Don't rouse the codger

Weather: Scorchio!
Rias Baixas

Before we waved bye bye to the magnificent Monicaaaaaa, we thought we should try and reach the local nature reserve.  We plotted a route that involved "caminos tradicionales" especially covering the last part of the route between the village at the end of the road and the lake we were aiming for.  Slightly worrying in that neither Google maps nor Viewranger (which plots walks and bike rides) showed the last part but it was on the tourist info map.  We reached the last outpost and a very friendly lady advised us not to use the camino tradicionale from her village as it would be too steep with the bikes and sent us back via more villages and cam ts.  At each village a happy local would nod as we asked for the next part of the c.t. and wave us straight on.  As we plunged through  fly infested forests and carried the bikes up and down rocky mountain tracks it became clear that the locals were more than happy that someone other than them was keeping it tradicional!  So 3 hours to get to this lake and we were too tired to find a proper beach or do more than flop on the rocks and eat our lunch.  Only took 45 mins back by normal roads!!

Exhausted and unimpressed

So, glad to spend time sitting down, the next day we set off for our next stop on the NW coast of Spain.  We needed supermarket essentials like British tea and cheddar so were happy to spot a Planet Carrefore en route.  This is always good as it means langoustines with our gin and tonics, asparagus with our fish supper and strawberries for pud.  But we paid the price as the van was too high for the car park barrier and we had to park up a hill.  Carrying the bags back to the van felt like we were contestants hauling ton weights in the World's Strongest Man competition.  (David gave me a guest entry to the event as a one off!)

When we arrived at our campsite we seemed to be in the middle of a go cart race and the site was heaving.  But we found a quiet spot and settled in commenting on how much there was going on for the kids.  Despite the fact that the site prided itself on being run on eco friendly principles this involved having the radio on in the block at full volume night and day, shipping in ponies for pony rides and running a scrambling session (as in motor bikes) which unfortunately ran on a track just behind us as we settled down for our tea at around 9pm.

As it cooled down we turned in but at around 12.15 heard children's voices.  It seemed like the kids club included a night time activity for 10 year old that involved walking round our part of the site with torches.  I drifted off but David was awake until well after they finished just before 1.  Then at about 3.30 a couple of teenagers decided on a game of hide and seek and football!!  By 6am I had had enough and switching on David's mobile to take photos with as evidence (clear thinking heh?) I put on my dressing gown and stalked off to reception to try and find a security guard.  There was no one there but I did have a long, one sided, conversation with a Spanish lady who was as cross as me (I think it was about the boys but it might have been because of the loud music in the toilet block).  So I walked up to the cabins to confront the boys.  When I spotted them I gathered my dressing gown firmly round me and drew on my extensive global vocabulary saying firmly "Por favour, shhh".  As this didn't have the hoped for effect I took out the mobile to take a photo.  After several moments I realised that I'd switched on David's mobile but picked up my switched off mobile.  So I just had to pretend to take a photo whilst the boys watched me totally bemused.  The noise carried on til 8.30am.

The worst bit was that as we dobbed them in at reception on our way out, I said I thought they were too young to be there on their own but we were told that their parents were in the next cabin.  I guess we're just not chilled like the Spanish!

So we've run away to a campsite by the beach.  Its not that quiet at the moment but we can always sleep on the beach.  :-)

In my therapeutic outpouring I forgot to mention that David was admired for his physique by the receptionist at our "Monica" campsite.  If it had been the receptionist at this site who looks vaguely (ok very vaguely) like Penelope cruz, I might have been concerned, but she was more of a Deidre from coronation street :-)

Monica the Magnficent

Weather: Looks like it's snowing but it's seeds flying everywhere
Puebla de Sanabria

Moving slowly towards the top NW corner of Spain we made a lucky stop at a campsite frequented by Monica the Magnificent.  She is only 1 and a half but has a superbeing's personality.  Which reminds me, the tourist office suggested that we could visit the "Museum of Big Heads" but unfortunately it is only open at weekends.  So we are entertaining ourselves by watching Monica's dashes to the football court chased by mum or dad (who is the spitting image of Otto the school bus driver from The Simpsons).

We were rather worried when we first set up camp because someone had left their dog in their car and it was a very hot day.  It was just lying on the parcel shelf at the back and David gave them 10 minutes grace before assuming his RSPCA persona.  Fortunately before that happened I re-checked and discovered it was a stuffed toy.  But always ready for action David is contemplating the stronger powers (and better car) he would get as a Police Special if he moved to Spain.

Puebla de Sanabria has a lovely old town and the inhabitants seem very keen on their bread and cakes which is always a good sign.  Probably about 25% of the shops are bread shops!  But today we're going to test one of the restaurants, maybe not choosing the local speciality of pulpo.  And then a little wonder round to check out the different places the locals find to hang their washing.  Ingenious.

Then a nice long bike ride to the local lake tomorrow to burn off some of those calories.  But I'm going to make sure this one is one proper roads.  Some of the time on our bike ride yesterday I thought we might have been following contour lines on the map rather than a proper route.  There were a few sniffing the mattress moments.  But we did finally emerge at a little village with a church:always a good place for lunch, although the swifts that had their nests under the ledge weren't happy about us being there.

Fields of Gold (and red, lots of red)

Weather: a great drying day, shame I didn’t do the washing!

Bilbao:

Need to read the map better.  The campsite was on the BAY of BISCAY, not known for calm weather although even the campsite owner was despairing that it hadn’t stopped raining since January.  First night felt quite snug after David reminded me that a lot of people camped alongside us would be catching the ferry the next day but we didn’t have to.  I enjoyed being safe in our little tin can after that, being buffeted about by wind and rain but with the option to stand on solid ground.

Because the weather was bad for all of Northern Spain we had decided to visit the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao to pass the time (not a particularly admirable reason).  So we donned wet weather gear and stood at the bus stop for the trip on 3 buses into town.  And we stood at the side of that road for 25 sodden minutes before deciding to swap culture for sun and rushing back to check out of the campsite before 12.   A quick internet weather check and we were off.  So no report from the Guggenheim I’m afraid, but we will try again on the way back.

Castrojeriz

Joined the hordes of pilgrims or “peregrinos” in a little town on the Santiago way.  There are coachloads of them, or walking train carriage fulls in school terms.  It’s a strange place to stay as most people here are just staying 1 night but it’s actually quite a nice little town.  The only bad moment has been attempting to eat the cod-like fish we bought at the fishmongers.  Yeuch! Ended up having ham salad instead.  And the 20 mins we spent at the butchers was a bit of an eye opener.  Sheep’s head anyone?

So avoiding the lame and limping pilgrims we did a couple of bike rides yesterday amongst the fields of barley and vast swathes of poppies.  David really enjoyed it but I’m afraid I have not been converted to mountain biking especially when the sign points straight down through a field with no discernable track!  All to the constant soundtrack of David whistling "To be a pilgrim".

We climbed up to the castle on the first afternoon only to find it was boarded up!

Wet enough for Movies for Men

Weather: The Queen needs more sun to fill her handbag with solar power

Pamplona

Followed the trail of the Bull Run through the town.  At one point it crosses the Santiago Pilgrims’ Way, bad planning that.  

The woman at our campsite told us they have 3,000 people staying on the site during the week of the fiesta! 

To get to the bus stop we had a walk along the river and because it was a hot Sunday (like the weather in UK on Weds 19^th) the local Spanish families were happily picnicking under the trees but it looked like they were sitting in the snow because there were white seeds/blossoms everywhere.  

Pamplona doesn’t have a lot to offer to tourists except for the Pilgrims who are well catered for with churches and shops galore.  Unfortunately our last bus back was at 7pm when it felt like everyone else in town was heading for the main square (and eating an ice-cream on the way).  The Spanish do enjoy their Sunday evening promenades.

San Sebastien

Or Donostia – can’t cope with the Basque language.  It doesn’t bear any relation to any other language and just seems to use letters left out in most languages: “x” “k” “z” and the odd “e”.  Very distracting as places have at least 2 names and road signs seem to be in 3 different languages none of which we understood.

But after a wet afternoon in the local town of Zarautz, 

we took the train to San Sebastien  and passed another wet day in a very enjoyable way with a coffee and pastries stop, haircut for 2, bit of shopping, tapas (or pintxos) more tapas and home via the cake shop to buy a little something to enjoy with tea in our lovely new mugs.  My fault it’s pouring with rain really, I got a new sun hat for no good reason at all!!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

Weather: sunny, thundery, muddy, humid..........but not cold
Pyrenees

Had a nasty moment this morning when David looked up from his iphone to announce that the Queen’s legs had dropped off.  Pulled myself together and realised that he was talking about the solar powered Queen that Steve and Margaret had given me.  On our last day at L’Escala a gust of wind had blown her off the table she was waving on and her legs snapped off.  I didn’t have the right glue to fix her and unfortunately the glue I used must have melted in the sun and she toppled off again this morning.  So until I can get the right glue she has had another temporary op and is off her feet until her joints heal enough for her to venture out again.

Anyway back to business.  After our interesting little campsite at Ripoll we ventured further west along the base of the Pyrenees and had a couple of days in the sun near a lake.  Would have stayed longer but there was building work going on which rather spoilt the rural idyll.  But we had a nice flat bike ride into a little town called Graus which the chap at tourist info cagely said might possibly have been where Tomas Torquemada leader of the Spanish inquisition was born.  Boring house with just a little plaque that said the main family came from Pamplona, but there was a fabulous Plaza Major in the old town and a nice walk up to a monastery with a lovely ramshackle observatory at the end of someone's veg plot.

 

We agonised over our next stop as it would be where we celebrated David’s birthday (we even swore off alcohol for 5days in preparation but gave in to a beer on the last day).  We chose a site called Gavin, largely because we liked the name but unfortunately a huge group of Dutch had chosen it for the rally point and after squishing into the 1 remaining pitch we lasted 5 mins then checked out.  Luckily we have ended up at a lovely little campsite near the National Park of Ordesa.  The lack of other campers (only seen 1 caravan and 1 hut occupied) makes up for the spiders in the underused showers! 

The only problem with this site is that it is on the way down to the National park from a pass in the Pyrenees so yesterday we had a lovely freewheel down for 5 km to a village called Torla but it was an agonising 5km slog back uphill.  Today we tried a walk down to another village but had to abandon it when we ended up walking down a stream at which point it was so humid that the sweat was running down our faces and backs faster than the stream was flowing.  So although we spotted a nice looking restaurant in Torla yesterday we have booked a taxi to get there so we can celebrate David’s birthday/fathers day without the thought of cycling back up hill afterwards!  It looks really nice and nearly as pretty as the butcher’s shop.

Had to get a photo of the end of the bar where we fell off the wagoin (with 2 tiny beers)  I think the word "eclectic" is appropriate here

P.S. Just v quickly scanned through the blogs from our L’Escala week and I don’t think we did justice to the wonderful restaurant that Steve and Margaret found and treated us all to a meal at.  David and I went back for our anniversary meal it was so good.  Just to whet your appetites; my first dish was a Carpaccio of figs with anchovies and balsamic vinegar, followed by cold tomato soup with marscapone icecream and at then end we shared a dish of vanilla soup with salted liquorice.  Yum .  Sorry if we’ve already talked about it but it was wonderful.

Moving on

I'm still re-living my birthday week but its all in the fantastic blogs that my family wrote so I will try and move on.  But I might drop in the odd photo.

just want to say a big thank you to them all for coming over to Spain to celebrate with us and a special mention to my nephew Iain who had to cancel at the last minute.  It was because he needed to step in to help prepare the Freedom Road Creative Arts group he supports for the Hull Youth Rock Challenge - which they won for the 2nd year running!  We missed him but well done Iain and co!

So back to normal I'm afraid...

Weather: A mix of quilts, blue skies, torrential rain and log fires!

Verges:

Well what else would a devoted husband do on his wedding anniversary than to drive his wife to a needlework fair?  Mega bonus points there.  In Verges,  just outside L’Escala,  people had hung out their needlework eg tableclothes, bedspreads etc and the shop windows were displaying projects too.  Then there was a lovely display of old and new work in the town hall and a big craft fair with tables where you could try out different crafts in the sports hall.  Right up my carrer.

So back to our campsite after a week of living it up in the villa.  Our old neighbours were still there including the lovely Dutch couple who had let me have a peek inside their vintage caravan.  It was like a grown up’s dolls house!

But we felt we needed to move on and ease back into campervan life so after a coffee and honey cake send off from Steve and Margaret we set off for the mountains again.

Ripoll

The campsite we ended up at was really nice with a log fire burning in what looked like an old mill house.  It offered home grown and butchered meat, we were a little disturbed by the plumb rabbits outside and ordered lamb chops and chips.  Feeling rather guilty!

We also asked about ordering bread for the next day and the owner said we could take a loaf with it as she only baked once a week and it would last us.  It was delicious in our sandwiches that we took on our walk the next day but David did comment that the backpack was much much lighter after we’d eaten them.  Can’t imagine what it must be like after 6 days!

It was a very nice walk but quite a long one for us (18km) and I have to admit we did enjoy the lamb and chips that night

Our neighbour and his wife went for a day out in Barcelona when we did our walk and were very upset when they got back.  They had driven in as he has to use a wheelchair after falling 9 meters at work a few years ago.  Someone had slashed their tyre at a red light and when they pulled into change the tyre all their money, credit cards passports etc were stolen while the guy was under the car getting the spare tyre.  Apparently it is a well known scam in Barcelona – so take care if you're planning a visit!!  

The Final Countdown!!.........Friday 7th June

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0... go!!! Margaret and Bella reporting from Spain on the penultimate day.
Off we go on the last  full day of our holiday at Villa Girasol! This morning Julie and David were up with the swifts and off to drive Simon and Lucy to the airport at Girona. After the usual trip for croissants and baguettes the remainder of the party had breakfast and a final play with Nyah and talked with Uncle Robin and  played with  the marbles. Robin managed to find his, before finally packing his case, eating his lunch whilst feeding Nyah and checking the route to Barcelona airport! This Super Grandpa vying with Steve for Grandpa of the Year was ready for action! Laura enjoyed a last sunbathe around the pool before packing Nyah's trendy wardrobe and joining the party for a group photo!
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0...go!!! We waved off Robin Laura and Nyah with lots of kisses hugs and waving.
Then it was time to put up Bram and Pops tent for a few days back at Camp Neus. Bella Finn and Ollie and Bram and Pops spent a very hot half hour putting up the tent, playing on the seesaw, swings and climbing frame and visiting the Dutch couple we had met last week who gave the three children 12 points each! A bit like a Eurovision result!!! Finn was so hot that he requested a return to the villa and a swim in the pool!
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0...go!!!
Bella jumped at 4! Finn waited until go! But on the fifth or sixth countdown it was a joint jump at 5 and even Bram and Mummy joined in!!! Followed by Daddy!
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0...go!
Julie's countdown was a sad end to her wonderful birthday week! It was her final wash of the week and we all felt a little sad. To cheer her up Bella ordered her a Magnum Kisses creme brulee from the lady at the icecream stall on the beach!
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0...go!
To cheer David up we had our final Mini Disco which was attended by a group of people with pink noses and black glasses and bushy eyebrows!
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0...go!
It had almost gone but what a brilliant journey it had been and all thanks to Julie and David and a 60th birthday party!!!

Donkey Derby

So the Smiths have landed at Villa Girasol and we are learning the ways of the group.  Don't go near the washing machine without the express consent of Julie (or in her absence Margaret), Nyah.. please use the toilet for number twos - not julie and davids' bath! Please be clear about who is buying croissants and only eat those bought for you (Neil was afraid of a lynching like a donkey when he ate one of Robins !)

So, before Caroline left for her flight we embarked on another Villa ritual - The Pinata.   We felt that the Whites were animal lovers - how wrong can you be?

A rather strict Donkey control encouraged our three small children to smash a helpless donkey with  a rolled up newspaper. Disappointed with their efforts they then enlisted Mum and Dad to have a go - with a cricket bat - as the newspaper was not damaging enough!!!! The reward is enough sugar and E numbers to keep all three kids up for the next 36 hours - yipeeeeeeeee!!

There then followed a splashtastic couple of hours by the pool with debut swims from Margaret and David - (was he pushed or did he jump?)  The water 'booshas' were a real hit with everyone.  The alcoholic refreshments were provided by Bella, Finn and Ollie who charged astronomical prices - (well done guys!)  So our little 'angels' are now donkey bashers and alcohol hustlers!

The afternoon saw another cricket match on the beach -Pops encouraging Finn to "Smash the ball like a Donkey!!" Finn then moved on to a fantastic fielding spell but unfortunately he was unable to stop the ball being hit over the enthusiastic crowd of spanish supporters and into the kitchen of the beach side bar...not once, but twice.  Simon 'butter fingers' White

was sent away with his tail between his legs and the game came to a sudden end.

Off home for a frenzied "mini Disco".....'Heeeeeeeeeey Baby .. oooh ahhh..." then big thanks to David, Margaret and Steve for a lovely BBQ tea for the exhausted families.

We'll be back in Newick on Saturday - if Finlay is spotted heading towards the donkeys' field with a cricket bat in his hands looking for sweets we know who to blame!!

Thanks for a great few days everyone. xxx

From The Outside In

My family has always been dysfunctional, awkward, frustrating and crazy. But, I thought that was what all families were like. It wasn't until I asked my girlfriend, Lucy, to come out on holiday with me that I discovered that the dysfunction, awkwardness and frustration wasn't a common trait amongst other families. The craziness doesn't even rate on the scale.

The first give away was the fear I saw in her eyes when she met the uncles and aunties that I had assured her were pretty cool and chilled. Apparently, Uncle Steve going for a casual 100-mile cycle before we've gotten out of bed isn't normal. I'm also told that the impressively contorted faces Uncle Robin makes at his grand daughter, Nyah, are not that of a regular grand dad.

I've heard Auntie Margaret's knowledge of all forms of literature is inhuman and befitting of Mastermind. Cousin Laura's unbelievable ability to devote all her time to her daughter yet still be the cool cousin is impressive to say the least. My sister, Caroline, may have teased me about my lack of tanning to highlight her own but Lucy says the patience she maintains with the young kids - and I suppose the rest of my family - is worthy of a superhero.

My parents who I've always known were slightly insane, courtesy of mixing Hull and Essex (making me from 'Hussex'), were incredibly the most normal… I don't get that.

Today, we welcomed another subset of the Thompson/White/Smith clan with Paula and Neil and their super cool trio of Isabella, Finlay and Ollie. I'm yet to get the low-down on them but if this picture is anything to go by then I don't see why it would be any different.

So apparently, my family is as I thought; dysfunctional, awkward, frustrating and crazy - that's no problem. But the problem is that not all families are. Although Lucy should probably be worried that they've accepted her.