Col enjoyed taking the dog for walks in the morning. She jumped in the river and plays fetch, nagging continually for us to play with her. She is very smart and has us both enchanted.
Our climb up 2 of the Cathar castles have been huge highlights so far. They were way way up the mountain tops and quite dangerous and tricky to climb but well worth it. We climbed up to Le Chateau de Peyrepertuse and La Chateau de Queribus. Google them for photos… it’s worth it! I have limited internet so won’t spend the hour it takes to upload them for you.

Just in case you wanted to know…
There are more dogs than loos in France
For breakfast we have been eating Fromage (cheese) mixed with honey and cake or brioche
Laughter gets you out of any tricky situation
I have the record number of bandaids and blisters on my feet

On the way to Cadeques

On the way to Cadeques, Spain (home of Salvador Dali) we stopped at a little village called Besalu. It was such a joy to see the ancient little village without the tourists. The village swelled with pride over it’s heritage.

More pics here

Our drive to Cadeques was sobering. We WOULD have been cycling this and when we saw the narrow winding road up the mountain we realised how much easier it is by car!

Cadeques is the home of Salvidor Dali who loved to paint the village in cubism style. It is so romantic and lovely to bask in the sunshine, drinking wine looking over the beach. Although, the beach consists of rocks bigger than your hands and people are LAYING on them. I stuck to the pool in the hotel I have to admit.

Colin is very entertaining with his ‘Spanish charades’. Yesterday I dropped icecream down my cleavage and he managed to tell the shop girls what I’d done and ask them for a serviette. Instead they gave him a teaspoon and thought they were hilarious. Hmmm. I might leave him behind next time.

More pics here

Almost towed away in a tow truck

Imagine our dismay in seeing a tow truck arrive to help us with our broken down hire car this morning. He drove all the way from Barcelona, to save us from a ghastly mishap on a public holiday far away from help. It turned out to be a flat battery, which he jump started so we were glad not to be towed away! We are hoping like crazy that it’s the first and last time it happens as we are off into the Pyranees from here on.
After the first hiccup we arrived at Girona and had a wonderful day exploring the ancient town on foot. Climbing castles and cathedrals, fort walls and into places where angels fear to tread… for 6 hours solid. I’m re-naming the MOTH ‘Commando’. If it wasn’t for all the food and wine we consume we would be the biggest losers for certain.
Girona was an unexpected surprise.It reminds us of Venice, without the crowds and the water canals. It has the added bonus of enormous castles and cathedrals which take your breath away… especially when you climb them in the heat.
NOTHING is open today, including the supermarkets so we had the added bonus of no crowds. It’ll be interesting to see how crowded it is tomorrow when it all comes alive!
By the way, I’ve discovered I can send REAL postcards from my iphone. I sent three from Italy once. 2 of them never arrived and one arrived 10 months later. Let’s see what happens to these ones. If you don’t get one… it’s lost. OK?

I love a good castle!

‘Speak to me oh chocolate lips’! Colin shouted to the GPS, which had stopped talking to us. Pity he had his window open, his loudest voice on and a Spanish woman was standing at the curb in full earshot.
I decided that driving to Tossa del Mar was too precarious for our first experience on Spanish roads, in a manual car leaving from the centre of Barcelona. Tossa del Mar required driving along the coast for 2 hours on hair pin bends. Unfortunately we missed the turn off and ended up going anyway.
When I retire I am going to eat olive pate at a Spanish castle overlooking the beach in the sunshine while drinking beer. I tried it today and I think it was 10 of the best experiences I’ve had. Yes it was worth the hairaising drive to San Feliu via Tossa del Mar and is what this holiday is all about. Experiencing the  ‘off the beaten track’ villages and having adventures.

Driving into Tossa del Mar village, sent us plunging into 10cm wide roads with 1000’s of pedestrians and no cars other than us. Were we meant to be on the road? No idea. After parking the car, we took a ticket and aimed to return after 2 hours as it cost 3 Euro per hour. Guess who lost the ticket? Me. After a frantic search, we begged the ticket woman for mercy and got away with a 5 Euro bill. Phew!
Travelling with the MOTH is like travelling with Croc Dundee. Here we are in this gorgeous ancient town, waiting to order tapas and he asks the waitress for an Australian menu rather than an English one. We could hear the laughter out the back when she went and told the kitchen staff what he said.
The MOTH has decided that there are no crazy driving conditions he hasn’t experienced after today. The GPS took him on some pretty precarious trips… I mean ‘adventures’.
We arrived in Sant Feliu safe and sound and are about to enjoy a nice meal overlooking the ocean. Tomorrow  Girona…

More photos here:

¡hola! Barcelona

Flying in a plane is like childbirth. It’s pretty awful to sit in one small chair for 24 hours but you know it will be worth it.

The sun is shining (31 degrees at 5pm)  in Barcelona and we are weary but finding it an exciting, vibrant artistic city to visit. We’ve been on the ‘hop on hop off bus’ for 2 days. The first day we just sat on it but today we visited the Sagrada Família cathedral (see pic) and climbed to the top. I can’t describe how overwhelming that place is. SO big and creative. It took my very breath away! It is the 8th wonder of the world… and fully justified!

On the buses

We also went to Guel Parc which is full of amazing mosaic sculptures and buildings too difficult to desribe, all designed by Antonio Gaudi. I’m just about ready to go home and start smashing plates for mosaic work again after seeing that!

Tomorrow we are off to Sant Feliu de Guíxols for one night and then to Girona in the car. Yes… the manual car driving on the other side of the road. Argggh! I’m getting the valium ready.

Our last week will be spent back here in Barcelona so we’re pretty excited because we didn’t get to see all we wanted and we haven’t got the Flamenco dancing down pat yet.

Having trouble finding a sim for my mobile broadband so not sure when I’ll be blogging next.

Adios Amigos!

A mishap with Colins pants

Colin at the Grand Palace in his new pants.

Today’s funny was brought to you by a crazy taxi ride and a pair of  ‘genuine fake Levis’.
In an effort to HURRY to meet the others at the Oriental hotel for ‘High Tea’ Colin and I ran down to the market to buy him some long pants, since his were left with our other luggage at Tha Phon and he had to wear them in the hotel. We found some ‘genuine fake’ Levis and ran back to our motel room where he put them on, only to find they had a button up fly and the button holes were WAY too small. The rest of our group had already gone so we both tried desperately to do the buttons up in a hurry. In the end, I had to ‘saw’ them with a small nail file on our nail clippers (while he was wearing them). We both got the giggles and luckily I didn’t slip with the nail file!!
After jumping into a taxi, the driver threw us out 10 minutes later. The 2nd taxi driver tried to con us into more money all the way and then Mel rang and said they weren’t having High tea after all… so we diverted the taxi driver to the Grand Palace and spent 3 hours there instead.
So much for the new long pants!!

Beach massages

Our arrival at Ko Sumet meant leaving the car at the ferry stop and catching a ‘boat’ across the the island. This island is a place where Thai people holiday and is not so commercialised. The boat was on a SERIOUS lean to the left and packed with luggage, 50 or so people and fish (which were stacked in bags under our feet). The 3 chaps sitting next to me were smoking, whilst sitting next to the fuel line (a hose which swirled around the feet of the passengers). Disembarking was quite awkward, but achievable! We found the ‘taxi’ which was a ute with seats in it and piled all our luggage in. The trip to the ‘resort’ was very rough and my sick tummy and head didn’t like it too much. The place we were staying wasn’t quite what I expected but I was feeling so yuk I

The pedicure on the beach.

went to bed and stayed there through tea and the remainder of the night.  I would say ‘slept’ but I can’t say sleeping on a brick (pillow) in a stuffy room where you had to stand in the loo to take a shower was too comfortable. The sound of the gecko honking in the bathroom all night almost drowned out the motorbikes which drove up the little road behind our room all night. In the morning most of us had our bags packed as a sign of rebellion. Eiam had a few ‘words’ with the owners and wechanged resorts. The new one was much nicer and also quieter. My phantom cousine, Mathew, arrived the night before and I hadn’t seen him so it was great to catch up with him too.

I was feeling a little better and spent all day on the beach on a hired chair, reading and having my feet massaged. Did I mention I had a pedicure and manicure too? It was so tiresome! The water was warm, sun was sunny and my tummy was starting to feel better. Lorraine was also feeling better and was already eating yummy Thai food.
Our last night with Eiam and Peter (uncle) was spent having dinner at a restaurant on the beach (literally). After tea… we went SHOPPING!
I cannot express how fantastic it has been to have them escort us around Thailand. To see the country from a local perspective is an experience I will never forget. Peter has been a tower of tolerance and Eiam our wonderful interpreter and spokesperson. We have given them bad directions, asked them endless questions and held up the itinerary with market stops, view points and the eternal hunting for a post office.
THANKS to both of you. We will miss you very much.
We have another day in Ko Sumet and then are off to Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and then Bangkok again.
Now we are all alone (6 of us)… with our Visa ending 2 days before we leave.

A hairy shopping trip

Shopping in Petchabun includes a trip to the hairdresser for Eiam (usually) to get her hair waashed. Eiam and I did this before going to the market. Unlike home, you get to lay down to have your hair washed with cold water. I had a head massage, shampoo, blow-dry and straightening with tongs, accompanied by a small child singing in Thai and a dog licking my foot. All this for $4 Aus.

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