Spain's Best Kept Secret

Since my last blog post, we've left France and continued our journey through Spain to the region of Galicia - where we've been for the last week.

Highlights of that journey included the walled city of Carcassonne, which Milly took great delight in walking around and shouting "Castle!" whilst pointing at anything that looked vaguely stone wall or turret-like.

We also enjoyed our time in San Sebastian - one of Spain's trendy holiday spots on it's north coast, and a bit of a foodie paradise as it's best known for it pintxos bars - similar to the tapas bars your find around the rest of Spain (and the world) - I'll leave the detailed description of them to Claire.

Having left the castles and exotic bar snacks behind us we then travelled inland towards out final long term destination.

As we travelled we started to notice the odd person walking along the roadside. Curious as to why they might be doing this, we consulted our trusty lonely planet to find that we were driving the route of the Camino de Santiago - a 40 day(!) pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - where the apostle James (look him up) is said to be buried.

Can't say that I'm particularly interested on walking anywhere that is going to take 40 days, but fair play to the literally 100's of people we've seen walking the roads - some in small groups, but many by themselves - I suppose a pilgram has to do what a pilgram has to do?

Nearing the end of our third long drive, we were fast approaching our final long term stop destination. With each stop, we've tried to make sure that they've all been a little different - the first was a beach holiday, the second a city break, and now the third - an old stone cottage in the countryside about 20 minutes from the nearest major city.

On arrival, about 30 minutes later than planned (stupid GPS took us to the wrong side of a river, and then suggested we swam - I hate TOMTOM!), we were greeted by the owner, who didn't speak any English - which combined with our lack of understanding of the Spanish language (I'm limited to being able to order drinks in bars) - meant that the introductions where somewhat awkward.

Once we were settled, we took the time to explore our surroundings. The cottage is on 25,000 square meters of land bordered by a river on one side.

The grounds are planted with various fruit trees, of which I think the owner said we could help ourselves to - we have been anyway - so far we've sampled apples, pears, peaches and grapes - all of which Milly loves.

The owners live down near the river, and there are swings and a trampoline near their house which we are free to use - Milly can't believe her luck being constantly near such fun things as these.

Finally, the owners have a boat and several kayaks - which they have made available for us to use - see above for photographic evidence of Milly and I out on the river.

It's funny, before arriving I was a little apprehensive about coming here for two weeks - the thought of being isolated out in a countryside cottage filled me with a little bit of dread - how was I going to fill my time? But now that we're here, I'm really enjoying the space and sense of privacy - it feels like we've got the whole place to ourselves and we're loving it.

We've now been here just under a week, and having no trouble filling our days by exploring the surrounding towns and villages.

We've been into our nearest town, Pontevedra - where there is a week long festival going on - complete with fun fair rides and side shows - it seems that every other attraction has a Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald or Pluto painted on it - so this has proven to be hours of fun for Milly - who walks around shouting "Look Daddy, Mickey!" or similar.

We've also been up to Santiago de Compostela to see what all the fuss is about - it appears that there is quite an impressive church there, which was full of Brazilians when we visited - complete with Brazil flags and drums - you would be forgiven for thinking you were at a football match, expect for all the dudes in robes at the front reading from what was presumably the Bible in Spanish?

We also met up with some friends, who took us down to a walled town called Valença in Portugal for lunch - a lovely fish stew which I'm sure Claire will describe better than I can in her blog.

We'd expected the weather to be terrible when we got here, mostly because people we know from the area had warned us that it wouldn't be good - referring to it as the "Spanish Ireland" - but so far it's been great - the first day it rained, but ever since it starts foggy in the morning but then it clears and temperatures have been around the low 30s every day.

There don't appear to be many other English (or any other nationality) tourists around, in fact we've gone days without encountering anyone else who speaks English.

This hasn't been a problem though - the locals almost seem apologetic that they don't speak our language, and we've had some people go to great lengths to accomodate our monolinguistic ways - including a shop keeper who dragged his sister down from her flat above the shop to help interpret our requests - all very humbling - mental note: must try harder to learn at least one other language.

There do seem to be a lot of local Spanish tourists though, making me wonder if Galicia isn't Spain's best kept secret? What with all the great food, good beaches, excellent weather and interesting towns - perhaps our espanyol amigos don't want us to know how good it is, so they can keep it for themselves? just a thought ;-)

Trip in numbers:

Miles since N15: 6702.5

Length of beard: 3.5cm - I've been looking at some recent pictures of myself with the beard, and I'm starting to think I suit it - perhaps I should persevere.

Beers drunk since starting this blog entry: 3 (burp!)

On the Road Again

It's now been four days since leaving Ostuni. We've made our way north, along the east coast of Italy.

We spent the nights in Chieti and Ravenna before arriving in Milan - a city I know quite well, as Disney Italy is based here, and I've been backward and forward to the Italian office a few times in my time at Disney.

Whilst driving north, it quickly became apparent that we were heading the wrong direction. The traffic heading south was three lanes bumper to bumper and often at a standstill, the great summer exodus from northern to southern Italy was well underway. As we were travelling north, we fared quite well traffic wise - with only the odd car bothering to make the journey north alongside us.

As we approached Milan, the trip odometer rolled over 5000 miles. To put that into context, that's almost half way to NZ from the UK - had we driven in a straight line we'd probably be somewhere in China about now.

The stop in Milan was very pleasant, we took the opportunity to stray into central Milan (our hotel was in the outskirts) and catch up with some of my ex-colleagues. It was lovely to see everyone and Claire and I both enjoyed having adult conversations with people other than each other.

Milly was also in good form, and took the opportunity to perform her latest party trick - which is to force her hand as far down her throat as it will go until she wretches, whilst grinning wildly. All fun and games, except this time she pushed it a little two far and a little bit of sick came back up all over Daddy - the fashionable Milanese sat around us were less than impressed - but luckily Milly seems to have learnt her lesson and hasn't tried a repeat performance.

Having said our goodbyes in Milan, we then proceeded west towards the French Riviera.

Crossing the border from Italy to France was a bittersweet moment - in our decade in the northern hemisphere, Italy is probably the country we've visited the most and it was sad to think that it's probably some time until we'll be back - we will be back though, mark my words.

That pretty much brings you up to date with our travels, we are currently in Provence in France. A cute little home in a tiny village called Pierrefeu du Var (thanks Julie!) - deep in what appears to be Rosé country - my all time favourite summertime drink (see above for the before picture, rest assured this bottle didn't last long).

We've got a couple of days here, to give Milly (and myself) a break from the driving. Filling our days hasn't been too difficult, today we took a walk through the vast wine vineyards that surround the village - as it's summer all the vines are green and heavy with ripe grapes - Milly in particular has enjoyed counting grapes as we go along... "one grape, two grapes, three grapes" and so on, you get the picture ;-)

Tomorrow we hit the road again, Carcassonne first, than across the border to Spain and San Sebastian, Leon and then our next long term stop in Galicia - where I'm told the white wine is excellent - oh dear!

Trip in numbers:

Miles since N15 5345.6

Bear Lengthy 3cm - but I think it's days are numbered

Heel of the Boot

We are now fast approaching the end of our stay here in Ostuni (pictured right). Again, we've had a lovely time - three weeks is an excellent length of stay to ensure that you really get a feel for the place that you're staying in.

Unlike Crete, Ostuni has been much more of a city break, albeit a quaint medieval city - we've had shops and services all within walking distance - so in theory have been less reliant on our car.

The town has been particularly lively, but this is because it's August and bang smack in the middle of the peak summer holiday period - meaning lots of people, wether it be in the town proper, or at any of the surrounding beaches - more on them later.

As it is peak holiday season, the central square in town has been transformed into a temporary stage - and every night bands or staged performances take place to entertain the crowds - all very interesting and not something we've witnessed in Italy before.

I suspect the reason we've not seen it before, is because we've always taken the advice of all the travel guides, and avoided travelling to Italy in August - now I'm starting to wonder if that was the best idea? Sure, it's very busy and I can only imagine the places that are more pure beach resort are heaving, but the atmosphere around town is excellent, and there is entertainment every night - it's a bit of a trade off, but it's certainly not been unbearable.

We have been making our way down to the local beach at least every other day. Milly is a proper little beach bunny now and loves to spend time playing in the sand or the shallow water.

The beach that we tend to go to the most has a car park near the road, and then a little train service that runs people backward and forward to the beach. The rides on the train are a real highlight for Milly, to the point that when she's asked if she'd like to go to the beach, she responds: "Come on mum, dad. Train!"

The weather when we first arrived was blisteringly hot, much like when we were travelling through mainland Greece - but it cooled a little the second week and now it's settled into a pleasant 30ish degrees every day.

The second week even brought a little rain, which we'd not seen for a while - we took the opportunity to go on day trips whilst the weather wasn't as nice, and have explored much of Puglia, or the "Heel of the Boot" as it's sometimes known - due to it's appearance on the map.

Our travels have taken us to Lecce, Monopoli, Albarobello, Gallipoli (not the one in Turkey) and Matera.

Milly particularly enjoyed Matera, an ancient city where the dwellings are carved into the rock along two ravines. What was it that she enjoyed you ask? Was it the awesome outlook, or the ancient history, or the good food? No, it was the thousands of steps winding their way up and down the place, which she happily stamped up and down for hours whilst mummy and daddy were looking around.

Speaking of food, the eating here as been excellent - unlike in Greece, we've predominantly eaten at home - this is because all the local cheese, bread, fish and produce stores stock all weird and wacky italian food that you'd either not find in a UK supermarket, or it would be prohibitively expensive.

The problem now is that we only have four meals remaining until we go, and we still have a list of things we'd like to make as long as your arm. We're considering inserting another meal into the day - perhaps between lunch and tea (I do like to eat lunch early, so there is a large gap) to ensure we can squeeze in another couple of dishes?

The good food is also having a somewhat adverse affect on my waistline, if we continue eating as we have been - I'm going to have to consider purchasing new trousers.... oh dear, diet in Galicia? My understanding is that the food is excellent there as well - whatever will I do!

We've been going down to the play area in the nearby park, and Milly is starting to socialise with the other children a little - but her best friends are still Mickey and Minnie. We have a couple of small Mickey and Minnie toys, and she plays with them for hours on end.

Also, this being Italy, Mickey and Minnie are everywhere - either on peoples shirts, or ballons, or on comic books in stores - you can't get away from them.

The other day, we were going out to get a gelato from the local store - we coaxed Milly out of the apartment by asking her if she'd like an ice cream - the response was pretty emphatic and moments later we were on the street walking towards the local gelateria.

As we walked along the road, Milly noticed an inflatable Mickey and Minnie in a shop window: "Look dad, Mickey and Minnie" she said.

"Oh Yeah" I said, "We'd better go get that ice cream though, ay?"

"Bye Mickey, Bye Minnie - ice cream!" she said, very cute :-)

On Saturday, we need to pack the car once more, and then we're off on our next road trip - having spent three weeks here, we're all looking forward to getting out on the road again.

Our travels will take us North through Italy to Milan, then west through the Cote d'Azur in France and then along the north coast of Spain to our next long term stop in Galicia - lots of adventures to had along the way, we can't wait.

Finally, for those that are interested in some of the places we've been visiting, or some of the food we've been eating - I suggest checking out Claire's blog and also taking a look at her flickr photostream.

Trip in numbers:

Miles since N15: 4308.2

Length of beard: 2.5cm