Valencia City of Arts and Sciences

We are having a lazy day today - only three dips in the sea - after having

Gargoyle guarding the Pont del Regne 

walked ourselves a tad too far around Valencia yesterday. For our second day in the city, we decided to visit the spectacular Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias which was designed by Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela. The architecture itself makes the area worth a visit and we spent a good while staring up and across at bizarre structures that are reminiscent of some ancient sea creature lurking in pools of sparkling clear water. Of course, building the whole complex had gone catastrophically over budget by the time it was completed in 2005 so there is a degree of controversy locally. However from the tourist point of view, it was a must see for us!

In a departure from our usual practice, we actually paid up to go inside two of the buildings instead of just gawping for free from the outside. L'Hemisferic resembles a giant eye and houses an IMAX cinema. We were able to see a fascinating short film, narrated by Miranda Richardson no less(!), which explored the discoveries made by astronomers using the Very Large Telescopes in the Atacama desert. Some NASA footage was shown too including stunning close-ups of the surface of Mars. I've not visited an IMAX before. Is the seating always so steeply tiered or is this due to L'Hemisferic's shape?

The second building for us was El Museo de les Ciencias. This huge interactive gallery is spread over four floors and contains seemingly endless fun exhibits covering a wide range of sciences. It is the perfect place to go if you have school-age kids or if you are a big kid yourself! There's so much to see and almost all the exhibits are practical. We saw ourselves through a thermal imaging camera and I failed to build a roman arch - it fell down. We made a tornado and tried to grab a metal spiral that turned out not to be there at all. The museum even has a big Foucault Pendulum hanging from the roof.

I was wrong about Cabanyal being the closest railway station to La Ciudad and we ended up going to Valencia Del Nord and walking from there. We chose to head straight for a huge park that bisects the city along the original route of the now-diverted River Turia. This is a wonderful space that includes grassy lawns, trails, shaded areas, flower beds, more joggers and cyclists than we could shake a stick at (note to self - take more sticks next time!) and all of the length that we saw was neat and well-cared-for. A great resource for city dwellers and tourists alike. The scary gargoyle pictured was one of a pair guarding one end of the Pont Del Regne bridge. It vaguely reminded me of the one in Ghostbusters and I thought the image best suited for this almost-Halloween post. Unfortunately, I am yet to find out who the sculptor was so more Googling needed.

Our first day in Valencia

One reason we chose to spend time in this area of Spain is the city of Valencia which has

The spirit of Valencia 

been on our bucket list for a while, but never quite made it to citybreak status. We also considered visiting last year when we stayed not so far away at Navajas, but it was Fallas time and neither of us are keen on crowds!

Camping Malvarrosa is fairly well situated for Almenara train station. It's not easily walkable in this heat, but is only a short drive and - joy of joys - has a free car park. The return fare to Valencia Del Nord was only 11 euros for the both of us and the journey time of about 40 minutes each way meant we got to see a bit of the surrounding towns and countryside. We stayed on through the Valencia Cabanyal station which looks like it will be the nearest to the City of Arts and Sciences as we're saving that architecture feast for our next visit.

The Del Nord station is beautifully tiled throughout the entrance hall. Ticket sellers sit in ornate wooden booths, and even the clock is worth a moment's admiration. There is a restored, originally horse-drawn, trolley car on the concourse. Interestingly, it was brought over from Bristol and used in Valencia for summer tourist tours. If you ever visit, be sure to turn back once you're outside the station to take in its exterior. I presume it has been fairly recently renovated and the paintwork and decoration is impressive with a hint of whimsy. Valencia must have been a very prosperous city when this structure was built!

Our destination for this first day was the El Carme district of the old city. It is a little run down, but no less attractive for that. Narrow streets are mostly one way which could make it confusing for traffic and there were a surprising number of cyclists taking advantage of the quieter routes. We spent most of the time, as we tend to do, in wandering the streets, drinking in the atmosphere and pointing out interesting murals or doors, etc, to each other. The pictured mural of an singer stood in a paella pan was just on the end wall of a house. I guess it depicts an interpretation of the spirit of Valencia. Dave said he'd buy me a similar dress but I'm not sure I can quite fill it in the same way!

We were delighted to stumble across a small museum called the House of Rocks. Nothing to do with geology, this is where the ceremonial figures and carriages that make up the Corpus Christi procession are housed for the rest of the year. We saw 10 huge human figures, each of which must be three times a person's height and which are wheeled through the streets by someone walking inside the base. The 11 carriages, or 'roca', have lifesize carvings detailing various biblical stories and are fantastically detailed. The earliest was first paraded in 1511!! It was a wonderful experience to be able to get so close to amazing workmanship. I am sure the carriages look impressive in the procession but so much of the work would be invisible at any distance.

More religion followed with our next stop which was the basilica. Somewhat bizarrely, it seemed to only be open because a service was taking place so all the clergy and choir were decked out in their vestments in front of a small congregation in the centre while, around the outside portico, a steady stream of tourists were muttering to each other and taking photographs! The tableau above the altar was absolutely stunning and with so much gilt that it was hard to make out the details of its scene. Obviously we weren't welcome to wander that bit! There was also beautiful paintings of angels and religious figures all around the high domed ceiling right overhead.

After all that history, our heads must have been turned a bit because, instead of our usual grabbing coffees and cakes for lunch, we actually sat down to a proper tapas meal at Cerveceria Navellos. We had croquetas, caramelised morcilla, a very-heavily-mayonnaised salad and deep-fried camembert. All delicious and elegantly presented!

We returned to the station via more contemporary shopping streets including one which had a dozen or so high-end designer stores. A quick stop-off in Valencia's Lush outlet for more shampoo bars and a rich Jungle conditioner bar - all the sea swimming is making my hair a tad brittle - and we stumbled back to our train with slightly sore feet!

Muscle memory is a wonderful thing

I'm still on a small high this morning having managed thirty minutes of jogging yesterday

Tiled street art mural in Sagunt 

evening without - touch wood - any ill effects or damaging my leg again. Woo hoo! I found it quite incredible how my body remembered my best pace and things like breathing coordination without any real conscious effort on my part. Quite fortunate really! I was even 'swift' enough to get back to our pitch in time for the evening bat show - dozens of little bats swooping and diving for bugs right above the caravans and motorhomes. There was a fabulous display yesterday because they were silhouetted against an orange-pink sunset. We learnt the German for bat - fliedermaus - and I looked up the Spanish too - murcielago.

Turning right out of Camping Malvarrosa leads to miles of beach, turning left and hopping over a small dry canal reveals the elegant boardwalks and paved promenades of Casa Blanca. Yes, really, although Not This One. Plus Dave's cycle explorations discovered a blocked off road which must have been the old route but is now cyclists and pedestrians only and it runs parallel to the sea but set back. Consequently, I now have a route out along the prom, across a playgound and the new road, then back along the old road. Yesterday's jog was thirty minutes running interspersed with a couple of short walk breaks. Hopefully I can work up to continuously running before we move on, maybe even start lapping.

Before I change subjects, huge congrats to Victoria Hazell for her Abingdon marathon finish. Fantastic time!!

The above mural is discreetly tucked away on a wall in Sagunt. There isn't a lot of street art in the city so I think we were lucky to have spotted it. I love the design and the colour. Finding the image still on my phone reminded me that I overlooked blogging about the Teatro Romano in Sagunt which we visited on the same day as the castle. It has been extensively renovated which has apparently drawn much criticism from those who believe ancient monuments should be left as discovered. However, having walked around inside, I liked the way the space has been brought up to date. Ancient rock seating is still visible to either side of the auditorium and a thin white skim covers the central part which is now used again. I think the skim is concrete or similar so today's audiences still get the authentic uncomfortable Roman experience. The stage reminded me of the one at The Globe in London. There is the same openness to the elements and no obvious concessions to scenery. I guess props and costume would suffice. We thought we might take in a show, albeit in Spanish, but the theatre is only active through the summer months so we are too late. Maybe another year?

A neat(ish) segue into another arts topic because the first instalment of another Kickstarter project, S C Barrus' episodic novel The Gin Thief appeared for download in my emails this morning. I enjoyed his previous, Discovering Aberration, so have been looking forward to the new work. I'm already loving the cover. If you didn't Kick for this, you catch catch up on Amazon at the end of the month.

Sizzling in the Sagunt sunshine

We liked Camping Malvarrosa when we first arrived practically a week ago and are still

Oh look! Girlfriend on a beach with a book! 

impressed with it now which is pretty rare for us! Being so close to warm, swimmable sea is obviously one of the main attractions, but it is also generally peaceful, there is plenty of flat countryside for Dave to explore by bike, I have beaches and lovely promenades to jog and walk along, and we even have History and Culture close by. The site has a section for touring caravans and motorhomes, a separate bit for tents, and the rest is a village of various permanent places but each is an individual encampment rather than simply bland, identikit statics. We have had more luck with wildlife spotting. There are several herons that fish the nearby irrigation canals and we have also seen kingfishers and Dave came across a field, maybe of harvested rice, with dozens of egrets in it. A cheeky red squirrel accompanied us for part of the climb to Sagunt castle. It was much smaller than the grey ones we used to see in Polegate and refused to sit still long enough for us to get a decent photograph.

We visited Sagunt city which is a few miles away. We had thought we could walk there, but got as far as the pretty Canet de Berenguer in an hour and a half and decided perhaps all the way to Sagunt was a bit optimistic in this heat. It's up to 29 degrees in the afternoons! In common with several towns along this bit of coast, Canet is spread over two sites. There is a pretty coastal strip of summer homes which is practically deserted at this time of year, and the town proper is set back a little inland. Therefore our walk along the beach to Canet only got us to their part of the beach and not an ice cream kiosk in sight! There were lots of large tyre tracks in the sand where the frequent boardwalks out to the sea are being taken up, presumably for safe storage through the winter. We discovered a shady park for a rest and then wandered home.

Sagunt is famous for its historical past having existed since at least the fifth century BCE, been at war with Carthage, and been invaded by Hannibal after an eight month siege. We visited the extensive castle site on a hill above today's town. There are remnants of several eras throughout the site, but sadly not placarded so we weren't always sure what we were looking at. Roman columns and inscriptions abound, but the ancient buildings were plundered for later rebuilds including a Moorish stronghold and the Christian reclamation that followed. There is also a section at the far end which obviously very recent renovation, perhaps to stop subsidence down the hill. A small museum housed some of the best preserved pillars and inscriptions, otherwise outside was a huge jigsaw of broken stone, sorted to a degree, but not yet with its places identified. An interesting aside for the museum was that all the information was bilingual. One language was Spanish, obviously, but the other was not English or French or even German as most of our fellow campers are, but Valenciano. I knew Catalan had its own dialect but we didn't realise that Valencia does too.

There is a railway station nearby with several local trains a day into Valencia. It is supposed to be getting a bit cooler here next week so we plan to take advantage of this to spend a day or two exploring the city. Any suggestions of must-sees?

In the meantime, my eagerly anticipated Kirsty McGee album has arrived. Do you remember I blogged about its Kickstarter campaign? It's called Those Old Demons and we're really enjoying the music. Interesting lyrics and unusual orchestration make it quite different from our usual fare. I think the official release is at the end of October and pre-orders can be placed here:

Seraphita by Honore de Balzac / A Matter of Temperance by Ichabod Temperance / The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing

Seraphita by Honoré de Balzac
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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I thought I had better read a French book while we are in France and settled upon Honore de Balzac's Seraphita as I had downloaded it from ForgottenBooks ages ago and not yet gotten around to starting it. The edition begins with a lengthy introduction which discusses and explains the religious significance of Seraphita at great length. This was so in depth and dull that I nearly didn't get through its eighty-odd pages in order to start the novel itself!

Seraphita is set in Norway and Balzac does a fantastic job of describing the country, its landscape, seasons and the people of the isolated rural village where his story is set. I loved reading these passages which actually advanced the story and would love to someday visit a similar remote fjord as it was so romantically presented. However, two long sections of the book are simply Seraphita expounding (over many pages of monologue) various religious doctrines and dogmas and I found these bits incredibly difficult to understand and to remain focused on. The beliefs range across Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism amongst others, and also include mentions the beliefs of races of people on other planets such as Mars and Venus. It is all probably fabulously imagined but felt like sitting through a long harangue. Perhaps it would all make more sense to someone of the time as much of the science has now advanced far beyond that denounced by Seraphita as her proofs.

All in all, this is an odd book for me to have read and it is pretty much two books mashed together - one a lovely story and one a intensely detailed lesson!

A Matter of Temperance by Ichabod Temperance
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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A Matter of Temperance was recommended to me by Amazon because I enjoyed another steampunk novel, S C Barrus' Discovering Aberration. Both are indie fiction and entertaining reads but I think Discovering Aberration was the more satisfying of the two.

Ichabod Temperance undertakes a fantastical adventure when he first rescues one Persephone Plumtartt from clutches of an invisible otherworldly monster. Our hero has a knack for this kind of chivalry as he continues to repeat the feat, firstly across a slightly-geographically-redesigned Europe, and then across the rest of the world. We read his story from two viewpoints, both his and also Miss Plumtartt's. Unfortunately their characters are not strongly defined so as the chapters rush past, I didn't always know which one was narrating. It doesn't really matter as this book is all about action. Villains are cartoonish and allies are named but not created as defined people. On reflection, this is disappointing as I would have cared more about the quest had more words been expended on character rather than fighting. I liked the initial inventions which are perfectly steampunk, however as the book goes along, more and more items are invented but not described so imagining what the author means is tricky. Also the perils are often surprisingly easily despatched and occasionally seem thrown in for no apparent reason - why were the sirens included? Why the pearl?

For me, A Matter of Temperance felt unfinished. It is a fun fast-paced romp but needs more explanation of the whys and wherefores in order to really reward the reader.

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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I chose The Grass Is Singing as my 1950s books for the Bookcrossing/Goodreads Decade Challenge. I don't think I've read any Doris Lessing before, certainly not recently, and was pleased to find that I love her writing style! This novel confronts several major issues within a relatively small number of pages yet never feels preachy and is an amazing achievement for a first publication.

Our heroine, Mary, is a free-spirited young white city woman, earning her own wage and not subject to marital or family ties. She has overcome a poverty-stricken childhood, but her chance overhearing of acquaintances gossiping about her make Mary believe that her life is incomplete and would be better with the freedom of marriage. She ignores her own happiness in favour of the beliefs of others and pretty much jumps on the next man who doesn't get out the way quickly enough! Richard Turner is a poor white rural farmer described as living in isolation although he has black workers with whom he communicates every day, but those men and their families can not be suitable as friends and Richard also shuns the companionship of neighbouring white families.

After their marriage, Mary joins Richard on his farm, initially happily as she goes to work improving the shack in which he lives. However, there is little money so this task is quickly completed and it is at this point that Lessing's story begins to draw in its claustrophobic threads. We know from the first chapter that Mary has died and Richard is mad, presumably with grief. Now we start to discover why. Perhaps Mary's terrible treatment of a succession of black houseboys, the result of institutionalised racism, has led to murder; perhaps she cannot stand the months and years of isolation; perhaps the sheer heat of living in essentially a tin box is to blame; perhaps Richard can no longer bear her criticism of his poor farming decisions which results in their downward-spiralling into ever deeper poverty.
Each of Lessing's themes - racism, sexism, isolation, not belonging, poverty - are beautifully and powerfully portrayed. The Turner's predicament is completely believable and I pitied the couple intensely while at the same time being exasperated at them for being so unable to drag themselves away from their self-imposed prison. Even as hope is forced upon them towards the end of the book, we already know it will be too late and the poignancy of this is almost unbearable.

The Grass Is Singing is a wonderful novel and, while I look forward to reading more of her work, I think this debut will have been very hard for her to beat.


View all my reviews on Stephanie Jane or on Goodreads

Why on earth did we return to Zaragoza?

We spent a single night at the municipal campsite on the outskirts of Zaragoza last year. It was the only site at a suitable distance to break up our journey and you might remember that we weren't too keen on it then. Back in March, it was bleak, practically deserted and had a really creepy air. However, as it is still the only practical site on our journey in the opposite direction now, we thought we could brave it for one more night. And we did! But we didn't enjoy it! The site was practically full and there must have been a few thousand people there in motorhomes, caravans, statics, and dozens and dozens of small tents. It felt like a completely different place to how it was in March. However, as we could manage without electricity, we weren't even offered the luxury of an individual pitch for our 23.66 euros this time. Instead, we snagged a spot in a line-up of caravans and motor homes on a bit of waste ground - might as well have been parked up in one of those freeloader sites instead. As today is the Fiesta Nacional de España (National Day) in Spain, there was a huge party going on in the city of Zaragoza last night with a firework display and also thumping music until five o'clock this morning. Yippee! Do you see the tree in front of our car? We had to undertake Reversing in order to get away this morning and (fortunately) managed quite an elegant manoeuvre in front of an audience.

What passes for a pitch at Zaragoza 

Thank goodness that after a few hours' driving, we are now somewhere very lovely. Camping Malvarrosa is just outside Sagunto and is a fair sized site with a small village of permanent encampments plus a row of touring pitches several of which - including ours - are right on the beach. And I mean Right On The Beach. I can hear the Mediterranean waves about 50 metres away and we step out the back of our pitch onto the sandy beach. Bliss! We set up the awning this evening and sat out in it to eat our dinner with the sea on one side and some quiet opera arias escaping from a German caravan over the way. Very civilised and completely the opposite of yesterday. We're not sure if any shops will be open tomorrow due to the Holiday, but if we can't get anything locally, there is a restaurant on site with a 7 euro Plata Del Dia that might just do instead. Dave - in his hunter-gatherer guise - is going to explore the vicinity on his bike in the morning while I might go for a run on the beach.

A new jockey wheel and lunching in Biarritz

Firstly, for those still holding their breath in suspense: Yes! (the two animals we saw on our walk were coypu. Since then we have also seen a mouse and a v formation of geese. A European safari!

A shiny new jockey wheel and the knackered old one 

Tuesday was a potentially fraught day which turned out well in almost everything. Firstly, the French man who had suggested driving to Tarnos for our replacement jockey rushed over on Monday evening as he had seen similar wheels in the local Bricolage, only 3km away in Socoa. We started our quest there - close but not quite the right size or right size but not strong enough. So on to Tarnos we went and to a fantastic shop called Agest which sells motor homes and has loads of spare parts from bulbs to skylights. Even better, the shelves are spaced out and well lit so you can actually see all the stock clearly! We had a choice of jockey wheels on their own or in assembly and 'treated' ourselves to the posh metal €19 one. The all plastic match to our previous one was just €6 - no wonder the damn thing broke! The Agest salesman even replaced the split pin free of charge from their service stock. The whole experience was so simple that we were finished ages earlier than expected so, instead of our planned Buffalo Grill (*) meal, we decided to go and see Biarritz instead.

Biarritz is one of those places that is known for its glamour but I think this has faded a little now. The cream colored Casino on the front looked familiar - probably from old photos or maybe a Bond film - but many of the buildings looked worn around the edges. There were still dozens of expensive clothes shops though and lots of eating venues so much of the town's economy must still be tourism. We struck lucky lunching outside a creperie/salon de the just over the road from the concert hall. Dave had a savoury tart and I had a honey drizzled goat's cheese salad which was delicious. Then we strolled around some more and watched surfers riding and falling from the bigger waves back from the horseshoe beach.

Another day, another town and St Jean De Luz, almost walkable from our Larrouleta campsite, is well worth a visit. There's interesting architecture and the town has obviously been affluent for many years. The Villa Germaine on the promenade has brightly painted squares and spheres along its roofline. Again, expensive clothes shops dominate, but there are also boutique art galleries and several shops dedicated to edible regional products. I finally located the one food we'd been having no luck finding, even in the huge Leclerc supermarket - oats. Apparently the French don't do porridge!

One more place to tell you about and this one's a bit mad. We drove up a winding mountain road to Col d'Ibardin where we had be told we could go walking. We did do a nice walk to a lake and back seeing semi-wild ponies and the oddest black and white goat - front half totally black, back half totally white. However what was odd about Col d'Ibardin was that suddenly, in the middle of nowhere halfway up a mountain road, there is a large Avia petrol station and about a dozen shops selling alcohol, perfume, tourist tat, leather goods and shoes! We were flabbergasted! Dave talked to one of the shopkeepers in Spanish and we discovered that the border between France and Spain runs down the road at this point so we had technically arrived in Spain. The duty on the goods was Spanish, not French, so that little winding road was pretty busy.

(* We have a fondness for Buffalo Grill because not only do they do good fast(ish) food and I like their salads, but we were parked up outside one having eaten there when Dave asked if I'd like to move in with him all those years ago!)

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Vol II by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle / The New Life by Orhan Pamuk / Extreme Measures by Martin Brookes

The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. II by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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The second of the four volumes of Sherlock Holmes stories was one of the downloads in this summer's AudioSYNC programme and Volume II has the stories The Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, The Five Orange Pips, and Silver Blaze.

As the stories are short and we are already meant to be acquainted with Holmes and Watson, there is very little in the way of description about them. Unfortunately, as I am not a particular fan, this made our heroes rather flat. Their clients and foes were also not fleshed out in any great detail.

However the plot lines which were main focus of each tale were generally cleverly thought through and it was fun to try to guess the conclusion ahead of Holmes. David Timson does a great job of the narration and his style complements the writing perfectly. I don't think I will search out the other three volumes though because I can see too many of such tales together quickly becoming overly formulaic and, dare I say, a tad dull.

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Books by Arthur Conan Doyle / Crime fiction / Books from England

The New Life by Orhan Pamuk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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I registered a book at BookCrossing.com

I was lucky enough to win a copy of Snow a couple of years ago and absolutely loved Orhan Pamuk's writing. His poetic descriptions are beautiful and I managed to completely lose myself in the book. So when I saw a copy of The New Life on a second-hand stall in Bristol, I snapped it up.

The New Life is a mix of books in one. There is the stunning writing in which to lose yourself, a road journey through a Turkey which is being lost even as our narrator discovers it, and a splash of mysticism to aid and baffle the reader in equal measure! The seemingly unending bus journeys are brilliantly portrayed, both their tedium and the mortal risk of boarding. I did not completely understand everything as I read it, although much later became clear with further chapters and, as with Snow, I need to learn more about Turkish culture in order to appreciate all the cultural references.

However this was definitely a full five-star read for me. The characters of Osman, Janan and Mehmet are driven and compulsive, and I felt for their quest to discover the truth behind the book they had read. I would so love to read 'that book' too! My favourite character was Doctor Fine and I certainly sympathised with and understood his battle to slow the oncoming tide of globalisation, or Westernisation as it was to him, and his sadness at it destroying the small lifestyle details that made his Turkey his country. The New Life was originally published twenty years ago and I guess the onslaught has increased since then there as it also has in many other countries. If nothing else, I will take away from this book a renewed desire to Buy Local and support regional producers.

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Books by Orhan Pamuk / Contemporary fiction / Books from Turkey

Extreme Measures by Martin Brookes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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I enjoyed reading this biography of the Victorian polymath Francis Galton. A lesser known cousin of Charles Darwin, he flitted between scientific obsessions after a period of African exploration, discovering and pioneering many things we still use today, such as some forms of statistical analysis and the symbols on weather maps, while at the same time being generally unpleasant to anyone he considered beneath him - that's anyone who wasn't rich, white and male - and getting into tiffs with several other scientists.

Martin Brookes writing style perfectly suits his subject as he is able to smooth over with humour the areas of Galton's life which are particularly anachronistic to 21st century readers while at the same time creating admiration for his genuine achievements. Perhaps Galton's primary obsession with eugenics is why he is not better remembered. The future horrors that were carried out in its name are always apparent in the parts of the book discussing it. However as someone who was very much a man of his time, Galton's life story makes for a fascinating read.

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Books by Martin Brookes / Biography and memoir / Books from England

To infinity and Bayonne!

Or a little beyond Bayonne as it happens, to Urrugne in Basque country. Our new campsite

Dave took this stunning photo of a egret fishing
at the ornithological park near Le Teich 

is Larrouleta which is a deceptively big site with grass and hardstanding pitches. There's both indoor and outdoor table tennis - we played three games already this morning - plus a covered, heated swimming pool that we tried out yesterday evening. Cool water but considerably warmer than the sea! Dave is very happy that there is a tennis court too - sadly he's only got me to play against but hopefully that will be better than nothing! The surroundings are peaceful, the wifi is good, and there's even a fishing lake to walk around. What more could we need?!

Chatting with an English couple on the pitch next door got us walking directions to Socoa, about 4km away, where there was an interesting Alternative Living market on the harbour front this afternoon. On the way, we caught sight of two animals that we think resembled coypu - will confirm what they were when I've googled it. We wandered around the stalls in Socoa, listened to a fun street band, and watched some people getting their tiny catamaran ready and setting to sea. Definitely wouldn't catch me on one of those - a mini trampoline strung between two canoes!

I'm very proud of Dave as Socoa was his second market In One Day. This morning we drove to Ciboure for their weekly offering and bought some tasty (but pricey) Basque cheese and also a small version of the local specialty cake. It's kind of like a Boterkoek without the spices and has a custard layer in the centre. Pleasant enough but I'm not seeing enough of an attraction to justify it being sold Everywhere. Ciboure and it's neighbour over the river, St Jean de Luz, are both very pretty towns with interesting small shops so we're looking forward to more of an explore, maybe tomorrow.

Then on Tuesday it's off to Bayonne in search of a new jockey wheel as we noticed on arrival here that ours is cracked across the plastic part. Not exactly sure how this happened, but the crack might have started with a steep speed bump in Le Teich. A sweet French guy took a look when we arrived here and reappeared a short while later having searched online, we think, to tell us where the nearest caravan spares shop is. Only twenty-or-so miles away in Bayonne and now Dave has also discovered that there's a Buffalo Grill about a hundred yards away. Now that is a blast from the past!

Ascending the Dune du Pyla and picnicking by pretty fab beach

So, as you can see from the photo of Dave descending the Dune du Pilat (or du Pyla

Dave of the Dunes 

depending on which signs you read), we successfully undertook or climb of Europe's largest sand dune yesterday! The up was cunningly hidden behind an array of tat stalls through which the intrepid explorer had to pass before being confronted by a surprising otherworldly sight. The dune soars up out of the edge of a massive dark wood forest and, from one spot only, a trail of puffing tourists climb a lengthy set of plastic stairs to reach the top. I admit it sounds tackier than it actually looked and we probably wouldn't have got to the top without their aid as we didn't spot the path we eventually descended until we had walked some way along the summit. The dune stretches out into the distance for miles! We saw the alternative view of it from the beach at its foot on the side opposite the forest and the section shining white was perfectly reminiscent of the glaciers we saw from the road in Iceland. It's certainly a powerful sight.



We were discouraged from swimming under the dune by many signs warning of the danger of being entombed should it collapse. Instead we climbed down a wooden staircase to look and take photos, then pottered of to Pyla s/Mer for a picnic lunch in a park. Pyla's beach is sandy with invitingly calm waves that are chilly for a couple of minutes but soon warm up. There's benches and green space above the beach but a surprising lack of cafes. The only one we found wasn't serving. We spent a pleasant hour or two swimming and sunbathing before returning to our campsite.

You can just see the dune in the distance 

Our active day was continued with five games of table tennis in the early evening and I won some of them! It is a pretty rubbish table here with hardly any bounce and the sun angle from one end is blinding, but even so ... ! Definite improvement! We're thinking of moving on tomorrow, partly in search of a better ping pong table and a flat boule court, partly to get away from chainsaw pruning - we could be at Alvor! - and partly to avoid some rain that's headed this way. Perhaps a shame to only stay at Ker Helen four nights as it is a pretty site and has good wifi, but there's so much more out there to see.



Before I forget again, a late photo for Andy and Barbara. Dave took this outside an Asiatic restaurant on the Ile de Re. Bring back any memories?

Decorated tuk tuk on Ile de Re 

Le Teich, Ker Helen and a hot walk along Le Sentier Littoral

We've driven about four hours further south now and are just outside a small town called Le

Teich which is on the edge of the Arcachon basin. Part of our journey included driving over the Dordogne river which was amazingly wide. The next bridge over from ours had beautiful stone arches to either side, like a Victorian viaduct, but then an ugly metalwork structure actually crossing the river. I guess the middle section had been destroyed in the past, but the replacement didn't look the part at all.



Our current campsite is the pretty Ker Helen which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary next year and is almost completely shaded by mature trees. Each of the 'streets' between the pitches has a name and, as you can see from the photo, I have my very own Allee. We're not pitched up along it though as there's no electric hook-up there. We've not yet tried out the pool but have played boules - I won again, but only just this time - and also spent a while exercising on their outdoor mini gym. I wouldn't be seen dead in an indoor gym, but I love trying out the outdoor ones! Several of the Spanish parks we saw last year had them too. We were surprised on first wander around yesterday that there didn't appear to be any table tennis. Today we discovered that we had been looking in the wrong place - there are actually two tables so we'll probably get practicing again tomorrow or Friday.



Tomorrow we intend travelling to see the famous sand dune, the Dune du Pilat, which our friends Dave and Gilly have stayed near to in previous years, raving about the area on their return. Having seen lots of their photographs is part of the reason we included the region on this year's itinerary. To potentially pass so close by and not visit seemed daft! Apparently the dune is the highest in Europe - more hot walking then! - but we might also get a nice swim at Plage Pilat nearby. The swimming within the Arcachon basin is very hit and miss due to the distance out the water goes at low tides. I was amazed by the sight of stranded boats on Ile De Re, but it's also a regular occurrence here.



Today's hot walk was along a stretch of a Sentier Littoral which begins just across the road from Ker Helen. I spotted the signpost when we arrived yesterday and took the opportunity of taking a quickish look while going for an evening jog. This was my first running attempt in months, since that bloomin' muscle went again, and I'm happy to report that all went well! Jogging about 5 minutes then walking for the same, and total duration of just over half an hour. It felt good to be getting out there again so I must keep the effort going. Anyway, as the route was so beautiful, Dave and I both set out walking it this morning. The footpath/cyclepath is about 4 miles of sandy track and goes out through marshes and along the shoreline between the sea and the outer edge of an ornithological park. We caught glimpses of various waterbirds including coots and herons that we recognised, and others that we didn't know. There were also huge dragonflies whose wings almost clattered as they flew! The route has sandy beaches, scented shrubs, lakes and pools, and towards the end we also passed by the visitors centre for the park where you can buy passes to get even closer to the birds. Dave's planning to return with his decent camera at some point to get some good photos so in the meantime, the view below is one I took on my first evening's run.