Of cheese and siestas and Englishmen

I've remembered how wonderful the heat and sun of Spain is........and I've also remembered just why the Spanish stop work between 2.30 and 4.30 every day for an extended siesta. I've been infiltrated by the Spanish pace of life and everything is taking twice as long as I expect - from driving on motorways (hellish, with bus stops, cloverleafs and little warning before needing to change across 3 lanes..) to getting moving again after a gorgeous lunch of fresh bread, manchego and olives, sourced from the nearest delicatessen (current record....2 hours)...

I'm having to rethink some of my routing. I desperately want to get down to Andalucia and see Granada, Cordoba, etc, but I'm seriously considering calling that off and simply following in Wellington's footprints through Badajoz, Talavera and Salamanca. Less driving, and more days in each location, and I can still get to 'must reach' destinations to pick up and deposit passengers. Time to spend some guidebook browsing time.......

Toledo - take two

Having spent a wonderful day chilling and just ambling around the streets in Toledo before returning to the UK, I decided I really needed a bit more time to do it justice. And, well, having found an awesome campsite, I was definitely heading there first night back in Spain too! Here is the view from the pool looking out towards Toledo, which I of course made good use of!

It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures, as well as the place where harsh religious persecutions were held against the Jews by the Visigoths. It's got a long and complex history as a result, and I recommend a read of Wikipedia, as I'm not going to reproduce it all here.

The first thing you realise when driving up in a 'van is that Toledo has very imposing walls, and whilst the gates were pretty big, you have to start wondering about height clearances. Thankfully I fitted! The next thing you realise is that *every* single parking area in central Toledo is underground as it's built on a hilltop and that a 2m clearance just isnt enough for the van. Shortly after that I discovered just how easy my baby is to stall on a steep slope - and just how impossible it is to do a hill start with hundreds of  irate spaniards hooting at you. I decided to bow to fate, and pleaded "female driver, help" to a nice white van man, who laughed, kindly got out to help drive my van to safety, and promptly got in the wrong car door and was horrified at the lack of steering! After repeated cries of 'soy Ingles, es Inglesa coche' - which is probably grammatically terrible, he finally got the idea and changed seats, and escorted me to safety  - and van friendly parking. He was definitely in the 'cute' varient of Spaniard too, so it wasnt too much of a hardship to play the female rescue card!

Once parked, I made use of.....a bus! And then huge amounts of shanks pony to wander the streets. The  first place I actually went into was the Cathedral. I've been to quite a lot of churchs and  the odd Cathedral on this jaunt, but I think I can safely say that Toledo Cathedral beats every other cathedral hands down for decoration and extreme detailing.

The current cathedral is built on the site of an original mosque - in fact, for 3 centuries, it was in fact the mosque itself. The new building was started in the 13th Century under the Reign of Ferdinand III. Its been worked on and tweaked ever since and is the most carved, painted and glitzed building I've ever seen.

Just the choir area took me 30 minutes to look at all the carvings - and the miserichords are just awesome! On the backs of the seats, the battle to retake Granada is depicted in glorious detail. And here's a mythic battle taking place, just underneath those tired gluteus maximus muscles!

 Back out on the streets I headed away from Christianity and lost Muslim buildings and in search of Toledo's Seffardi Jewish roots. My initial search was diverted however by a more edible goal : this is the convent of Santa Rita, and they sell the Tears of Santa Rita, made by nuns ......and having just scoffed a few, I can assure you they are very very tasty indeed. She must have been crying for joy, and not from sadness! They are a local Toledano delicacy made of marzipane  and gently toasted in an oven. The nun who handled the sale was securely barred behind many layers of iron work portices with an intricate rotating cabinet with chain operated door..... to ensure that they have no opportunity to sneak out, I assume. Or get contaminated.....or simply, for the joy of the technology perhaps!

 Finally finding my destination, I visited the local Seffardi museum once a synagogue, and then went on to Santa Maria La Blanca - which is the oldest synagogue building in Europe, and is now owned by.....the Catholic church. It's got a large cross on the central wall and a very stern looking nun is sitting trying to push religious card sales on the sidewall. All this doesnt detract from the beauty and simplicity of the carving on the walls though - so very different from the  complexity and gilt on display in the cathedral. Its still a quiet and peaceful place, pleasant to visit, but curiously disjointed with its blend of tourism, art gallery and different faiths.

Toledo is famous for more than just buildings though, and its crafts are known thoughout the world. Damasquina - or the creation of gold plate designs on a steel backplate is alternately tacky in it's machine made tourist trap glitz and stunningly beautiful in the complexity and fineness of craftsman ship in its handmade sister. I got to see a number of craftsmen at work, and the skill required to do some of the more complex geometric designs is just astounding. The other famous output from Toledo is steel - nice sharp pointy things to cause much damage with. On every corner of every street is a shop selling perfect replicas of so many historical swords ( and mythical ones too - I had to giggle when a sales girl told me that their excalibur was a museum quality replica of the original!) - and of course armour galore!

Onwards next to Segovia..........

Taking it a touch slower

I've not blogged much the last few days because tbh, there hasnt been much to blog about.

I headed off towards Madrid intending to do a staged run, discovered the only campsite in Northern Spain has now shut down and ended up having to run all the way to Madrid and arriving there at gone 1 in the morning. As a result the next two days were really just spent pootling around relaxing, sorting the van, the laundry et al, before I hopped back to England to see family and friends for a couple of days.

I even managed to bring some sun back with me! Well, couple of days are over, and it's time to head south once more. Let's hope the van is still in Long Stay at Barajas, and intact!

From France to Spain

From Carcassonne I headed down the coast into Spain. The Costa Brava is famed for its beautiful coves and sun, sand and sea but having stopped at a campsite just outside Barcelona I ended up with a royal  turkey. I chose it because of the name - El Masnou - Masnou being Shadow's kennel club name.  Claiming to be a 5 star camping site it was cramped, squalid, poor facilities, right in front of a railway line and busy dual carriage way - and very very full. I decided given the time to stay nontheless and wandered down to the beach for my first dip in the Mediterranean for the year. Refreshing to say the least! However later that night, it became clear it was a bad call to hang around - as at least two of the spaces were full of drunk french youths who caroused *loudly* all night. I wouldnt have minded if it was singing or something halfway interesting, but just shouting and screaming gets old quick :( - so clearly time to scarper quick and head on to more interesting things.

 Having been in Barcelona just a few weeks before, I decided to give it a miss and headed deeper into Spain when disaster struck!  The motorway was pretty rough with winds buffetting the 'van in all directions. Suddenly the noise level rose inside the main habitation and on pulling over I realised I no longer had a top level window!! Large amounts of gaffer tape, the kitchen extending surface and a black bin bag later on, I had something that allowed me to limp to a service halt and call the RAC. They sent me a lovely Catalunyan blonde lady with a lisp and a *strong* regional accent who didnt speak English and blanched when she saw my vehicle. That said, we coped and she got me to a local Dethleff campervan dealer who managed after *many* phone calls to source a window and fit it, after an overnight stay in Lleida. Although they offered to let me stay in the van in the garage, I'm afraid I chickened out and headed for a nice comfy hotel!!

I had time to wander around Lleida and admire their Cathedral, complete with nesting storks ( LOTS!) , and find a doggy in a window who tickled my sense of humour, and some fun street graffitti. Oh, and a local Spanish dessert!

Finally, here's my baby back on the road again, with new window  - unopening this time though :( . Back on the road, Madrid bound this time.

Carcassonne

Last night I arrived in Carcassonne and had some time for a little wander around before settling in a lovely little restaurant for dinner. It's a gorgeous place, exactly what Disney would like to be, but never can be. The camp site was outside the main city, and only after checking in did I discover that there was a nest of 'vans parked up in a designated overnighting area near the main gates. Although it was very very tempting to stay local and see the city in the early morning, the call of showers was stronger!

I'm concious that I havent talked much about food in this blog - although there has been awesome food everywhere, I've actually been doing a lot of cooking in the van, and so its been pretty tame. Lots of Merguez sausages, lots of fresh baguettes, cheese, sausage and salad. Doesnt seem to be helping me slim, but that might be all the local wine :) At Carcassonne I made a concious decision to eat out though - you cant come here and not have a Cassoulet made with goose - the remaining meat from all those pate de fois gras manufacturers. It was just divine, washed down with a single glass of local red. For those who fancy trying it at home  here is a link to a recipe for Castelnaudary Cassoulet 

The fortified city itself consists essentially of a concentric design with two outer walls with towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th Century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". The architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, already at work restoring the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire, was commissioned to renovate the place.

In 1853, works began with the west and southwest walling, followed by the towers of the porte Narbonnaise and the principal entrance to the cité. The fortifications were consolidated here and there, but the chief attention was paid to restoring the roofing of the towers and the ramparts, where Viollet-le-Duc ordered the destruction of structures that had encroached against the walls, some of them of considerable age. Viollet-le-Duc left copious notes and drawings on his death in 1879, when his pupil Paul Boeswillwald, and later the architect Nodet continued the rehabilitation of Carcassonne.

 I decided to go for a picture opportunity , so here's the traditional strained looking poses trying to smile engagingly for the camera , whilst you wonder if the nice stranger you just handed your expensive gadget to is going to leg it, and if he does, if you can catch him before you lose sight. I hoped the ramparts might act as a limiting factor!

I couldnt leave before having had lunch so I ordered a 'light' local snack and salad - personally I dispute the definition of 'light' but was definitely well gruntled on completion!

Driving me insane

I'd like to take a quick moment to muse about drivers.

I consider myself to be reasonably experienced at driving overseas, and I'm not exactly in a hurry to get anywhere so I am pootling along quietly and careful at a respectable but not insanely slow speed. For the majority of drivers on the roads so far, that has been fine and I've had no real issues, whether in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, or much of France. There is however one exception : lorry drivers on RN roads in France. Regardless of their limiters, they are *always* in a tearing hurry, and being at or near the speed limit just isnt fast enough. I've had a number of encouters with stupid lorry drivers, but two so far stand out :

• One lorry decided that tailgating was the new fashion and parked himself so closely on my tail that I could have reached out the rear window and washed his windscreen for him with a cloth. I managed to shake that one, by pulling over and letting him pass, and he sensibly backed off long enough for me to brake and stop. 
• The other lorry driver can only be described as insane - he tailgated, he tried to overtake on single lane country roads, he did everything he could to intimidate me. Courtesy of him, I ended up with a dinged wingmirror, but thankfully no damage beyond the very faintest of scratch. 

I think I've decided I dislike French lorry drivers on the whole!

Man meets paintbrush....

I've always wanted to seen prehistoric paintings. Ever since I first read "Lucy" by Donald Johansson, I've had a fascination with prehistory. And Jean Auel's Clan of the Cavebear series did nothing to damp that particular fire ( I wonder how many parents realise *quite* how erotic some of the scenes in those innocuous looking set of books are? but that's an aside - I was mostly fascinated by how one woman could invent so much :D   - she was clearly a true feminist!). 

Today is my day for caves and paintings. Everyone has heard of Lascaux and the Lascaux paintings, so I had to head there first of all. The Tourist board have set up a secondary attraction on route to Lascaux called Le Thon, where they have collected a selection of animals that are most commonly represented in the paintings to give you an idea of the reality before you see the images. Lascaux's most common depiction is of aurochs, those immense ancient cattle breed which died out in the 1600s - last known of in Poland. Undetered, the French have created a reconstituted Auroch. As you can see, they are cute more than awe-inspiring! In addition there are many deer, goats, horses and of course the cave bear and mammoth. Sadly , there were no real cave bears or mammoths on display, and I'm afraid the plastic mammoth was just *too* dire to waste even a pixel on.

 Lascaux II is of course a reproduction - most people will have heard that the original caves were closed in the 1960s when mould and damage started occurring to the images. What I hadnt realised is that it's an old quarry which has been meticulously built up into an artifical reconstruction of the exact shape of the original caves, with measurements of the cave surfaces taken every couple of centimetres. Thus when you are 'in' the cave and looking at the reproduction images, you do actually get the sense of the shape of the rock being used as part of the image by the original artists - something you definitely dont get from flat photographs!

The tour guide forgot to mention that photos were not allowed until lots of cameras started snapping - and then we all had to pack up our gear - but I did get one image :D

I also visited two other sites, both of which are actually original images still open to the public, albeit with severely limited numbers : Grotte de Villars and Rouffignac. Roffignac is cave bear territory, and you are trundled through enormous caves on a train - I lucked out immensely here, because there were only 4 of us on the visit (instead of 30), and the tour guide was utterly bored from a quiet day, so instead of the usual 45 minutes, we were given a full hour and a half and allowed to wander on and off the train ( clearly, normally forbidden!) with a full loquacious question and answer session which he thoroughly enjoyed. My fellow passengers, Californians, were interested, but clearly historically out of their depth!

Grotte de Villar is horses, but also one of the most stunning selections of stalactites and stalagmites around with a "sonne et lumiere' display which was thoroughly enjoyable. Sadly, both of these two sites mentioned no cameras before we were even allowed in the caves!


From caving I headed off in the direction of Carcassonne, incidently following the route my Grandfather, Grandma , Uncle Mark and Dad walked in 1958 - Les Eyzies, St Cyprien, Beynac, La Roque, and finally Domme - one of the 'Bastide' towns in the region : stunningly difficult to get to in a campervan,  but awesome and worth it once there. But only Dad can tell you if it's still unchanged!

Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony and Aquitaine during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144, as the first bastides. Personally I think they are a big improvement on Milton Keynes!