RV Travels in Europe and North America
Travelintiger
A photo from yesterday as today we spent the whole day driving to our final stop on the trip. We started in Delft and are ending the trip in Delft. We have three nights here where we will clean up François and prepare him for storage.
We are in a corridor full of British so have heard a lot of English. The van across from us is an English/American couple so we are not the only Americans in the neighborhood.
We had a decision to make, our plan was to visit Dinant which was about an hour from our newly formed town at Benelux Campground. Last night it was pretty noisy until about midnight. Nothing malicious or rowdy, just a lot of people moving around and having conversations. About 1 am everyone finally went to sleep and stopped using their devices and ours all woke and started sending us alerts about all of the stuff that happened while we had no bandwidth. But by the time we were moving around about 8am the network had been overwhelmed again and we had no wifi. We decided we were going to move on.
It was about an hour drive on pretty good roads to Dinant and we went to investigate the campground I had found on line. We were a little concerned about availability based on our experience yesterday but when we pulled up there were only 3 other RV’s parked on a meadow. There didn’t appear to be anyone in charge but fortunately one of the RV’s had UK plates so I went over asked him what the deal was. He said park up where you like and someone will come by in the evening and collect the money.
Since it appeared empty we drove on down into town and to my surprise found a good place to park with no real effort. Dinant has been fought over many times and was the site of a major battle in WWI between the French and the Germans. Charles de Gaulle then a Lieutenant was wounded here. After Dinant was captured by the Germans they executed 674 of the towns inhabitants for being partisans.
The city is confined to two narrow banks along the Meuse river. It is a really spectacular site with the bluffs on each side of the river dominating the town. A lot of the buildings are made from the same granite that forms the cliffs above the town so the town seems to blend into the hillside.
Dinant is also the birthplace of Adolphe Sax who was born here and lived here until the ripe old age of 6 months. Nevertheless Dinant claims him and plays up his invention of the saxophone which he did in Paris. Everywhere you look in town are statues of saxophones, and it is the host of a prestigious competition for young saxophonists every year.
It is also the home of Leffe brewery which is one of the biggest brewers in Belgium. The brewery itself is impressive and looks down on the city from on top of one of the bluffs.
After walking around for an hour or so we decided we would give a Leffe a try and have a proper lunch. After a thorough examination of the restaurants of Dinant we picked one that was located along the waterfront. We sat down but could not get the waiters attention. After sitting at a dirty table for about 20 minutes we finally got someone to bring us a menu, we didn’t want to lose him so we placed our order while he was still there. He took our order but didn’t clean the dirty plates off the table. About 10 minutes later he came by and cleaned the plates but didn’t wipe the table, and more importantly did not deliver our beer. Another 15 minutes went by and we managed to snare another waiter and asked for our beers to be delivered, and to check on our order. After another 15 minutes went by without our beers, never mind any food we were pretty annoyed. Meanwhile tables that arrived well after us had their beer and their food. So we did something we have never done in our lives. We got up and walked out of a restaurant. Down the street we found a nice kebab place that served us in about 10 minutes with a smile and delivered another huge plate of fries with our kebab.
We headed back to the campground and found that the population of the campground had grown to about 6 campers. By the end of the day there are about 20 here, but it is still pretty laid back compared to yesterday.
Our foray into the Ardennes has been a bit of a disappointment. Everything seems a bit overwhelmed and chaotic, not at all what we expected when we decided to come here. Ton commented that we are going to have to pay more attention to the holiday schedules of countries we visit in the future.
This post is a day late because last night we were unable to access wifi. As I mentioned yesterday when we arrived at what we expected to be a quiet campground in a quiet part of Belgium we found the place teeming with people because of a 4 day weekend. Our plan was to use the campground as the base to take day trips in the area. So we took our first day trip to the cute town of Durbuy and we returned to find that what we thought was a full campground could get even fuller. My guess was that there were close to 3000 people on the campsite. As a result the local cell tower was overwhelmed and we could not get enough bandwidth to open any programs or apps on the internet. So instead we settled in and watched the commotion around us with a little bit of annoyance.
But enough complaining. Ton had starred three towns that she wanted to visit in her list of Belgian towns so today we headed off to Durbuy. It was a short drive of about 50 kilometers from the campground, but this time Google decided to test my driving skills by sending us over the top of a mountain on 11/2 lane roads. To increase the driving test Belgians and Dutch on holiday like to ride bikes around the mountains so we had to deal with passing bicyclists safely on these narrow roads.
After about an hour we arrived in Durbuy and it is every bit as pretty as its reputation. It is also located on the L’Oisle River with cliffs on both sides that give it a rugged beauty.
The town itself is not large and you can walk thru the entire town twice in about 90 minutes as we did. It is totally devoted to tourism these days but it is one of those towns that gets tourism right. They had a nice mix of upscale artists galleries and designer clothes with places to get your magnet or whatever souvenir of choice you collect. The store fronts are dignified so you do not feel like you are in a tourist trap.
There were multiple restaurants to pick from again covering the gamut from Michelin to Kebab shops. We decided we only wanted a beer and a cup of hot chocolate. I added a plate of fries to the order to give us something to snack on. The beer and chocolate were normal sized but the plate of fries was immense, much more than a snack. They do like fries here and the Belgians claim they are the inventor of the French Fry, not the French.
Our drive back was much quicker as google decided us to keep us on the main road running along the river all of the way which saved us about 20 minutes of driving and 100 or more gear shifts.
We had picked out La-Roche-en-Ardennes as our next stop as it is central to a region we wanted to explore. After a wet but easy drive we arrived around 1pm at a large campground. When I went to check in and asked for 2 days I was asked if I had a reservation. The campground has over 200 spots, but once again we have blundered into a 4 day weekend we did not know about. Tomorrow is Assumption Day which is a holiday here and since it falls on a Thursday they are also given a “bank” holiday on Friday. So instead of a quiet campground where can come and go from easily we are in a campground that is completely full. We were thinking of staying here Friday also, but right now we are on a waiting list!
Last year we had visited Bastogne which is only about 25 kilometers from here to tour the WWII battlefield. La Roche was also fought over during the Battle of the Bulge. It was overrun in the initial attack by the Germans and then re-taken about a month later by a combined American and British force. During the battle the town was pretty much leveled.
It is a nice town clearly geared towards tourism. The main street is restaurants and souvenir shops. At one time there must have been a lot of American tourists as there is even an “American Store” in town. But today we appeared to be the only Americans in town.
While we were setting up and walking to town 4 Belgian Air Force F-16’s put on a little airshow at low altitude for us criss crossing the valley several times doing simulated bomb runs. We were also lucky because we got a little break in the weather for our stroll. It had rained most of the way to the campground and as soon as we got back it rained again.
Once the rain began we hunkered down in François and watched the village that is the Benelux campground grow around us. Watching people move in and set up their homes is always cheap entertainment in any campground in the world.
We needed to stop by François’ hometown to check on our mail, and see if we could schedule an appointment for some minor repairs to prepare for our second “controle technique” or safety inspection when we return in the fall. So our day pretty much consisted of fueling up, hitting a grocery, and then driving 300 kilometers to Sens to see the folks at Eurocampingcars.
With the work done in Sens we then drove on for another hour to a campground near Troyes where we settled in for the night. We are going to spend the next few days giving Belgium some more time. We always feel bad because we have frequently driven thru the entire country without stopping going from the Netherlands to France. We hope to rectify that the next few days.
I selected Vichy for todays visit because of its association with World War II. Today and historically Vichy was famous as a spa town with hot springs and naturally carbonated water. Unfortunately for about 3 years of WWII it served as the capital of the puppet French government under Nazi Germany. For me that is always what I will remember it for. When the US and British invaded North Africa early in WWII the initial resistance to the landing was not from the Germans or Italians, but from French troops fighting for Vichy.
We both slept well last night (Ton said I slept very well, meaning I snored), so we both woke early (Ton said her early rise was not entirely voluntary but related to how well I slept.) We were underway early and I was hopeful of arriving at the campground in Vichy before the customary 90 to 120 minute lunch. I respect that the French need two hours for lunch, but my one request be that they get together and agree on which two hours. Some campgrounds break noon to two, some 12:30 to 2:30 and some from 1 to 3. We were on track for a 12:30 arrival, but missed by a couple of minutes, and the barrier to the campground was down meaning lunch was on. There were already two other campers waiting, but the good news was this campground only takes a 90 minute lunch from noon, so we had a little less than an hour to wait. So we also had our lunch.
We headed into town around 2:15 and crossed the bridge to the Avenue of the United States. Running parallel to the Avenue of the US was a lovely park full of trees imported from around the world including an iffy looking Sequoia which still dwarfed all of the other trees.
We turned onto Avenue Franklin Roosevelt (there are more roads named after Americans in France than in any other country in Europe) to visit the old Spa hotels. The road and the park that were integral to the old spa are getting a major upgrade, so we were dodging construction sites and equipment.
The spa concept was a major tourism draw in the 1800’s and up to WWII in Europe. The concept of going to take the waters was touted as both medically beneficial as well as restful. There was a structured routine that included baths in the thermals, prescribed outdoor walks, healthful meals, and evening relaxation.
This led to quite a large industry with luxury hotels to support it. In Vichy the infrastructure that was built in the 1800’s is still largely in place, including large parks with covered walkways around the outside of them in case of inclement weather. These covered walks are impressive as they are made of cast iron and stretch for quite a distance around the exterior edge of the park. There is a large building in the middle of the park that contains an opera hall and casino for evening entertainment, and luxury hotels along one side of the park housed those that had the money to spend time here.
There are 11 Spa cities still functioning in Europe though they are not as popular as they once were. Vichy was celebrating that it along with the other 10 cities throughout Europe had been declared UNESCO cultural sites.
Vichy is also know for a kind of candy called Pastilles. This year they are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the invention of Pastilles. We decided that this would be a good gift for friends so we spent the rest of the afternoon searching for Pastilles to take home. After visiting three stores we are now well stocked with this delicacy.
While walking around town we saw many references to Vichy as a spa town, and as a source for Pastilles, but only one mention of its role during WWII. I guess I am not surprised as one story is much more pleasant than the other.
We made a short hop up the road to a very nice campground in the Dordogne region. It is a geographically large area but one of the least populated regions of France. It is very hilly with many small river valleys that makes both farming and manufacturing difficult. It kind of reminds me of eastern Kentucky or western North Carolina. The drive was on all D roads so I earned my driving credentials for today, including negotiating a very tight passage of a tour bus that we met on a very narrow stretch of road with sheer rock walls on one side. While we only covered 100 kilometers it took nearly 3 hours to do it.
We picked this campsite because it was billed as a five star campground meaning it had every conceivable luxury that a campground can have in France. We were not disappointed as the campground does have every conceivable thing a campground can have including what we were looking for which was large commercial washers and dryers as we wanted to wash our bedding. When we were done with the wash we both decided today was a good day to rest so we took advantage of the excellent wifi to stream movies for the rest of the day.
We are going to spend the next few days traveling slowly thru central France. This rugged region is full of river valleys and steep hills. There are over a 1000 castles and ruins in the region, but they tend to be on a smaller scale than the big castles in the Loire Valley and around Paris. It is also one of the least visited parts of France by foreign tourists.
Cahors is located on a U-turn on the Lot river and was originally founded by the Celts. It has been around for a lot of history, but nothing particularly interesting has happened here during history.
It was a short drive down from Toulouse, but we left early because today was market day in Cahors and we wanted to arrive while the market was in full swing. We quickly checked in and set up François before walking the 2 kilometers back to town.
As we got closer to town we passed more and more people with baskets of groceries and fresh flowers. The market was quite large and the products on sale were very diverse. The regional specialty is duck and geese with all of the different things you can get from those animals including Foie Gras. We are not big fans of it, but we did get talked into taking a sample and I have to admit it was delicious, though we won’t be buying any.
These markets are always a lot of fun. In addition to being a good source of fresh foods that support the local farmers, it is always a big social event. We were really lucky as they were also having a festival celebrating the local bicycle clubs so in addition to the good food there were some other interesting displays as well as live jazz all day. While we were wandering around town at least 4 different jazz bands played. It seems these days jazz is more popular in Europe than in the US.
The biggest attraction in Cahors is the Valentre bridge over the Lot. It is a medieval bridge with three towers. Many bridges of this era had towers on them, partially for defense, and partially to collect tolls for their use. These days very few of the towers survive.
The bridge was quite a construction project for its age. There is a local story that the architect of the bridge was falling behind so he pledged his soul to the devil if the bridge was completed on time. So the devil intervened and the bridge was completed on time, but the architect reneged on the deal and kept his soul. This caused the devil to put a curse on his family. To honor this story a small statue of the devil is located high up on one of the towers.
While Ton was shooting pictures I was doing my normal gazing at people and things when a very dapper French couple in their 80’s asked me to take their picture. I was happy to oblige and they were very grateful. While I was taking their picture Ton had found a very nice place to pose, and she convinced them to pose for her to take their picture. When she showed them the picture they exclaimed Superb which in French sounds even better than English. Unfortunately she used their camera so we don’t have the picture for our use. We passed them several times and they would show us more pictures they had taken. They were a fun and very cute encounter today.
We finished off the day with a wine tasting at the visitors center. We were given five tastings of local wine for free. The region is know for Malbec which is most famously produced in Argentina. Ton has never been a fan of Malbec, but I was hoping French Malbec would change her mind. It didn’t, the reds were too dry for her taste though she did enjoy a Rose from the region.
Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France and we had never visited it, though we have driven thru it many times in our comings and goings in France. It is the hub of the French aerospace industry and has the French equivalent of NASA it is not on the tourism path in a big way possibly because it is too far inland for cruise ships to come here on day trips.
Ton did her normal planning for the visit, and I did the navigation. We spent several pleasant hours downtown visiting all of the normal things we go to look at in European cities.
The weather was nice again by the afternoon and there were a lot of people in the streets shopping and enjoying their lunch. Toulouse has several prominent churches and we poked into a couple of them and they were very nice.
The streets were very busy but there was a noticeable absence of guided groups, in fact the only one we saw today was from Lebanon which was a first for us. There was a tourist presence and we heard plenty of American accented English, but it was mostly couples or small groups traveling independently.
What we did notice was the very high percentage of young people on the streets. Toulouse is home to several universities and the number of students is supposed to be around 100,000. So there was a youthful energy to the town that we really enjoyed. A lot of the American accented English we heard came from younger people rather than middle aged and senior people, which we also enjoyed.
After walking it for a few hours we were surprised that it does not attract more visitors than it does. It is a great walkable downtown with interesting and unique architecture, nice old churches, and good food; all of the things that visitors love. But on the other hand we were glad it didn’t attract thousands of visitors in busses to crowd the center. It is a beautiful city that deserves a visit, and hopefully it will continue to strike the right balance without getting overwhelmed with visitors.
Unexpectedly today was about the drive. The drive from Andorra to Toulouse was only about 180 kilometers but google had it at nearly 3 hours in a car so I had an idea that it might be an interesting 3 hours. We were not in a big hurry to get going because as we reenter France we have to deal with the French lunch. Many campgrounds close for 2 to 3 hours mid-day, the one we were aiming at was closed from noon to 2:30 according to their website.
We spent about 30 minutes steadily climbing out of the valley we had been in towards the ski resort part of Andorra which is closer to France. The roads were pretty good. After we passed thru the ski-resorts the road began to climb even more. When we first saw the snow in front of us I told Ton we probably wouldn’t get that high but we nearly did.
We would have climbed up to the snow but we instead opted to take an expensive tunnel that kept us from continuing to climb. We were in the minority as most traffic opted to take a long series of switchbacks over the mountain we drove thru. As we were pulling into the toll booth the light rain we had been driving in was starting to turn into snow flurries so I felt ok with our choice to be wimps.
As soon as we exited the tunnel we entered France, though we did go thru an unmanned border crossing a couple of kilometers later. The drive down was on steep roads with a fair amount of switchbacks, for a few kilometers it was quite foggy which had our speeds down to a crawl. After the fog it rained most of the way down into Toulouse.
Despite the weather and the steep road we were still ahead of our 2:30 arrival so I pulled into a SuperU grocery to allow Ton some recreational shopping. After about 45 minutes we left with a handful of things including some white Asparagus that Ton wants to try her hand at cooking.
We finally arrived at the campground about 3pm only to find that it was still closed. I found a place on the road to park and walked up to the gate to see if I could see anyone. I finally located a maintenance guy who opened the gate and showed us to a spot and told me to go pay at 5pm.
We had packed up François, and I stuck my head in to tell Ton I was going to disconnect the electricity when she said I read a couple of articles this morning and there are some things to do here. So ten minutes before hitting the road out of Andorra we decided to head into town instead.
Armed with some ideas from a travel blog our initial destination was a street the blogger had labeled as the Champs Elyse of Andorra. It turns out that it is the main shopping street of Andorra, and is lined with high end shops, but surprisingly few restaurants. It had Paris beat for mountains in the background, but the blogger had a pretty vivid imagination to see a resemblance to one of the most famous streets in the world.
Our next stop was to see a statue that Salvador Dali donated to Andorra. It was located next to the Riu Valira which is the river that runs thru town. As soon as you see the sculpture you know it is a Dali.
To tell the truth we spent most of our time today in a LeClerc Hypermarket. This one was different than any we had been in in France, as about 20% of the stock was liquor. Tax free liquor is one of the biggest attractions in Andorra, and this LeClerc was prepared to provide the attraction.
We left the LeClerc with some chocolate souvenirs from Andorra for friends at home. The weather was nearly perfect, and the town was not overcrowded so in the end we were satisfied with our decision to stay on and give Andorra a chance.
We did watch a video in the tourist information center highlighting the extensive mountain trail system in Andorra. Unfortunately for us those days are coming to a close, but if it is your thing I think there is another side of Andorra that we did not experience.
We began what is going to be a long trek north back to the Netherlands with a short in distance drive to Andorra, a new country for us. Andorra is one of the mini-countries in Europe with a population of about 87,000. Like Monaco it is a principality though it has two heads of state, the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, it is a long story.
The drive was relatively short in distance, but took a little over 3 hours to cover as it was almost all two lane roads instead of the Autovias we have been spoiled with on this trip. the final hour was on a mountainous but well built and maintained road. Our trip was extended a bit because there were three semis delivering large concrete blocks to Andorra and they were frequently down to about 50 kph on the steep grades, by the end there was quite a parade of impatient drivers behind them.
Andorra is not in Schengen so we were expecting a border crossing and had our documents ready, but when we arrived at the border the Spanish side was unmanned, and the Andorran side was manned but they were not checking every vehicle or any vehicle as near as we could tell, so in the end the documents went unused.
What Andorra is really known for is cheap fuel and no sales tax shopping. As soon as you cross the border there are about 8 fuel stations in the first 5 kilometers and two big malls. We took advantage of the fuel to get our second cheapest fuel of the trip at €1.17, another good day for the budget.
We arrived at our campground in the capital of Andorra which is a small town packed into a narrow valley. The mountains above the town are quite striking, but the town didn’t make much of an impression on us. Ton wisely sent me out to take a look at the town, and after a 45 minute trek I returned to tell her that it may be the least charming town I have seen in Europe. She laughed and said that is what she had read. So we settled in to plan our next stop for tomorrow, and a nice home cooked dinner.
We were up early to see Kit and Stephen off on their trip home. We hope they enjoyed their taste of RV’ing in Europe. It was fun having traveling companions for part of the trip, and is a very different way to see places than just with the two of us.
Since we were up early we decided to get our laundry taken care of. The campground here had nice commercial washers and dryers so it was done with quickly. One thing Ton and I have noticed on this trip is in Spain most of the campgrounds have now invested in commercial washers and dryers which is a big improvement over our first trip thru Spain nearly 7 years ago. Washing clothes is not nearly the chore it was back then.
The rest of the day was spent giving François a thorough scrub down, and finding a place for all of the food we inherited from Kit and Stephen. It was mid-afternoon before we finished. The afternoon was spent lazing around a much quieter campground as all of the Spanish had returned to work. We had planned an evening walk on the beach, but about 5pm a big thunderstorm was forming inland and it hit in force about 6. By the time it ended Ton was comfortably under the covers so no romantic walk on the Mediterranean tonight.
Today was Stephen and Kits last day with their motorhome, so our primary goal was to get near Barcelona so they could clean up and pack for their trip home. We left Valencia early and headed up the coast to the campground we had stayed at early in the trip. After a 3 hour drive on a pretty quiet Autovia we arrived at a very full campground. We got two spots together and they began cleaning while Ton and I stayed out of the way.
After they finished packing we went out for a farewell to Spain lunch. We enjoyed another great seafood meal and a final pitcher of Sangria. We later sat around and talked until the sun went down.
Today we visited the third largest city in Spain. Valencia didn’t make a big impression on Ton or me during our first visit. It wasn’t bad it just wasn’t that memorable. So for me at least it felt like a first visit as I could only vaguely recall what we had seen here last time. For Ton, she had more complete memories of the town, it just had not made a strong impression on her. Of course, for Stephen and Kit it was their first visit.
Our campground feels like it is quite a way out of town, so I was surprised when I punched in the city center on google that the ride into town was only about 20 minutes. So the day got off to a good start as we arrived quickly in the Plaza of the Virgins.
We debated whether to join a free tour, but after some thought we decided to tackle the city on our own. So of course we headed off to the Cathedral first. It was impressive of course, but not particularly memorable. We were more impressed with some of the towers we passed in route to the Cathedral.
We next went to the city hall which is located on a monumental square surrounded by 8 and 9 story buildings. The city hall is an impressive building, but what struck me was that the square was constructed in the 1880’s when most of the city walls were torn down. So the square is relatively new construction which explains why the buildings are a little taller than those that usually surround these major squares.
Ton was joking as we walked today that we have a pattern down for visiting cities, first the Cathedral, then the main square, and then the market. So we headed off to the central market.
The market was the highlight of the day. It is quite large, and like Murcia still focuses on selling unprepared food. There was a dizzying array of fish, meat, spices, alcohol, vegetables, and fruit to look at. Ton was in heaven. I tried a Horchata which is a famous drink from Valencia made from almonds. It was better than I expected, and Ton really liked it.
The next hour was spent going from stall to stall looking at what was on offer. Valencia claims the invention of Paella. In our time we have eaten a great deal of Paella in Spain, and Ton had made it clear that whatever we had for lunch it was not going to be Paella. So while we saw a lot of Paella being produced to take home, we were not tempted.
After the market Ton wanted to look at a section of town that is famous for street art. We never quite found the center of it, but did see a few buildings with nice art on them.
After our quest for street art, we stumbled onto a nice tapas place. Stephens one question to the waitress was did they have Sangria, she replied of course so we sat down. Sangria was Stephens number 1 priority for lunch as he realized we had not had any on the trip and he could not return to the US from Spain without tasting Sangria. It was delicious.
After lunch we were on our way to the Serranos towers, when we noticed a museum that had an interesting courtyard. We poked our head in and a lady informed us that it was free today. The museum was located in a Gothic era convent, so without the art the building was fascinating.
The art was very modern, and some was done digitally which is not something I have experienced before. I found it fascinating and really enjoyed it. I was happy that we had wandered across it in our walk.
Our final stop for the day was at the Serrano Towers which was the old main entrance to the old town when it was walled. Today the various gates from the walls are all that remain as the walls were removed over the years to make for better flow within the city. The Serrano Towers are impressive.
Stephen and Kit decided they wanted to climb the tower which is about 200 steps. Ton and I volunteered to watch their packs so they could be unencumbered for their climb. So while they did the climb Ton and I sat in the shade on a nice bench.
After the tower we headed back towards the bus to the campground. While the distance to the bus stop was relatively short, it took a while as there was Gelato to be eaten as well as some last minute gifts to be bought. We finished our day off with another game of Portuguese Rummy.
I think we did Valencia a disservice after our first visit. After today Ton and I wished we had another day or two to visit so we could continue exploring Valencia. There is more to the city than we realized after our first visit.
We operated on a laid back schedule today. Wake up when we were ready, drive 200 kilometers to Valencia and find a place to settle in for the day. We arrived around 1pm and settled into the campground which is in a national park
After a shared lunch everyone spontaneously declared it would be a good time for a siesta. So after a good siesta that lasted until about 6pm we all reconvened for dinner.
After dinner we walked to the beach to view sunset. The beach was really wide and long, but empty. Stephen had walked down during the siesta and said there were a few people on the beach earlier, but they had all left by the time we got there. All in all a quiet relaxed day that is pretty boring to write about.
Murcia is not on any tourist hot list for Spain. It is a good sized city in an agricultural area, but has a reputation as a place that you go to for business, but not for fun. So we were looking forward to seeing the city.
We started at the cathedral as we do in many cities. The cathedral was large and imposing as intended, but not particularly interesting on the outside. We entered and I hesitated because a mass was going on. But the mass occupied a small part of the cathedral, and the rest appeared to be open to visitors. I enjoyed walking thru the cathedral and appreciated it more because the sound of the mass was in the background. It tied the spiritual part of the cathedral to the architectural part in a way I didn’t expect.
Our next stop was the old casino in the center of the city. It is still known by its original name of Real Casino de Murcia (Royal Casino of Murcia). But it is now a social club whose membership costs €2000 per year. They allow tours of the club and it is an interesting building.
There are many rooms and each is decorated differently. The style is classical casino, without the games, so it is not subtle. Each room had a theme and was decorated to reflect that theme.
After the casino we walked the streets of the town and enjoyed the afternoon ambiance. There were a few fellow tourists around, but most of the people were locals going about their business.
When a town center has not been turned into a tourist theater we notice that the makeup of the shops on the streets change. The stores are more geared to meet the needs of the people who live there, so you see shops selling hardware, and vegetables, and electronics. It is a subtle difference but we like the feel better than rows of t-shirt shops, and authentic “name your country/city” goods. For us the stores are more interesting and since we are traveling on longer trips often more useful to us.
Our lunch was again excellent, the main dish was called a cauldron. It is a local dish of rice and seafood, but prepared quite differently than Paella which is THE Spanish rice and seafood dish. I think I liked the Cauldron better as the spices were more interesting. .
Our last stop for the day was the “Puente de Los Peligros”. The English translation would be “The Dangerous Bridge.” It didn’t look particularly dangerous, but the river walk leading up to it was nice and because there has been a lot of rain in the mountains the color of the water was particularly interesting.
The day had started with rain, but for most of the time we had been walking we had clear skies. But as we approached the bridge the skies turned ominous and just as we left the bridge a real downpour began and drove us undercover. At that point we decided to hail a taxi and head back to the campground.
We spent the next couple of hours huddled up in François listening to the rain and in my case sleeping. After the rain let up we had another nice meal prepared by Kit with Tons help. The evening ended with another round of Portuguese rummy before we called it a night.
Murcia is not a city catering to tourists. It does have some tourist infrastructure but it is not overrun with tourists which is why I think I found it more interesting than some of the more famous cities we have visited in Spain.
A short blog entry to accompany a long drive. Kit and Stephen are coming to the end of their trip so as always happens on these trips the last few days feel like a rush to cover kilometers back to the drop off point. Today we covered a little over 400 kilometers to Murcia. The plan is to go into the town tomorrow and check it out.
The drive went smoothly the only hitch being the aire we had picked for the day was not open when we arrived. It is one of the highest rated places I have ever seen on Park4night, including a 5 star review from today. But, when we arrived it looked empty, a bit forlorn and the gate was locked; a little weird. Luckily Murcia had another well reviewed aire and we shifted there and it is also very nice. We settled in had an excellent Thai meal, a game of Portuguese Rummy and called it a night.
It was a relaxing start to the day. We headed over to the train station about 10am. I had done a recon earlier and discovered how to buy the tickets after many failed attempts, so we were armed with tickets. The aire here while secure is located in a pretty iffy part of town. The good news it was a short walk to the train station. Three stops later we were in the center of the city.
We started out in the market. Ton had a great time walking the aisles in the large market that featured all of the staples; Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Spices. There was a mix of locals shopping for staples, and tourists looking at the locals shopping for staples. Fortunately, this one has not converted to a glorified food hall like many of the markets in Spain we have visited. Ton bought some pickled egg plants that we are looking forward to trying. The lady at the shop even showed her what parts to remove before eating which we wouldn’t have known.
We had visited Malaga on our first trip and it was raining. We enjoyed the visit then, but I remembered the town as not being that crowded with tourists. Unlike that first visit the weather was perfect today, and the crowds were out in force. We suspect there was a cruise ship in town, but we never went down to the waterfront to confirm it.
We visited the Cathedral and the Roman Theater, but a lot of today was spent popping into little shops to buy gifts and souvenirs. A lot of the buildings look like they were built in the 1880’s and 1890’s as they had cast iron frames and pillars that were prominent in those days.
We came across a fancy restaurant, and Ton immediately recognized it as the one we had eaten in on our first visit. It was on Kit’s list of places to eat so lunch was decided. Ton and I split a skillet of Black Seafood Rice, Stephen and Kit tried a variety of Tapas like dishes. Our dish is made with squid ink which gives it its color. It is one of my favorite dishes.
After lunch which was on a Spanish time schedule, so we were done with it about 2:30 we did some more shopping. Ton and I wanted to revisit one of the most memorable drinking experiences we have had. There is a Sherry bar in Malaga that has been in business since the 1840’s, it was atmospheric on our first visit so we wanted to see if it was as good as we remembered it. It was more crowded, but once we managed to push our way up to the bar, we got a sherry and a vermouth. They still wrote our tab in chalk on the bar in front of us. It was as good as we remembered it and we took a liter of vermouth back to François for future consumption.
The sherry place was our last stop for the day. I was concerned that I might have messed up the ticket purchase in the morning for the return trip and my concerns were correct. When our tickets didn’t work I asked an employee if I could correct the problem for the card we had, he asked what I had done, and after I explained it he said follow me and led us to a gate that he unlocked and told us “have a good trip” as he released us into the train station. Another nice gesture that will keep Malaga on my favorite city in Spain list.
When I think of majestic, in nature I think of the Grand Canyon. If it is man made I think of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. We visited Cordoba a few years ago on our second trip thru Spain and I was blown away by the majesty of the interior of this building originally built as a Mosque, and then converted to a Cathedral after the re-conquest of Spain.
Like the Grand Canyon it is hard to capture the majesty of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba in photos. It is best appreciated in person with all of your senses engaged.
The interior space feels more Islamic than Christian with large spaces in the Cathedral just devoted to space filled with columns and arches that encourage you to contemplate. The lighting is mostly natural and it enhances the architecture.
When the Mosque was captured the Christian conquerors made a conscious decision to retain a lot of the Mosque as it stood. In fact when the sacristy was placed in the center of the Cathedral in the 1700’s it was controversial and criticized by senior church leaders for disrupting the flow of the building.
Ton and I were both nervous about revisiting a place that had made such a big impression on us as second visits sometimes reduce the good first impression. In the case of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, we were more impressed. We entered at the opening so the crowd was less at first and we could really enjoy the size and austere grandeur of the place.
Unfortunately, we thought we had to get moving towards Granada. From the beginning we had told Kit and Stephen that the Alhambra in Granada was the one place they must see in Spain. Right after they arrived we had them look at available dates to tour the Alhambra, and tomorrow was the only day available.
They had booked with a reputable tour company, but their booking had a funny addendum. It said the time of the tour would not be assigned until 12-48 hours before the scheduled date. They had received an email a few days ago confirming their reservation, but still not specifying their time.
We were in the process of packing, an aire had been selected to stay in at Granada, and all of the data had been plugged into GPS devices. Stephen came over and I thought he was going to tell me they were ready to leave. Instead he told me that the travel company had cancelled the tour. What a bummer, we felt sorry for them as it was a place they were excited to see, and we had planned our entire trip around this tour.
A quick meeting was held and options were considered. After looking at the logistics of things it was decided that Malaga would be the alternative to Granada. An Aire was found close to the city center, GPS coordinates were updated and about 1pm we were off for Malaga.
