Tag: europe
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Normandy’s Creux and Veules-les-Roses – From Monks to Artists
In the past, we’ve had a tendency to rush through Normandy to hit the sunny south, to where our battered old caravans were in storage, in France’s Loire, the Ardèche and Italy’s Lago di Maggiore. But since having our campervans we’ve learned to slow down. So it is that we pull into the campsite in…
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Zarautz – Where the Iconic Camino de Santiago Weaves Together the Atlantic Coast, the Pyrenees and Superlative Food
After parking up in Gran Camping Zarautz, we walk down the steps along the Camino de Santiago to the long arc of silver sand, serenaded by a Zitting Cisticola. We pass the old debarkation docks for the precious metals mined in the nearby mountains, which you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re Roman ruins. A snake…
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Nuvilla – A Rustic Rest
The Santoña docks in Bilbao at 8 a.m. The plan is to find a camperstop in Bilbao for the van and head off to the Guggenheim Museum in the centre of town. I’ve always wanted to go to the futuristic designed art gallery by the estuary. We bowl up to the camperstop on the edge…
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Ireland’s Southernmost Port, Rosslare, to Spain’s Basque Bilbao
Rosslare Port has been a feature of my life since the years of the old St. Columba, without stabilisers, bucking and ducking on the wild stretch of sea between Fishguard and Rosslare. The port was a small little shed in those days where Uncle Scotty would chat to the dock workers before strolling out to…
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Walking in the Footsteps of Kings, Bishops, and Monks in Cashel
Yet again, we pull into a favourite stop off of ours – O’Brien’s Camping and Caravan site in Cashel, overlooked by the famous castle and rock. The castle was once the stronghold of Brian Boru, the first High King of Ireland. My father used to say we were related to royalty, which always confused me…
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Wexford Town’s Vikings and Love-Inspired Monasteries
We bowl across to Ferrybank Campsite in Wexford – that finger of land out in the bay, with curlews calling, Godwits pecking and Oystercatchers trilling. Just across the bridge from the campsite three church spires pierce the clearest of blue skies. A huge golden harp marks the end of the promenade. All around the town…
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Languorous L’Ampolla – the town on the borders of the Ebro Delta offers up cliffside walks, saltmarsh and lagoons
Our dash from San Sebastian to the Mediterranean town of L’Ampolla involves battering rain in Zaragoza’s only campsite open for miles. The drive from Zaragoza to Lleida is forbidding, with its bleached fields and mountains mined away to resemble a row of bad teeth. But my heart lifts as we turn off at Lleida to…
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Set Loose Alone in Stunning San Sebastian
Our first morning in San Sebastían arrives with sun shining on our campsite up on Monte Igeldo. Green fields run down to a muted blue sea. The waves smashing against russet cliffs add to the drama, sea spray leaping up into the air. Today, I’m going to be set loose on San Sebastian alone as…
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Sur Le Pont D’Avignon
I’ve wanted to go to the Palais des Papes in Avignon since I read Charles Dickens’ travelogue about visiting it on a cold winter’s day, with his wife and children, before repacking them all into carriage and horses to continue to Genoa. We tried once ages ago, our teenage children with us, in blistering August…
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Following in Napoleon’s Footsteps on Elba
Seán does love an App and this one, the Avenza Map App, proves essential when we decide to climb Monte Barbatoia in Lacona to descend to Napoleon’s Villa in San Martino as the walking signs play hide and seek with us. We climb up the boulder strewn path from Lacona, which runs like a rust…
Campervan Therapy 