The Pyrenees and Basque Country

Since we weren´t very impressed by the French Riviera beaches, we headed towards the Pyrenees stopping at a campground in a town called La Tour de France for a night(nothing to do with a famous cycling race, but we thought it was a cool name anyway). Then headed to a village on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees called Benasque where we spent a couple of days hiking. The border with France was literally over the ridge so we headed over there for the day. Lets just say, we weren´t that impressed by it when we came across a naked Frenchman lying in the grass at the top of a pass (very weird!). We also attempted to climb/walk up Mt Aneto which is the highest in the Pyrenees, but unfortunately the weather closed in on us as we reached the col about 100m from the top and we made the decision to turn around for the knee breakingly steep path back down the valley... our mistake that day was not knowing that we could have avoiding the first 2 boring hours of walking up to a refuge by taking a 4wd bus, as all the other hikers did! Luckily we made it back to the refuge to catch the last bus down at the end of the day so we avoided walking in the thunderstorm which began once we were safely back in the car. Dinner that night was cooked out of the door of the car in between the lightning and thunder whilst pools of water grew and grew in the campsite around us - we had no choice but to eat what we had in the car, as the Duke wouldn´t have made it out of the mud!




We then headed to the Ordesa area of the Spanish Pyrenees for another couple of days including some awesome wild camp spots - one in some old ruins near the road end (where lots of people seemed to be free camping mostly in campervans), and one at 2200m overlooking the huge Ordesa canyon. We hiked up the canyon for a day with our gear, including a small section to get out of the canyon via chains and pegs (Alex took the more sensible alternative path). Although the camp spot was next to a very popular refuge with dozens of people milling around, it was a very peaceful spot - just chilling out in the sun and watching the sheep follow each other in long lines on the other side of the valley. We camped the night then decided to head up towards Monte Perdido (3rd highest mountain in the Pyrenees) for a couple of hours before heading back down to the car as we had to get going out of the Pyrenees that day. We weren´t expecting to get very far as we had struggled with understanding the hiking maps as they are all in Spanish and don´t seem to have graded routes, all the trails look the same on the map and yet some could require mountaineering gear whilst others were bus routes! The trail was busy though and as we kept going we became more and more confident that perhaps the top was within our reach. Still the last couple of hundred vertical metres were very steep scree slopes so it was 2 steps up and then 1 step/slide down! Just after 10am though, we made it to the top with beaut views in all directions including down into France. The scree run down was fun too, and I was very glad we headed up so early as the top was shrouded in cloud by the time we arrived back at our tent. As Alex had carried the daypack up to the top, I agreed to carry the tent back down the canyon along with the rest of my gear (well Alex suggested and I didn´t say otherwise). It all backfired when I twisted my ankle going downhill 5 minutes later! Alex took the tent back and some of my other gear as well.






We spent that evening drinking Sangria and eating tapas in Pamplona and then drove to Bilbao on Friday morning to meet up with Dani - a friend of Alex´s from his Cincinnati/San Fran days. We have been living it up for the last 3 nights here, sleeping in a real bed (after 17 days camping), eating at a table and sitting on a couch - wow, how luxurious! We have done a bit of sightseeing around Bilbao including checking out the famous Guggenheim Museum (thanks Dani for the free tickets!), experiencing a traditional Basque festival in a small town called Plenxtia where teams of dressed up teenagers were playing organised games of musical chairs and relay races involving spinning around a broomstick (so its impossible to run in a straight line). The antics were all lubricated by Kalimotxo (pronounced Calimocho) - a quite yummy concoction of cheap red wine and coke which we have partaken in every night since staying here! We must remember it as its very refreshing although I´m not sure very cheap wine is available in oz or nz - a litre of table wine here costs 55 Euro cents (that´s about AU$1!)

Today we headed to the beach for the day, a place called Mundaka which is famous for its surf break although today the tide was too high for good waves. Alex and I attempted to get rid of our terrible t-shirt tans (from all the hiking) but I think we have just managed to make more crazy patterns. Luckily the sun is not nearly as strong as in Oz/Nz as it was a serious all day outing - probably because we had to get a ride in a boat belonging to one of Danny´s friends across to the beach on the other side of the estuary. We have been eating pretty well here too, lunch at about 3 (as they do here) was spanish ommelette in a footlong roll from a very popular place at the beach, and dinner was the most massive burgers I have ever seen (we shared 2 burgers between 3 people and it was plenty). Thanks for having us Dani (and Maria)!



Tomorrow we leave for the home straight back to the UK, via Biarritz, Bordeaux and some beaches.

Land of cowbells and rosti

We have taken Alex's old car (the Duke), which is now his dad's, across the English Channel on the ferry and are doing a ticki tour for a few weeks. Surprisingly, driving on the right with a right hand drive car isn't that difficult, I think it is actually easier than driving a left hand drive on the right (which we did in the States and I found difficult to keep in the correct lane!).

We made a whistlestop tour to Rotterdam to see Trina who had just moved into her new flat. She took us out to dinner beside a lake and two obligatory windmills so that we felt cultured! The next morning Trina had her first day with the kids at school and so left early with specific arrangements for us to leave the key in an envelope in the hallway when leaving her flat. We had a leisurely morning in no rush until we realised that the girl living upstairs who uses the same hallway had put the deadlock on the main door which we didn't have a key for... oh dear, we were either stuck in the flat until Trina came home that evening or we had to scale the 3m high back wall of her garden and then hope there was an escape route that way. Then it started raining. We went for the latter option even though it had its risks - neighbours might see and we might just land in someone else's enclosed garden on the other side! We used our climbing skills to hoist ourselves up the creeper on the wall, then sat on the top contemplating. There was vacant land covered with stinging nettle on the other side (and a rogaine marker Alex pointed out), and it wasn't clear whether we could get to a road that way. Better out than in we thought and slid down a tree into the nettles (with our random bags of clothes and gear). Luckily we found a walkway around the side of some flats and a door leading one way out (it was locked from the road side). We were ecstatic and walked around the block to post the key and find the car. Trina must have wondered what was going on when she found our note in the flat saying 'Hope we made a clean getaway!'


We had a long drive ahead of us, about 800kms to reach the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. The texts kept coming every time we entered a new country, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and finally Switzerland. We could have driven through a bit of Germany as well but thought that 6 countries was enough for one day! We arrived in Lucerne that evening, for a leisurely stroll around the lake and old city which is very pretty. We ate kebabs on the waterfront whilst watching old guys playing boules in the square and a whole accordian orchestra complete with yodelling ladies playing in the soundshell. Then it was off to find a place to sleep. By this time the campgrounds were closed for the evening so we were on the look out for a 'free camping spot'... There were heaps of fields of mooing cows with no fences but everywhere we found there seemed to be a farmhouse a little too close for comfort. Eventually we packed our sleeping bags and mats and walked up a track beside a river finding a flat concrete breakwater thing that we rolled our mats on - it seemed a good spot away from the road, but not right in the middle of someone's farm. We actually slept ok, apart from waking up at 3 in the morning when it started drizzling... The moon had come up by then and it was really bright so I was glad we weren't camped in someone's field. At 6am it was fully light, so we quickly packed up our things and headed back to the car - a successful free night!





We ended up spending 5 days hiking around Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen with the 3 peaks - Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - towering above us. It was pleasant hiking particularly as you can stop at a mountain hotel/refuge along the way for a full meal or just a beer while watching the world go by. We did a couple of via ferratas on the way, one to a peak near the Eiger and the other to a peak called the Swartzhorn, the latter was quite difficult as we were hauling full packs with tent, cooker, sleeping stuff and food with us. The height differences between the valleys and the high level walking tracks is about 1500m which makes for a lot of up and down in one day, we managed 2100m up on the first day... we took a cable car up the second day to save our legs! After spending a few nights in campgrounds in the valleys we spent one night by Bachsee lake in amongst the cows - who kept coming over to quiz us. There we met 4 couchsurfers who had only met the day before, we lent them our cooker as they had managed to turn up with no fuel for theirs, oops! Sitting out in the early morning sun the next day with our breakfast with the Eiger and other snow capped mountains in view was pretty cool. Within half an hour the lake was packed with people who had either caught the cable car up or had stayed in a mountain refuge overnight. We finished our visit to Switzerland with a dinner of Rosti - kind of like a big hashbrown with different toppings. It was actually surprisingly yummy, although despite the potatoes, Alex's one didn't have any other vegies. We tried cooking it from a packet on our little cooker but it just didn't taste the same as in a restaurant.









Knackered after a few days hauling packs, we had an 'easy' day driving over passes into Italy. The roads were amazing, the kind that are used in Top Gear, and Alex had fun trying to be a rally car driver - difficult when the car is full up with gear! We sneaked our way into a glacier grotto, well, we walked up a track and had lunch overlooking the glacier, then realised you could walk on the glacier as its dry (not snow covered) so you can see the crevasses. We climbed down the moraine which wasn't easy in crocs and flip-flops! The grotto is a tourist attraction, dug into the glacier for about 50m. It was pretty cool inside lit up, with some holes to the surface, but it was also a bit scary especially on such a hot day, how does it not just all melt away? A photo from about 15 years ago showed that the glacier has receded a lot recently.





We unexpectedly found an amazing campsite that night on Lake Maggiore (near Lake Como) in Italy. We thought we had no chance in finding a campground as the shores of the lake are very steep. Then around a corner suddenly there was one and we drove up to a terraced campground complete with its own private beach on the lake with sunloungers and a slackline for us to practice our tight rope skills on! It was too good to only stay one night so we stayed another, and visited some of the villages inland as well. They are very tradional and although touristy, they were pretty quiet considering its peak season. We found an old barn for sale with its own swimming hole in the river nearby, perfect for converting into some sort of business we thought.



Reluctantly yesterday we headed off towards the Cote d'Azur for a bit of glitter. It is so incredibly hot here (I reckon about 35 degrees) its not really the weather for sight seeing. Still, we've 'done' Monaco-Monte Carlo this morning, thought it was a bit rundown actually considering it is supposed to be the land of the wealthy, and now we are in Nice for the afternoon. The beaches here make us dream of sitting on Bondi with free waves, sand and space - here the beaches are mostly private (one has to pay for them), pebbly and packed!

Lisa and Giancarlo's wedding

Our main reason for visiting the UK was to attend the marriage of Lisa and Giancarlo last Sunday. Lisa is Alex's little sister, and Giancarlo hails from Venezia (thats Venice in Italian). We both had jobs to do during the day - attaching bows to the pews in the church, videoing the important parts in the ceremony and reception, and handing out rose petals for confetti. The reception was great fun, a combination of Poms and Italians with enough booze and good music to keep people dancing. We managed to wow the dance floor with our very limited salsa moves that we haven't tried since going to classes back in Bristol four years ago.



Apart from the wedding we have been doing lots of relaxing, eating good food and drinking Pimms. Of course this has been interspersed with a few jogs in the woods (so we don't get too lazy), rounds of croquet and tennis, a night out at the theatre in London (The Legend of Kung Fu!) and today a visit to the local sandstone climbing area at Bowles with Rachel (really good to see ya girl, and Emma, sorry we missed you).

Tomorrow we begin the third leg of our trip, heading across the ditch to chase the sun across Western Europe.