Day 14: arriving at (okay, near) Cinque Terre!

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Mel

Today was all about trains. A tram to the train station in Nice at 7:30am, a train to Geneva and then another train to a little town near Cinque Terre where will be based for the walking of the trails/train riding between towns tomorrow. 
We arrived in La Spezia around 1:30pm and had a break for lunch/siesta-ing. The pizza we had for lunch was the equivalent of fast food (quick service) but geez it wasn’t bad. I’m looking forward to more Italian pizza. Of course, our choices were limited as only two things were open in this tiny little town on a Sunday! 

Our room here at Affittacamere the Tramp is not a hotel but more of a room rental arrangement, it seems to be an old office building or bank that has been converted into a few short stay rooms. Interesting design…and the key to get into the hallway (read: vault entrance) is huge. 

   

At 3:30pm we met to catch the bus to Portovenere (30 mins) where we planned to go on a sunset boat cruise and have dinner, this was done as a meet up with another intrepid group to make the cruise cost effective. The views were simply amazing and B made it through the whole boat cruise with no sea sickness! Read back to the Hamilton Island entries in Jan 2015 to see how bad he suffers usually. The kind people on our tour pooled their resources with ours and with a mix of Maxalon (stemetil), travacalm and some wine he was good to go! 
The best part was we saw wild dolphins, including a little baby!! No photos of that though as the iPhone wasn’t quick enough.   

    
 
  
  

  

Tomorrow: B and some of the tour will be walking the hard level trails at Cinque Terre. 

As the beginner ones have been washed out since 2011 (it would be nice if they updated their advertising material), myself and at least one other tour member will wander the towns on the trail on our own. We will be using the train to travel between them and meet up with the others for lunch and dinner 🙂
Mel 

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Day 13: visiting Eze and lazing on the beach of the French Riviera 

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Mel

Beautiful weather here, 20C and very sunny. The warmest we have come across so far so definitely a shorts day – woohoo! 
Today was a free day (no tour leader to help us!) and we started off travelling as a group to the medieval village of Eze. This involved a tram and a local bus but we managed it with a team effort. We all then wandered around the local fort/castle which was very pretty but basically a giant hotel. Some of us found the lookout point but most of us didn’t (I was included with the latter mob) and then our groups split up. B and I headed back to Nice with another group member while the others stayed to walk some of the local trails.

 

exploring the medieval castle/hotel at Eze

  

the purple flowers Eze is famous for

 
After a tasty lunch at Hard Rock Cafe where I added to my glass collection, we headed down to the beach and paid the extortionate 10€ each to snag a sun lounger and enjoy a siesta + cocktails. As expensive as it was….it was pretty freaking nice to just laze in the sunshine and drink. 

 

lazing on the beach in Nice

  

people in the water were crazy, it wasnt that warm!

 
Tonight’s dinner: a picnic down on the promenade! Should be delicious 

Mel

P.S. Head cold is progressing from sore throat and feeling achey all over to just snot. So much snot and congestion and snot. Pharmacies here are useless (different laws mean no good drugs without a script) so all I have is strepsils and some nasal spray. 
P.P.S. Percy had a great day today:

 

percy loved his mango and banana cocktail

  

laaaaazy

 

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Day 12: Nice! (The location, not the adjective) 

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Mel

After an included breakfast at the hotel (where I ate my body weight in baguettes again…French bread is tasty) we headed off for a day of train riding. From Arles to Marseille was about an hour, then we had a lunch stopover at the train station followed by another 2 hours on the train to Nice. 

After arriving, we walked to our hotel and had an hour of downtime before going on an orientation tour of Nice. The sunset views from the lookout point and the old castle were pretty amazing, an iPhone doesn’t do them justice.
   
    
   
Then it was off to dinner at Taca d’oli which was absolutely amazing. B calls it as equal to the delicious casserole we had the other night in terms of taste and when you add in the spotless service…we might have a winner so far on the trip!

 

Bs entree of octopus salad. and my stuffed. veggies

  

my main of amazingly tender roast beef and gnocchi, B had two types of fish on a skewer

 
Tomorrow: exploring the village of Eze and then relaxing on the “beach” here in Nice, assuming my head cold (thanks sick people on our tour) eases up 

Mel

Note: wifi is crap at our hotel here so will check in again in a few days when we reach Cinque Terre!

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Day 11: Exploring the Provence Region 

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Mel

Today started very boringly – coffee and a chocolate croissant while we spent anhour and a bit doing our washing at the local laundromat in Arles. Percy found the dryer riveting. We were up before most of the locals and the streets were very quiet. 
   
 We then were meant to catch the train for around 20 mins to Avignon, where our tour leader had arranged for us and the Canadian couple to go on a local tour of the Provence region. Unfortunately, the train timetables were incorrect (it being almost off season now) so we had to catch a taxi. Note to self: double check train timetables with the transit officers next time. 

First, we stopped at Gordes, one of the most beautiful villages in France, famous for the architecture with dry stones and the astounding views over the countryside. 

   
 
Then it was off to Les Baux de Provence, a village located upon a rock with much of its buildings actually carved straight out of the rock! I got some gorgeous jewellery here and presents for lucky people. The view was pretty spectacular as well. 

   

 Finally, we visited the famous site of the Pont du Gard, dated from the first century and now world heritage listed.  This was an amazing and well preserved part of the Roman acqueduct which supplied water to Nîmes.

   
   
We then headed back to Arle and with our tour leader went for dinner at Chez Felix. The owner was very friendly and the food was brilliant…but most importantly, the view was unbeatable 🙂 

  

  
Mel 

P.S. Percy had a little too much red wine tonight…

  

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An extra post because the food was just THAT GOOD. 

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Mel

So, we went out for dinner at this tiny little restaurant in Arle tonight called Cador. At first, we were all a little worried as there was some misunderstanding with the menu and prices seemed to be a little high…hmmmm…

However, the food was well and truly worth any confusion. Simply divine.
 

mushroom and chicken in a creamy sauce

  

a banana split with gelato

  

some limoncello to finish off

  
  

he sang us original songs!

 

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Day 10: Arles, France 

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Mel

Later start today with a 10:20am train, big hooray after all that red wine last night. This was a fairly long train trip of 2.5 hrs and we had reserved seats…which were pretty comfy. Little bit of motion sickness but I’m taking the travacalm now and it really does help. Worth the zombie side effects. 
We checked in to Hotel Regence on arrival in Arles, France and then went looking for some lunch.  
 
After lunch it was exploration time! We went and checked out the Roman baths and then walked up through the city to the main square. We also saw the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh went after trying to chop his ear off, one of his paintings is of this exact spot.

 

roman baths

  

the main square

 

the gardens at the hospital where Van Gogh was treated

 
 From here the group split up to explore the open theatre, the amphitheater and the crypts underneath the main square. 
 

exploring the open theatre

 
   

view of the city and river from the amphitheatre

  

the tunnels under the main square

 
On the way back we sussed out where the local laundry is and our free morning tomorrow will be spent washing and drying some clothes. Then it’s off to Provence in the afternoon to explore the area, see an aqueduct and perhaps buy some souvenirs.

Mel 

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New role models 

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Mel

B and I are in strong agreement we have met some excellent role models on this trip. The Canadian couple we are travelling with have no kids, own two houses (one in the snow!) and travel around the world 4-5 times a year. They have been on 11 intrepid trips alone, not including all the other companies. The only difference is they didn’t start travelling until they were 50 

Definitely role models to aspire towards! We are already planning the next trip (after we get the damn fence fixed) to South America for 6 weeks.

  

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Day 9: Adios Spain, Bon Jour France

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Mel

Today was an early breakfast at 7:45am as we head away from the Pyrenees and towards France. Our 6th tour member has joined us and she seems lovely, another Australian travelling solo around our age. This is her 3rd intrepid tour in a row! She has spent 2 months in Europe.
5€ breakfast at the hotel was delicious again, although I’m starting to grow weary of all this bread. So much bread. Then it was off to the train station with all our bags. There was a kerfuffle at the station where they didn’t open the ticket booth and it was all a mad rush but in the end we were able to sort it out on the train…hooray for having a tour leader! After an hour train trip, we had crossed the border and arrived in a tiny little French town. From there we had a private van to take us to Carcassonne. A quick rest and we were off to explore the castle and ancient city.

   
   
  
Our hotel here is very big and super cute. I’m very impressed with Hotel de la Bastide so far. 

  
After exploring there was much red wine and some delicious dinner at a tiny little French restaurant called Restaurant Le Trivalou.

 

B had traditional cassoulet

  
  

creme catalana again, this one different to the first time in the mountains, we couldnt ‘t agree on a shared preference

 
Then we went on to drink in a very strange gothic bar. There was also street singing and dancing 🙂 

   
 
Steps: 18559

Kilometres: 15.3

Tomorrow (well, actually today…how confusing!): moving on to Arles in France. I’m looking forward to the day after when we will be exploring the Provence region and an aqueduct. 

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Leaving Barcelona and the surrounding mountains – final thoughts 

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Mel

Favourite things about Barcelona and the surrounding region:
– The fact you can buy cerveza and sangria everywhere
– Tapas. I love tapas! And churros mmmmm chocolate dipping sauce. Oh and Paella. Basically, all the food 

– The amazing mountain regions and views, Montserrat and then Ribes De Freser and Nuria Valley in the Pyrenees were simply stunning locations 

– The metro in Barcelona and out to the mountains is very easy to use. Give the tourist bus and its high prices (27€ a day!) a miss. Instead, grab a 10 pass metro ticket 

Not-so-good stuff about Barcelona and the surrounding region:

– Barcelona has a bit of a service issue, staff just seem disinterested and don’t care so it’s difficult to get decent service anywhere. I think it’s just an attitude thing

– The water is safe to drink but still upset my stomach as it has a lot of mineral additives, it didn’t really agree with B either 

paella! deliiiiiicious

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Day 8: Hiking in Nuria Valley (the Pyrenees) 

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Mel

After a terrible nights sleep (nice hotel but the bed and pillows are pretty crappy) we woke up to a delicious local breakfast provided by the hotel for 5€ each. Bread, cheese, ham, sweet bread, muffins, toast and lots of OJ or coffee. We needed sustenance because today was mountain climbing day! 
At 8:45am we all walked a few mins up the road to board the Nuria valley cog wheel railway, also called a rack railway. It’s the only way to access Nuria Valley from this side of the mountain. We went up (50min trip), explored a little and then met for lunch. B and some others hiked to a peak and then came back down to share lunch with us. On my little exploration I saw ponies, horses and a baby donkey! Not to mention some amazing views. 

 

We caught a cable car partway up one of the peaks

  

baby donkey!

  

Nuria Valley

  

Nuria Valley from waaaaay higher up

  

beautiful!

 
Afterwards, two of us caught the rack railway back down while the others hiked 3hrs and 9.1kms down to the second railway stop, then caught the last train back. I elected not to walk down for lots of reasons but mostly because once you committed, you had to keep going and it was pretty steep in parts…my poor knee! Also, one of our tour members wasn’t feeling too flash so I kept her company on the train. 

Here are some of B’s photos from that walk though, amazing.

 

this is my favourite!

  
   
  

While waiting for him to return from mountain climbing, I explored the local town of Ribes de Freser a little more.

the town is proud of its catalan heritage and this huge flag on the mountain shows it

  

  

just a random pretty picture

 

After everyone got back from being mountain goats, we have rest time for a few hours and then are off for a late dinner of the national dish – Paella. We had to opt for meat or fish (easy for me – no seafood!) and I have high hopes for impending deliciousness.

Mel

Tomorrow: onwards to Carcossonne in France! Goodby Spain.

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