Our Overseas Adventure: June 2014

Monday 30 June 2014

Switzerland

Arriving in Switzerland to a beautiful day that then turned to rain and sunshine again. The city of Geneva borders a lake, and that same lake is also the Italian border. It was busy with sailing boats, tourist boats and the like. There is a huge water fountain, the Jet D'Eau that works all day, every day of the year squirting water some 100 feet into the air.

We had a stroll around the water front area of the city and then headed to our accommodation which was a mobile home, but what we would call a cabin, in a motor camp in a place called Camping du Bois-Noir. Rain clouds put us off the tent, and it rained quite heavily through the night. We watched the soccer, Brazil v Chile.

A bit of a sleep in as the rain was a bit of a deterant, but finally packed up and headed towards the alps.

We took the St Bernard route over the Alps. It was a dreary day but the views were still spectacular. The road is open to cars during the summer months, but in winter you must put you car aboard a train and travel via a rather long tunnel. There were also many tunnels on our route up to the train station. It would be an impressive sight covered in snow. In the lower valleys there were many villages, and some quite high up the slopes. The border into Italy was near the top of the pass, which also had a large hotel that used to be a hospice back in the early 1900's. There was also a man made lake at the top next to the hotel and border crossing; which are very uneventful.

I was also surprised to see grapes and apricots being grown so close to the alps on the Swiss side.

In the last few days we have gone from temperatures of 30 plus to a low of 5 degrees. We were pleased with the drive today as we were unsure of the route and were prepared to turn back, however everything worked out fine.

Saturday 28 June 2014

28 6 14 Drive into Switzerland

Tenting still going well

We did have some rain and noisy neighbours

A few photos from Geneva

The fountain is famous

So is Maree !

27 6 14 A drive through the French Mountains

Lunch stop at Chichilianne

This is Mount Aiguille

Then along Lake Bourget

26 7 14 Drive from Barcelona to Die

On the toll roads 45 euro bugger !

Swim on the Beach at Barcelona before we left

Then this photo in the evening of the mountains around Die

25 6 25 day in Barcelona

Maree took this of the cemetery driving in

Everyone has a place in the side of the hill

The copper fish on the beach front

Old Bull Ring turned into a Shopping Mall

Expo 1929 was held in Barcelona

This was one of the building built and used for that Expo

The entrance to the Olympic Stadium for the 1992 Olympics

Buildings of Barcelona

Maree took me to Park Guell

A lot like Puff in Stuff or Dr Seuss

More photos from Park Guell

This Wobble House was on the Beach

24 6 14 Drive down to Barcelona from the funny wee campground

Stopped at another old site half ruin and half still occupied

Drove down this gorge weather not the best and hard to get good photos

This one turned out OK

These were on the truck where we stopped for lunch

Electric one man cars we are seeing a few of them about

Barcelona

24 June 2014

Barcelona has a great city beach and we are staying a five minute walk away in a very busy district. Very quiet in the morning, but plenty of cafe and bar activity in the neighborhood til quite late at night.

We had a look around the city of course and wandered through a park deigned by a chap named Guell who has a very different acchitectual style which is evident in several promenint buildings in the city. The building in particular that I liked were the Casa Batllò, Casa Amatller buildings in the main city area.

There is a huge church, La Sagrada Familia, which is still under construction after it's plans were first drawn up over 100 years ago, I would love to see it finished. It has an eclectic range of embellishments all over it from mosaics, skeletal figures, snails climbing down walls, to religious scenes... The generosity of private donations are being used for its completion.

Link

We stumbled across an outdoor cultural street performance last night and watched some flamenco dancing and African drum dances, entertainment +.

Before leaving the city the next morning we went to the main beach for a swim, the water temperture was nice.

Leaving Barcelona we headed north into France, again to a town called Die, where we stayed the night. Along the way we went on the toll roads initially to get some miles under our belt and then off the tolls so we could enjoy the countryside. The following day We headed towards the Chichlianne Valley, part of the National Park du Vercors to see Mont Aiguille, a very impressive mountain amongst some very grand mountain ranges. The drive to our destination was very scenic through valleys and gorges towards the mountains, passing some very old and quaint villages.

I have finally seen some sunflower fields in full bloom, but yet to get a photo! Working on it though.

Tonight we are camping in a town called Ruffieux. We have noticed a couple of small plaques next to the motor camp,listing some of the prisoners during WWII being sent from here to Auschwitz.

Interestingly we have a camping neighbour (72 years old) from Stuttgard, Germany who is biking around France tracing his fathers life; who was a German Soldier imprisoned during the war in the area where we are staying, and spent four years in France before returning to Germany and his family. Quite a mission.

Spain

San Sebastián is a seaside town with two main beaches, the larger beach being more touristy, they lie between quite a rugged coastline and in the middle of the two beaches a large statue overlooks the town. Both beaches had wide promenades. Also, not that we looked, but there were a few topless babes. We found a bungalow at a campsite called Orio Kanpina, in Orio. Driving there we encountered heavy sea mist dispute it being very warm and a bit annoying as it blocked our view of the coast line.

As we moved on the larger towns in this area are very industrial looking with many high rise apartment blocks of very plain architectural design, whereas the smaller villages in the countryside are very quaint and feature mainly white walls and terracotta tiled rooves.

We have arrived in a small town called Jaca in a valley called Aragon, which is very near the Pyrenees Mountains which border France and Spain. There is a very harsh but beautiful landscape, with some similarities to the high country of Molesworth (loosely). It has been a bit of a challenge ordering food with the language again, bit of pot luck tonight, but we enjoyed the meal and the jug of Sangria. Camping again tonight, it was 31.5 degrees at 7.30 pm.

Traveling on eastwards towards Barcelona, we decided to take a chance with the lesser known mountain route, through the Pyrenees. The landscape is very harsh, with sheer mountain faces which have large glacier like scars which are very spectacular. The valleys have many smaller villages, most of which have a mixture of very old and not so new buildings, including some type of tower or church in each village. The larger towns are more picturesque than those we saw closer to the coast. The rivers that run through the gorges have that colour of glacier fed water, though clear.

There seems to be plenty of accommodation around as the area has a ski season, whitewater rafting as well as tramping.

Further down in the valleys the cattle have cowbells on, we stopped for a picture and the sound of the bells is quite charming.

I have been instructed to record how excellent the tent is proving to be, especially as in Spain, the rain is a pain .... when camping. However it held up beautifully without any leaks!