Category: General (Page 14 of 37)

Samson’s Final Journey

3 February 2020 / Juliet Stratton

We left Southern Spain and spent 2 days in Zaragoza, a beautiful old Moorish city with a huge cathedral in the city centre. We spent several hours wandering around the town, soaking up the Spanish Sunday atmosphere, a laid back, casual and chilled ambience. The beautiful buildings had a cool look to them in the late afternoon sun despite it being cold and windy.

We drove cross country to the north, passing fields full of snow from the previous week’s heavy storm and snow fall. Outside the temperature dipped to 6c, we didn’t hang around long at the services!

We got up to Bilbao ferry car park the night before our ferry was due to leave, to park “safely” overnight, or so we thought. We were disturbed about 11.30pm by the Guardia (police), checking our truck. A visual inspection seemed fine. David happened to open one of our lockers only to find we had a lodger, who the Guardia very quickly removed by the scruff of the neck and escorted to a “secure location” far away from our lockers ?. We had another inspection at 6am with the Guardia present after we heard our lockers opening again at 4am, luckily no additional lodgers! We then had the trailer scanned before loading onto the ferry for a horrendously rough crossing to Southampton, delayed by 4 hours due to gale force 8 winds!! I have never before been so sick – and no alcohol was involved!!

Eventually we arrived at a camp site in Bicester, hunkered down and waited for a local repair company to take a look at an electrical issue we had developed. Back in the UK for a few days, it’s cold and windy, raining that horribly miserable light drizzle, and daylight ends at 4.30pm!!! This is not what we are used to….so roll on the warmer climes of India!!!

Whilst in Bicester, David struck a deal with the company that serviced and repaired Samson in the past so suddenly, he has a new home and we are homeless! We frantically packed our contents into the truck and a hire van and put everything into storage. Our son Robin, kindly dropped everything, sprung into action and drove down to Bicester in a hired van, helping us all day to put everything into storage, for which we are very grateful.

Samson has been a fabulous home, he got people talking and looking, looked stunning beside the lakes in Lake Garda and the sea in Croatia and Venice, and would have earned us a fortune if we had charged for every photo that was taken of him ?

However, storage and being unused for months in the UK winter would not have been good for him, and we want a smaller mode of travel for Europe, one that doesn’t require a football pitch sized area to park in to relieve David of the stresses of parking such a beast, so a good move all round.

Sad to see him go, have loved living in him for 5 years, but time for a change ??????

October 2013, trading in our old truck and caravan for Samson!

Samson through the years and locations, in all his glory!!! ❤❤❤❤

January Jaunts

3 February 2020 / Juliet Stratton

We took a day trip to some caves 700m above El Campello, called El Canelobre, which translates to The Candelabra. We enjoyed the view of the whole bay of Alicante and the Monnegre river valley from the viewpoint at the entrance. The caves are said to be Spain’s largest and deepest cave system, only opened to the public in the middle of the 20th Century.

The internal temperature of the cave is a steady 17c, which after the early morning breeze outside, seemed very warm. The cave is just one cavern, containing one of the highest vaults in all of Spain, with a height of 70 meters. The internal space is more than 80,000m2 which is often used for musical concerts, and is full of impressive shapes such as stalactites, stalagmites, columns and jellyfish, among many others.

During the Civil War, the cave was used as a repair shop for aircraft by the Republican army, and it was at that time that the current tunnel of access to the cavity was drilled, before then access was through a narrow crack in the rocks. Sadly there was no visible record of the military activity.

The caves were formed many millions of years ago, but they are still very slowly changing at a rate of just 1cm every 100 years!

In El Campello, we came across a wine merchant extraordinaire! If it wasn’t “dry January”, we could have and would have spent a fortune!! 47,000 bottles, 7106 different wines, dating from 1730 to 2019, valued from €2 to €10,000.00.

The 1973 Rothschild at the top of the rack is priced at €2970.00 PER BOTTLE!

We also, finally, got to meet some very old friends of my parents. Jim and Veronica Eadsforth have been friends with my parents since before I was born, Jim and my Dad were in the army together! I had met them when I was a teenager, but don’t certainly don’t remember, so we headed to their local town on a wet windy Sunday morning and stopped in a cafe for a coffee, lunch and catch up. It was lovely to finally meet them 🙂

As a final farewell before we left Spain, we went into Alicante for an evening, checked into a hotel and went out to dinner with Mum and Dad, before heading to an intimate flamenco show. It was a lovely evening, the highlight was staggering back to the hotel just before midnight nursing hangovers! Dad managed to eat a full cooked breakfast the next day, so he couldn’t have been that bad!!

We left Alicante, Benidorm and Southern Spain to head inland for 2 nights in Zaragoza.

Winter Update

12 January 2020 / Juliet Stratton

December was an interesting month, we settled into a small campsite in Vilajoyosa, just outside Benidorm, with Mum and Dad in another site in the same town. We are in a small secluded bay, with a beautiful beach, surrounded by small hillocks, giving us amazing views of the campsite, the cove and the fishing farm out at sea. We have climbed the hill several times, we make a special trip up there on Christmas morning before early lunch time tapas, then enjoyed a late afternoon traditional English Christmas dinner at Mum and Dad’s campsite.

Christmas & New Year pictures

Boxing day was spent relaxing before a Chinese buffet dinner, then a show at the Benidorm Palace. Never having been before, we didn’t know what to expect, but we had a wonderful evening, entertainment was great, varied and professional and we had amazing seats in the balcony area.

New year’s eve was a quiet affair, David cooked a meal and we relaxed until venturing out just before Spanish midnight, onto the beach with a bottle of fizz. Our local restaurant put on a few fireworks, nothing spectacular, but we toasted in the new year with a few other couples before returning to the warmth of our trailer.

Day trip to Denia

One afternoon we drove to Denia and Altea and stopped off at a beautiful Buddist type building which turned out to be a 20 year old Russian Greek orthodox church, complete with friendly stray cat. Sadly I had no biscuits in my pocket that day.

We have explored the coastline on cloudy and windy days and witnessed the debris left by the seas. We climbed one hill nearby to watch and record the sun set on a fabulous calm sea, only to find we were the subject of scrutiny by several single men scouring the car park. Turns out we had missed the signs in the hurry to get the perfect picture at the right time, signs telling us were in the local “nudist bay and dogging spot”! We laughed, but chose not to hang around 🙂

Alicante Visit

We recently had a lovely day out in Alicante, a traditional low rise Spanish port town just down the coast, with an old Castle and Fort on the hilltop, some 180 metres above the town, giving us amazing views. Thankfully there was a lift to the top, although ‘one’ can walk up to the top via a steep winding pathway. No Health & Safety at the top!!

And finally, we have had a day out at the local reservoir, stopping for a picnic lunch.

Feliz Navidad, 2020 here we come!

9 January 2020 / Juliet Stratton

Our few months “wintering” in Spain is almost at an end and we have to decide where to go this year and decade.

Wintering is the correct terminology, I know many of you may question this, being in a cold, damp miserable climate most of the year, but it does get cold and damp in Spain too!! At night the temperatures have dropped to below 10c, and its often damp in the morning!

However, most of the time, it’s beautiful clear blue skies, the sun is at its peak between 1pm and 4pm and its generally a healthier way of life as we can walk out at night, cycle during the day and we dont feel the need to hibernate.

At the end of 2019, we learned of the loss of 3 friends, one we had known for 30 years, one for 40 years and one just 2 years, as well as saying goodbye to several friends and acquaintences before then, so we realised that, as the saying goes, life is short. Life does come to an end. And the lord takes away the lives of our nearest and dearest without rhyme or reason, so we have changed our plans to live life now. And as in now, we mean, right away!

Our plans this year were to site Samson in Spain for a few years, and travel further afield later in the year. Samson is/ was becoming too cumbersome to lug around Europe and David was becoming stressed about it. This is not going to happen as we have found it impossible to locate a permanent pitch that ticks all our boxes or to find a permanent pitch, most large sites now are not committing to annual pitches, instead preferring to have more chalets and mobiles homes as they bring in more money.

I have been very reticent about travelling abroad and living out of a suitcase for a long period of time but we have agreed to compromise. We are going to try 3 months in India, stopping at least a week in one place, then we will return to the UK, sell Samson, downsize to a caravan and head off to explore different parts of Europe that we couldn’t before now.

Yes, you read correctly!!! India. Flights are booked for the 4^th February to New Delhi, returning 30^th April, Samson will be in storage until then, and we will be in 4* or 5* accommodation wherever we are, another part of the compromise! If we like India, we can return as we were granted a 5 year Visa!! During our stay we also plan to visit friends in the Philippines, a short hop away!

We will start a new daily blog, but in the meantime, we wish you all a happy healthy 2020 and hope you continue to follow our travels!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles – Pt 4 Louisville, Indianapolis & Chicago Pt 2

6 January 2020 / Juliet Stratton

Louisville

We left Bardstown and headed up to Louisville, where we stopped off at the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs. We didn’t stop here as a race track was starting to buzz with visitors arriving for the afternoon’s racing, we just nosed about and admired the stands and horse enclosures.

We did stop at the Mohammed Ali centre, a museum showcasing his life as a young boxer, as an adult boxer, his fight against enlistment in the Vietnam war and as a public figure afterwards, his involvement in religion and charity. It was enlightening, interesting and very informative. We had just arrived and got into the lift to start the tour, when a fresh suited man entered with us, along with another couple. It transpires that this was the Mayor of Louisville and he welcomed us to his lovely city!

Indy

Our next stop was at the Indianapolis Motor racing track, home to the Indy 500, NASCAR, Moto GP and the USA Grand Prix! The museum was amazing, full of original working race cars, lots of driver memorabilia and information on historic speeds, dates, winners and record breakers. We took a ride around the track, in a minibus being driven by two old ex-employees, both flowing with information. We learned that until 1909 he track was made up of red bricks, but with the improvement in engines and tyres, the bricks were tarmacked over and a metre of bricks were left by the winning line. It is customary for winners to get out, kneel down, and kiss the bricks, so we did!

Back to Chicago via Joliet

We headed back up towards Chicago, back through the prairie lands again, before stopping at Joliet, just outside Chicago, for our last night together. Joliet is on Route 66, but is a large modern town nowadays. We went to a bar/restaurant called Juliet’s and had a lovely meal and a few glasses of wine!

It was so cold that night, minus 9c!! Food was lovely, and I got to try the national favourite – deep fried truffle ravioli – simply delicious, followed by home made tiramisu!!!

After 4 weeks together, we dropped Mike and Brenda at Chicago airport and we spent a few more days with friends Paula and Perry at their apartment on the outskirts of town, chilling and relaxing. One of my requests during our stay was to visit a cat café, Paula had made it her job when travelling the world to visit as many cat cafes as possible (www.theneighbor’scat.com), while Perry tries chocolate milk in an effort to find the best in the world, or the best in the USA (www.afoolzerrand.com).

So we went to a Cat Arcade, the owners of a cat rehoming charity have set out a room with old arcade games and sofas and chairs, so cats and public can interact in a relaxing environment. The cats were so happy to be stroked, played with, cuddled and cooed over and this helps with their socialization before they are rehomed. Whilst we were there a man arrived with a cat carrier and scooped up a lovely older cat, was given advice on how to let the cat settle on arrival at its new home and he left, grinning like a Cheshire…..cat!

A sassy grey feline was happy to be stroked, rolling over for tummy rubs, but every so often let me know she had had enough!

We popped into an old building which was home to the Schlitz Brewery, a “tied house” that sprung up after Prohibition (1890 – 1903), a Tavern owned and operated by the brewing company in what could have passed as an ornate residential property.