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Post by artisans on Mar 9, 2015 23:20:25 GMT 2
After far too long in the UK, Jan & I are finally poised to head back to our favourite village. We're camped near Portsmouth tonight, ready to catch a very early ferry to .... Spain! ?? After landing in Bilbao on Thursday, we'll spend a day in Gernika before heading off towards Barcelona. Let's hope the Bay of Biscay is behaving itself. After that, it's France & Italy before we arrive in Greece in early April. See you soon-ish ...
Steve
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Post by kernowman on Mar 10, 2015 10:37:01 GMT 2
Good luck and drive carefully
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Post by Gil on Mar 10, 2015 19:17:55 GMT 2
Hi Both Glad to here you are on the way back hope you have a very pleasant journey and look forward to seeing you in April. Jans plants are surviving well.
Take care Gil & Sue xx
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Post by kathwebber on Mar 11, 2015 10:47:39 GMT 2
Wishing you a safe journey - look forward to seeing some photos en route!
regards, Kath.
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Post by artisans on Mar 13, 2015 23:14:06 GMT 2
When we set out on our return to Roda, we thought we would be visiting seven countries … until we landed in Bilbao! I have always known about the Basque claim for independence, but I had never realised just how different it is. Jan & I both know a good amount of Spanish, but we couldn’t understand or recognise a single word when we spent a day in Gernika.
Since I first saw Piccaso’s famous painting when I was in school, I have wanted to know more about Gernika, especially having read a book about its bombing at the start of the Spanish Civil War. If you ever want to see a different part of Spain, then this is a place to go … the very seat of the Basque people. This is a ceramic representation of Piccaso’s painting, and today’s ‘Square of Peace’ nearby.
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kaz
Roda Anorak
Posts: 3,961
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Post by kaz on Mar 14, 2015 19:27:14 GMT 2
Good pics,glad you found it.....enjoy the rest of your journey home you lucky people xxxx
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Post by artisans on Mar 15, 2015 22:31:29 GMT 2
Before we left Gernika, Jan had the difficult decision, whether to follow the pilgrims trail west to Santiago de Compostela, or head east towards Roda … guess which she chose? However, it did mean a drive up into the foothills of the Pyrenees towards San Sebastian before turning south for Pamplona. As we dropped down from the mountains, there were no bulls but we did see three snow plows in Irurzun, just ten miles away … we laughed about them and carried on regardless – big mistake!
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kaz
Roda Anorak
Posts: 3,961
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Post by kaz on Mar 16, 2015 9:51:05 GMT 2
Wonderful........I had a holiday in San Sabastian with my parents many years ago and we went to Pamplona to watch the "Bull fighting"...so very sad when I think back............hope you are driving into warmer weather....keep safe xxx
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Post by carolb on Mar 17, 2015 21:42:21 GMT 2
Wow,fabulous photos. Hopefully see you soon. I know there is no FGT but maybe we can all meet for a drink and catch up, Pete Gill and anyone else that is around. We are counting down - only 4 weeks on Sunday now. Looking forward to seeing some photos of Roda starting to open up for the season.
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pete sant
Roda Anorak
Roda Riddler 2008
UNITED - NOT ARROGANT - JUST BETTER
Posts: 6,977
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Post by pete sant on Mar 17, 2015 22:47:33 GMT 2
The village is really starting to wake up now the better weather is here, there's lots of activity all over the place, apartments are being opened up and given a good airing, there is work going on next to Oscar's bar, in the old Mistral bar, in and above the empty building next to Agas jewellers, a new ice cream fridge was outside the Afroditi this afternoon and the grounds at Theo's were being tidied up and the front of the Mexican has been repaired following the storm damage from the other week. There's not much to photograph yet but I'll put some on as soon as there is. The roadsides are awash with spring flowers as is the route over Trumpeta into Corfu town, the trees are full of blossom and the afternoon temperatures are pushing 20 degrees, it really is a joy to be here at this time of year. Looking forward to seeing the first visitors soon, I'm sure we can manage a drink or two when you're over Carol. pete.
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Post by artisans on Mar 17, 2015 23:24:04 GMT 2
The rain in Spain … falls sometimes as snow! The weather in Pamplona was widely reported on TV as being a bit unusual, but we know it happened as we got caught in the thick of it. It wasn’t much overall, but all of us on the site had to be towed out and the roads were just a bit tricky! A few miles towards Zaragoza, everything cleared up and it was a day of two distinct halves. The bulls appeared on the dried-up hillsides as we headed off the high plains, Dibley-like, into valleys around Lleida and there were even irrigation machines at work – what a contrast. A night on a dodgy campsite, and it’s off to the main reason for us taking this route – a long overdue visit to Barcelona.
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Post by artisans on Mar 18, 2015 23:38:11 GMT 2
We finally reached the main reason for our Spanish interlude – Barcelona – a place I last visited in the 1960s, but more about that later. This view of the Abbey of Santa Maria at Montserrat was from about 20 miles away – maybe one day we’ll go there to watch the sunrise, but we have seen the magic fountain where Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury sang their very famous song. We are now in yet another European country with its own language, Cataluña, and at last we have finally reached the Med.
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kaz
Roda Anorak
Posts: 3,961
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Post by kaz on Mar 19, 2015 10:49:58 GMT 2
Great pics, keep em coming!!!
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pete sant
Roda Anorak
Roda Riddler 2008
UNITED - NOT ARROGANT - JUST BETTER
Posts: 6,977
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Post by pete sant on Mar 19, 2015 11:31:02 GMT 2
Visited Monserrat many years ago, it was a very weird feeling to be there, I'm not particularly religious but there was a certain calmness about the whole place. pete.
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Post by artisans on Mar 23, 2015 21:54:50 GMT 2
Montserrat is now on our list of places to visit, Pete - if we get back to Barcelona, that is! After five nights in a WiFi black hole, we're finally back online for two days as we soak up the Mediterranean sun near the ancient Greek town of Agde in France. So far, we've seen some different weather on this trip, with snow, rain & storms all being headline news on Spanish TV. We had a great plan to visit Empurias on the Costa Brava - one of the most western outposts of the Greek influence in the Med - but the storms pounding L'Escala & Sant Marti made it a little difficult, although we didn't fail completely.
For those who travelled to Spain when tourism first opened up, it will be interesting to know that the old frontier town of La Jonquera has re-invented itself as an outlet shopping city ... I came this way by bus on my first continental adventure in 1967 having flown with DanAir from Southend to Perpignan! In two days, we hope to visit Sete en route to the Camargue and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - another place high on our list since we first read of the legend that surrounds it.
If the signal holds up, maybe I can post some pics of Barcelona later - back in Roda in 18 days.
Steve & Jan
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