Crazy coincidences

On the first morning of the tour, I chatted to a lady over breakfast and when I found out where she was from - a small town in Central Qld - I said she might know (one of ) my sister(s) Jenny who was a secondary teacher for so many years there.   Diana declared "When I saw you, I thought you were familiar!  Jenny taught me.  You have the same looks and mannerisms!"

In actual fact Jenny is probably all of 6 years older than Diana and I'm 2.5 years older than Jenny.

When I suggested one day that we should have our photo taken together in a market, Diana decided to get behind a stall and plant a big kiss on the stall owner. The poor little guy with a hat was quite stunned and then decided to reciprocate and then thought he shouldn't leave me out either.

These are a series of shots

I call this Spice Girls? as the top is a shot of spices from the market and the other is......

Emma and Michael would call this " the Mum stare"

Not sure what I'd call this - poor little guy didn't quite know what to do after Diana threw one leg up on him..... Perhaps "safe option" and away from the crazy one ( not me!). 

I wonder what sort of education this woman had.......!

Aix-En-Provence and Marseille

Aix-en-Provence

This is a lovely spot. We stayed at a Hotel (Renaissance Aix-en-Provence) where we had our first good meal of the tour.  We couldn't believe it.  The hotel staff were really helpful, the rooms were perfect, there were extras ( including almost unheard of tea and coffee and a jug) and it was the start of a perfect 2 night stay.

Wouldn't mind living in one of these apartments around this ancient square.

Saint watching over the local streets

Such a lovely zippy car.

In Aix-en-Provence, we strolled around the cobbled streets on a guided tour, saw a church/ Cathedral or two ( J stays outside for most of these now), viewed markets and then went to a cooking demonstration and eat lunch at the venue.

Me with les chats - I know French for cats - even though I don't even like cats! I'm such a wiz at foreign languages with my five words of French I learnt at school

While the cooking demonstration was good I wouldn't rate it as one lady did as "the highlight of the tour so far".  Still, as I say "People are different and thank goodness we are as life would be very boring if we were all the same"

I did see a beautiful tutu just right for Ally and Milly.  Shell- you'll have to rush over and buy a couple!

I could just imagine Milly with all these Pom Poms - but not in Qld summer!

Marseille 

This was an optional tour and only a short drive from Aix but we could have spent more time there.  

There were many more things than the Cathedral but I'll basically leave that to the other J.

Another Church/ Catheral - Notre Dame up so high - 100 steps and then you could take a lift ( we did) or go up more steps.  If you were arriving in a car rather than a coach I think the number of steps could have been halved but the Good Lord wasn't granting me any such favours still.  So my aching knees almost dropped off again at Notre Dame Marseille and this time I persuaded J to come in with me to the Basicilla as it is a little different.

Striking figures outside - that you may view provided you haven't died after climbing up at least 50 steep steps.  Good opportunity to draw breath and ponder ( or pretend to do so) as you figure "Do I really, really want to move from here or more importantly, am I physically able to move without collapsing."

 Stairs, stairs and more stairs.

 Very Moorish influence

 "Comic strips" about the war and Cathedral

 Hard to make out, but hanging from the golden circle in the ceiling, are trails of little boats, planes etc signifying the importance played during World War.

 

Cathedral high on hill viewed from Port of Marsellies. It is sooooo high up and my knees may never recover.

John's Carcassone

ON TO CARCASSONE.

It was 8.00am in the morning and dark and raining when we hit the road. I felt like we were in that film "The Heroes Of Telemark." where a small group of commandoes creep through the the cold mountain night to blow up a dam.   ... Not that we were going to blow anything up mind you. Even if the weather wasn't too good on that day, I was sure that there would be something interesting to see and do. I think things were a bit quiet because we were in a ski resort area in the off season. The upside was that we are not being squeezed and squashed by tourists. 

Imagine this. We were back on the coach. It was 3:40pm on a sleepy, sunny, Sunday afternoon. While Julie dozed beside me, I had been thinking how fortunate I was to be sitting on a coach cruising around Europe. Probably the good lunch and happiness of being back in France again had brought on the aura of contentment. It was so good to be cruising along the French countryside again, with the acres of vineyards stretching off into the distance, and the meandering country roads going off into who knows where. 

Carcassone is a Medieval walled city in the South of France. It is a place of Knights of old, chivalry, battles, and terrible things, all carried out in the name of God and the Catholic Church. A place where the Crusaders were the bad guys, and some other Catholics and non Catholics, the innocent. BUT, to lunch! 

Lunch was the traditional dish called Cassolet. A casserole style meal made if pork, duck, and white beans. If you had been brought up in Provence, and cooking it all your life it would look like this when you finish. The photo on top.

Here is the recipe if you would like to try!

A nice glass of the local red and a caramel dish (bottom photo) concluded our lunch quite nicely. Much better than the couple of bread rolls, and a coffee which is all I usually feel like having. 

To spend the night we went to a place called Montpellier, which I thought was basically another ski resort, however I was wrong about Montpellier being just a ski resort, it is in fact, a thriving city. As you can see from the photos it has its affluent and poorer centres sometimes "just over the wall." What appeared to be a crime and red light district was just a stone's throw from the gleaming edifice that was our hotel.

Carcassonne and Montpellier

We descended the Pyrenees for a short lunch break and tourist stroll at the French medieval of Carcassonne before moving on to Montpellier.
I remain hopeless with the French language, or any foreign language, but Jonathan is better than your average tourist.
When we sat down to have lunch during our free time on the tour at Carcassonne, J ordered in French whereas I would have just pointed.
We liked the walled city but the church/ Cathedral  ( our mob of course) was the filthiest I have ever been into - dirt and dust under the pews. It should have been closed or they could have had a pile of brooms at the front and asked every tourist visitor to clean one pew after they took photos.  Perhaps I'll write to the Parish Priest of the Bishop to suggest it.
We did have a lovely meal of the day that my French speaker companion ordered. ( Cath, you would be pleased with the "invisible man" with whom you had a few French conversations with as practise.)

However the walled city itself was so incredible.  I often wonder how European children can even imagine what it would be like to live in a place like Australia with no Castles, Walled Cities, huge Cathedrals and such amazing architecture.  It is such a different world.  

So forgive me when I show you a zillion images of wonderful architecture and what I think is amazing wealth and treasure ( often with the Church of course).

Here goes for this burst from Carcassonne:

Then in Montpellier arrived to spend the night, have time for a stroll, have an awful meal, sleep, dreadful breakfast and then depart.   In the walking time we sighted the following in a big square.

Julie's M&A

M&A - no, not Mergers & Acquisitions!

Our first stops after joining the tour when it left Barcellona were the serrated mountain and abbey/ church at Montserrat which was quite spectular and then on to the principality of Andorra.

I'm afraid I found the joining up with a tour a bit of a "curbing of the free spirit" that we have had since we have started our travels.  There is nothing wrong with the Insight Tour as such but I think I am a bit over being in an organised group.

Montserrat 

You can see how Gaudi was influenced in his archectiture and work by the varied and interesting shapes of the mountains of Montserrat that were covered in fog on our arrival but bathed in sunshine shortly afterwards. There were people everywhere including groups of climbers with all their gear ready to climb the mountain further. We didn't have time to go further up by the funicular; it would have been fun to do so.

See the funicular (white line) - almost perpendicular. It would have been quite a ride to go on but alas not enough time. The summit is a very popular spot for climbers and walkers.

Outside the church with its spectacular high golden altar, I bought and light a candle for family (Jonathan, Emma, Michael and Mum, Dad and ( as Mum used to say when calling for one of us) Paul, Julie, Jenny, Eddy, Kathy, Linda, Michele - whichever one you are..... I also thought about my very special friends who have been with me over the years.

Andorra

Andorra as any self respecting former tax specialist knows, is a tax haven.  In theory, therefore personal shopping should be reasonably fruitful.  You can tell we are great at finding fantastic bargains because in this tax free environment we went to an equivalent of Woolies  and  bought 2 large bottles of water (heavy water I called it), red wine €5.50, dry biscuits (to go with cheese I bought from a stall at Montserrat) and 2 pairs black socks for me! Can't live without those tax free socks!

Andorra is a principality between France and Spain, not a member of EU, but uses € as a de facto currency. The place is divided into 7 parishes and in front of the old town entrance, are 7 figures to represent the 7 parishes ( We'd call them councils or regions).  They look out of place really in the very small old town and  would be more appropriate in the new area where all the " not at all interesting" shops are for mainly people who stay in Andorra  for the snow season. 

One of the seven male figures. J was amused when guide said they light up at night. 

Church in the old town of Andorra (Trust me, I will generally find a church or two)

I'm sure our friend George would like this old bike.

Our hotel seemed nice but we were served the most dreadful food; all the tour group complained. Horrible, horrible place. 

Montserrat to Andorra

ON THE ROAD TO MONTSERRAT AND ANDORRA.

So Julie and I are back into tour group mode.

 Our first stop was the main monastery up in a mountain town called Monserrat (Serrated Mountain because of the mountain's shape and profile). The monastery has a proper Saint's name in Spanish. However for me, it's proper name in English should be "Saint Exit Through The Gift Shop.” Thousands of tourists, screaming kids, and endless merchandising. It reminded me of the scene in the Fellini film “Roma” where the Cardinal's are wearing the latest in clerical fashions which light up like a Christmas tree. However, some good things came from it. The scenery was stunning. I got to cross another thing off my bucket list which was to play some of the music, of Pere (Father) Antonio Soler whilst up at Monserrat. Father Soler was a priest who lived in the monastery and who composed some of my favourite Spanish classical music. Finally, Julie bought some miniture bottles of the wine and spirits which the monastery produces. 

Watching the sun go down over The Pyrenees in the small country of Andorra, It was hard to imagine that in about a month these mountains will be covered in snow and skiers. 

 The afternoon was spent walking around the only town in Andorra. 

We were buying some clothes when we had a few language problems. The sales lady's English was O. K but not so good if you were in a hurry. Our Spanish still is more or less none existent. Then the two sales ladies started to discuss our problem in French. (France is just “over the hill” from Andorra.). Once I heard them chatting the three of us soon sorted out the problem. After checking in I had a problem with the key, and could explain it to the receptionist. Although Spanish is my favourite language, it's so nice to speak French again and be understood. 

 P.S. One of the tour guides asked me the other day if I was Italian because I spoke Spanish with an Italian accent, to be able to do that? ….. takes talent!!!! …. Or really lousy Spanish pronounciation! 

 P.P.S. One of the things I have noticed since travelling across The Pyrenees, are the number of plane vapour trails in the sky.  I can now see three. Not sure what that means except that the sky around here must be pretty crowded. I definitely wouldn't want to be on that dodgy British Airways plane I wrote about earlier!