Spain North Coast

As soon as we cross the border into Spain the scenery changes immediately there are all white unit blocks with all forms of colourful laundry hanging from every window. We arrive in San Sebastian with Nikki and grant a Brissy couple we met at Hossegor. We find a campground 5 km out of town perched ontop of a steep mountain so our idea of cycling into town is squashed. Our mountain home appears to have it's own micro climate as hailstorm after hailstorm rolls thru- lou's pink board has now seen more hail than surf!

With our umbrellas being turned inside out from wild winds our only option is to find refuge in the old town (parte vieja) and drink and eat the day away! We find a great Tapas bar called Astelena and a friendly waiter who decodes the menu for us and even lets Lou behind the bar to pour Cider the old fashioned way (as far away from the glass as possible). Our food consumption goes something like this......chorizo, prawns skewers, meat skewers, baby octopus, pistachio croquettes, beef cheek stew, salmon crepes, tuna taco and frogs legs. Needless to say we leave full and burping chorizo all the way back up the mountain.

More tapas for lunch the next day, crowded little bar, not enough room to even put your food to your mouth. When you are done throw your napkin, toothpick etc on the ground and tell the bartender how much you’ve eaten! No not to show off ….. It’s an honesty system for paying. Next we moved onto Zarautz- green rolling hills and a golf course all the way down to the ocean. Yet again we find a way to camp at the very top of any hill…..great sunset views but a killer workout to get into town or surf. All four of us ((Nikki, Grant, Paul and Lou) decide it’s time to go out for dinner and try the local cider. With what we think is a great local tip we head to a nearby cider house (at 8pm we are the first to arrive). Stale bread should’ve been a big hint but we continued to order the “special menu” , an hour late after a plate of fried food, low quality lamb chops and Sara-lee dessert we were less than satisfied! Maybe the “special menu” is for “special tourists”.

A few days later we arrive at Mundaka surf heaven, the waves are triple overhead, local surf shop owner towing guys in on jet ski says 20 boards were broken that day. He is clutching his back cause he hurt it in surf and says he’s off to the Chiro….Lou keeps mouth shut! Our attempt to find a carpark in town (which is actually only a couple of streets) ends with a guy donning a fluro vest trying to clean up mess of cars we’ve created and one crazy Spaniard waving arms frantically yelling Grande Grande pointing to Nikki and Grant's massive motorhome.

Strolling around town we lock eyes with two old men sitting on a bench in traditional black berets. Paul who has been our Spanish translator takes it upon himself to say a cheerful “ola” which is met with silence and heads turned swiftly away he is devastated and still talking about it hours later.

The next day we are off to explore the beaches further west of Mundaka tom tom says we are 10 mins away when all of a sudden the road is closed, no signs, no detour. There is however a small dirt track nearby with ‘open’ gates, we decide it must be the alternate route so the little red van goes up up and away. The higher we go the more convinced we are that it’s a mine site, and sure enough eventually a dump trunk tells us to turn around.

We say goodbye to our new friends and set off for Portugal, about an hour from the border we are pulled over by an overly enthusiastic highway patrol officer, who hits us with a 40 euro fine for not having a warning sign on our bike rack! “Soy Australiano” I am Australian doesn’t seem to impress him much and neither does asking for a warning only- “not possible” he says in very good english!

Streets of old town San Sebastian

we are just like the locals

Bartender Lou pouring cider in San Sebastian

Grant, Nikki, Paul and Lou

Frogs legs......but look like little frogs bums......nice legs!

Grant and Nikki at San Sebastian

"green Spain"

"the rain in Spain........"

Lou picking daisies

From Zarartz camp spot

Nikki practicing her cider pouring skills  

 

Little cove around the corner from Mundaka

Little cove around the corner from Mundaka

.....yeah ours is the fancy red one

Mundaka - big waves

Mundaka port

at Mundaka

The sign read "for sale"

Chilli's and drying underwear might not mix!

France

North/West France

Bonjour! oui oui we are in France! Arrive in a small French campground in a small French village across the border outside Rouen. No tourists, when we said in our best French "hello we are Australian, we don't speak French do you speak English" he said no...... we hadn't really planned on that sooo back to French 101 lessons in the van.

What’s the French word for freakin freezing? Wake to ice on the windows and frost on the ground. It was -1' outside which essentially means inside too. We have spent far too many hours trying to refill our gas bottle which now appears impossible. Stopped by Le Mont St Michael a medieval abbey perched on a giant rock that well just doesn’t seem to belong, you can see it jutting out on the coast for kilometers, yet another impressive piece of history and architecture ruined by shops, next to shops next to shops selling tacky souvenirs and scary looking kebabs and waffles.

Crozon peninsula is next, this was meant to be our first taste of surf but absolutely no swell around just a beautiful coastline. Instead we had to settle for reading books in the sun by the beach, having our first zero money spent day and eating fresh baguettes (less than one euro so doesn’t count). We are trying to wake up early which essentially means 8:30am (what’s the point if the sun hasn’t even cracked a few rays). We just can’t get over the 7m tides here, at low tide the beach looks a little something like Kirra does all the time

Onto Quiberon, this stretch of coast rivals the great ocean road. Unspoilt, rugged and rocky, with kilometers of walking tracks. Yet again no swell, we find one break that is barely surfable but a lot of keen as a bean Frenchies have too, plus our van is too high to get under all the height restriction bars that seem to be way too popular on this stretch of coast so we give it a miss. Onto bottle number 4 of French Bordeaux wine so we’ve started to rank them!

Then comes a day we’d rather forget in Les Sables. Narrow streets, incorrect GPS co-ordinates , 4 hours of searching for a place to stay followed by divorce papers being drawn up, Lou was forced to eat McDonalds for dinner which wasn’t pretty, being pulled over by some kind of SWAT team and ending in a restless night spent sleeping in a golf resort car park. We didn’t actually end up seeing Les Sables after all.

Central west coast

Arrive in Le Tranche, we have been in the town no more than 10 mins and Lou buys a surfboard, hot pink ex rental with a cheesy “surf rocket” written on it. Paul reckons he’s still man enough to surf it! We try out the new board just down the road at Longeville sur mer. Meet a lovely Welsh couple Andy and Katie and can’t forget captain their dog, we spend a couple of days parked at the entrance to the beach, surfing, cycling, playing frisbee, drinking wine (1.45 Euro for 1 litre) and playing cards with new friends (more of the latter if we are honest.)

Spend a night in Soulac Sur mer, this is yet another ghost town in the winter months. We think that daylight savings has changed but there is no-one around to ask. Then onto Lacanau ocean which is a fantastic town with slightly more activity than the previous coastal towns. Incredible sunset, spend two days camping next to a pine tree forest. Becoming very intimate with surfboard as it sleeps with us every night. The surf is huge and wild, winds onshore, did someone say washing machine?

South West France

The Atlantic Ocean washing machine look is getting a little tiring. It’s time to do some weather analysis ….3 hours of internet, a cup of coffee and a choc croissant later we emerge from a café. With hopeful hearts we are heading to Hossegor to wait for some promising surf!

We’ve hit camping jackpot in Capbreton just 5 minutes south of Hossegor. We are in a carpark right behind the beach there is electricity hook up and water, a public toilet for Lou, a bread van rather obnoxiously honks it’s horn every morning and the whole thing cost 6 Euro. We sit up on the top of the sand dunes with views of some impressive war bunkers and a magical sunset. A couple of days go by like this and every day the surf looks better, we string up an outdoor shower (what more could a girl want). Then came the day the god of surf made Paul happy; the beach break infront of our camping heaven turns on big, perfect, heavy, barreling waves. Paul, ever the supportive husband takes a break from massive waves to watch Lou on much smaller ones. We cycle into town Paul carrying Lou’s board under one arm Lou cycles closely behind in full steamer wetsuit. What a team! What a sight!

All good things must come to an end, the bread van didn’t arrive one morning but a hail storm did so we packed up and headed over the border to San Sebastian Spain.

What have we learnt

1. Never go bushwalking on a Sunday (it’s hunting day).
2. It is possible to love choc croissants more everyday
3. Opening hours are flexible and unreliable.
4. They don’t all wear black and white striped shirts just like we don’t ride to work on kangaroos
5. If in France -speak french damnit!
6. “It is not possible” means –bugger off tourist!
7. The biggest danger in France is stepping in Dog poo.

Biarritz 1

Andy and Katie LaTranche France

Biarritz 2

Biarritz 3

Biarritz 4

Biarritz 5

camping spot in Lacanau Ocean

Capbreton afternoon glass off

Capbreton Beach looking towards Hossegor

Capbreton Beachie 3

Capbreton Beachie and someone with a sore head

City Transport in Hossegor France

Hossegor beachfront camping views

Hossegor beachies 2

Hossegor Capbreton  beachies - smoking!

Hossegor Capbreton beachies

Hossegor out of control in big swell

Lacanau Ocean beachfront France

Lacanau Ocean sunset France

Lou checking out the surf

Lou wishes this is her

Lou with her new board

The driver and co-driver of the red van

Uncrowded morning session in Hossegor in front of camp site

Unknown in Capbreton Beachie

Unknown tucked into a barrel in Hossegor

Yes bodyboaders still get dropped in on in France

Belgium

As we crossed the border into Belgium we discovered that our gearbox no longer worked! Managed to pull off highway into an unmanned service station with only 4^th gear and rang Donna. They drive 1.5 hours to our rescue with an identical van to ours, dodgy mechanic Hussein pulls part out of van they are driving and puts it in ours and then somehow winds a bit of wire around his and drives 1.5 hours home (we think they made it).

Start most days with a choc croissant and a van made espresso coffee (quality is slowly improving). Have also started our daily French lessons (half hour, teacher is Lou, students paul and lou). Things aren’t looking good on the language front. Arrive at Ghent great little campground here with yet another very flat cycle path into town. Our suspicions are yet again confirmed that people have given up on camping for this year. Paul continues to be amazed how cheap beer is 6pk for 1.39 euro, lou amazed at how much chocolate she can convince paul to buy.

Ghent is a very cool city, large student population. Town Centre has an eerie gothic Belfry with a dragon on top, apparently a very important symbol keeping watch over the townsfolk in the middle ages. Find out that French fries actually originated in Belgium (apparently). Brugge is truly wonderful little city, would take your breath away if it weren’t for all the tourists (us included) the entire city is like one big open air museum. Went on an underwhelming brewery tour, paul begins to restrict lou’s chocolate purchasing. Waffles are divine.

Find out from home that Shell has had little baby Zach, soo excited. Celebrate with beer in great little café, informative waiter but tipsy cycle home thru cobblestone streets was…. Interesting.

Brussels, with choc croissant again in hand we set off to see the capital of Belgium and Europe for that matter. We didn’t think it was possible but the buildings in the Grand Plaza here are even more spectacular than Ghent and Brugge. A map for young Tourists that we read basically suggested it’s all same same but these buildings made us stand a little longer in the freezing wind.

After a short stroll we were standing in front of the famous Manneken Pis (a statue of a pissing boy) it’s tiny, he’s tiny and that’s all we have to say! We gave the pissing dog statue a miss.

What have we learnt?

1. Cars don’t work well without gearbox
2. Porta potti is worth the hassle
3. Cobblestone streets prove problematic on the bike (tour de France are nuts).
4. Don’t take van into big city/may not fit down narrow streets.
5. Chocolate in supermarkets are very tasty without tourist price tag
6. There are true Brussels waffles (icing sugar only on top) and Liegeois waffles (sugar baked into waffle, nothing on top) and tourist waffles (lots of chocolate, strawberries and sugar on top). Lou tries them all just to be sure.

Which bike is mine?

After the Brewery Tour

Ghent?

Lou eating Brussells' fries

Brugge beer tour....did anyone know that a "Brisbane games" beer was produced?

Paul and Lou in Ghent...bit chilly

another Ghent clock tower (belfry)

The office

The lounge room

....when in rome......so many Belguim beers!

anyone for a lollie?

In Belgium Australian ice cream is famous........In Australia, Belgium ice cream is famous....the grass is always greener!

"Manneken Pis" (on a cold day)

Belgium waffles

Grand Plaza Brussels

Brussels