We all woke up early this morning as we were all off travelling again.
We had a cuppa on the balcony – it wasn’t as warm today and it was quite cloudy. We walked daughter all the fifty metres to the train station and waited for her train to Barcelona airport before waving her off. We then walked to the bakery in town and picked up some croissants and had our final breakfast overlooking the sea and watched the street cleaners clean the street of leaf litter. Afterwards we packed our final bits back into the Van – gosh, we had pulled tons of stuff out – and after one final check, rolled out of the driveway.
It should of been a slick manoeuvre, except a Spanish person had parked their van on what looked like zigzags opposite and therefore possibly illegally – not that anybody cared – so there was a little bit of backwards and forwards before we cleared him. While we were doing that, the train klaxon burst into life and the railway barriers came down – bad timing on one level, but at least we would have time afterwards to line ourselves up with the narrow street opposite. So we parked against the kerb and waited, rather nervous about the right hand turn at the top of the street.
As it was, it was very easy. I got out and directed Hubby in between the high kerbstones and fencing as we left the railway line and then legged it to the dreaded right hand turn which we swept round (albeit very cautiously) in one. We were free. We crawled through the narrow back roads of town and jumped on the C-32 and headed north towards France. We did a lot of dual carriageway driving today bypassing Tordera and Girona and then onwards to Figueres, through the wooded foothills with the mountains in the background – the sun had come out making it a nice drive. At La Jonquera, we came off the main road and onto the N11, a quieter back road for the rest of the journey. During our little sojourn in Spain, we had noticed a neat little traffic calming measure involving traffic lights at zebra crossings. Basically they’re on red and at a certain distance, if they detect you doing the speed limit or under, they turn green and allow you to continue without hindrance. Seems they don’t change until you’re doing the correct speed. Brilliant idea!
We crossed the Spanish/French border at the town of Le Perthus, which the border runs right through dissecting it in half. We were back in the Pyrenees, but only just. The mountains here were mere pimples compared to the monsters in the far background and a mere slither of the great mountain range, but it was still very beautiful countryside. We were headed to a campsite just outside the small town of Maureillas las Illas, some 10kms from the border – we didn’t fancy a long drive today. The campsite was open and we parked in a sunny pitch before making a brew and sunning ourselves outside. It was quite warm, though a little breezy. Around 4pm, we decided to waddle down to reception to pay for our pitch and walk into town which was exciting as we had to walk about 200 metres on the busy road before we came across pavement. We had a look around the town, a pleasant little place with little squares and rambling alleys before we found a Spar shop and grabbed some bits for tea. With the sun disappearing behind the tall hills, we put a wiggle on back to the campsite and feeling hungry, decided to make tea and settle down. Daughter texted to tell us that she had made it home safely which was good and we made some video calls to family.
So not a really exciting day today – we are both tired from the weekend and though we only had three days break from the Van, it feels a bit weird being back in it again and rediscovering our routine. We’ve planned a route home – basically straight up the middle of France over the next fortnight which will be fun and a chance for us to get acclimatised to the colder weather as we head north.
