3rd May - Torino Day 2

3rd May
Torino - Day 2

I peeked out of the curtains about 7.30am and had a look-see at what the weather was doing. Hmmm..... cloudy, but dry, so I stuck on the boiler for an hour to have a shower, rolled over and dozed off again. When I woke, it had gone 9, so I figured I'd best get myself up and make a start to the day.

By the time I was ready, the sky had cheered up a bit and then it was a case of wondering whether it was T-shirt and hoodie, or T-shirt and light jacket weather. I tell ya, the lifechanging decisions one has to make on the road.......
So anyway, I made the executive decision that it was light jacket day.


I checked out the stunning view from the terrace of the old villa and snapped off ssome photos, then ambled down the hill towards the city. The hill is an awful lot easier on the way down than it is coming back up, when it becomes a calf buster! I wandered along the banks of the River Po, which was in spate, flowing fast with murky brown water after the extensive rains of yesterday and last night. I soon reached the centre and began to take a look around. The shops were all open this time and there are plenty of them. Another thing there are plenty of are caffe's. The Italians love their coffee - shame I don't share the same appreciation really. I did bow to the little devil on my shoulder and indulge in the stickiest ice cream I've ever had.

I made a fair old circuit of the city centre; through Piazzas and streets, grand avenues and skirting the edges of some fine parks. Torino is very pleasant, but I get the feeling that it's a bit on the cool side at times, being bordered by the Alps. I could see snow on the upper slopes of one of the mountains in view at the end of one of the avenues. Brrr......

It is however, cleverly planned, and the main shopping areas are well served by what you'd call, galleries, I suppose....
These covered walkways mean that although you may not escape the cold, at least there is respite from the rain. Glasgow and Dublin planners, please take note. And this was planned out in the mid 1800's. Everything has a solid, well built and well maintained feel to it. The buildings all sit well together and are painted in matching hues, so that there is a recurrent architectural theme to the place. The transport system consists of trams; some a bit old fashioned, looking similar to the ones that Blackpool has that were built in the 60's and other, newer versions, and the systems seems to be quite comprehensive. There are also very frequent buses, which people seem to just hop on at the back of without paying the driver. I haven't sussed out how that system works! They also have a subway of sorts, but I'm not sure how extensive the lines are.


I carried on window shopping. One pet hate of mine, in everything from shoes shops to estate agents, is that it really bugs me when the traders don't put the prices on things in the window. I have no interest in going inside to find out how much something is, and you'll never sell me an apartment or a house with no price in the advert. I'm fairly sure that I can't be unique in forming this opinion?

I had a paranoid moment earlier today when I thought I'd forgotten the PIN number for my bank card. This happens to me now and again. The last time I had the bank send me out a reminder, which took about a week to arrive, and when it did, as soon as I saw the number, I had instant recall. Today, I had a choice of 3 numbers in my head and thankfully, the 1st one that I tried came up trumps! Phew.... visions of me running out of cash and no way of getting any out of the hole in the wall.

I was tempted to go clothes shopping, but I didn't really see any bargains, although designer label queens would be bowled over by the number of boutique shops, Dolce and Gabbana, Guess, etc., and practically everyone seems to sport at least a major designer label accessory like a belt. Or sunglasses. Now there's a thing I just don't get. I'd just lose sunglasses and don't fancy shelling out 150e to replace them. At least with a belt, it's firmly attached to your waist. That I can get..... Anyways, I resisted the temptation since I couldn't find a Penney's anywhere!

I finally found a net cafe and managed to get the previous week's blog uploaded and answer a few mails and while there I checked in on Colette's blog that she uses to keep me updated about things back in Ireland, and found out that Evelyn's cat, Boots, had been run over and killed on the road. That pretty much put a dampener on my day. I felt gutted. Poor wee cat. I really liked him. For the few short months that he was around, his character really shone through. Colette has a theory that the local alpha male tom cat, who may or may not have been Boots' father as they had very similar markings, had chased him away and he'd gotten run over trying to make it back home. He may, of course, have just gotten brave and decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence.

Crazy Italian drivers everywhere. I was crossing the street on the green man at one of the marked crossings and an ambulance came flying straight through. I thought to myself that it would have been somewhat ironic to have been ploughed over at that point, in an Alannis Morrisette kind of moment.

By 3pm, the clouds had started to roll in and a few spots of rain were making their prescence felt, so I decided to call it a day. Truth be told, my feet hurt, and I knew I had that nasty uphill stretch at the end of it all to look forward to. The rain managed to stay at bay until I got back to the van and then the weather turned to kak. I made myself a very Italian lunch of spaghetti with tomatoes and crusty bread and decided to chill out and watch a DVD, so 'The Shawshank Redemption' has been dragged out.

Tomorrow, I head for Milan, so I'm guessing whatever Torino has by way of boutique shops, Milano will have truckloads more.

Torino (Turin, Italy) Day 1

2nd May
Savines Le Lac (France) to Torino (Turin, Italy)

Arrival 47782 km

I took the N94 / SS24 from Savines Le Lac over the Alps and down into Italy. There was a fair bit of snow on the mountain at the summit of the road just before passing over the border, and the road was very twisty both on the ascent and descent. It was wierd seeing a 38 tonne articulated lorry coming down as some of the bends really bouble back on themselves. I'm assuming that the driver didn't want to pay the toll on the autoroute. The scenery on practically the whole journey was excellent. From Savines, it reminded me of the landscape between Kinlochleven and Ballachulish in the west highlands of Scotland (one of my favourite places), only the mountains were that bit taller.






On arriving in Turin, I had set Maisy GPS for a camper stop listed in the book. Unfortunately, the co-ordinates listed must have been off, as I ended up in a narrown uphill cul-de-sac and had do back out all the way down again. According to the GPS co-ordinates, I would have been camped on someone's front lawn! I had spotted a signpost for 'Camping Villa Del Rey' on the climb up to the aborted stopover, so I decided to back track andc see if I could find the campsite.




Following the signs brought me up another very narrow and winding road and I began to wonder if I was on the right road or not, but on rounding the final hairpin bend, there was a caravan parked up in front of me, so I reckoned I had found it. Unfortunately, the gates were shut, as the office didn't open until 3pm and it was only 2.20. I needed to back up Hermione into a parking space, but she had decided to throw a strop and was in one of her 'non starting' moods. I had to resort to the old tried and tested trick of the extra cable directly on to the battery terminal and she fired up. I had tried to just roll her back into the space, but with the engine not running, no power steering and the servo not working for the brakes, it was too awkward to attempt.

The guy from the camping came out and opened up the gates, showing me to a decent sized pitch which I had to turn around on, as it was on a bit of a slope. Thats the one good thing about this van. On a level surface, she sits slightly 'nose down' due to the Alko rear axles sitting a bit higher, and campsite pitches are generally never quite on the level, so I can usually face one direction or the other and be fairly level inside the van without the need for levelling blocks, which I had a bit of a disatrous time with in Madrid when they got stuck between the back wheels of the tag axle and I ended up having to jack up the back of the van to get them back out!

The campsite sits in the grounds of an old villa - judging by the name 'Del Rey', I'm guessing that there's some connection with royalty along the way. The house looks as though it's in the middle of a restoration. New windows have been fitted and there was scaffolding up inside one of the downstairs rooms and someone at work restoring the room. It looks to be an original villa with two wings added on, 4 storeys - pretty large. I don't know what the owners plan to do with it, as it's too big for a family to live in as one house.

Not long after I got settled in, the rain started and another thunderstorm which continued for nearly 3 hours, then the sun peeked through and the rain stopped. I decided to make my move and head down to the city to try to catch some sightseeing before dusk fell. I walked down the steep hill and into the city centre, which took around 15 minutes to get to. There is a tram stop at the bottom of the hill, but I had no idea what tram to take, so just hoofed it instead.

Torino, on 1st impressions, is impressive. I arrived initially at a really large square, 'Piazza Vittorio Veneto', and walked past the shops which are sheltered by covered, arched walkways. Very clever, in what I imagine is a fairly rainy city. I continued on up street, again more walkways and covered a roughly square walk around the main part of the centre, dodging trams, buses and crazy drivers that don't seem to think there is a need to slow down for you while you're crossing at one of the many marked road crossings. You need to have your wits about you, as there is sometimes a need to break into a sprint at the last minute!



Dusk had started to descend, so I decided to head back for the van. Torino is an easy city to navigate in, as it's layed out in square blocks off the river, so I found my way back without any problems, not needing to consult the tourist map I'd broght along. As I neared the campsite, the rain started again, and I was only inside the van about 5 minutes when it really started pelting down. It continued to rain all night and didn't ease up until about 5am.

As I'm writing this at 10am, the sun is making an attempt to come out, but it's not looking all that great. As long as the rain stays off though, I'll head back for the city again in a bit.

1st May

Vallon Pont D'Arc to Savines Le Lac (Lac de Serre-Poncon: Haute Alps Region, France)

Arrival 47586km.

Lovely drive today on some great roads and fantastic scenery. Most shops and businesses are shut for the holiday weekend, so not much to do really.

Arrived on a hotel campsite for 10e a night inc electric which is cheap, but it's a bit dead here, so it will just be an overnight stopover. I headed down to the lake and went for a bit of a walk, but the weather's a bit cool and rainy on and off.

I've taken the chance to get all the blog written up on the laptop and the photos edited, so that's a job done I suppose. I need provisions and to get some laundry done soon!

The sun's come out now, so I may head back out and see if there's any life in this one horse town. A lot of motorhomes are parked up at the beach but it's a good bit farther out of town plus there area a lot of 'no camping' signs around, so I didn't want to chance it.

Vallon Pont D'Arc (Ardeche, France) Day 2

30th April
Vallon Pont D'Arc - Day 2

(Not many pics for this entry as they are on a disposable camera)

I'd set the alarm on my phone for 7.30am, although I was awake at 6 (must have been all the anticipation!). I got up and had some breakfast. I'd prepared a packed lunch last night so that I didn't have to rush this morning. I organised my rucksack with food, water and disposable camera and was ready to go, but when I tried to open the van door to get out, it wouldn't open. I knew straight away what the problem was. I have two extra security locks on the outside of the door and they rotate over the door so that it can't open, or rotate away from the door, so that the door can swing open. Some joker must have swung them round last night. Very funny, but not if there'd been a fire or other emergency that needed me to get out of the van in a hurry. In such an event, somebody could have been up on a manslaughter charge! I'll need to remember to lock them in the open position in future.

I headed down the road to the canoe hire place and got sorted out with a life vest and a large plastic drum with a sealing lid to put all of my gear in. There was only myself and a couple doing the full 32km and we headed down to the launching area in a van with our gear. The rental guy sorted us out with boats and paddles and then I needed to drag the canoe down the hill to the water's edge.

I launched the canoe and soon realised that it was going to be a swim shorts and bare feet day! I started to paddle down the river, which was quite low in parts and needed to watch where I was going or I'd need to get out and push the canoe off the pebbles.

The first rapids came up quite quickly and in no time I was in the middle of the white water. Woohoo! It was really fun. The current just drags you where it wants to take you and I had to learn the technique of how to use the paddle as a brake in order to spin the boat around so that it was facing the right way. The scenery was amazing, as the river runs througha very deep gorge carved out of the soft stone. It must have been easily 400 feet high in places. Birds were swooping around and screeching. At times, the river just flowed along and I had to paddle to keep the momentum going, but then I could see more rapids approaching and I was on the fairground ride again......

I pulled in at a beach just past le Pont D'Arc, which is an enormous natural arch spanning the river and took some photos. There were already some canoeists there and taking the opportunity for a cooling swim.

By around the half way point, my arms and shoulders were beginning to hurt. I could also feel a couple of blisters developing on my right hand from the paddle. I stopped and had some lunch and gave my poor body some time to recover. As I ate, lots of canoes passed, lots with couples in them, some of whom couldn't seem to master the art of keeping the canoe going straight. You could feel that tensions were getting strained and that there was going to be a few falling outs before the day ended. "What time is it?" asked some.... "How far to go?" asked others.....

I resumed my journey and came into some rapids just beyond a large rock called 'Le Catedral' and managed to be swept sideways by the swirling current and into a large rock which capsized my canoe and I ended up underneath it. Somehow, I'd managed to keep a hold of the canoe in one hand and the paddle in the other. I felt like Huckleberry Finn, up to all sorts of nonsense on the river, but where was Tom Sawyer when you needed a hand out? I managed to right the canoe and swam with it over to some rocks and quickly climbed back in. I was soaked obviously, but just as well that all I had on was shorts and a life vest. I was surprised that the experience didn't shake me up more than it had. I remember being under the canoe and just thinking ""Don't panic".

I stopped off later at a small beach and took some time out for swimming as I was way ahead of schedule to be picked up by minibus at the end of the route. There were lots of tiny beaches and places on the rocks to stop and sunbathe.

Finally, at 2.30pm, I arrived at Sauze and hauled the canoe out of the water. I was tired in a good way and sunburned in a bad way! I chatted to a couple who had arrived just before me. Vincent is from the Netherlands and Audrey from France. We deciided to head up to the nearby campsite and get some drinks to kill time. I've taken Vincent's number and hope to maybe get a chance to meet up when I travel to the Netherlands later in the trip.

A minibus took us back to Vallon Pont D'arc and just as I was walking back to the Aire, the rain started pelting down and there was a huge thunderstorm. I ended up saoked through (again!). The last time I saw rain like this was on my last mini-tour of Europe, in Italy, with Colette. It hammered down. The street was like a river.

The Rain in Vallon Pont D'Arc from inside the van!


So, I'm back in the van now and dried off and am making dinner of chilli con carne and using up the spuds I have left over before they start growing inside the van. It's been a great day. Best fun I've had in a long time in the great outdoors and now I have another thing to try again sometime.

Tomorrow I'll start heading in the direction of Italy where I meet up with Bruce next Monday night.

Vallon Pont D'Arc (Ardeche, France)

29th April
Leucate Plage to Vallont Pont D'Arc (Ardeche Region - France)

Arrival 47341km

A very nice drive today. The French roads really are, in the main, a pleasure to drive on, and the scenery was good too, even along the Autoroute A75. Once off the Autoroute, on to the 'D' roads, in to pretty towns and villages, poppies in flower in the fields everywhere.

I had chosen St. Remeze as my destination but passed through Vallon Pont D'Arc on the way and it looked really nice, right on the river and with good access to Gorges of the Ardeche. I ended up going to the final destination and St. Remeze is a lovely wee village, but since I wanted to do some activities, I just filled up with water and returned to Vallon Pont D'Arc and found the Aire de Stationnement there which was handily placed for town. The Aire costs 7e per night and was busy with plenty of vans.

Something I forgot to mention about the Aire at Leucate Plage.... the bread delivery van came around at 8am blasting his horn, and had a long queue of folk waiting to buy bread off him. I wasn't up out of my scratcher quite then though! I had to buy my bread in Vallon Pont D'Arc.

Vallon is a lovely small town on the banks of L'Ardeche and they had a festival of some sort on in the town square. It's a holiday weekend and then place is jumping. I initially walked in and then later, I cycled back in, did some grocery shopping and booked a canoe trip down the Ardeche for Monday. It's 32km, starts at 9am and will take all day to complete and I guess that I'll be wrecked by the end of it, but I hope it'll be worth it for both the experience and the scenery.

Leucate Plage (Back in France again)

28th April
Sitges to Leucate Plage, France.

Arrival at Leucate Plage: 47026km

An uneventful journey once out of Sitges and the twisty coast road to Barcelona. A large hold up of traffic between Barcelona and Girona and then again on both sides of the Spanish / French border where the adjacent towns seem to cater for the shoppers. I'm not sure what's cheaper on either side but a roaring trade was being done in something!

I had decidedto head for around the Perpignan area to stop off for the night and found Leucate Plage listed in the camperstop book and liked the look of where it was on the map. Leucate is located on the Med coast just north of the border and is also at a large land locked lake that is used for all kinds of water sports. It might have been nice to have stopped there for a few days when in season, but it was all very quiet.

The Aire was fine; like a large gravel car park with all the motorhomes parked aorund the outside edge. All the sea facing spaces had already been taken, but I wasn't bothered as I was only in transit and would be heading off in the morning anyway. The water wasn't switched on though, so I had no water left in the tank for a shower and had to head off in the morning and hope to get some water at the next stop.


There was a lovely beach of golden sand and it would be a nice place to head for a quiet beach break. I didn't get to see much else, so not a lot more to say really. The Aire was very quiet after dark and I slept well, woken around 8am by the usual early risers starting up the diesel engines.

Sitges and Barcelona

24th to 27th April.
Sitges and Barcelona.

Arrival 46730km

From the town of Soria, I moved off on Tuesday around mid morning with a plan to head for the coastal resort town of Sitges, in Catalunya, about 60km south of Barcelona.

On the approach towards the coast, the road began to wind uphill, and had some crazy hairpin bends; it was 2nd gear stuff at times in order to climb the steep inclines. Once at the highest point of the road, an amazing panoramic view of the city of Barcelona lay ahead; mountains all around, and the coast in the distance. I really wanted to get a photograph of the view, but there weren't any lay-bys big enough to safely pull over into, so the photo didn't happen. The road descended rather rapidly in much the same manner as the climb up, and then levelled out to the flat.

I travelled down a very tight, twisty road past a beautiful lake up in the hills once more, and finally came in to the outskirts of Sitges. There were 2 campsites right next to one another, but I wanted to see if there was anything closer to town. BAD MOVE! I almost got stuck in a street that would have been nearly impossible to back out of. It was 'one way', with cars parked all down one side, roadworks on the other side that I needed to swing out past, and then negotiate the space between a lamp post and a parked car, but I needed to get up on the pavement slightly and the post was close to the edge. I really started to panic a bit, but somehow managed to squeeze Hermione through - just!

I abandoned all further attempts at campsite hunting and headed back to the closest site, 'Camping Sitges', and booked in. They only had one pitch that was just about big enough, and had been making noises about having to charge for two pitches if the size was going to be over. Anyway, the van just made it on for length between the pitch markers. It was a nice site. Good clean facilities and excellent security. There was someone manning the gate 24/7 and no-one got in without being asked their business there.

Once pitched up, and satellite dish set up on Astra 2 for the first time this side of the Pyrennees (woohoo!-sadly the signal was still too weak for the BBC and ITV channels) I walked in towards the town. It was a fair old trek, over the railway bridge on down to the promenade and then having to walk it's length all the way along to the old church that stands on a cliff on the shore.

Sitges is an upmarket Spanish resort and most of the hotels were 3 and 4 star. Lots of waterfront restaurants lined the side of the street opposite the promenade, and the usual one or two chiringuito bars on the prom itself. The beaches were clean and looked after and there always seemed to be some council workers cleaning up. It had a nice relaxed feel about it this early in the year, although I heard that it gets very busy in the summer. It proved to be an ideal base for the relaxing seaside aspect to it, and also for visiting Barcelona on the train which cost 5e return.

Sitges:

I went to Barcelona on two separate days and spent the afternoon each day walking around the main streets. I found it quite difficult to get my bearings though, and it didn't leave as good an impression on me as Madriid did, but then, maybe that's because I didn't have a personal guide this time! That said, I still enjoyed both visits and walking around the parks and shopping streets. It's definately a shopping city.... there are any number of shops and small market areas, so I bought some shorts and flip-flops when I was there.

Barcelona:






I actually preferred being in Sitges though, and was taken to chilling out in some of the bars and restaurants which were quite reasonable for an upmarket town.

There area great beaches too, if that's your thing, and everyone seems to own a small, fluffy, yappy dog. Poodles, Yorkshire Terriers and Bischon Frise' everywhere. I think it's like an accessory to the rich - like a handbag.

Yes, Sitges was really nice for a few days. I had to finally wave goodbye on Saturday morning though, as France and Italy are calling.

Camping 75e 4days
50e diesel in Barcelona on the way out towards France.