Heading East - Spain to France to Northern Italy (Mango)

Pont De Gard - amazing aqueduct

Having no more Bros to travel with we headed from Spain  to Northern Italy to do some more work with HelpX. We didn't get far at all..... barely 1 hour to a place (as so often) not on our radar.

Lovely houses lining the streets of Vitoria Gasteiz

Vitoria Gasteiz. The heart of the Basque country. Another delightful town with a lovely old centre full of bars, shops, museums and churches, Excellent.
We took a guided tour starting in a 11th C. crypt with the 13th C. church atop with restored foundations (minus over 2000 skeletal remains) to support the once crumbling Santa Maria Cathedral. This was the days highlight, a fascinating insight to a restorative project still in full swing (hard hats were issued for our tour). The church had been the subject of some research by Ken Follet for one of his novels. Then onto an Archaeological Museum closely followed by an  Arms Museum rounding the day out nicely. A short bike ride back to the Camper where we were safely ensconced with about 40 other vans in a council sponsored  free park.

Santa Maria Cathedral
Under major restoration

Up in the Gallery walkway
Note the cracks in the walls 

We have been travelling across the foot of the Pyrenees on the Spanish side over the last 2 days heading East towards the Mediterranean. This is the range of mountains that separate the Iberian Peninsula from France, forming a natural border that hasn't really counted for much over the centuries, with incursions, raids and invasions all part and parcel of living in Europe. This is a very scenic part of Spain with interesting geology and rampant snow covered mountains in the distance delineating borders. A  Spaniard at the village of Jaca, where we spent a night in the alpine resort, informed us those that could, spent their spare time here at the weekends up in the mountains as the plains, a mere hour away, are tooooo hot this time of year.

The 16th Centuary pentagonal fortress in Jaca, Spain

And yes, the next day as we dropped down, quickly assisted by a good road with many tunnels, we were on the plains and heat very quickly. It is hard to comprehend how that Atlantic coast line affects the western side of Europe so completely as the rest basks in extreme heat.

Riding thru the tunnel
on the Gorge trail

Looking across to the gorge and 13th century
bridge that was destroyed in the Civil War  

We chanced across roman ruins on the way just out of Pamplona where the bulls run (still in full swing but not for us). From this vantage point in the ruins,  we spotted a gorge with a few walkers and after some discovery found a small rail trail of 5kms through a scenic gorge complete with circling vultures and collapsed medieval bridge destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. Wow!
Disaster was only narrowly averted as I excitedly backed the Camper into the monastery rails, crippling S bike and the Monks in disarray as their 13th C building shifted under the prowess of my backing skills...... A little bit of panel beating of the bike had S up and riding again.

Looking out from the Greek & Roman ruins of
Empuries, just out of L'Escala     

The tile flooring remains of some of
the "wealthy" Roman Villas of the town 

We continued on down and out to the Spanish Coast to a lovely camp in L'Escala, near the ancient Greek Port of Empuries (Greek & Roman). The young woman who greeted us in Reception was so excited when she saw our NZ Passports as she had only just completed a years student exchange in Hamilton of all places. Absolutely loved NZ, and is hoping to return. We hope her dreams come true. We had a quick swim and then off on our bikes once again to check out the area. That evening I went over to the Bar in the camp to watch the Euro Final 2016. I now surmise I was the only impartial person in the Bar and nearly got lynched as the Portuguese scored a goal in extra time, unaware the bar was stacked with Frenchmen. I would have liked to yell "remember the Rainbow Warrior!" as I was glared down for audacious support of a well earned goal. I slunked quietly back to the van as did most everyone else at the games end.

Looking over the French town of
  Les Saintes-Maries De La Mere

Poor Bull looking confused
Being introduced prior to the fights
that were to be held later in the week

Over the next couple of days we made our way to Avignon, an old historic town with Greek and Roman ruins but its main part in history being the Papal seat from 1309 to 1377, during which time they had 7 successive popes living in the "Papal Palace" as it is known today, rather than in Rome. This situation arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown.The story in itself is convoluted and not for the telling here but suffice to say it involves all the usual plots of devious worldly men making there mark on the world and little to do with god or the well being of mankind.

Avignon with the Papal Palace on the right.
The town was very festive full of actors & musicians

Avignon was well under way with it's Summer Festival which gave the town a great atmosphere and lots of music with Buskers and Performers all advertising their shows as they moved around from cafe to cafe entertaining one and all in their attempts to woo you to their shows later in the evening.

Pont de Gard, the highest of all Roman aqueducts

A "must see" as we left Avignon was Pont de Gard. A great experience. Truly an awesome construction, an aqueduct built 2000 years ago to supply water to Nimes, a roman city in France. A 50 km system into the hills to a spring  delivering 200,000 cubes of water daily for 3 to 4 centuries, not without problems mind you. This was the highest of all Roman aqueducts ever built. The whole area is a reserve with cycle and walking tracks and the nicest river we have seen on our travels so far. And a  museum/interpretive centre that kept us inside for over 2 hrs absorbing the huge wealth of  information. If I had a second chance in life, it would be as an Archaeologist with a second degree in Geology. It is so interesting what can be deduced from the surroundings, and joining the dots. An interesting point was made in relation to the renaissance scholars becoming aware of  just how lost our knowledge had became over the dark middle ages, and when these scholars looked upon the complexity of these ancient viaducts and other ruins from antiquity, some still in good condition , comprehending this and fearing further loss, did all they could to record and save these marvels. We have those enlightened people to thank for the preservation of these stunning undertakings today.

The village of Gourdon
"What a hell of a road" says S

The lovely village well in the
centre of town 

From here, again wishing to be off the beaten trail, with it being Bastille Day S. found a small Aire in a village inland from Cannes & Nice. What a sweet find, Gourdon on the "Beautiful Villages of France" list and so scenic, over looking the coast from a cliff top village 750 metres high. What an awesome drive to get there, keep bringing it on S. I know you were nearly sick getting up there but it was soooooo worth it.
PS This will be remembered unfortunately for the night of the mass killing in Nice, we were over looking it and knew of the fireworks but retired before it all started not that we would have been aware of anything from this distance. Sobering and sad. We woke the next morning to txts from NZ about this incident and were saddened as most of the world was.

The lovely streets of Gourdon

We hopped on the motorway to progress our trip to Northern Italy, for our HelpX assignment inland from the Med, about an hour from Turino, where Fiats come from, and 20 mins fom Alba where the famous Ferrero Rocher are made.
We crossed the border where there were armed police but it was in reality another toll booth, which are endemic in France and Italy. The tolled route inland climbed through the hills inexorably upwards on an amazingly engineered motorway, tunnelling thru hills and flying over stunning gorges. The down side was I needed to watch the road and S too petrified to look.  AHHHHHHHH!!!

Our new home for the next two weeks
The pool is a big incentive for work in the gardens

Lovely way to celebrate my birthday
here at Casa Fonda with a little Sambuca

We wandered deep into the country side arriving in the area of Piedmont, renowned for both its white Muscatos and Asti type whites and  Barolo,(the King of wines & the wine of Kings) Barbaresco, its reds.
 Though stunning weather at 30 degrees plus, we are at altitude, about 1500ft, bordering France and Switzerland, and our English hosts Peter & Julie tell us that 2 foot of snow is not uncommon in winter and why they often debunk to warmer climes at that time, also explaining the white wine district.
We have settled into this episode quickly and will report in more detail soon.

Another week, another Brother, Pintxo's & Beers

Big Bull, Big Bill & Little Allan at San Sebastian (actually this was a cow).

We spent the night near Bordeaux in rampant heat (35 degrees C) in the little historic town of Borgon on the side of the Gironde Inlet. With the tide out, it was a muddy sludge. But it was so pleasantly hot. We got into Bordeaux Airport the next afternoon

Bar lined with Pintxo's (Tapa's)

Enjoying Pintxo's & a beer
(I'm not short, the table is high!)

Enjoying the street culture
of San Sebastian

reasonably trouble free and picked up Allan  & Nicky in 37 Deg heat - a shock for them leaving Dublin in 11 Deg. We had a 40 minute drive to our camp, which we had scouted 2 months earlier on our way back to UK

Nice smoky BBQ & beers at camp

Oyster beds at Cap Ferret Spit
(Huge tides in this area of France)

The UK has voted to leave the EU whilst here which took us by surprise as the BBC which we listened to while back in the UK for the 6 weeks was doing a splendid propaganda exercise to remain in the EU. Seems not every one listens to the BBC these days!!!!!! Don't know how the TV campaign was run!!!! Democracy at its best! Interesting times ahead for the UK.
We had 4 nights in the Arcachon Bassin staying at the Andernos Les Bains Motorcamp, where we did some bike riding on the great local cycleways, checking out some of the other smaller villages looking for a beer & shade, sometimes for a change a lovely Gelato. We drove out to Cap Ferret Spit, to the small fishing village at the end where along this part of the Bassin they produce all of Frances Oysters. If you love raw oysters with a lovely glass of white wine, this is the area to visit. Trying to a find a beer here was rather difficult. And as none of us were into raw oysters, the gastronomical delight was wasted on us. With charcoal bbq's set up all around the camp, Bill & Allan managed to cook up some very tasty meat dishes. Bill enjoyed the results enough that he is now keen to get back to charcoal bbq's once home
France is nice but so is Spain with having the big advantage of being cheaper to live, so we went south across the none existent Border to cheap fuel, food and grog. Bliss :)

We hadn't booked any accommodation as we thought being on the shoulder of peak time we would be fine! But guess what! It was more difficult than we thought. So when we found the lovely camp at Orio, a surf beach resort, we decided to book in for a week.

The waterfront at San Sebastian

Orio was perfectly located for us, in that it had lots of lovely walks in and around it. It is a popular beach with surf club. We noticed all the beaches we visited in this part of Spain all have life guards on them actively patrolling the beach. Allan & Bill decided

Bill & Allan catching the surf at Orio
Bill about to be dumped!

to go out and do some body surfing while Nicky & I watched on. They caught quite a few good waves before Bill had to come in as he was dumped heavily into the sand, jarring his shoulder. It's times like these you realise you are no longer 20! So we headed up to the camps pool where Bill managed some lengths that reassured us his shoulder was going to be ok. The pool was lovely and refreshing in the heat of the day.It was only 40mins by train back into San Sebastian - a destination we had marked on our map to do but the weather wasn't with us last time we came through. On our arrival into the city centre, we caught the Hop on Hop off Tourist Bus that gave an hour's worth of viewing and history of the city. We had a perfect day for walking around the old seaside port and historic town. San Sebastain and this region of the Basque People is famous for it's Pintxo's (Tapa's) - all the Bar's  counters in the Historic Centre (and everywhere else in this region) were lined with a variety of platters of Pintxo's. Our biggest problem was to find ones without an anchovy hiding inside them. They were very cheap and you could make a meal of them, with a beer for a reasonable price

Local cultural celebrations in Orio
The two large figures at the back are the towns Patrons

Enjoying a beer at the end of a big day!

On a day not suited for the beach, we headed back into San Sebastian with the Camper to stock up on supplies in one of Frances huge superstores and introduced A&N to our favourite sports goods store similar to Rebel\Katmandu but on steroids. Nicky managed a few purchases but Allan resisted (he was waiting for the shoe store he found a few days later!).After Orio, we headed further west along the coast to just out of Bilbao, another we had on our list to return to. We planned our trip so we could include a visit to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, a mythical enclave on the Basque Coast with a spectacular sea mouth and amazing views. I was a bit apprehensive of walking out to the church on the point, but the pathway was nice and wide, and the 231 steps up to it gave us a good workout to enjoy our beers later in the day. We ended up staying 4 nights in a camp an hour's bus ride outside of Bilbao (all the other camps closer were booked out) called Castro Urdiale. Unfortunately the standard of accommodation for A&N wasn't that great, we slept in our camper, but the Bar and Manager helped to make the stay enjoyable. This camp was just outside the "Basque Country" so the day we arrived Bilbao & Supermarkets etc were closed for a National Holiday, this little town was open as normal. The camp also had a lovely big pool, again complete with life guard, but the poor guy didn't have any clients until our second to last day, mainly due to the weather. But we did see him playing cards with a couple of young children who obviously found it too cold to swim.

The Guggenheimer Museum Bilbao

We didn't want to take the Camper into Bilbao as it was a large City full of motorways and flyovers, much easier to catch the bus for the 45 minute ride in. Lovely huge modern buses, seat 68 people and once they are full (which ours got by the 4th stop) that is it. They don't allow standing, and everyone is encouraged to put their seatbelts on. Very smooth ride and not expensive.

The Chapel of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe
Where we walked the 231 steps to the top

Interesting geology on this coast

While we were with previous brother, Bill had a lengthy discussion with Gman on things that should be on everyones bucket list and against Bill's better judgement, we accepted that the world renowned Guggenheim museum should be on it. So we visited it and Bill simply confirmed his judgement.  "Call me a heathen or plebbite but most contemporary art leaves me wondering !!!!!!!!, and I'm not really interested in the answers as there seems to be so much varying opinion amongst the critics. I did get to see a couple of Piscaso 's which I can comprehend, just, but the rest, Baaa Foohey"
We had a day in Castro Urdiales which is an old fishing village fill of history. It had an amazing Cemetery that the local wealthy people were dying to get into. And although there were some amazing Family Crypts, at the end of our lives, rich or poor, we all end up the same - ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt, the only ones really doing well out of it all being the church and the stone masons.

Could this be the new Family Crypt?

Although no longer in the Basque region, the Bars all had the Pintxo's, which we were able to enjoy for lunch as we strolled around the village.
It was an early start to deliver A&N to Bilbao Airport for their flight back to the UK for a few days before heading back to NZ. We had a nice couple of weeks looking  round San Sebastian & Bilbao areas with them, clocked up many many  steps on Nicky's pedometer app if is to be believed! We certainly felt like it at the end of most of our days. So back on our lonesome, with an enjoyable few weeks shared with Gman & Claire, then Allan & Nicky. Time to head to Italy for a HelpX assignment but not before one final drive, trapped in Bilbao's confusing complex motorway system, obviously designed by a deranged artist and undoubtedly being considered as an exhibit for the Guggenheim.