The campsite was great, offered live music for two nights, the first being great musicians playing Django Reinhart-style French jazz, in a setting on Bordeaux Lac, only about 8-9 kilometres or so via well-designed cycle routes into the centre.
The Tchikiswing from Toulouse
More often than not, live music is a surprise and a gift for me; I even got up and danced due to the insistence of a Belgian couple
But Bordeaux – I’ll just bullet-point what I observed, as it rises to the top of my city list alongside the likes of San Sebastian, Porto, Copenhagen
Well-designed cycling city which the residents of all ages and types, with all manner of cargo/child-carrying bikes use
Shared public spaces, with walkers, bike and scooter riders, tramways, all co-mingling without hostility; the car is definitely not king and in fact I experienced courtesy from car drivers both here and generally in Spain
Absolutely beautiful, yet somehow understated public spaces and buildings being lived in, rather than museum pieces, and enjoyed by all; my favourite was the Jardin Public
Smaller, more personal scale than the likes of Madrid, with 1 million inhabitants according to Google, twice as many as Montpellier, similar to Toulouse, less than Porto or Copehagen
Sigificantly fewer canine family members in evidence – down to more apartment living for the suburbs I cycled through and the centre?
Cycled past camps under underpasses of what looked like groups of immigrants from Africa, and did see other people who I would describe as having fallen through gaps in society
Murky brown/sandy river water results from the meeting of the sediment-laden fresh water of the Garonne with the salty sea water of the Gironde estuary, according to Google
My phone camera is not as good as I would like to record what I love to see and be part of.
River frontJardin PublicJardin Public‘Bacalan’ Food DestinationWithout waterWith water for everyone’s enjoymentCite du VinContemporary buildings in the mix
As I drove here from the Valencia region, the landscape became greener, with wooded hills on both sides of the autoroute, mountains further inland, and vineyards and other crops in the fields. It is interesting that Spain has got rid of its toll motorways, and those areas which used to have the booths and barriers are still there, with all the installations removed and not in use at all.
Having got to the site 2 days early to suss out the lay of the land, I only had to feel minor anxiety at being able to easily park the van to pick up my friend Rachel at Girona airport. None of my fears – eg finding myself stuck in a multi-storey car park entrance lane -came to pass. It’s a very accessible airport and good roads, convenient for the beautiful and varied coastline of this part of Spain.
The campsite is in a lovely setting which is worth the very steep descent and even steeper 🙂 ascent from its very steep wooded, terraced hillside, to its own beautiful private coves and beaches. The toilet block was also a good 50m significantly downhill, part of the same outweighed disadvantages. Did I mention that it was steep?
The e-bike managed to transport the SUP board rucksack with all the other necessary beach apparel down there, and it was worth the experiment as Rachel and I did manage to kayak across the bay, and briefly paddle along from a kneeling position. Only briefly because the sea was choppy, and in the wind it was hard work for the unpractised two of us to avoid the rocks, if not sitting and using the kayak oar. The bike later got me and the board back up. What a steed.
A beach below our Cala Llevado campsite
One day we walked across the headland the 6 or so kms to Tossa de Mar, recommended by Rachel, which was well worth the up and down in strong afternoon sun. We caught the first live music in the 4 weeks of travel, with very enjoyable flamenco, and a guitarist/singer at a lunchtime restaurant.
I had booked another site for 4 days, the ‘Yelloh’ chain Sant Pol Village at the next town up the coast, Sant Feliu de Guixols, and we could only hope that it would be as enjoyable as the one we were unfortunately leaving. It was very different but great nevertheless, and felt like we had landed in some select 4-star club, with only 20 touring pitches in almost a tropical garden setting with a lovely heated pool with cafe and restaurant, and the rest of the site having wood cabins of various sizes. But guess what? We were at the bottom of the site on a hill, with the toilet block up the equivalent of 4 or 5 flights of stairs, and 350m down the hill to the beach.
Sant Pol seems to be the posh end of Sant Feliu, with several impressive-looking hotels and a gated whole area and headland at one end of the beach.
On one of the days we walked up and down several kilometers across the headland, part of the Costa Brava Cami Ronda I think, to Sant Feliu, and on the way back to realise thankfully that it was only 1km down the actual road from the campsite. The next day we were amazed to see the mediterranean turn into Cornwall, so walked the headland path almost to the town of S’Agaro, finding a red flag on one of the beaches with strict guarding going on, so we couldn’t even cool off. All of this is really beautiful and worth visiting/doing. We had hoped to be able to hire a kayak on our last day there, to go and explore the coves, but the sea was still too rough.
All the extra kit I carry in the van for guests came into its own, particularly as by her own words, Rachel declared and I think still maintains that she likes camping.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The only additional piece of equipment I could add, but there’s no room in my ‘garage’ under the bed, or anywhere else, given the e-bike, SUP board, power unit, solar panels, tent, etc as well as the other usual camping stuff, would be a second porta-potty. This would offer the annexe an en-suite, and prevent guests from having to walk upto the toilet block in the middle of the night/or very early mornings and then calm the heartbeat to get back to sleep again. This guest was willing (or had to accept that the campervan doors were firmly bolted at night against intruders 😂) to accept the condition of stay, so that I wouldn’t be disturbed by the sliding door being opened to gain access to my toilet. In my defense I am an extremely light sleeper, and you can imagine campsite interruptions. Her stay gets 4 stars from me, with one star dropped as she really could have opened and closed the tent zip more considerately.
We’ve had a great week, and I’ve really enjoyed having company again to share it all with.
The usual recommendations from ourtour.co.uk came good yet again. I was ultimately aiming for the Costa Brava, and Tossa de Mar in the first instance, as I will be spending a week with a friend who’s flying from Leeds/Bradford to Girona in a couple of days. I didn’t want to do another long drive from the Denia region to there and so researched places north of Valencia to break the journey. The decision was finally made to visit the above town, and as with Nerja, the same campsite used by ‘ourtour’- Camping Ferrer.
In the end I stayed for 3 nights, and got quite used to the place. It’s only a small campsite, and not the most ‘beautiful’ in terms of the 4/5 star ones I’ve booked for when my guest arrives :), but everyone was friendly, the price was very reasonable and It’s location was great. It’s walkable to the beautiful beaches, the old town and castle, many restaurants and cafes and then yesterday my discovery of the Parque Serra de Irta. I realised that this protected area of mediterranean coast is between Peniscola and the town of Alcossebre, which I stayed at in 2019 and it’s possible to cycle on the dirt tracks in the Irta from one to the other.
I just went looking for the Alcossebre post, and remembered (thankfully) that I hadn’t got going with the blog in 2019 until I got to Olvera, thereby missing out recording travels to Carcassonne, Calella de Palafrugell , Cuenca, Granada, and the first part of my journey through France and Spain in that year with my sister. I do remember, and Google maps confirms, that there is another campsite in the Parque at the Alcossebre side called La Ribera, which I will have to stay at in the future, I loved this unspoilt area, of beautiful hills and coves, clear blue water and not too many humans. It would be interesting to know how busy it would get in July/August, as there are mostly only bumpy dirt roads and tracks through the landscape.
My bike is great for getting me to these places, and rides well with its thick 20-inch tyres over these sorts of tracks. It’s motor of course means that hills are not a blocker to exploring. The third picture conveys everything I enjoy about travels by campervan and bike (electric preferably now!) – access to beautiful places, in beautiful weather and hearing snapshots of different peoples’ stories along the way. Two bikes in the picture, meaning the presence of an adventures companion, would be the icing on the cake.
Peniscola is, I would imagine, a significant holiday town, with more large hotels, beach-front accommodation etc than Denia or Nerja. The beach goes on for miles, so one of the days I cycled along its length north to Benicarlo. It seems that this whole area is not geared up to British tourists or ex-pats. I mostly heard Spanish with quite alot of French and some German, and these were the majority on the campsite also.
It was great to spend an evening chatting with Valentina, a Ukrainian refugee living in Poland but on a ‘working’ holiday with her French partner, Jean-Francois, who’s from near the town of Foix. They met a year ago online, and then in-person when Jean-Francois brought his son to Warsaw because he was going to spend some time studying there. Valentina is from Kyiv, and left with her two daughters 3 days after the Russians invaded. She was able to stay with a sister in Poland, and get herself established – she is a languages teacher, so is now teaching remotely, with her elder daughter deciding to study Psychology in English in Vilnius, and her 11-year old daughter attending school in Poland. I think they are currently living in Gdansk. I’m writing all this down because i’m always interested in the ‘international’ lives that people lead, whether by choice or not. Valentina seems a very positive person and as with the family I hosted, determined to make the most of the changes forced upon them.
Am now near Tossa de Mar, preparing to pick up tomorrow morning my adventures companion for this week. Looking forward to it.
Decided to do another long stretch from Nerja to the house of long-standing university friends in the above area.
The landscape through Almeria, and into the Murcia regions is very arid and the word ‘brutalist’ sums it up for me. Lots of agriculture under plastic poly-tunnels. I do like a tree, or many, and there aren’t any unless veering off into the towns and cities.
As Mojacar was only 10km off the motorway at one point, I went there for a lunch stop and to have a think about Mum. This was one of her happy places which her partner had introduced into her life, and I had also joined them on two occasions in March with the last one in 2019. I wanted to see whether any half-built apartment blocks had been completed, and whether it was still as beautiful and welcoming in June. It was, and some of the buildings had been completed.
Some of Mojacar Playa
The motorway journey was great and only really got busy around Alicante. The landscape suddenly changed at Ca;lpe and became green with trees, and it felt as though I had driven all the way to the Cote d’Azur.
When I finally found my friends’ house in the La Sella area, I spent a geat 4 days with them, staying in their annex, enjoying the beautiful location and having them as tour guides around Denia, Javea and into the mountains for a paella. Hopefully I’ll have other times in the future to visit. They haven’t aged a day 🙂
Ultimately heading for the Costa Brava, I decided to stay at a small site at the medieval town of Bocairent, passing Ontinyent inland from Valencia. Very beautiful wide valleys here with vineyards, and surrounded by hills/low mountains. The Beach Boys accompanied some of the rising temperature to more than 30 degrees. Most unfortunately the little campsite of 6 pitches was fully booked, and so I drove on, stopping at a site at another medieval town, Xativa.
On final arrival I was shattered from some of the drive taking me through very narrow residential streets in towns along the way, and having to do more than one u-turn due to the lack of signs for the campsites. And how could I almost forget another of my most hated episodes: trying to navigate to a gas station which had LPG, and then trying to get some out of the pump and into the vehicle, in this case from what seemed to be a completely un-‘personned’ station.
After about 10 mins in the heat of the midday of repeatedly reading the destructions on the pump (another sign of madness) and trying to get the pump to clamp onto one of my 4 or so adaptors, there suddenly appeared a hero-type with his polo-shirt indicating he was a gas station attendant. Between his Spanish and my English, and my obvious welcome at his appearance, he conveyed that I needed to activate my card payment on another machine away from the LPG pump first (not in the instwuctions), He then proceeded to achieve the process with ease, and deal unflinchingly with the explosion on de-clamping the pump. My jubilance lasted all the way until the narrow residential street driving.
After the arrival cup of tea and period of collapse, I forced myself off to walk round the town for a couple of hours, and it was well worth the visit, even though I will not be going upto the castle at the top.
The castle is at the top of the hill behind the town, and is more impressive from different placesMany historic buildings have beautiful courtyards, and still being used for current purposes; this one is a music conservatoryOne historic building being used for an art exhibition of an artist ‘Boix’?
It’s the last day of 5 days at the Camping San Miguel Aula de Naturaleza for which I have ‘Ourtours’ couple to thank. A lovely campsite, 200 yards across the road from one of Nerja’s beautiful beaches. My only downer would be that this road is the main coast road, so particularly at commuting time, is reasonably busy and therefore somewhat noisy.
It’s possible to cycle along the beach on a dirt track which then brings you to the built-up part of the town from where it’s easy to cycle/walk to the centre, the Balcon de Europa, and other beaches. This time of year seems perfect to visit, as the temperature perhaps goes up to the mid twenties, the cafes and restaurants are open and the beaches are not over busy. There are many nationalities around in addition to Spanish, perhaps Dutch people in the majority, then Germans and Brits, and a sprinkling of other vehicle number plates.
I love the beaches as many of them are in large coves, the water is beautiful and clear, and I have been able to use my SUP board. In fact for my kayaking along the beach this afternoon, Google has classed me as being on a ferry. I’ll take that. The mountains are the beautiful backdrop for this area, and the motorway I arrived on, wends it way impressively across viaducts and in tunnels through them.
The view from my ‘ferry’
The bike continues to enable me to leave the van in place and explore, and I’ve cycled on the dirt tracks that go under the motorway and into the hills/mountains. Frigliana is worth a visit, and today I walked up the Rio Chillar path which in effect from a certain point is walking up a stream. A magical walk which reminded me of ‘Puck’s Glen’ near Dunoon in Scotland, although of course completely different in landscape (& weather when I was there, which was winter, but I know that area has had some similar summer weather around now).
In typical fashion, I was just musing to myself that even the rocks in the water were not slippy, (unlike most streams in the UK) when sure enough I slipped, and fortunately only ended up with scratches and 50% of my shorts wet from falling into the undergrowth at the side! 🙂 It was early enough in the day for the hordes not yet to be in attendance, so one’s pride was not a problem. I don’t seem as yet to have any longer-term effects from the vegetation. The higher they climb ……
This picture captures my sentiments to Nerja and its environs
I’m looking forward to a glass of wine and conversation this evening with Gabrielle, a german, fellow solo traveller, and then long drive up to Denia tomorrow.
Stayed for 3 nights at the very pleasant Camping Osuna, 10 minutes walk from a metro station and from there 25 mins into the centre. Yesterday and today have seen many miles covered on foot here there and everywhere including free entry to the Museum of Madrid History, and the Royal Botanical Gardens. My overall impressions confirmed the opinion of others – that it is a very beautiful city in terms of beautiful historic buildings, parks, plazas, boulevards and avenues, cafe’s everywhere, both independent and global chains. Other observations included that in general people providing all this hospitality to endless tourists were helpful and pleasant, the prices were very reasonable, not too diverse a population in comparison with London, but many people to my eyes of seemingly latin-american origin.
I should have done a post on my trip to Copenhagen, and that too would have included ‘diversity not very much in evidence’, or better described by my travelling companion daughter as “where are the people with pink hair?”. We loved our visit to that city, its cycling provision, friendly people, good food and cafe culture. Being a fan, and it being my source of learning bits of Danish, I did feel as though I was on the set of my highly recommended ‘Borgen’ political drama. I can recommend the 3-hour cycling tour from City Bike Adventures Copenhagen and our immigrant North American guide made the tour so interesting, bringing his own observations as an outsider who chose to move there.
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