Saturday 18 April 2020

Espana...again-ya...Summer 2019

...don't get me wrong....when a holiday has your name on it....take it....

I may be small...but I have a big name...

Of course...the olds were happy to get my name on the holiday...stamp of approval and all that...

So we headed to places just south of Barcelona....such as the highly amusing....

This is what I have to put up with...sit on that sign they said...
...personally I don't see whats wrong with Cola....

Anyway...it actually turned out to be a nice Templar castle place so I could get some good photo opps...Peniscola….when you've stopped laughing....is known as The City in the Sea as its surrounded almost completely by water....



One of its big claims to fame in more modern times is that this is the place they filmed the famous beach scene in El Cid...where they've tied him to the horse and he gallops along the beach from the castle...well..this is the castle....



Rather sadly, as johnny foreigners do, they've built right up to the castle and so its a bit difficult to get a decent photo of it from distance without the town now being in the way....


Still...we had a nice ice cream after...in the hear of the Spanish sunshine....lovely....

Mind you....we came across this right happy looking soul.....


Holidays are not complete unless there is some kind of pant filling experience...my experience when I go with this lot is....take spare pants....you WILL need them...well...I wont, I don't wear any...but the olds will...they need them...


Aqueducts abroad are always peril....cos unlike here they don't care if you fall off...its your fault...so go ahead...walk across, its dangerous...fall off but don't complain afterwards about safety rails...



More Roman stuff...they got everywhere...you go there, the Romans were there before you...mind you...they were usually kicking the crappers out of whoever lived there first and generally stealing their ingenuity....and giving it to the rest of the world.....so don't let anyone ever tell you kicking the crappers out of another lot isn't good for the world....

Tarragona amphitheatre



Tarragona was a lovely place...full of great stuff...

Me with a post

Me with a bull

Me with a knocker....Tarragona Cathedral...

 Cities have statues...or...otherwise known as....photo opportunities for me looking cool....


Tarragona is famous as the City of Human Towers.....where teams compete to see who can get hurt the most...or...possibly...build the highest human tower...


...and they have musicians to accompany the building...

...and no doubt...the falling...

...and the bloke at the bottom who has the best job...shouting at people...

We ventured up the rock of Calpe....an interesting climb...another on the danger list to excite the underwear....but a great view at the top.....




….and now....other holiday stuff....

Cannon....



Window

Hitching a ride....

On some blokes bonce...

Between weeks we swapped places to stay....on the way we had lunch at this castle....it was talked abut as if it was magnificent...well..it was a ruin....a ruined ruin...


...with an extic view....

...of an industrial estate....

We had some excitement of crossing the river, not in the car accidentally though its hard to tell with Dads driving sometimes...


Ebro Delta...birdwatching with Dad


This great view was had from Mount Caro....



...it tells you how far up it is....and back down obviously....



The Giant of Provence - May 2019

Some obsessions take you to the edge...some over the edge....might be a bit fortunate on this occasion it was to the edge...you'll see what I mean....read on....the story of a man who rode up a mountain and came down knackered...though he was possibly knackered before he set off....

Me a few miles from the top

Dad and his bike...so he gets this loony idea, due to the fact he likes cycling up hills (this in itself is crazy obviously) that he wants to join some sort of club by cycling up a mountain 3 times in a day....just looking at the mountain is the thing he should be doing....still....I get a road trip...!!

Day One....and the following days will blend in to one tedious square bum journey....to Provence is a long way in the car.  Not only an early start, I don't like early....its too....early.....but an overnight is also on the horizon....

….not too sure if this was having my photo taken or le pizz taken...monkey on a tree...

….on the road again, cant wait to get back on the road again...square bum is on the road again...the miles tick by...

Eventually our 'home' town appears...well...its famous for a couple of things...heres one of them...

...a rusty bike on a roundabout....

Ok, possibly not the most exciting thing if youre not a cyclist...but its the big hilly thing behind it they are interested in....it doesn't look much but it is....I can tell you...I knew that when I saw Dads face when we stopped to look.....and then I could tell after he had cycled up it...

Mont Ventoux and an angry cloud over it...

Chalet Reynaud

Mont Ventoux is famous for being a big mountain in the way of Tour de France riders....and having its own club....Club des Cingles du Ventoux….or translated...Club of the Madmen...Crazies...3 sides in a day, you've got to be bonkers to try it...but he did and he succeeded whilst I sat in the square in Bedoin sipping wine and eating pizza...Dad was so long I had time to knock off War and Peace AND Ulysses.....I count it as a win-win situation....

Anyway, we had a bit of time to have a look round one  of the local towns...Crillon-le-Brave...




This might be Mr Crillon….

Relaxing back at the house....

Our little tour started meandering homeward.....but a couple of mountains were needed to complete the journey...Dad even took me up a couple...

At the top of Alpe d'Huez

d'Huez in the background....

The next day we wended up an even bigger mountain....but it was worth it....




Great views with snow.....