A TRIBUTE TO VINCENT

Still posting in flashback! The end of our UK adventures and a goodbye to our wonderful Vincent!

We head off toward the East taking in more lovely scenery and after visiting A LA Ronde, end up camping for the night in the New Forrest. What a tranquil place for our last night sleeping out in Vincent. Just can’t believe this moment has come.

We head on the next day to Brighton and enjoy the sunshine walking along the pier and around the Lanes. We have not done our research properly and don’t go into The Pavilion, next time. I think we have got to the point that we just want to get home now.

We miss John and Jenny so drop by but alas they’re not home, so we decide to push on to Chelmsford. We are welcomed back by Maggy and Graham. Just a few days before Aunty Babs had a nasty fall and is in hospital and we are glad to have a week to be able to visit her regularly and catch her up on our travels. We hope she is quickly back in her home and feeling much better.

We spend our time sorting out lots of little jobs before we embark on the next adventure. It is a busy time and the fact that we are soon to be in America is taking its time to sink in. Its exciting and scary all at the same time.

Well the time has come to part with our beloved Vincent. As always in this life we are incredibly lucky and even this very sad moment falls into place. Maggy and Graham had first introduced us to their mechanic when we purchased Vinni back in December. He gave him the once over and fixed a few little things before we embarked on our European adventures.

It seems that he fell for him as quickly as we did and on our return expressed an interest in purchasing him. Long story short, on our return from our UK adventures we met to discuss the possibility and agreed on the price only just short of what we paid for him. HOW AMAZING is that. We kept him until our last day in Chelmsford and delivered him to Gary, his new owner.

What is fantastic is his intention to completely restore Vince, the perfect man for the job being a mechanic who can tenderly care for and repair any little problems.

This blog is a tribute to the VW Transporter, a tireless workhorse that has transported us over 16,000 MILES of hills and mountains, highways, byways and mere tracks.

He has kept us warm and dry, safe and secure, endured intruders and pushy drivers (who literally ran into him), snow, rain, sun and storm and just kept on keeping on. He also made it possible for us to camp in the most spectacular and sometimes unexpected places.

He delivered us into the VW club of fellow travelers that always wave enthusiastically as you pass, with the secret knowledge that you have the best vehicle on the road.

Vincent may have rattled a bit (quite a lot at times) but he was ever faithful and dedicated in his task of transporting us around. He was literally our home, a very cosy and comfortable haven that has shared in many laughs, a few arguments, lots of games, our snoring and our bathroom duties, what a patient and understanding fellow he is.

We will never forget you Vincent and will visit you on our return trips to England (Gary has agreed to rent him back to us on future trips – how good is that). We will be looking for a cousin of yours in Australia for our adventures there.

You are the one and only special Vincent and we love you and will miss you, but most of all we will treasure the memories that you have given us. KEEP ON KEEPING ON. THANK YOU FOR JUST BEING THE PERFECT YOU.

Photos of Vincent can be found in pretty much any album on our Facebook page!

BACK TO FRANCE – CARCASSONNE, NIMES AND ALONG THE FRENCH RIVIERA

It was sad to say goodbye to Spain. We have loved our time in this amazing country. Those who visit will not be disappointed and I know we will be back to spend more time one day. Watch this space for a complete rundown. Back into France, quite a pretty area of green fields and bright green leafy trees, Spring has sprung.

Our first stop was in Carcasonne. This is a town famous for its Medieval Castle and walled city. This is a much more authentic walled town than that of Avila so if time is of importance would recommend visiting here instead. The tour of the castle is very well set out showing the change of architecture and uses over the many years of it’s existence.

Through our whole travels we have learnt that what you see is probably a cover up of something older before and this castle has very cleverly uncovered its history over many centuries. Within the town walls is a very lovely church of a gothic design and many old buildings and shops to explore.

We moved on through the French countryside to Nimes. Here we spent time exploring Les Arenes. This is one of Europes best preserved and largest gladiator arenas still in existence. It’s worth a visit with its extensive audio guide (free with entry ticket) information about the gladiators and the bull fighting. A lot of movie making myths destroyed but good to know how and why the fights were held. We’re glad we live in less barbaric times. After seeing a little footage of bull fighting, we are so glad we did not go to see one live in Spain. It really is time to stop this unfair fight to the death, cultural sport or not. Best that we tourists do not support it in any way.

On to the French Riviera. Driving through Marseilles, Cassis, St Tropez, Cannes, Nice and into Monaco and Monte Carlo. The couple of days this took had us pass through towns full of wealth, towns with ports full of boats of unimaginable stature and markets and paths edge-to-edge with tourists. You can imagine the looks little old Vincent, in need of a bath, secured with his rattling exhaust! We leave him dirty to try to dissuade burglars ha ha.

Only window-shopping for us in these parts. We enjoyed lovely days with the weather just starting to warm up and have found a couple of lovely camping spots looking over the Mediterranean. All the while trying to get used to the volume of people around, and it is not yet top tourist season.

Before you know it you have crossed into Italy, a whole new country to start to explore. Annoyingly our first few days were spent stuck in the small town of Bordighera, parked overlooking a small port of lovely boats and beneath a lovely park overlooking the deep blue ocean. Not a bad spot to have a little mechanical problem.

Time to reflect, as Vincent likes to break down for the weekend and have a proper rest. We had three days before the mechanic was open so had time to just walk around and explore. One day to take in the sunshine and relax before the rainy weather kicked in. On the rainy day we caught up on the washing and sorted out a few little things in Vince. Amazing to watch how the stormy sky illuminates the ocean creating a colour like I have never seen before, quite beautiful.

It’s strange for us to see the sun come up over the ocean instead of going down. Eating pizza in a restaurant on the beach we usually expect to watch as the sun vanishes behind the horizon.

We’ve had some time to read a lot, play our usual games, eat quite a bit of comfort food and try to get used to a new language. Just like “home days”! We have found some very helpful and nice people and are looking forward to delving deeper into Italy and seeing all it has to offer.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album CARCASSONNE NIMES AND THE FRENCH RIVIERA

Photos of our first glipse of Italy in the album ITALIAN RIVIERA

THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS

It had been almost a whole 24 hours without seeing a castle so we had to stop in Trancoso before the withdrawals kicked in! Actually our aim when entering this small town on the way to Guarda was to find Wi-Fi, contact with home the most important thing right now. In France we found that most tourist offices had free wifi access but we are finding that McDonalds is the most reliable for free Wi-Fi overall. With no McDonalds here we were pointed to a small café where we sat and though we got what we needed to done, walked out smelling like cigarette smoke, yuck!

Before this the lady at the tourist office had given us a town map and we thought we should see the fort while here, after all we probably won’t be back for a long time if at all. If we want to see it, we need to see it now. The fort is on the edge of the town built at the highest point a corner of a thick wall surrounding the historical part of town. Forts and castles are great places to visit as they’re usually built on high ground and give an uninterrupted view of the towns. A nice place to stroll briefly, we left Trancoso quite soon after the castle to find a camp spot in the Serra de Estrella Natural Park.

We ended up staying next to a church and picnic area half way up a hill in a small town near the West border of the park. It was half way up a steep hill on a car width road, church on one side, at the top of the hill, and cliff on the other side. The road was built in a way that made it impossible to turn around on flat ground so in the morning Mum had quite a struggle getting out of this one.

It was decided that the best way was to back into a small driveway area up to the church front (unfortunately with a very steep incline, think reversing up a curb all the way) and then drive out forwards. Easier said than done and let me tell you we’re very lucky there was a solid 1.5m wall between us and the cliff when after our first attempt reversing as far as Vincent could go, we came forward and couldn’t turn enough to miss the wall making a second reverse up the hill necessary. Well the hill start didn’t quite work (Vincent’s hand brake couldn’t quite hold on) we ended up leaning against the wall before being able to make one last effort to reverse, luckily successful otherwise we would have been stuck here forever. Beautiful view but there are many more to see!

We made it to Guarda and found out that the reason we were here, to see a prehistoric rock art site, were actually 75kms back in the direction we had already come. Resigned to not seeing this site we had a quick look through the cathedral here, one of the few things open since it was a Sunday. Another beautiful church, it’s most defining feature, for us, the columns made of concrete that looked like three tubes twirling around each other to the ceiling above. Every church has something different and we like to explore the architecture and pick the differences out. We have each read The DaVinci Code recently and now like to look for symbols everywhere too!

We decided to drive towards Manteigas in the Serra de Estrella Natural Park to find a camp spot nice and early and enjoy the sun on our new Decathlon camping chairs, purchased a couple of days earlier. We ended up driving for most of the day again, past Manteigas and onwards towards Seia. About 10 kms from Seia we found another amazing spot to stop, quite close to the observatory, on top of the mountain with sublime 180 degree view looking down on a river and across to more mountains. We are so lucky!

In the morning we continued on towards Seia and about 3kms before hitting the township we stumbled across and shop selling leather and woolen goods, mostly jackets. Mum has been saying she would like to find the perfect sheepskin coat to buy while over here so in we went to have a look. Mum tried on countless jackets but unluckily they were always too big in the styles and colours she (we) liked. The right one will pop up eventually!

Coimbra was next on our list, the mechanic and his son Mario who live in Salamanca had directed us here, and they were right we loved this place. It’s a university town and these areas always have a great atmosphere. First stop was the botanical garden where the first tree we saw after walking into the grounds was a Eucalyptus from Western Australia, and it smelled like home. We were tempted to take a branch back to Vincent but decided to leave the tree in tact! They also had a Morton Bay Fig tree that was enormous and must have been there a very long time! The gardens were just beautiful and just like Kings Park is my favourite place in Perth, this would have to be the place I liked most here. The Botanical gardens, and the library in the old university buildings.

It is worth going to see the old university in Coimbra just to see the magnificent library. I love libraries at the best of times but this one is stunning. The two story high book shelves, carved from dark wood and embellished with gold, lining the walls, the giant reading desks with wooden inlay, and the intricately painted ceiling just beautiful. If I’ve ever been sad that photos were prohibited it was here!

The library also contains 40000 works that are protected by vault like walls approximately 2 meters thick and teak wood doors sealing the entrance. As well as this the wood covers the entire inside helping protect the precious works from insects. The other part to the protection from insects, the bats, who live above the ceiling, eating any insect that comes along. Not sure how this works though as I didn’t see any bats at all.

Also to see at the old university is the Chapel, much to Mikayla’s excitement (she’s actually very tired of visiting every church we drive past), that houses an organ made up of 2000 tubes and with walls covered in hand painted tiles from Lisbon. As well as the main building containing a hall for the most important ceremonies of university life, still used today, and old examination rooms. From the balcony of this building you can also get a great birds eye view of the river and most of the town.

From Coimbra we went south about 15kms to a place called Conimbriga, a whole town of Roman Ruins. Arriving late we camped in the car park here ready to see the ruins the following morning, talk about getting ready for an early start!