Carcasonne to Barcelona

We started the next day with Carcasonne which has a medieval walled city before heading south to see the Cathar castles, however we only just made it in time to see one from a distance and will be going into another tomorrow. This part of France is sparsely populated, the driving times are long due to road conditions and the shorter daylight hours are all making it much harder to get things done at the moment but we're making the best of it.

Unfortunately the wind blow up really bad overnight and in the morning we were really unsure what to do. I wasn't sure it was safe to drive and didn't feel confident to drive or walk up to the castle.  So we tried to wait and see if things would improve, they didn't. We decided to just get out of there and drive down to the coast in the hope things might be a little better.  The wind was still just as severe but at least on the coast it didn't bring rain and the temperature was nicer.  We went to Collioure which is popular with tourists and there was definitely much more buzz about the place.  We happened across some sort of paddle boarding race in the harbour which was cool.  The continued to be fierce through the night but we had parked up in such a way to let another squeeze in next to us and when we got back we found someone had done exactly that.  This would usually be a bit close for comfort but they were a very effective windbreak, so they got to rock and roll all night.  When they left in the morning we realised what a blessing it had been.

The third continuous day of unabated gales was at least sunny, we drove around the peninsula which was slow going but took by some nice scenery.  We visited Cadaques which is like a traditional fishing village.  It was very attractive and although very difficult due to narrow and steep roads we ended up driving around.  Later in the afternoon we checked out Empuriabrava which was a recently built resort with canals constructed in a wetland (which being wetland destruction i'd usually dislike) which was very funky to see.
Mercifully in the morning the wind had eased to just strong.  Our plan on this day was to get to Scotts place (Scott is a Kiwi that we met in the street in Billund, Denmark) which is in the countryside outside Girona.  We visited a lake on the way and we saw some seaplanes which was interesting. Scott has just moved into a mobile home that he has put on a 5 acre section he bought.  The section has two ruined stone buildings on it, quite a few trees and has a slope to it. We spent a fun couple of days at Scotts, he generously helped us with a few things: borrowed a battery charger, took us round places to find a tyre and car alarm places, and lent me a ladder which allowed me to scrub the roof of the van which was in a sorry state.  We also managed a walk around the old town of Girona with Scott as our tour guide.  We walked up to the town walls and got great views of the attractive city.  We also learnt a lot more about Scott's job as a pilot.

Cadaques

Girona

We drove back to the coast and we visited a resort town called Tossa de Mar which we both thought was pretty nice.  It had a walled old town, the remains of a Roman Villa complex and an excellent beach (the sort of place that must teem with people in season but currently feels very sleepy). Then we ran down the coast to El Masnou to the (extortionately priced 37.50/night) 2 star campsite that would be our base for visiting Barcelona. Unfortunately our first choice Camping Barcelona which is actually further away along the coast closed for the season at the end of October so we were 2 weeks too late.  Unfortunately because our WIFI booster was stolen in our latest break in we had to use the campsite Wifi outside the office rather then from the comfort of our van (as the signal did not reach as far as our pitch) so we spent a very cold couple of hours enjoying decent download speeds.

Tossa de Mar

Motorway Madness in Marseille

Our next destination was/is Arles (to see the Roman Arena) so we plugged it in the Sat Nav but I forced it to take the scenic road around the coast where we stopped at a beach and had another swim and lunch.  Unfortunately mid afternoon in the middle of a motorway (3rd lane from the verge) in Marseille our rear passenger side tyre blew out.  So all our brand spanking new breakdown gear got some use and long story short we got the spare on. By this time it is late on a Saturday on a bank holiday weekend so it looks like we will have to wait till Monday for a new tyre.  We made our way very gingerly to a stopping place for the night where we were joined by 3 other motorhomes.  For all our touring troubles, on arrival at the aire, we were confronted by a sight that put things in perspective.  As we were pulling in we saw an ambulance head the other way and when pulling into our space we noticed why, a motorcycle appeared to have left the road into the ditch and fence.  We both hope the two people will be okay and it reminded us why we have never been on motorcycles.

We pretty much had to wait out Sunday (through a combined fear of breakins and having no spare tyre), which was unfortunate as it was a nice day.  We did however make a walk down to the town (Sausset Les Pins).  There was the Sunday market on which was interesting, unfortunately strong currents make swimming here inadvisable. Since we had down time we decided to sand and paint the wing mirrors.  They came up alright since I'm very inexperienced with a spray can.

So on Monday morning we went looking for fuel (we were due to get fuel when the tyre blew out) and somewhere to change the tyre.  The first petrol station on route was very expensive but we had no choice and they had a service centre, so we put a little petrol in and tried to ask the service guys about the tyre.  Unfortunately noone had a word of English and we have no French so understanding was limited on both sides.  I was however able to interpret their gasps when I lifted the bonnet and showed them the blown tyre.  Anyway someone made a phonecall but they couldn't help us, however one of the guys very generously and patiently drew us a map to what turned out to be a major service centre and store (bit like Halfords in UK, or combining a tyre service with a repco store in NZ).  We bought a 2nd bigger jack so should something happen again it will be easier and about an hour and a half later and 85 euro lighter the tyre was replaced, however as like so many service centres they can't/won't hoist vans due to low clearance we will have to put it on the van ourselves.  Oh and today the weather is bad, we got to Arles (saw Pink Flamingos on the way) where we wanted to see a couple of Roman sites but it was teeming with rain, so we just had lunch in the van and drove past the amphitheater (we went into the one in Verona so we are old hats anyway).  We are spending the night at an aire (official stopping place for motorhomes) about halfway between Arles and Nimes in Bellegarde and will bus to Nimes tomorrow before driving up to Pont du Gard (a massive Roman Aqueduct).

The morning tricked us the sun was out early and we thought we were in for a good day, unfortunately when we went out it turned very overcast, a little drizzly and cold.  So we got caught out without enough clothes or our umbrellas.  However we tried to make the best of it busing into Nimes and seeing the Arena, Temple, Covered market and Archaeology Museum.  We also bought a few books in preparation for our trip to Morocco.

From Bellegrade we headed to Pont du Grad which is a massive Roman bridge, part of an Aqueduct system something like 50Km long that went to Nimes.  We spent the whole day there, walking trails and visiting the museum.  The brochure shows it illumination at night and we hoped that we could see that but for whatever reason when we went back after dark it wasn't lit up.

In the morning we changed our tyres around as the replacement had been in the spare well since the shop couldn't hoist the van.  Then we drove for a couple of hours inland to the Cirque de Navacelles.  We found out about it at Pont du Gard.  It turns out France has a Grand Sites scheme and this was one as was Pont du Gard.  It is apparently the largest canyon in Europe.  We stumbled on an information centre nearby and got all stocked up on brochures then went for a look. Unfortunately the sun angle made photos difficult but it was pretty impressive just like the pictures we had seen.  We then tossed a coin to decide if we drive down and up through the canyon or take the long way round as I couldn't decide.  The canyon won which was good because it turned out to be fine and the van did very well.  So we got to see the little village in the bottom and get views from the bottom.  There was a very nice sunset this evening and we saw a family of wild pigs run across the road.  The last part of our route saw us driving through an area that looks out over the flatland towards the Mediterranean and this provided nice views of the lights.

In the morning we saw an 11th Century Romanesque style bridge called Pont du Diable before heading to Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert which has a world heritage list Abbey.

Pont du Diable

Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert Abbey

From there we drove round to Lac du Salagou which is a man made reserviour and the area is on the Grand Sites of France list.  We had lunch there and chilled out for a bit, it is the most amazing maroon red soil and rocks.

Mid afternoon we went looking for Pont Vieux around Beziers (the icon on our map looked interesting) but we didn't really know where it was.  Once in Beziers we still hadn't seen any signs so I checked the Sat Nav and plugged in one of the bridges in town and fortunately that took us to the right area.  We didn't really manage to get the view we had wanted but got a couple of okay photos. Still don't really know what we saw so will have to look that up.

So obviously due to our recent lack of internet we are a long way behind, since we are posting this from the south of Spain but hope to catch up soon.

French Riviera

(Nicky) Following on from the theft in our last blog we also had a disappointing  40 minute call to the insurers but will fill in the claim and have to wait and see.  It is bad enough getting your belongings taken, but to know the insurers aren't even on your side sucks as well.  I also go over and over again why we didn't return for Dale's camera.  We thought we would just be an hour and that we could use mine instead, but we really should have had safety in mind.  If we returned maybe we could have stopped the robbery, who knows?  The sun has also come out and it has been a warm 20 something degrees every day since the break in, whilst we stay in the van and wait for news.  I have two thoughts, one that I want to go home, and two that I want to keep going.  We had been on a good run lately and were looking forward to going to Morocco in December.  The prospect of returning to the UK in winter isn't appealing, and the van really needs some work done (hopefully in Morocco) before we sell next year.  We are thinking that we will have to get some sort of car alarm fitted so will be looking into this soon.

So next we went to a campsite which turned out to be near a major horse racing track at Villeneue Loubet.  Here we stayed for 3 nights arriving just 20 mins before reception closed PHEW. We used it as a base for visiting Monaco, Nice and Cannes.  This was good as it meant we didn't need to carry around our valuable items but it did cost a bit.  Day 1 we walked 15 minutes to the train station and took a 45 minute train ride to Monaco.  Monaco was an amazing place, clean, tidy, relaxed atmosphere, it just had a feel of wealth and for that matter safety.  I can imagine where people might want to live there even if they had to pay taxes.  However we happened across some real estate windows and it pretty much cost 1 million Euros for a studio so there are some barriers.  We arrived near the main marina so were almost immediately confronted by the super yachts, they weren't the first we had seen but they certainly were impressive and there were a lot.  One observation I made was that in these marina/ports in the Riviera almost nothing seems to happen, what I mean is that you never see boats leaving or coming in and most boats have noone on them.  Just beyond the marina we reached the tunnel famous from the F1 racing.  We continued on to the Japanese Garden and had lunch at the beach before heading up the hill to a main street that took us to tourist info and the Casino Square.  We also checked out the nearby area where in the F1 there is a hairpin turn coming down a hill.  We spent some time watching the goings on outside the Casino, unfortunately unlike our friends Matt and Sarah we didnt see Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond in supercars.  We did however see some Rolls Royces and a purple Lamborghini.  The purple Lamborghini parked up in front of the Casino so que lots of photos and people touching it (very rude I thought, I hate to think of people touching our van let alone if I had a Lambo).  One Russian guy had a kid and the kid was waving some toy car around right next to the car and naturally it came out of his grasp, luckily in the opposite direction, it could certainly have done some damage had it struck the Lambo.  The father remained pretty much oblivious.  I would note it would seem that this was the safest car in Monaco as someone was always looking at it!  After Casino Square we headed around the front/back (not sure, otherside) of the Casino, which has a very nice terrace where you get great views. Then we checked out some more of the F1 track on our way to visit the Prince's automobile collection.  The collection includes several F1 cars, Monacos Royal Carriages and a variety of other vehicles, over 100 in total.  We finished up by visiting the Old town area which includes the palace and we took a few photos of the city as it got dark.  We have just loaded the photos onto the computer and it turns out we took 170 in Monaco!

 Japanese Garden

 Monte Carlo Casino

 The Purple Lambo Owner

 After owner goes lots oh looking and touching (rude much)

The next day we took the bus to Nice, this took about 50 minutes even though Nice is really not far away (getting around on the roads is slow going on the Riveira).  In Nice we walked the waterfront, climbed the hill next to the old town getting views to both sides. At the top we spoke to a family from Yorkshire while watching a Sardinian Ferry dock.  Then it was back down and into the old town, we caught a look at a few of the flower market stalls before heading over to the train station to get a train to Cannes.  Turned out the next train was nearly 1 hour away so we walked over to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral and sat there for a few minutes. Nice was not bad, the water looked good but the beach is large rounded stones and the whole area is developed and as it is notorious for crime against tourists so I'd recommend somewhere else for a long stay.

We arrived in Cannes at 4.25pm and went straight down to the Congress Hall where they have the film festival, then grabbed a walking route map from the info centre. We hit the marina, the old town and the main shopping and eating streets before catching a bus back to the campsite 2 hours later.

In the morning we went down for a swim at the local beach.  The water is unfortunately not the lovely warm Mediterranean you hear about anymore but you would be very happy with it in NZ and the air temperatures are good at the moment 20-24 degrees.  After leaving the campsite we stocked up on groceries and fuel before parking up along the beach where we sat out and had lunch.  In the afternoon we drove through St Maxime, St Raphael and Frejus before stopping briefly in St Tropez.  Our stop in St Tropez was brief as the parking rate was high and we are currently operating with a high degree of fear about the van.  In regards St Tropez for somewhere that apparently totally grounds to a standstill in high season due to being rammed with tourists and was busy the evening we were there I just wasn't digging it, I just couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

Our next tale of woe on it's way soon (unfortunately we struck some more van related trouble).

The Italian Job : Robbed in San Remo

We spent our first afternoon back in Italy driving as Lake Maggiore was shrouded in cloud.  We got stuck doing 20 km/h behind a tractor carrying two cows.  It had what we assumed was a support vehicle behind it, which basically tailgated the tractor.  This meant that anyone who wanted to pass had to pass both vehicles (impossible), on roads which were full of blind corners.  At one point they both pulled over to let dozens of cars pass.  We did too so that we wouldn't be the front of the huge queue.  However before the queue of cars had passed, to our dismay the tractor and his friend pulled back into traffic again!  We finally passed them many kms down the  road when we finally had a short straight, giving them a frustrated toot as we passed.  We aren't sure how far this tractor was going, but at that speed and over such a long distance, we thought it was a pretty inconsiderate and dangerous way to transport stock.  We stopped at an Aire in the quaint town of Mergozzo for the night.

We walked through the town to the lake the following morning.  The rain had decided to take a break and there wasn't a tourist to be seen.  We drove south during the afternoon using the toll road.  We exited early to go to the supermarket, and then continued down to a town called Casella.  We were considering using it as a spot for catching the train to Genova.  The rain continued to come down, and that night we had the heaviest rain we'd had in a while.  The train ride to Genova, is supposed to be very nice through the hills with some great scenery.  In the morning, a combination of rain and being unsure about the safety of the car park, made us decide not to go into Genova.  We continued down to the coast, and thought that we might catch a train from a different town once there.

The drive down to the coast (through Genova, not advised now I know why) was manic.  It was made all the worse by vehicles double parking, busy roads and lots of pedestrians.  Dale did very well to drive through the chaos.  It's no wonder that so many cars we see have dings and scratches.  We also saw the aftermath of what looked like a head on collision on a two-laned one way road (make of that what you will).  That day we considered two other towns to catch the train from to get to Genova, but discounted both.  It was mid afternoon and we wanted to continue further along the coast and not wait around to visit Genova the next day.  What we had seen so far of the Italian Rivera hadn't impressed me, so I was happy to keep driving.  We found a gem of a town called Noli.  It was on the coast, and had a castle perched on the hill top.  We parked in the town and walked up a track that we believed would led us to the castle.  We got some great views of the town below, but it led us to a crematoria (which was very nice).  Thinking we couldn't reach the castle this way we turned back and walked along the road, and found a sign for the castle.  It was a walking track for the first half of the climb, and along the road for the second.  Not ideal, but we made it up to the top.  Unfortunately, there was construction work going on around the castle, so we weren't able to go in.  From the castle, we could see the crematoria however.  We continued walking toward it, finding out that the two paths did link up, we had been so close, ...oops.  We finished by walking along the waterfront back to the van.

The following morning we checked out the town again, seeing 3 churches, a town gate and walls.  Again it looked like we were in for another rainy day.  I believe it has rained almost every day here for the last 2 weeks.  Now we were on the coast it was also very humid, so at least it wasn't cold as well.  At lunch time we stopped in Andora for our first Italian pizza.  The first pizzeria we tried only served pasta for lunch.  Whilst it looked lovely, we were really after pizza as we had been having lots of fresh pasta for dinners in the van.  The next restaurant we tried wasn't as busy, but was serving pizza, and we really enjoyed it.  That afternoon we stopped in Imperia to go to the Olive museum.  Our downloaded guidebook said it was free, but guide is about 8 years old, so were just hoping really.  We eventually found a park, and paid for one hour as we were unsure about what time we would need.  We arrived at the museum at 2.50pm, and saw it reopened at 3pm, so we waited.  A few other tourists joined us, and by 3.15pm the gates still hadn't opened.  We had seen a subway/underpass entrance to the museum site from the factory across the road.  So we went to investigate and popped up on the other side just has they opened the gates. Apparently there was a fault.  We would have been appreciated if a staff member came outside to tell us this 15 minutes earlier!  The museum turned out to now be 5 euro each, so with 30mins left on our parking we decided to skip it. The German tourists also waiting at the gate also left, they had been informed at the tourist information that it was free (so don't know what's going on there).  It started raining again! so we spent our remaining time walking to the marina and admiring some expensive super yachts. Some of the crews were on-board working and most had the full works uniforms in colours matching the boats and logos.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT STORY AND THE REASON FOR THE LACK OF PHOTOS AND LONG DELAY IN POSTING.

Nicky: The following day proved to be our worst on our trip so far as we were broken into again.  If I was reading this blog, I would be thinking, what is wrong with us?  One of the words that sums up how I feel is embarrassed.  I can believe this has happened again!
We parked in a main waterfront car park in San Remo at 10.55am, paying for one hour.  We only wanted to have a brief look at the casino and old town.  Dale paid the parking and I got our backpack ready.  I packed our computer, passports, my prescription glasses and the GPS (we have taken to carrying these essentials when we leave the van).  My fatal mistake was not including Dale's camera.  It was in his rainjacket from the day before, and as it was the first sunny day in ages I didn't pack the rain jackets.  I of course didn't realise the camera was in there.  So we locked up and I did what we call our 'perimeter check'.  This involves walking around the van checking all doors and windows are locked.  They were.  We returned an hour later.  The front passenger quarter-light had been smashed, they then wound the window down, cut the belt we have tied between the two doors, and they were in (fortunately some of our hidden things they missed).  They pulled out the radio, took our computer charger, mouse and wifi booster, 3 pairs of jeans, several pairs of shoes (including my high heels and purse bought for Mark and Dana's wedding), a box of sovenirs (totalling about only 20-30 euros worth, but had sentimental value to us), food (including a block of cheese from the fridge) and unfortunately our rain jackets (with the camera).  When we returned to the van, two parking wardens were nearby.  They told us that they had been past our vehicle about half an hour ago and seen the window down (probably dopey bugger didn't see the smashed window next to it).  This immediately upset me (Nicky) as I thought I must have left it open.  Later I went over and over it again in my head, and I think the parking warden must have been past after the theft.  So off we went to the Police station after we had been through everything and tried to figure what was gone.  What hurt the most was Dale's camera being taken (several days photos gone again). Most of the clothes and shoes were of low value and some very worn.  The Police station was on a narrow road with no parking, so as Dale stopped by the gate an officer said to go back on the road and take the first right.  We stopped by some houses and businesses, not even sure if this was the correct place but someone had to stay with the van anyway, so it didn't matter.

Dale came back with Police report in hand.  He said the officers wanted to know if he had insurance, and didn't seem to keen to do a Police report if he didn't.  Now forgive me, but I can only assume that the officer did the paperwork primarily so we could use it for an insurance claim and not for reporting the crime.  This in itself makes me sick.  These vehicle robberies are the perfect crime for these thugs.  Low risk and high reward, with the Police seemingly turning a blind eye.  I saw a Police car do a lap of the car park when Dale was paying for parking.  If they had half a conscience, would they not think to stop and warn us

Dale:  So now we had the problem of the smashed window.  It was a little tricky getting to a garage but once we did we were directed to a panelbeater.  Due to dicey directions we ended up driving right past and up to the top of the hill where we were directed back down again.  Totally in Italian the man conveyed that he wouldn't be able to order the glass, so couldn't help us and that our most likely replacement would be from a wreckers.  We continued on not sure exactly what to do but saw a sign with Fiat on it and from this garage were recommended a glass company very close to where we had stayed the previous night.  So back we went which turned out to be good because one of the staff there called Christian had lived in Birmingham for 3 years, and spoke English which was a good start.  After initial confidence that they could do it, when they rang for the glass they began to realise it was a very hard part to find.  We were wanting to replace the computer plug and mouse, so Christian drove his car and we followed him to Euronics.  He was very sympathetic and genuinely sorry about our situation, and a bit negative about Italy as a country!  So 45 euros later and some of the computer gear was replaced, and we headed to the spot we had used the night before.  There are several other Italian motorhomes there, most staying a long time. So the glass guys said they would ring us the next day (Friday), as it was I rang them mid afternoon and they had no progress, so we had to wait the weekend out.

Then on Monday we went back to have a conversation and we discussed options and Christian helped out by calling the 2 wreckers yards within 45mins drive (they really don't do wreckers as much as in NZ or UK according to Christian), it wasn't looking promising so we decided to go ahead and have them put in a piece of plexiglass as a temporary measure.  Maybe an hour after this was finished Christian called us and it turned out one of the wreckers might have one but we had to get out there to check and the best we could manage for directions was the town name it was near.  So we drove out there and started asking, after about 4 people trying to give us directions in Italian we got a little English and found it (it was down a very steep narrow road I never would have entered if I didn't have to).  Sure enough the window he had was right, excellent.  So I pushed my luck and pointed to my badly rusted drivers door and they went off and came back with a door with glass and wing mirror all in good condition. I had to have it (price was right by UK standards don't know about Italian). Also a guy, probably late 20's, Simone had turned up to wreck his old car and he spoke English, so he did a little translating and for his trouble we gave him a ride home. He was leaving his old car you see so he would have had a long walk and it is very hilly here and often there are no footpaths on very narrow roads.  So back to the glass guys just in time for them to fit the window before knocking off time.

So now we have a door to deal with so another night back with the Italian campers and the next day we got a mechanic to fit the new door. We had to wait till 3pm to get the door done and it was a bit of an ordeal.  First they put the youngest guy on it (wasn't really that young) and he seemed to be make heavy work of it quite unsure of things at times.  Anyway after about 25 minutes he had to go (breakdown recovery I think) and an older guy that had been assisting took over.  This turned out to be much more stressful as he seemed to have a very short fuse and spent most of the time muttering, cursing and throwing his light around.  Another guy turned up and he seemed calm which was good and he helped get the lock changed over.  However they were still having trouble as the door wasn't quite hanging right so there were some tense moments as some brute force 'adjustments' were made so the door could close correctly.  It had taken longer than we had hoped and on that evenings drive west it got dark and became very difficult to drive that evening but at least we were going again.