Travel Musings

 The three night stop at Covas, in Northern Portugal, was designed by Motorhome Tours as a time to relax after some hectic driving. It's deep, deep countryside on the top of a hill, and smothered with oak forests and some beautiful hedgerows. We found the village locals to be very friendly and helpful, but thank goodness for Google Translate. As all the roads and paths from the site were downhill, it of course meant the roads back were all uphill, very uphill, so nobody cycled. The village shop was a real throwback, selling shotgun cartridges, plumbing fittings and gardening equipment as well as a good range of groceries. At the local bar we discovered Portuguese Stout! A taste reminiscent of bottled Guinness before the widget. Very tasty. The group meal was our first introduction to Portuguese style eating. No seafood here, but a meat eaters paradise with platters piled high with chicken, beef and pork, all served with home made wine. Friday saw us more on southwards towards Vila ...

 Saturday started with a leisurely country road drive west from Santiago de Compostella to Noalla, in the north west corner of Spain. What a place this turned out to be. The campsite was right on the sea front, and only a few minutes walk to a beautiful white sand beach, mostly deserted. In the evening we all got together for a meal at the site restaurant  - simple but very tasty Gallican food. The following day four of us went exploring on our bikes, mostly around the shore line. Monday was an group bike ride to the really beautiful town of Sanxenxo (pronounce the x as a z and you're nearly there), and lunch at a tapas restaurant. Sheer seafood heaven. On the table I was on were scallops, langoustines, sardines and calamaris. Well, when in Rome... In the late afternoon we all went down to the beach for a swim in the sea. Yes, it was cool, but very refreshing. We are all going to miss this place. Today, Tuesday, we enter Portugal for the first time, to a very different rural s...

 The drive on Wednesday to Santiago de Compostella was a long five hour slog, but the scenery on the way was magnificent.  There was the Bay of Biscay to my right and the Cantabrigian Mountains to the left. In between a motorway with immense bridges and viaducts, and in superb condition. The only fly in the ointment was a vicious headwind that rocked everyone's vans. At one point I couldn't get above 30 mph, and that was going downhill! On Thursday there was a walking tour of Santiago with an excellent local guide. As you probably know Santiago is the end of a famous pilgrimage route called El Camino, so that was the main subject matter. The city centre is actually quite small, but impressive. Today, Friday, four of us went off on the bikes for a tour of the rest of the city, and I can say one thing for certain - Santiago is very, very hilly!  At the end we stopped at a bar for a few beers at a bar, where the tapas tradition is very much alive. Each drink ordered came wit...

 Location: Camping Picos de Europa, Avin, deep in the northern Spanish mountains. By Monday afternoon every van on the tour had arrived safely, and there was a welcoming meeting to start us off, with seemingly unlimited beer and wine to help loosen the tongue. Most people had already tried out the excellent site indoor pool, and equally excellent restaurant. On Tuesday there was, if wanted, a walk in the local woodlands, followed by a group lunch at a nearby restaurant. Dave Campin and I decided to use our bikes and cycle to a town called Cangas de Onis, some 16 km away, and then meet up with everyone at the restaurant on the way back. Cangas has a feature called the Roman Bridge, which is unusually shaped, but actually built in the twelfth century on the site of a roman bridge. It's a pleasant little town, and the trip was on very good roads, and wonderful views of the surrounding peaks. Wednesday sees us drive about four hours west to a site in Santiago de Compostella, a famous p...

 Well, I got here (the start of the tour) in one piece after 1250 miles. The journey down was a bit of a slog - about five hours continuous driving each day. However three of us did it in convoy, and another  couple did their own thing. First stop was at an Aire in a small town in Normandy, where the four vans met up for the first time. By the way, sorry if the photos are not in order or the right place, but I'm having problems connecting the laptop and this is being done on my phone. The next stop was at Chef-Boutonne, north of Bordeaux to meet up with the tour organisers Giles and Linda, at a pleasant little site. On Friday we headed off to St Jean du Luz, just five miles from the Spanish border. Two nights here at a very swish site, and the town itself is very pretty. See photos above. Sunday saw us travel to Avin, in the Spanish Pyrenee, to a site where tour members had already started gathering, so there was much meeting and greeting. Quite a few have been on previous tou...