Travels with "Peedie Charlie and 2017 Adventure

Goeiedag from Brussels!

We are currently staying with Sarah it’s great to be back with her and to be back in a house after several weeks on the road. We have had a wonderful few days here, visiting Antwerp also exploring Brussels a little more. We drove back into winter halfway up France where there were patches of snow on the ground with everyone really bundled up. We are getting to know our way around this city a little after several visits during this travelling year. We still love the laid back feel to the place although all the people say they are hanging out for Spring.

Grande Plaza Bruxelles even during this time of the year there were plenty of tourists.

Grande Plaza Bruxelles on a beautiful day. Right hand building was where Karl Marx completed some of his writing.

Grande Plaza Bruxelles, this is the best we've seen it.

Our last blog was from the Algarve in the south of Portugal. From there we drove north through lots of cork trees on the way to Lisbon. The bark is harvested every 9 years so there were lots of trees that looked naked, as if they'd had their jeans pulled down with numbers written on their trunks of the year they were harvested.

Denuded cork tree…minus trousers!

Denuded three legged cork tree.

Lisbon was great, really quirky. A real mixture of traditional and funky. We were in a campsite near town. So walked around the famous squares, caught the old rickety tram up the hill to the castle with great views. Walked down thorough the tangle of old streets, lots with beautiful tile fronted houses, caught another tram out to Belem and the famous cafe to buy the custard tarts. Also went into the huge Monastery and wandered around the gardens and the waterfront.

One of many Lisbon churches from Palacio Belmonte.

Well dressed Lisbon artist.

Beautiful arched frontage to street arcade.

Harrods' need to go to Lisbon to learn about shop window presentation!

Atlantic from a great view point.

Doing the Lisbon walk!

Wonderful arched ceiling in the Jeronimos Monastery

Always helpful…… but, I have a gun, a whistle and a plastic helmet!! Pith helmet or English bobby look-alike??

One door!!

Slightly different door!!

Loved by everyone in Lisboa.

Ahhhh..…the Pastel de nata (custard tarts), the queue of 'enthusiasts' extended down the street about two hundred metres!

Ahhhh….…the custard tarts (patisserie nata) with extra icing sugar and cinnamon!!!

A very fit Lisbon Nun on the final steps after climbing such a long way through so many winding streets to eventually end up at her church.

Lisbon tram with outriders….no worries!

Portuguese design simplicity.

The next day we drove the short distance to Sintra. What a wonderful place up in the hills. Royalty used to live here in the summers when Lisbon was too hot. It is just charming. Sarah had visited in the summer and told us to go. Lord Byron apparently adored this place. We walked around the new town, old town and went a little way up the hill towards the castle. Loved the shops, as we did in Lagos. The boutiques had some great things. When we arrived they were having some sort of festival and the children were parading all dressed in costumes. We stayed in Cascais that night and walked down to Guincho Beach to have a look at the surfers of a very wide age range!

Sintra walk about, massive version of the chimneys

Sintra walk about - facing the church where all of the children had been, strands of ribbons from their celebrations on the footpath.

Sintra walk about - towards their castle built during 8 and 9th Century.

Sintra walk about - around steep twisting streets to Byron's local watering hole!

The toll roads are expensive in Portugal so we took the alternative and it took 6 hours rather than 4 to drive up to Porto. We stayed in a camping ground right by a beach just south of the city, the name of the beach is Miramar! The beaches in Portugal are amazing - a pity we visited in the cold weather. Porto is a fascinating old city with a dramatic frontage on the river. We found the old market that was a two storied building so old that parts were held up by scaffolding. The stalls were great, we found one that just sold garlic. Shoes are one of the main exports of Portugal and the prices are very reasonable so we shopped a wee bit.

Bus into Porto, house walls either side nearly touching…no room for pedestrians or anything thicker than 5cm!! We drove Peedie down here later, VERY SLOOOOOwwLY as it was the main road out of the town.

What to buy at the Porto market, bread, onions, sausages, olives, bread???

…………..or garlic - by the kilogram

Porto local 'yellow with envy'

Wow for modern Porto theatre architecture.

'Porto loo paper', what were they thinking!!!

The magnificently blue tiled Porto rail station lobby.

Rail station, wonderful tiling detailing. So many people come to see and photo this marvelous station. It rivals the work in the Antwerp rail station for art.

Ring the bells, lock the doors the ayes to the left…….no, these rang out the hours for the shoppers.

We then headed towards Spain through the mountains. Our GPS kept offering us alternative routes to save time and we unfortunately took one of the suggestions … … .ended up driving 3 miles down a cobbled road, not great in a camper van. We had to drive so slowly that we lost considerable time! We found this idyllic campsite at Braganca in the hills near the Spanish border, then had trouble with the electricity supply. So with a frost overnight we woke up to beautiful frost patterns on our windows. Sort of made up for a cold night.

Porto to Braganca, Transmission Gully look-a-like!

Iced window after a night high in the hills at Braganca and no power for the heater but we used the gas system instead……eventually!!!

We did enjoy our 10 days in Portugal and found the people very open and friendly. It was helpful for us language challenged people that many of the younger people speak very good English. We loved the mixture of traditional and modern. Very occasionally we saw a few things that reminded us of our experience of Spain in the 1970s with a few donkeys pulling carts, old men in berets, widows in widows’ weeds, and shops in some places that looked like they were out of the 1950s. In contrast there were very modern roads, excellent public transport and up to date supermarkets and shops.

After all this, we had a good couple of days travelling across Spain. This was followed by a long 6 hour drive to Zaragoza through the high country with temps of 4-5 degrees with patches of snow around. The north of Spain had heavy snow about a week before and it made the international news. We arrived in the campsite north of Barcelona at a place called El Masnou. The train station was 10 mins down the road and a fast train travelled to Barcelona every 20 minutes. We have a funny feeling that it was the campground we stayed in back in 1977! Will have to look at the old trip book when we get home. Everyone we talked to as we travelled around Spain warned us that Barcelona is dangerous because of pickpockets with theft from cars and vans so we were extra careful and managed to get though OK. Felt quite safe however, but as is the case anywhere you choose places with a bit of care.

In 1977 we arrived in Barcelona less than two years after Franco's dictatorship ended with political control starting to loosen. Parliament had just legalised the trade unions and the communist party that resulted with much unrest in many Spanish cities. In Barcelona there were lots of men in the streets and police with heavy machine guns on the street corners. As the vibe in the city was not good we didn't stay long but somehow the city stayed in our imagination and we have wanted to return. It was great that we did and we indulged in the magic of this city.

Copper fish sculpture in Barcelona, so many different things to see many years later.

Magnificent Plaza del Toro Barcelona.

The Gaudi buildings where amazing, we were lucky to visit his Sagrada Familia just after lunch when the sun was creating spell binding patterns through the magnificent stained glass windows. This nearly finished cathedral is due for completion by 2020….ish! There is no real way to do this building justice by words or photos, visiting is only the real way to truly experience such an architectural master piece. We were impressed with all Gaudi's design work we visited in the city including the Park Guell and Palace of Guell. Really wondered what he was on when he did his designs!!

We had a wonderful walk around the old town, exploring the large food market as well as small shops. Enjoyed a great paella in a restaurant down by the port.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church still being built - this shows the Passion façade.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church still being built, nativity façade entrance ….and cranes!

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral- still being built, partial interior view - just wonderful.

Interior - absolute dynamic use of afternoon sun through some of the many magnificent stained glass windows.

Wonderful!!

Fire like and truly phenomenal.

Sheer architectural magic - inspirational light and coloured glass!!!!

All natural light through stained glass

Simply breathtaking - the nearest modern building to be any where close to Hagia Sofia.

Simply magnificent.

………..a small teaser about it. see Wiki for full facts!!

Off to buy some socks at the St Joseph's Mercat La Boqueria (market).

Guell 'Palace' by Gaudi -this basement was originally used as the stables.

Guell palace roof stories above street level where the family's children used to play around the marvellous 'chimneys'.

Us happily on the Güell 'palace' roof. designed by architect Antoni Gaudí for the industrial tycoon Eusebi Güell, and built between 1886 and 1888. It is situated in the Carrer Nou de la Rambla, in the El Raval neighborhood.

In all we spent over a month in Spain and it was a wonderful choice to escape the northern winter. The south of Spain, Andalucia, was dramatically beautiful. We found the people very welcoming and accommodating and always wanting to chat no matter how much common language we had. The country has changed greatly since our last visit. Whole parts have been rebuilt and the new roads are great with excellent signage. One of our only challenges was their habit of numbering the motorway exits in an apparent random pattern, so exit 18 can come after exit 56. A logic or rationale must exist but escaped our understanding while driving / navigating.

We used the toll roads for the long drive north. Tolls are paid for by; taking a ticket when you join the motorway, then when exiting you need to enter your ticket, followed by paying into a machine when you leave. Or try to!! When exiting we used a machine that was broken (no warning) so it would not give us any change. After talking to the people on the speaker and them coming to look at the machine - they ended up telling us that we had not put the money in. Not pleasant when we were working with so little French. After a bit of a standoff they ended up letting us through without giving us our change. An expensive day……totaling over $70 in tolls!! Wow!!.

Again there were only a few campsites open in France but we found a really lovely one in Avignon right on the Rhone with a view across the river to the walls of the old city. We spent a day exploring the city and visiting what is left of the famous bridge. With one other stop south of Nancy we made it to Brussels.