WESTERN ODYSSEY
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Journey One (purple line) summary: one week travelling with my sister from Harrogate over to Longridge, then down through England, France and Spain to rendez-vous and week spent with other extended family at Mojacar southern Spain, before one week of travel back up through Spain to rendez-vous at Pau and sister drop-off:
- through the middle of France across that viaduct
- past the volcano country of the Auvergne
- down to Port Vendres and then into Spain via the coast road Cote Vermeille – definitely bit of a drive, but absolutely beautiful
- City visits – Barcelona & Valencia
- Across parts of Andalucia to city visit at Cordoba
- from Cordoba up through Castilla-La Mancha – Don Quixote territory of seemingly hundreds of miles of olive groves, and not much else
- past Madrid and then turn right to Aragon country
- horrendously over the Pyrenees back into France and Pau
Journey Two (pink line) – almost 3 months of travel
- Weather not pleasant so no city visit – straight off to Carcassone, to Alet-Les-Bains, then to Rustiques and back to Carcassonne
- Back into Spain and Costa Brava – Cala de Palafrugell
- Costa Brava to Deltebre, and then to Alcossebre – between Barcelona and Valencia
- Inland to Cuenca, weather miserable so then down to Ubeda
- Down to Sierra Nevada – for Granada city visit
- Down to coast at Rincon de Victoria for Malaga city visit
- Drive into Andalucian hills to Antequera, then Ronda, then Olvera
- Down to La Linea de la Concepion via Malaga fridge repair, for Gibraltar visit
- Drive to Tarifa, then onto Puerta de Santa Maria for Cadiz city visit
- Up to Seville for city visit, then across the border to the start of the Algarve – Cabanas nr Tavira
- Tavira to Alvor, then onto Zambujeira do Mar via the south-westerly tip of Europe at Cabo de Sao Vincente along the coast through Alentejano ; green, beautiful range of trees, hills, valleys, peaceful, pretty empty
- Further up the coast to Porto Covo, then inland to Evora city visit
- Over to Lisbon to pick up sister, then across to Setubal
- Upto Cascais for city visit to Lisbon and Sintra
- Drive to Porto for city visit
- Porto to Douro valley, then back into Spain via Lago de Sanabria for Picos de Europa, followed by San Sebastian
- Back to France once again to Bagneres de Luchon in the Pyrenees
- Over to Marseillan Plage on the Med for city visit to Montpellier , then up to meet family at Courry, near the Cevennes and the Ardeche
- Up through the Ardeche region to the hills near Limoges, to meet up with Mum and partner, Jack, at his daughter and son-in-law’s house they’re renovating near Gueret
- Still heading north to the Loire valley, staying at Amboise 1 night
- Across to Benodet, southern Brittany via one night on Loire-Atlantique coast
- Up to northern Brittany – Cote de Granit Rose for one night at Perros-Guirec
- Heading back to Le Havre via Caen and overnight at Asnelles for WWII sites
- Overnight at Honfleur
- Drive back from Portsmouth to Longridge