The trip to the ferry home - Caen and Ouistreham

We left Le Colmbier fairly early today as we had a long drive to Caen ahead of us to get the overnight ferry home.  The drive was uneventful.  We got to Caen itself early in the evening and had a wander around the City and the Cathedral as well as doing some shopping for holiday gifts etc.

The ferry terminal is actually at a little town called Ouistreham so we drove there and still had plenty of time to spare so had a wander around the sea front and then had a delicious dinner in a small local restaurant.  We got on the ferry in plenty of time ready for the overnight crossing back to the UK.

Niort & Lucon

We had breakfast at the ten this morning but inside as it was raining on and off.  After making sure everything was secure we went for a drive, first going to Niort.  It was quite an interesting town and after exploring a market and some more religious places we had a nice lunch.  We visited the Donjon and then drove on to Lucon where we saw a cathedral and a funfair.  We got back to the campsite to find the porch pole on the tent broken due to the high winds.  Fortunately we have a repair kit so managed to repair the tent for its last night.

We had a light dinner of soup, bread and cheese at the tent and then went to the bar for a few drinks and games as our last night in France.

The Marais Poitevin

Much better weather greeted us today so we had a nice cooked breakfast at the tent and then drove to Fontenay le Comte again as Saturday is market day.  There was lots of interesting stalls and a very nice indoor covered market that puts Oxford’s to shame.  We bought a few bits including some more interesting cheeses and then drove to Marais (marshes) Poitevin to see a lovely ornithological park there.  It was also offering trips on boats that were drive a bit like punts.  We cheated and had one with a guide who did the punting for us.  There were some lovely views from in the marsh waterways and thankfully no crocodiles.  On the way back to the campsite we stopped in Vouvent to check out a recommended restaurant and we also had a little look in the church there.  Dinner was some nice poitrine cooked at the tent with French beans and some prepared salads.

La Roche sur Yon and a chocolate museum

Today started bright but heavy rain set in from about 11am.  The tent seemed to be keeping it out so we went to explore La Roche sur Yon, a town that Napoleon had re-founded in the 19th Century.   We had a nice lunch in a brasserie and sat there for a while waiting for the rain to subside.  After that we visited a little museum with some art and modern art.  We then had a brief wander around the Place Napoleon and had a play with the mechanical animals in the water there.  We visited a local church – name – and then went back to the car to drive to the chocolate museum just outside the town centre.

The museum gave a fascinating history of chocolate and how it came to Europe.  It also had a rather good chocolate shop!  Our evening meal was on the campsite again because it was still pretty wet.

Fontenay le Comte

We woke up to more rain today but it stopped fairly quickly and the day brightened up nicely.  After breakfast and some time relaxing on the campsite we went to visit Fontenay le Comte – a very pretty town about 30km away from our campsite.  We started the visit with a nice lunch in a brasserie then did a fascinating circular walking tour of the town.  It took about 3 hours and showed us lots of historically important sites including the Eglise Notre-Dame, the Pont Neuf and the Maison a Pan de Bois.  The walk was very well set-out with clear signposting and nice explanatory plaques by each site of interest, including with a small piece in English.

We returned to the campsite around 6.30pm and I had a swim then we had a nice dinner of steak, vegetables and salad cooked at our tent.

Onwards to the final campsite

We packed up this morning and left Eglantiere around midday.  We drove North via Auch and Agen to join the motorway towards out next campsite.  We arrived in the Vendée around 6pm and went to a Casino (supermarket not gambling establishment) to get a few supplies and some much needed petrol before arriving at our next campsite, Le Colombier, around 6.30pm.  We got our tent put up and everything ready just in time for more rain.  We had dinner at the campsite restaurant (not as good as Eglantiere) and a fairly early night.  It was a very rainy night but we stayed dry again

Néouvielle Massif

Today is our last day in the Haute Pyrénées department today and we have a long drive as well as taking down and putting up camp again tomorrow so we decided not to go too far.  We spent the morning at the campsite and then in the afternoon took a drive down to the Néouvielle Massif region of the Pyrenees.

We drove through lots of pretty towns on the long uphill drive towards the border with Spain.  We branched off to the right at Fabian and drove about 10km drive ascending just over 2,000m to the Lac de Cap du Long, an artificial lake made by the Barrage de Cap de Long, a dam that is part of EDFs local hydro-electric generation system.  We drove back down the long road from the dam very gently so as to avoid a repeat of the melted wheel trims event of last year.  We had our final dinner at the campsite and quite an early night ready for packing up in the morning and moving on to th
e Vendée.

St Bertrand de Comminges

After an incredibly heavy rain storm in the night, meaning sleep was rather disturbed, we got up quite late today.  Thankfully the tent had remained watertight.  After breakfast we drove to St Bertrand de Comminges, and important village in the area as it is the location of the cathedral Saint-Marie de St Bertrand de Comminges.  The cathedral is important in itself as a pilgrimage site but is also one of the ancient pilgrimage routes to Saintago de Compostela. We had lunch in St Bertrand de Comminges then drive back to the campsite for a swim and the introductory talk and drinks by the management.  It happens every Monday.  

The was presentation about the area was followed by drinks, introductions to the staff of the campsite – it’s very much a family-run affair – and then a barbecue for everyone that was really good fun as a good chance to meet new people and make new friends.  We all got to cook our own food on the barbecue too.

A day in Toulouse

We got up early today and after a nice breakfast of merguez, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes we headed off for the 100km drive to Toulouse.  We got there around noon and started out exploring with a coffee in Place du Capitole.

We visited the Donjon du Capital (now the tourist info centre), and la Basilique Saint Sernin.  We had lunch at Les Halles (market) Victor Hugo which has a nice first floor dining area with many restaurants.  After lunch we visited the Saint Etienne Cathedral and then walked to the Jardin des Plantes, through a fascinating antiques market.  We visited the Museé des Augustins the the église des Jacobins (the Dominicans) where Thomas Aquinas is buried.  We went and had a look at the River Garonne from the Pont Saint Pierre and the walked back via the Saint Pierre des Chartreuses church.

After the drive back to the campsite (through a lot of rain – the first we’d seen all day) we ate again at the Campsite restaurant and had some delicious prawns Provencale style.

Castelnau-Magnoac and the market

We got up to go and visit the market in Castelnau-Magnoac.  It was a good market with a wide choice of drinks, vegetables, cheese and meat.  We bought plenty of food and drink and went back to the campsite to get them refrigerated.  We had a nice lunch of bread, olives, cheese and saucisson.  The cheeses we bought were Napoleon (a local sheep’s cheese), Saint Nectaire (from the Auvergene) and Brie. We also explored a war memorial in the area.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around some of the trails on the campsite – it covers a big area – including up to the old farm where there is more accommodation and a sauna. In the evening we cooked our own dinner at the tent with some steak haché that we had bought at the market.

Auch and Condom

We went to visit two towns fairly close by today; Auch and Condom.  We had a nice lunch in Auch and had a wander round the cathedral there.  Auch has a big monumental staircase that goes down to the river Gers which we explored.  It included a statue of D’artagnan – the hero of the three musketeers.  In Condom we visited the cathedral and saw the statue of D’artagnan and the three musketeers outside it.  We had a look round the cloister of the cathedral and came back to the campsite for dinner.

A day at the campsite

Being more or less the middle of the holiday, today was washing day.  The weather was nice so we had a good cooked breakfast of bread, mushrooms, boudin, butter and jam and then did a couple of loads of washing as we are getting close to half way through the holiday now.  The day stayed sunny so we were able to get everything dry which was pleasing.  We joined the special campsite festive dinner in the evening and had a great meal and good conversation with a Dutch couple and a Danish Couple.

France at last!

We did a tour of Burgos Cathedral today and were really impressed by how well preserved and spectacular it is.  We took a picture also of one of the City gates and then set off on the drive to our next campsite. We stopped about 10 miles short of the Spanish/French border and had another typically Spanish lunch of tortilla and other raciones.  We filled up with petrol as it’s about 30c per litre cheaper in Spain than France.  We stopped off near to our next campsite at an Intermarché in Castelnau-Magnoac for a few provisions then got to our next Campsite, Eglantiere, at around 6pm. We had a rather long introduction and tour by a slightly over-zealous staff member – who was of course just trying to be helpful.  We got the tent put up and went over to the nice bar/restaurant/clubhouse area for dinner.

Moving on to Burgos

We packed up and left Camping Los Manzanos today to do the long drive to Burgos, our next overnight stop.  The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived at Burgos in the early evening to check into our hotel, Méson del Cid.  It was in a lovely location directly overlooking the really beautiful Burgos Cathedral.  After checking in and changing we went for a wander and found some dinner.

Santa Cruz and Betanzos

We didn’t want to drive too far today as it was our last day in Galicia and there’s a long drive tomorrow.  We had a leisurely breakfast at the campsite and then drive down into Santa Cruz, the nearest town to our campsite.  We looked at the Castello Santa Cruz but it wasn’t open so it was really just a nice walk around the bay.  We then drove the short distance to Betanzos which is actually a rather pretty town.  We walked around some of its churches and the city wall and got back to the campsite after topping up on a few provisions around 6.30pm.  We had dinner at the campsite restaurant ready for the long drive to Burgos tomorrow.

Lugo

We visited the town of Lugo today and found it very pretty and interesting.  It has an intact city wall that we walked all the way around, enjoying some good views of the city.  A surprising amount of the area inside the wall is either derelict or undeveloped.  We visited the provincial museum and then had a nice lunch in the open by the museum.  After lunch we went to the cathedral and looked at the town hall.  Lugo has an intact city wall that we walked all the way around, enjoying some good views of the city.  A surprising amount of the area inside the wall is either derelict or undeveloped.  Following the walk we had an ice cream at praza maior and then looked at a couple more churches before driving back to the campsite.  We had a dinner of crisps, beer, soup, bread, cheese and local rioja (costing the huge sum of 5 Euros!).

Beach and Malpica

We went beach exploring again today and went to a nice beach in Arteixo called Cambouzas.  It was a nice sunny and sandy cove with great facilities including bar, food, and toilets.  The sea was a bit rough but we managed a little dip before leaving the beach around 4.30pm.  We drove on then to Malpica, a little port town to the West of A Coruña.  We had an explore of that town and bought a few bits of food at some local shops there including a bottle of red wine for 1 euro that was actually quite nice.  We made dinner of pasta, chorizo, onion, garlic and tomato back at the tent.

Santiago de Compostela

We went to Santiago de Compostela today as it is the feat of St James, the patron saint of Spain.  The drive was about an hour and we had a good explore of the cathedral, followed by a nice tapas lunch.  We went to see the museum of pilgrimage and Santiago then we walked around the tour shown by the guide book we were using.  We visited the Convento de San Paio de Antealares and the Convento de San Martiño Pinariao.  We came back to the campsite for an evening of relaxing at the tent.

Beaches and old towns

Today we went exploring beaches and went to Doniños beach.  We also drove along to Cedeira, a very pretty town on the North cost of Galicia.  We visited San Andres de Teixido with its well preserved monastery and pilgrimage site.  A long drive back to the camp site won us a good meal of pizza and beer and some postcard-writing.

Exploring A Coruña

Today we decided to go into A Coruña to explore.  It’s quite a big city and we saw lots including the marina, the Hercules Column (although it was in a cloud), Plaza Santa Maria Pita, The Domus Museum, the Belas Artes Museum, Santiago Church, and St Dominica.  There was also a traditional mediaeval festival and market going on.  We came back to the campsite restaurant for another good meal.

The drive west across Spain to our first campsite

We arrived at Bilbao at 0745 local time after another great night’s sleep on the ferry.  We started the long drive to Galicia to our campsite which is just outside A Coruña.  It’ called Camping los Manzanos.  We got the tent up and popped out for some supplies then had a nice meal at the campsite restaurant.

A day at sea

We had a brief stop at Roscoff in Brittany to change crew and pick up supplies and then carried on South past Brittany.  There was an interesting talk about whales and other sea life prevalent in the area and we spent a relaxing day reading books and enjoying the lovely weather.  We had a nice meal in one of the ship’s restaurants in the evening followed by a quiz in the bar.  We came second.

Off on a long ferry trip to Bilbao

We had sung all the services at Westminster Abbey with CLCC this weekend so were quite tired.  We had the car and all our kit in central London so drove straight down to Portsmouth to get the ferry to Bilbao.  We had a curry on the way, which was rather good, and got to the ferry in plenty of time for our 2330 crossing.

Cardiff Castle and the journey home

We had breakfast and then checked out of the hotel this morning.  We walked over to Cardiff Castle and had a good explore - it has a lot of interesting history and has a museum of Welsh military history called "In the Firing Line".  It is an exhibition commemorating over 300 years of proud and distinguished history including the Battle of Waterloo 1815, Rorke’s Drift against the Zulus 1879 as well as recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

We had lunch at another nice little independent restaurant called Minuet and then had a look around the museum of Wales followed by a trip into Cardiff's Winter Wonderland and then the train back home.  It had been a fun trip and the bonus was that we had had some decorating done at home while we'd been away!

It was good to get another first class train home (Advance firsts are cheap) but rather disappointing that the first class lounge at Cardiff Station is not open at the weekends - we'd not have got there quite so early if we had known that!

Exploring Cardiff and a ballet

We got up fairly early today and had a nice breakfast in the hotel.  We had a good explore of Cardiff and had a look at its covered market.  It's clear that the council in Cardiff looks after it much better than Oxford City Council does the one in Oxford!  We visited St John the Baptist church and had a nice coffee there then joined an old University friend for lunch in the Gourment Burger Kitchen near the central library.  It was good to catch up.

After a bit more exploring we went back to the hotel for a rest and to take advantage of its nice spa.  The evening was spent at St David's hall at a performance of the ballet  Swan Lake by the Russian National Ballet and The Siberian National Ballet .  It was very enjoyable.   Afterwards we had dinner at a gorgeous Portuguese restaurant called Madeira - the food was excellent and served on skewers that hung from hooks in the ceiling!  It just shows that independent restaurants are often so much nicer than faceless chains with indifferent staff.

We had a drink afterwards at a famous pub called the Golden Cross and then went back to the hotel for bed.

A new year trip to Cardiff

After a busy Christmas and new year we thought a trip down to Cardiff for a couple of nights would be fun. We left this morning on a first class train and arrived in Cardiff around lunchtime.  While on the train I'd had an email from Strada with a lunch offer so we went and tried the one in Cardiff bay.  The food was fine but the service was awful.

After lunch we had a wander around the bay, visiting the Millennium Centre, the Norwegian Wooden church and the Senedd - the Welsh Parliament building.  We got a train then back into central Cardiff and booked into our hotel, the Hilton, which was pleasant.

Our evening consisted of a trip back to the Millenium Centre to see Singin' in the Rain.  It was a good performance and I've never seen so much water on a stage!  We got a bus back into town afterwards and visited a few bars before turning in for the night.