Hola Espanya 15th Nov

Date: Sunday 15th November, 2009 | Country: Spain | 1 Comment »

Having endured some freezing cold nights in France with little sleep it was nice to reach the Spanish border and the weather became noticeably warmer once we got past Jean De Luz heading for Sans Sebastian which is a beautiful hilly panoramic city.  Driving Maggie through places like this is what the journey is all about, approaching a steep hill and then being drenched in glorious views once you reach what you think is the highest point until you realise the road continues to get higher and higher.

Having found the only campsite in Sans Sebastian, we were greeted by a lovely catalunyan lady whose English was fantastic and took the time to tell us the lay of the land, even though at this time of the year, the majority of campsites are virtually empty which gives the place an eery feel at night but with a warm wind so much nicer than freezing our arses off in France!

That night one of the 2 other campers that were staying in the site were a couple from cambridge, Pete and Muna who were on their own journey to live and work in the Gambia.  I was amazed by how much stuff they are bringing with them in their VW Van, Pete an engineer has brought along most of the necessary tools for his job as well as a motorbike, 2 mountain bikes, a suitcase of toiletries, a coffee machine and a portaloo, all this and none of this is loaded onto the roof was an amazing sight as to how this was all in his van, hats off to both of them, it makes what Reka and I have brought along as fairly light in comparison!  Also,have to thank them for the Islamic Alarm clock (apprentice style) that they gave us in exchange for a pouch of golden vag, it may come in handy one day!  Hope to catchup with them in the Gambia at some point soon.

Pete and Muna’s 4W drive Le’ Tardis

One thing I have discovered on this trip through Spain so far is that the food is just amazing, it’s fresh, its reasonably priced and its very regional.  Lewy, if you are reading this, this one’s for you!

The best meatballs in town (Amie, the swedes need to get this recipie and blitz IKEA with it!)

Even the motorway service stations have in some places a dining area with a selection of tapa’s or pinxos that would rival or better the quality of most Tapa’s resturants in London.  And even with the pound being crap against the euro, the food is still cheap out here.

We drove through Pamplona heading to Barcelona, and I can highly recommend that taking a driving holiday through Spain would well be worth the effort as every City, town, village you go through will be very nice and I have found the people on whole to be welcoming and proud of who they are and the food that they have.  We managed to find a road that led to a place with amazing views of the Pyrenees mountains, it was long and winding and in some parts very scary for not knowing when oncoming traffic would meet you round a bend, the 30km road took a few hours to drive but well worth the effort for the adrenalin and the spectacular views.

Barcelona

On entering Barcelona for the first time, I was amazed by the amount of traffic that comes through the city.  It’s a bikers city and at traffic lights it is normal to see a dozen or so bikes alongside you, because of this and the amount of people that drive in Barca, the noise can be a bit deafening for those with sensitive eardrums! Had a nightmare trying to find a parking spot, all parking is underground and when you have a vehicle that is more than 2.5 m tall, forget about getting into these entrances, Salva my friend thankfully found a place a little bit further away from the centre that we could park (all parking costs about 25 euros each day).

The view from Salva & Janneke’s Flat which is very close to the centre of Barca (new part)

One thing is clear about Barca, if you want to eat and drink well you are sorted, there are cafes, restaurants and bars pretty much every other shop and they are all individual.

Also as most locals take a good hour or hour and a half lunch break you can find good restaurants during the weekday that serve a 3 course lunch menu for 10-12 euros and believe me by the end of the second course you are stuffed!!  Go to the beach where you’ll find a number of good places to eat for this lunch menu.

Yum Yum

Barca Street Art

Gaudi’s simple architecture, work in progress!

A few late nights out in Barca

Janneke & Salva

A big thanks to Janneke & Salva for putting us up in their lovely flat for so long.  If you ever get a chance to taste some of Janneke’s food you will be very lucky she is a wonderful cook using simple local ingredients we were well fed!  Salva, what a funny man, love you loads and if you ever get your arse over to London, you are my guest!  Thanks for the 4 gb playlist, we will enjoy it along our way!

The road to Morocco

We drove just over 1000km to get to Algeciras in the south to get the ferry to Tangier, it was a long drive but took it in turns to get there safely by the night.  The ferry to Tangier with 2 people and vehicle cost 100 euros with insurance.  There are cheap hotels (20-30 euros) close by to the port so we stayed in a hotel that night before our 12pm ferry the next day.

Look forward to hearing from all friends and family, keep in touch and the next update to Morocco will follow shortly.

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