Bangkok Nights (and Days)
Our next destination after Thailand is Cambodia but in order to get there we had to transit through Bangkok. Rather than just fly straight through we decided to take a couple of days to see the sights but we didn’t allow too long as Bangkok has a reputation as smelly, busy and not that interesting.
I had been to Bangkok in the nineties at the start of a round the world trip and it was my first time travelling out of Europe. I had found it meltingly hot, overwhelming and had a pretty miserable time of it. Fortunately the trip picked up when I reached my next destination of New Zealand.
Being a lot older and a little wiser I wanted to give Bangkok another try and it was a massive surprise – in a good way. We stayed in the Khao San road area, where I had stayed last time. Gone are the all night full volume electro beats, the harassing tuk tuk drivers and the massive culture shock. I think 30 years of travel experience has probably helped but the area itself has also changed a lot, having been cleaned up and gentrified.
The time of year also probably helped, although it is hot the crippling humidity of my last summer visit just isn’t present.
Day 1 of our plan was to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, which are close to each other and only a 10 minute Tuk Tuk ride from where we were staying.
The Grand Palace is stunning but it was absolutely swarming with people making any serenity hard to find. The Grand Palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (latterly Thailand) since 1782. The Kings, his court and the royal government were sited here until 1925 but it is still used for official functions.
The Grand Palace consists of a number of separate buildings spread over a large area, 218,000 sq meters and is enclosed by a wall. However there is an inner court area which is open to the public that contains most of the important buildings.
This includes the temple of the Emerald Buddha or to give it its proper name Wat Phra Sri Rattanasasadaram. This is the royal chapel and at its centre is a figurine of the Buddha made from green jade, and clothed in raiment’s of gold and diamonds.
Surrounding the inner courtyard is a covered walkway which is painted with a classic Thai story of Good and Evil, The Ramakien. In all, there are over 2km of murals depicted. The first paintings were started in 1783 but they have been constantly touched up and indeed when we visited there were several painters working on restoring the murals.
Part of the ticket to the Grand Palace included a free traditional dance show, so on leaving the Palace we jumped into n a small shuttle bus to take us to the theatre for the show.
The show was very good, culminating in a dance story of how Hanuman conquered a Sea Nymph to allow a bridge to be build which was well-told with plenty of audience interaction.
Our next stop in Bangkok was Wat Pho or to give it is proper name, Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan.
This is the home of the massive Reclining Buddha which is 15m high and 46m long.
Wat Pho is one of the largest, oldest and most sacred temples in Thailand. It consists of many buildings in the large compound and some really large Chedis (tower structures) know as the Giants.
While in Bangkok we also wanted to visit a floating market. The best floating markets are outside the city so we signed up for a tour.
We were picked up at 7am in a small minibus and driven for around 90 minutes, through terrible traffic, to the first stop.
This was the train market or the Maeklong Railway market. This is a relatively small market but a fairly unusual one in that the market stalls are setup either side of a train track. The market very much encroaches on the tracks meaning that when a train comes along (4 times a day) the stall holders have to pack up their stalls to make room for the train to pass through.
Once the train has gone past the market comes back to life and in a couple of minutes the stalls are open as if the train had never existed.
This was a pretty quick stop on the tour as we arrived 30 minutes before a train was due to arrive and left 15 minutes after the train passed through but is was definitely an interesting and enjoyable detour.
Back on the minibus for another 20 minutes or so and we had reached a small dock by a canal where we were transferred by longtail boat to the floating market. We flew through the canals and rivers, the engine of the longtail screaming until we arrived at the dock for the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.
The market is split between areas that can be accessed from the banks of the canals and areas that can only be accessed from the water. The canals themselves were chaotic with lots of boats, some longtails with noisy engines but mostly row boats.
We decided to jump in a small row boat to get a tour around the market. After we had set off into the chaos of the main channel we very quickly passed a boat with a lady selling drinks. A quick beer for the journey was procured !
We slowly moved past all sorts of stalls and small boats where the stall/boat holders were managing to produce full meals from tiny woks in their floating kitchens.
Some of the stall holders would deploy long hooks to pull the boats in, enabling them to hawk their wares more easily.
After our boat trip was finished we walked around the on-land portion of the market and bought some lunch from one of the tiny boats. I had ‘Boat Noodles’ which is a traditional dish from Bangkok’s canals. It was really rich tasting being seasoned with pig blood and it was pretty fiery !
Unfortunately our time at the market came to a close too soon and we had a 2 hour, very bouncy and uncomfortable minibus ride back to the centre of Bangkok.
On the morning of our last day, we had a couple of hours to kill before heading to the airport for our flight to Cambodia so we decided to take a boat ride down the Chao Praya river. This is a major thoroughway with lots of commuter boats heading up and down the river.
We jumped on one boat and enjoyed a trip of a few kilometers up the river to Chinatown. A quick explore of Chinatown and then we were back on a boat to take us back to our hotel.
Unfortunately our quick trip to Bangkok was over. We actually wished we had more time there to continue exploring. I am so glad I decided to give Bangkok another chance and we are pretty sure we will be back but for now, it is on to the next destination, Siem Reap in Cambodia.
I have set up a FromAtoB instagram account for 2024 (fromatob2024) and have been doing a picture a day from our travels. If you are interested head on over to Instagram and do a search for “fromatob2024”.
Phuket’s Beaches
Our first stop on our tour of the west coast of Phuket was Kata Beach. This is a fairly family friendly area with a relatively toned down night life.
This doesn’t stop the beach being busy and the sunloungers being full by 9am in the morning. The beach is around 1 mile long but pretty much the whole length is full of people and its not brilliant for swimming as the water is fairly shallow.
Fortunately we had booked an Airbnb which was a room in a hotel complex with a big pool surrounded by sunloungers. The perfect place to enjoy the sun and heat while thanking our lucky stars that we were away from the incessant storms battering the UK.
The street that our hotel was on had two night markets on it with a selection of restaurants and street food vendors to visit.
Kata beach hasn’t really got anything interesting for tourists other than the beach although up above the town at the top of a hill is the Big Buddha. This statue is relatively modern having been built in 2004 at a cost of around £1 million. Its 45m high and covered in marble. However it is still only the third tallest statue in Thailand.
We visited Nai Harn Beach which is south of Kata and meant to be one of the best beaches on the island. To be honest though it wasn’t much different from Kata Beach (or Karon beach which is the next beach North from Kata). It was busy with lots of tourists and the water wasn’t very deep but the sand on the beach was lovely.
We had a relaxing time in and around Kata but after a week it was time to move on. We weren’t going far though, just 20 minutes up the coast to the hub of tourism in Phuket, Patong Beach.
If Kata beach is family friendly Patong feels like the opposite. Its loud, brash and bright with a pulsating if seedy feel.
The beach itself is fairly small compared to the others, although stretching a good few kilometres along the coast and it is very busy, with jetskis, parascending, motorboats and plenty of people. Most days there is also a least 1 cruise ship parked in the harbour.
The seafront is packed with restaurants, bars and hotels but it is really back from the seafront where the real Patong lies.
The (in)famous Bangla Walking street leads away from the beach and is 500m of bars, go-go bars, shows, nightclubs and marijuana shops. Its neon, loud and very in your face. After dark it fills up and there are constant crowds moving up and down the street.
The roads surrounding this street are filled with massage shops with women chorusing “massage” as you walk by and some grabbing your arm in their attempts to lure you inside.
Our Airbnb was above a tailors at the end of a dead end street just 100m from the beach. Even this ‘quiet’ road had 5 massage shops, 3 marijuana bars, a karaoke bar, 3 restaurants and a normal bar.
We would probably have appreciated Patong much more if we were 20… well let’s be honest, 30 years younger and unfortunately our Airbnb was pretty grim as well. So we spent most of our time in Patong trying to get out of Patong (not so easy as the traffic is horrendous) by booking tours and hiring a car for a few days. Although of course, we couldn’t come to Patong and not visit its most famous dance show.
Patong is the home of Simon Cabaret, a vibrant dance show where all the dancers are Ladyboys. The shows sets and costumes were spectacular and we had a fun night out but if you are used to the Westend then be prepared to lower your expectations – a lot. They do have some star performers but the lack of co-ordination and even effort of some of the backing dancers, who would walk around the stage half-heartedly rather than dance, was so bad that it was laugh-out-loud funny. At least we saw the funny side of it. The French couple next to us were less easily amused!
With the car rental, we explored the South of the island first and tried out a few of the more remote beaches but these were all still busy and the traffic was pretty terrible.
It wasn’t until we headed North to the Sirinat National Park that we discovered a true tropical paradise. The beach of Mai Khao is a perfect 5km long beach which shelves steeply so its perfect for swimming. The beach is largely undeveloped with no sun loungers, no hawkers and only a handful of people and the beach is backed by tropical trees. Finally we had found what we were looking for.
It was so perfect that we actually checked out of our Patong Airbnb early, booked a lastminute deal in a hotel up North on Mai Khao and spent our last few days in Phuket in this lovely paradise.
The beach was so clean we even saw an otter swimming in the shallows up the beach one morning. It is also a turtle nesting site but as ever we were there at the wrong time of year. The wrong time of year for turtles though did mean perfect weather for us!
Before leaving Patong we signed up for an elephant tour. There are many elephant operators in Phuket and these can be split into two types: ethical and exploitative. I really wanted to spend some time with elephants but did not want to do a tour that was in any way cruel or forced the elephants to do anything they did not want to do.
After some research I discovered Elephant Jungle Sanctuary which is an organisation that rescues elephants from riding camps and private ownership where they are being mistreated. There is no riding of the elephants, which is apparently painful for them as they have weak backs. There are around 3000 wild elephants in Thailand and about the same number that are in private hands. They are expensive to keep so must be worked hard to pay for themselves.
The half day tour with EJS was fantastic. It started off by being taken to one of the four camps that EJS have in Phuket. I was taken to camp 3 which was small and had 3 elephants, a 5 year old, 12 year old and 19 year old. The 5 year old was still very much a baby and was the most playful of the three. She had only been with them for 3 months having been given up by her owner who couldn’t afford the medical bills when she fell ill.
The first activity was to feed them their breakfast which consisted of watermelon and bananas. The elephants really like the watermelon and handing it to them meant that they grabbed it from your hands with their trunk and ate it gleefully. They eat around 300kg a day and are fed 5 times a day. The two older elephants weren’t so keen on the bananas but the baby was very keen and got the lions share of these.
After their fruit breakfast we made up some supplemental breakfast balls from rice, banana, turmeric, papaya and some food pellets. We mixed this all together with our hands and offered it to the elephants. They clearly absolutely loved these because they disappeared very quickly !
Next on the Agenda was a mud bath for the elephants. The mud acts as a moisturiser and as sun protection for them. So we traipsed down to a dirty mud hole and proceeded to cake big handfuls of mud onto the elephants. They seemed to enjoy this ! It was a good excuse to get wet and muddy though.
Fortunately the next part of the agenda was perfect for cleaning off as we moved over to a swimming hole which the elephants clearly liked as they proceeded to sink down into the water splaying their legs to get deeper. We got in the water with them and brushed and scrubbed their skin.
There were no sign of any chains or other forms of securing the elephants. Our guide told us that they were free to roam the camp during the night which is great especially as they only sleep for about 3 hours a night. This had been a lovely experience and a highlight of the trip, being able to spend time with such incredible animals.
Phi Phi
The Phi Phi Islands are a small collection of islands about 45 km’s Southwest of Phuket. It takes around 2 hours to get there by ferry or 1 hour by speedboat. We booked the tickets online at www.phuketferry.com and decided to take the budget option of the ferry. The advantage of this (in addition to the price), is more space to move around and some outside space, although the seating is airline like. We paid around £45 for two return tickets.
Getting from Phuket Town to Rassada Pier, where the boats to Phi Phi depart from, is a very easy 10 minute taxi ride. We have been using Grab for taxis, the Asian Uber, and it works well.
The pier was a bit chaotic but after showing our tickets on the phone, we were given stickers to wear and sent to the gate inside. Before the gate however, we had to check-in with our “agent” which involved writing our names on a list and receiving a paper ticket.
Once through the turnstile and onto the pier it’s a simple matter of clambering over one ferry to get to the next one across.
The journey was fine with flat water and before long we were pulling into the pier at Phi Phi Don Island. There is a small tourist tax upon arrival and once you are paid up and off the pier you land directly into the narrow streets of the islands main town, which provides welcome relief from the blazing sun.
Fortunately our hotel, the curiously named Chukit Resort, is easy to find, just a 700m walk down the coastline from the port and Ton Sai pier and we are soon checked in and ready to explore the island.
First stop is the hotel’s infinity pool looking out over the ocean, the only one on this side and maybe the whole island. Not bad for a budget hotel!
The side of the island we are on is the busier side with lots of longtail boats coming and going and the biggest concentration of shops, restaurants and hotels.
I didn’t waste a lot of time signing up to go diving the next day with an outfit called PKT divers, but this was only one of at least a dozen dive operators that I saw. I think the majority of divers in Phi Phi are doing courses or have just learnt as the operator seemed to want to do everything for you.
We left the dive shop for a five minute walk to the dock where the boat was moored. All the dive kit was already set up on tanks and the guides even set up the weight belts for you. I’m not sure that the dive guide was very impressed when I took the kit apart and put it back together again to make sure it was ok. There was only 180 bar in my tank which is apparently fine!
It was only about a 30 minute ride to the first dive site which was in a small bay on an uninhabited island in the Phi Phi group of islands. As we were arriving we had a very minimal briefing which was basically follow me. I was to be diving with two girls who had only done a handful of dives and they were to buddy up so I was loosely buddied up with the Spanish dive guide who had only been in Thailand for a week.
We entered the water with a giant stride and after meeting up on the surface descended to the bottom. Neither a depth gauge or a timing device was offered as part of the equipment hire so following the guide, who had a computer, was pretty essential. We made are way along a broken reef with relatively sparse coral but large schools of small fish. The visibility was ok but the biodiversity was pretty limited and there wasn’t much macro life in evidence.
After just over 30 minutes one of the two girls had run out of air so it was time to surface. I checked my gauge and still had over 100 bar left so this was disappointing.
The boat was around 100m away from the island and we had to swim to it before taking off our fins and climbing up a ladder to the back deck.
After quickly de-kitting and changing tanks, despite the guide suggesting he would do it, there was time for a short surface interval as the boat moved to another island for the 2nd dive.
This time there was no briefing at all but the dive was much the same, although with a slightly nicer wall. Again at just after 30 minutes the dive was over as one of the girls was out of air.
There was a quick 20 minute run back to the dock and the diving was over.
Phi Phi is meant to be some of the better diving in Thailand and on this evidence I wouldn’t dive in Thailand again as it was very average. The operator, although mostly safe, had rented poor quality gear (one of the girls inflators barely worked and my gauge was fluttering the whole time), didn’t deliver on their promise to match me with similarly experienced divers to ensure better dive times and particularly for the novice divers, did not deliver adequate briefings.
The other side of the island from our hotel is the main beach, called Loh Dalum beach. This is a lovely beach with lots of beach bars and even a couple of clubs. At one end is the Ibiza Beach Club which has a big swimming pool and holds big pool parties.
The beach although lovely has very shallow water and its very difficult to go swimming as you have to wade out a long way to find deep enough water.
Perhaps the nicest beach on the island, that I saw, is Long Beach. This is about a 30 minute walk from Ton Sai Pier but is a long sandy beach with less people than Loh Dalum beach. However the water is still shallow and not brilliant for swimming.
I walked back across the island and via a viewpoint of the island from Long Beach. The way up from the main town is a super steep flight of stairs and I’m very glad that I’d climbed up the back way which was longer but much easier.
We were only on Phi Phi for a few days but it’s a really nice island. It’s very busy and there were a hell of a lot of people around. It really has a feel of somewhere that would have been very special 20 years ago but is a bit well known now.
The journey back to the mainland was easy enough although did involve a 20 minute queue in the strong sunshine without shade to check-in, which was a bit unpleasant. We had a slightly smaller boat going back which had a bit less space on board but it was fine.
We arrived back in Phuket town and jumped in a shuttle bus to our next destination, Kata Beach.
Flying East for Winter
While birds migrate South for the winter, we decided to fly South East in order to avoid the Winter season this year. Last year we wintered in the UK Lake District and the French Alps which meant we had our fair share of snow, ice and cold, so this year we wanted some warmth and sunshine.
First stop on our trip is Thailand and the holiday island of Phuket. After travelling all of last year we wanted a few weeks of relaxation and sunshine before heading back into full travel mode for 2024.
We flew from London Heathrow to Phuket on Etihad Airways with a stopover in Abu Dhabi on the way. We were only on the ground for a couple of hours which meant by the time you get off one plane and have to be at the gate to board the next, there was very little time to explore the new terminal, which only opened in November. It was nice and spacious but Singapore doesn’t have much to fear in terms of competition for the best airport in the world.
The flight on Etihad was very good with surprisingly good food, new airplanes and a decent amount of space.
We landed in Phuket early in the morning and after tackling the big queue for immigration we were through into Thailand. Rightly or wrongly we booked a cab from the transport window right opposite the arrivals and were given a fixed price of ฿650 (£14.50) which seemed reasonable to take us to Phuket Town where we had booked a hotel for a few nights.
Our hotel was about 200m from the main streets of the old town but far enough away to be close to some good local, non-touristy restaurants.
The old town of Phuket is composed of two main streets and a couple of cross roads so is pretty compact. The buildings in the old town are built in the Sino-Portuguese style which gives it a very colonial feel.
The streets are very busy and the buildings are an eclectic mix of cafes, bars, tourist shops and local shops. Instagram culture has very much taken hold with several spots swamped by selfie snapping tourists.
The streets around the old town are much less busy and there are hundreds of local restaurants with all types of specialities. Perhaps the strangest we tried is the puddings only restaurant that served very little of what I would describe as familiar food. We tried a honey soaked toast with ice cream dish which was really nice and definitely the tamest option on the menu.
What we quickly discovered is that Western food is more expensive but if you stick with Thai Food you can eat very cheaply. The going rate for a Phad Thai is around 80-100THB (approx. £2).
On Sunday nights the old town is pedestrianised for a large market called Phuket Walking Street. Three roads are taken over by market stalls which are split around 50:50 between food stalls and stalls selling souvenirs to tourists.
There is also entertainment with a selection of singers and bands spread around the streets.
We took the opportunity to try some of the street food and discovered that fried squid eggs are delicious. If there is one thing you do need to be careful about in Thailand though it is the hot dips and sauces as these can be blow-your-head-off hot.
A short walk from the heart of Phuket is a hill called Monkey Hill. I decided to walk up this from our hotel which was only around a 7.5km round trip. Although, in the 30c+ heat with humidity it was quite hard work.
The views up the top of the hill are not that spectacular but all the way up you run into families of monkeys who check you out for food.
In fact just at the foot of the hill I was mugged by a monkey for a small bottle of water that I was carrying. He ran off to a safe distance and then unscrewed the top much to my surprise and and enjoyed a refreshing drink!
From Phuket Town we visited Wat Chalong which is the biggest and most revered Buddhist temple on the island. The first temple here was built in 1837 but others have been added since.
There is a large 3 story Chedi which is said to contain a bone fragment from Buddha, which is housed at the very top in a glass case.
The whole place feels like a very active site with firecrackers being let off in a big oven to show gratitude for wishes coming true, monks chanting and lots of worshippers mixing with the tourists.
We enjoyed our first few days in Phuket town as we acclimatised to the heat and Asian culture and most importantly recovered from Jet Lag. It seems to me that Phuket is a very soft introduction to Asia with menus at restaurants in English (mostly) and signs in English everywhere.
Next stop is Phi Phi Island for a taste of backpacker culture !
Our Last Gasps of France
Time was ticking on and we had a date with a ferry for the end of November. The weather was taking an autumnal turn and our visa was almost at an end.
We needed to make tracks through Brittany, into Normandy and towards Calais.
Our first stop was somewhere that we had missed on the way South, Nantes. This is a Breton city that, as a result of the vagaries of borders, isn’t actually in Brittany.
Nantes is a big city but there is an Aire in the university district which is easily connected to the centre by tram, which an added bonus of being free at the weekend.
We took a tram into the middle of town and headed through the medieval centre to the Chateau de Ducs de Bretagne which is a walled castle in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, rather than showcasing the Chateau and its history the Chateau is the site of the municipal museum of Nantes which tells the history of the city. The most interesting section was on the slave trade and Nantes central role in the French movement of African slaves to the Caribbean.
After learning about the history of Nantes we headed across town to Les Machines D’Ile which is a madcap steampunk workshop showcasing bizarrely constructed moving animals. It’s as though computers and electronics were never invented and all the exhibits are mechanical. The highlight is definitely the massive elephant which is 12 meters tall and takes people on rides around the area while blowing steam from its trunk.
After Nantes we drove northwards to the coast of Brittany to revisit the town of St Malo as we felt that we hadn’t done it justice when we were here previously.
After spending time walking around the streets and around the walls, admiring the impressive townhouses we found a small French bistro to enjoy a fantastic set lunch.
Despite St Malo being virtually destroyed in WW2 it was amazingly rebuilt over a 12 year period ending in 1960 and certainly feels as if it is the original town. The tide here has a large range and it is fascinating to watch the changing face of the town and its beaches between high and low tide, as the receding water makes the fortified islands accessible on foot.
After St Malo we revisited another town that we had enjoyed on our way south, Honfleur. Honfleur is a lovely medieval port town that is full of restaurants and art galleries. It would make a terrific destination for a weekend getaway.
The Aire here is one of the biggest in France with space for over 150 motorhomes with electric hook-ups. Since we were here previously a new electronic access gate has been put in place and the price has been increased from €12 to €14. While it had been close to full in June it was fairly sparsely populated in late November.
We decided that Honfleur would be the site of our ‘Farewell to France’ meal and we splashed out on a fantastic meal at a place called Au Petit Mareyeur. Not only did the food taste fantastic but the presentation was beautiful.
At this point we only had one week to get to Calais so we kept heading in that direction with our next stop being the town of Rouen.
Rouen is the town where Joan of Arc was executed and there is a very good museum dedicated to her rise and fall, the trial that condemned her as well as the re-trial that posthumously acquitted her. We didn’t really know much about Joan of Arc but the story of the peasant girl who persuaded the French King Charles VII that she heard the voice of God and then went on to lead armies to successful victories over the English (during the 100 year war), before being captured and burnt at the stake in 1431 (after what seems to be a fairly biased trial) is a fascinating one and really worth learning about.
The town itself is rammed with medieval buildings and is great to wander around. Near the cathedral the Christmas markets had been set up and were very busy when we went into town.
In Rouen we stayed in the Marina, a 15 minute cycle from the town centre. Almost all of this cycle was along a riverside walkway lined with pubs, clubs and restaurants which I am sure is absolutely buzzing in the summer.
We found an amazing and very posh tea shop in one of the medieval streets where we stopped for a hot chocolate and a slice of cake. Very expensive but absolutely delicious.
We also visited an offbeat museum – the ironmongery museum – which was free to go in and actually much more interesting than its title suggests. It basically features anything and everything that can be made out of iron – from keys and locks, to weapons and fine street furniture.
We really enjoyed Rouen and would definitely come back in warmer weather to enjoy the riverside.
On the way into France we had focused on the WWII cemeteries and Normandy beaches having skipped the WWI sites around the Somme. We wanted to put this right on the way back and brush up on our WWI history.
Our first stop was the WWI museum in Peronne, which is situated in a castle in the middle of town.
This taught us some facts and figures but it wasn’t until we visited the battlefields themselves that the reality and the scale of the loss of life really hit us.
The Canadian Parks Service run two fantastic visitor centres on the battlefields of the Somme, staffed by volunteer Canadian Students.
The first one we visited was Beaumont-Hamel, which was the site of intense fighting. On a drizzling and foggy day we walked around the trenches on both the allied forces and German sides of the conflict and contemplated the horrors of the battles and the horrendous loss of life on both sides.
When the allies went over the top at Beaumont-Hamel to begin the ”Big Push” of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 20,000 were killed and 38,000 were injured. Of the 800 Newfoundlanders who started the day only 68 were to survive.
We moved on from Beaumont-Hamel to the town of Arras where we had hoped to visit the WW1 tunnels that had been built by New Zealand engineers to muster troops before the “Big Push”. Unfortunately we had limited time and couldn’t get on a tour of these tunnels. This remains one to do on another trip to France.
However we did climb the bell tower of the town hall to get a view of the town and the massive Christmas market that was spread across the big squares in the town. We also visited the huge Cathedral of the town.
Our last stop before hitting Calais was the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge. This is the site of another battlefield where the allied and German trenches were only a few metres apart. They were so close that in still conditions it was possible to hear the opposition talking in their trenches.
Some of the trenches here have been restored with concrete sandbags (instead of the original ones) to show what they would really have been like in the war. There are also some underground tunnels that can be accessed on a free tour. These tunnels were used to move between trenches and as the starting point for the sappers who dug deep tunnels under enemy lines, which were then detonated to cause breaches.
Above ground the massive craters from these explosions still pockmark the land.
Also at Vimy Ridge is the massive Canadian memorial for those who died during the war.
In total 425,000 Canadians were mobilised in Europe during WW1 of which 60,661 were killed and 172,000 were wounded. These are huge numbers but overall in WW1 between 9 and 11 million military personnel were killed and between 6 and 13 million civilians. Of the military deaths, around 2/3rds were killed in battle, which marks in out from all previous wars when disease was responsible for the majority of deaths. This really was a new type of conflict the horror of which had never been seen before. I think it is important for us to visit these sites if at all possible, to reflect on this part of history and ensure that the memory of those who lost their lives is kept alive.
After leaving the Somme we completed the short drive to Calais and stayed overnight in some free parking on the harbour wall before catching a ferry first thing in the morning to head back to the UK.
This brought to a close our 6 month tour of France which we have thoroughly enjoyed. A month in the UK seeing family and friends and enjoying a traditional British Christmas beckoned before we head to the Far East to avoid winter in Europe.
Atlantic Coast
With our time in Spain at a close we crossed the border, by just a few km’s, to the port town of San Jean de Luz.
The municipality is generous enough to provide a very central Aire for motorhomes but unfortunately its sandwiched between a busy road and a railway line – notwithstanding this we managed a decent nights sleep and on the plus side, it is only a couple of hundred metres from the centre of town.
The town itself is a charming mix of an old fishing port and a turn of the century seaside resort. There is a big sandy beach and a surprisingly good shopping area.
One of the highlights of our visit was the church (Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste). We have seen a lot of churches in France and, while most are very impressive, we were starting to feel a little churched-out, so much so that we very nearly skipped this one on our jaunt around town. At the last minute though, we popped our heads in as we were passing and are so pleased that we did because it is definitely one of the best. The outside is very plain and hemmed in by other buildings but once you go inside it is beautiful medieval building with three levels of wooden galleries running down each of the sides and back, a golden altar piece, decorative ceiling and hanging from the ceiling a model fishing boat.
The church actually has a place in history as, here in 1660 Louis XIV (the Sun King) married Marie-Thérèse of Austria (the Infant of Spain). Traditionally the men would have sat on the balconies and the women on the main floor of the church.
Our next stop on the way North was only a few km’s up the coast, just outside the town of Biarritz, at Milady Beach.
This wild surf beach is a magnet for surfers and we could spend hours just watching the surfers and the waves but it was definitely a bit too wild for my very amateur surfing!
From here we got on our bikes to explore Biarritz which is a very grand town and is clearly an upscale seaside resort, a bit like a Posh French version of Brighton.
We cycled through the town to the lighthouse and then back along the seafront.
Right next door to Biarritz is the town of Bayonne on the banks of the rivers Adour and Nive. It is a lovely old city with cobbled streets of half-timbered houses.
There is a large cathedral with twin spires which can be seen throughout the city.
After spending an enjoyable day in Bayonne we continued up the Coast to the Landes Commune. This is an area of long undeveloped wild beaches. We found a great park-up, just behind the dunes at Capbreton.
Here there is a trail through the dunes and along the beach in this nature reserve.
This area was part of the Nazi Atlantic Wall to defend against Allied invasion and there are a number of concrete bunkers that have fallen into the sea and sit on the beach.
These have been decorated with graffiti and look spectacular in the crashing surf.
After some long walks on the beach we got back on the road and headed North towards the Dune du Pilat, which, at almost 3km long, 500m wide and over 100m high, is the tallest sand dune in Europe.
There is a temporary staircase erected every year which reaches almost to the top but the last few metres up the sand is hard work. Coming down is much more fun as you can run down, digging your heels in and flying metres at every step, unfortunately they do not allow sledging which would have been even better.
Dune du Pilat is not far from Bordeaux which is somewhere we would like to explore in the future but for this quick run back up North we set our sights on the much smaller and very beautiful wine producing town of Saint-Émilion, just to the east of Bordeaux. This proved to be a great choice as the town is not only a thriving centre of wine production but has some interesting history to explore.
The town is named after a monk called Émilion who, legend has it, fled his hometown in Brittany, Vannes, in the 8th century to come to the area where he created a hermitage carved out of the limestone rock for which the area is also well known. He is credited with a miracle as when caught smuggling bread to distribute amongst the poor, he opened his coat and the bread had turned into logs of wood, thereby avoiding punishment. Later of course when delivering the ‘logs’, they had transformed back into loaves of bread.
In the 11th century the construction of the monolithic church of Saint-Émilion, to protect the body of Saint-Émilion, was begun. When completed this church, which has been carved out of a limestone cliff, was and still is, the largest monolithic church in Europe with the main room being 38 metres long, 20 metres wide and 12 metres high.
In recent times the columns holding up the roof have had to be stabilised with steel collars as they were subsiding as a result of the weight of the tower built on top of the cliffs and the porous nature of the limestone rock.
Beneath the streets of the town is a labyrinth of tunnels which were dug to extract the white limestone which was used for many of the buildings in nearby Bordeaux. Many of these tunnels are now used to store the wine for which the area is famous. We visited one of the wineries which allowed us to wander around some of their catacombs freely and see the ageing wine.
Knowing we needed to get some miles under our belts we moved North to the town of Rochefort, which is just south of La Rochelle.
Rochefort is a maritime town on the Charente estuary which was the site of a naval base and dockyard from the 17th century through to its closure in 1926.
We explored the exterior of the docks and were all set to visit the maritime museum here but unfortunately it was closed when we turned up.
However we did stumble across a large Saturday market in the town which we enjoyed walking through and sampling some of the foods.
On our way South earlier in the year we had avoided visiting Ile de Re because it was summer and we expected it to be really busy but at this time of the year, on our trip back North, we decided to have a quick look to see what all the fuss is about.
After crossing the toll bridge onto the island we managed to find a small wild camping spot right next to a beach to spend the night – something that I expect would have been impossible at the height of summer.
We didn’t waste anytime in getting on our bikes to explore the area. The island is criss-crossed with bike paths and its almost entirely flat and only 5km wide so perfect for biking around.
We headed to the town of Saint Martin de Re, which is the capital of the Island. It’s an attractive little town with most of the cafes, bars and shops situated around, and on the streets leading down to, the harbour. Understandably many of the shops were shut for the season and, it being November, the weather wasn’t that great, but despite this there were still a fair number of tourists around and plenty of opportunities for a hot chocolate or a vin chaud to warm us up!
Heading for the Coast
After tearing ourselves away from Zaragoza we carried on heading West towards the town of Ainsa. But first we stopped off at the waterfall at Salto de Bierge. This would be very busy in the summer season with a swimming beach above the falls, but in October everything was shut and no one was around.
We also stopped off at the gorgeous hilltop Moorish town of Alquezar. The town is in the Sierrra de Guara national park and is in the foothills of the Pyrenees. There is a Moorish citadel set on a rocky outcrop above the town. This was built in the 8th century but Christians took over the area in the 11th century and built the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria La Mayor in the 12th Century.
The church has a 2 storey cloister which has very well preserved original paintings on the ground floor walls and some intricate carvings on the internal stone pillars.
The town feels very similar to the Provence hilltop towns and the medieval streets were very pretty.
There is a short walk of around 5kms which drops down into the Rio Verre canyon below the town and then through a series of catwalks along the side of the canyon walls. The trail traverses around the town allowing you to climb back out and up to the other side of town from where you started. It was a really nice hike and well worth doing although the narrow catwalks must get congested in summer.
We left Alquezar and headed to Ainsa to spend the night there and to explore the town in the morning.
Ainsa was the capital of the old kingdom of Sobrarbe which became part of Aragon in the 11th century.
The town has a large castle, of which only the exterior walls remain and just outside the castle walls is a large market square. This is then abutted by a tangle of narrow medieval streets and closely packed houses.
Our next stopover was the town of Jaca, which is a large town on a hilltop plateau and was the first capital of Aragon. There is a large fortress, the Ciudadela de Jaca, just a hundred metres from the centre of town. It is pentagonal in shape, which is more easily visible from a drone shot, and was the first citadel in Spain to be built to withstand cannon fire.
The town itself is very nice and we stopped in a bar on the main square for a hot chocolate, with a cheeky shot of Baileys in it to warm us up.
Leaving Jaca we decided to drive a loop further into the Pyrenees to see the mountain town of Anso. This is a really cute town but was fairly deserted when we visited. It seems like a lovely town though and would be a great centre for hikes in the summer.
We quickly left Anso behind and drove, in pouring rain, to the lowland town of Sol de Rey Catolico. The drive was really spectacular and we saw several rivers that were swollen by the rain and were raging torrents.
Sol de Rey Catolico is an incredibly well preserved medieval town where the centre is unchanged in hundreds of years.
Unfortunately, we are finding in many of these small Spanish towns that they are mostly closed up out of season, even the church was locked up, which was a real shame.
Our next destination though, the beautiful town of Olite, was fully open and actually had a fairly large number of tourists. Olite is a medieval town with Roman origins that is home to the Palace of the Kings of Navarre.
Built in the 15th Century by Charles III, the Palace complex with its high walls, towers and moats was considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. Beautiful gardens were added and elaborate furnishings. Charles even kept exotic animals such as giraffes and lions in a menagerie.
The palace was never intended to have a defensive aspect and as such the focus was on the aesthetics. Unfortunately the buildings were gutted by fire in 1813 but it was extensively rebuilt in the 20th Century. This palace is well worth a visit and has one of the best audio guides we have listened to.
Olite lies on the road to Pamplona which was the next destination on our whirlwind tour of Northern Spain. Pamplona is of course famous for its annual Running of the Bulls festival where bulls are set loose to run through town (and tourists) to the bull ring where they are then put to death.
However that is in the summer and we were there in a blustery and showery autumn. What we saw of Pamplona is a large modern city with a buzzy central square and some attractive parks. Without the pull of the festival and nice weather though we weren’t persuaded to spend more than a day exploring the city.
Our last stop in Spain, as we had reached the Atlantic Coast, was San Sebastian or Donsotia-San Sebastian as it is also known. There is an Aire here just next to the university which is an easy cycle or a 10 minute bus ride into the centre of town and it only costs €3 a night (off season). An absolute bargain and unsurprisingly it was very busy with most people using it as a stopover as they headed South for warmer weather.
San Sebastian is world renowned for its amazing food and there are 19 Michelin stars in restaurants in the area. We weren’t here for the Michelin stars but we did want to experience the amazing Pinxtos scene. Pinxtos is the Basque word for tapas and San Sebastian has a reputation for having a very lively and high quality bar scene. The bars were busy at the weekend with locals but quietened down in the week when only a few tourists remained.
Just like in Zaragoza we enjoyed a bar crawl at lunchtime for two days in a row and had some amazing little dishes. Sarah really enjoyed a local wine called Txakoli which is a semi-sparkling dry white and I really enjoyed the Burnt Basque cheesecake. This is a local speciality which was only really developed in the last 50 years and involves a simple cheesecake which is cooked at too high a temperature to cook the outside but leaves the interior deliciously squishy and soft.
The beach at San Sebastian is huge and I imagine packed in the summer but at this time of year there were only a few walkers to be seen.
This was sadly the end of our trip through Spain and felt like the beginning of the end of our long summer trip. From here we were heading North to Calais for our ferry back to the UK. There was still time for some fun to be had on our way back North, but we needed to start getting some miles under our belt!
Going to Zaragoza
Our plan was to cross Spain from the Mediterranean across to the Atlantic following the Pyrenees without getting too high into the mountains which at this time of year were beginning to get snowy and cold.
The first major stop on this route was the city of Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon and the fifth most populous city in Spain. But first we stopped over in the small hill town of Cardona.
We were here to cut up the drive but also because of the castle on the hill and the medieval streets of the old town. The castle has been part converted into a luxury hotel but this has also meant that that the rest of the buildings have been restored as well – a good public/private partnership!
We moved on to Zaragoza from here to the large dedicated free motorhome parking area near the university. This is right opposite a tram stop so it’s really convenient to get into the centre of town.
After a 10 minute tram ride we got off at the central city and walked into the large Plaza del Pilar. To one side of this is the massive Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Pilar and at one end the incredibly impressive Cathedral of the Saviour or La Seo de Zaragoza.
We spent some time in the Basilica, taking the lift to the top of one of the towers where there are great views across the city.
The inside of this cathedral is enormous and it is split into lots of different areas where services can be carried out independent of what is happening elsewhere in the building.
After this we went over to La Seo which has paid entry. The outside of this church is less impressive although it is a mix of mudejar (a mix of Jewish, Christian and Muslim created by Muslims who remained behind after Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula) and gothic styles.
Inside there are 15 chapels around the outside of a large wooden choir and main altar which are very ornate. Each of the chapels is different to the next and are dedicated to different saints.
All of this culture was hungry and thirsty work so it’s a good thing that Zaragoza is considered the most happening city for Tapas in Spain.
Tapas in Zaragoza is a bit different to how it works in the tapas restaurants we’re more familiar with at home. It is considered more of a snack and an accompaniment to drinking and bars have rows of Tapas dishes on their counters (as well as hot dishes that you can order separately). You pick your Tapas dishes and buy your drinks and then find somewhere to sit, perch or stand and the food gets brought out to you.
To make the most of our short time in Zaragoza we decided to food crawl through the buzzy El Tubo area of town where there is a huge concentration of bars. We had 3 or 4 different dishes between us in each bar, all washed down with a cool beer. Each of the Tapas dishes cost around €3 so it’s really good value and you can have a filling lunch for a really reasonable price.
Some of the real highlights were the iberico ham (of course), crispy pork crackling and the Angulas eels (known as elvers in the UK).
We had such a fun time in Zaragoza that we decided to stay a little longer. There is plenty to do and the previous day we had missed out on a major attraction, so we headed for the Aljaferia Palace first thing. This meant a tram ride followed by a bus but it was an easy journey, the public transport in Zaragoza is really good.
The Aljaferia Palace is a fortified medieval palace that was built in the 11 century for the Islamic rulers of Zaragoza. The palace passed into Christian hands in 1118 and was expanded in the 15th century. Since 1987 it has been the seat of Aragon’s regional parliament.
The intricate Moorish architecture of the building is amazing and many of the brightly painted ceilings are still intact today. However the walls are mostly bare as they would have been hung with tapestries.
After touring around the Aljaferia Palace we headed back to the El Tubo part of town for another Tapas crawl where we ate as well, if not better than the day before. Zaragoza is a great city which flies under the radar.
It would be a great place for a weekend away of sightseeing, eating and drinking without the massive crowds of cities like Barcelona.
Heading For Spain
From Carcassonne we were heading south with Spain in our sights. Having spent most of our time in France, we opted for a change of scenery and decided to travel across the Pyrenees on their Southern side in Spain, towards the Atlantic coast.
Our first stop was the small town of Peyperteuse, notable for its castle high above the village on a knife edge ridge. This is one of a series of Cathar castles that are called the Five Sons of Carcassonne all sited on rocky peaks in this region. Peyperteuse is known as Celestial Carcassonne because it is the biggest of the castles. First records of its existence are from the 1st Century BC but the first historical references to the castle are from 842.
The castle itself was made of two parts with the upper castle only accessible from the lower one by a very narrow stairway. This has got to be one of the most unassailable castles that I have ever seen and not surprisingly it was never conquered.
The castle acted as a border post to protect the Kingdom of France from the King of Aragon’s aggression. After the treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 and the end of war between Spain and France, the castle lost its strategic importance.
After visiting Peypereuse we started heading towards the Mediterranean coast, for the first time, but not before we stopped off at Perpignan.
Perpignan has the feel of a Catalan town and for good reason, as historically, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca, which was a Mediterranean empire stretching from The Balearic Islands to as far North as Montpellier.
The biggest attraction in Perpignan is the massive Palais du Rois de Majorque or the Palace of the Kings of Majorca. This is a fortified palace in the gothic style organised around three large courtyards. It was completed in 1309 by King James II of Majorca who moved the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca to Perpignan in 1276.
As well as visiting the Palace we cycled around the town and enjoyed immersing ourselves in the buzzy weekend culture.
After leaving Perpignan we headed to the fairy chimneys of Les Orgues D’Ille Sur Tet. This felt like a little bit of Utah right in France with some Hoodoo formations and a really nice short walk around the area.
From here it was only a short stop on the way to the seaside town of Port Vendres, a working port close to its better known neighbouring town of Collioure. The local council provides a lovely motorhome parking area next to the port, which is just a short cycle along the headland to Collioure.
Port Vendres has an attractive harbour and in the summer season I expect it would be buzzing with lots of restaurants and bars along the harbour front. However out of season most were closed, but we did manage to find a bar for an early evening libation!
Our reason for staying in Port Vendres though was to visit the town of Collioure.
Collioure is an attractive little town based around a large fort which was built in the 13th century.
While Port Vendres is a beautifully protected harbour Collioure provides little protection for boats. It was packed with tourists, even out of season and there were lots of people swimming, enjoying the big waves even from behind the sea wall.
We sat and had a beer in the sunshine watching the waves and soaking up one of the last days of summer!
We also visited the castle, the Chateau Royal, which was built by the Counts of Rousillion and the Kings of Aragon. Later on in its history it was occupied by the Mallorcan court who ruled over Southwestern France and Northern Spain.
The fort was not furnished inside but the fortifications were very impressive, with very thick walls and it’s easy to see how this would have been daunting to attack.
From Port Vendres we headed South across the border into Spain to the town of Vic, in inland Catalonia.
There is a lovely Aire here with all the services and an added bonus of hot showers all for only €5 per night, and it’s right on the edge of town.
Although it isn’t a huge tourist destination, Vic is a lovely town and the local tourist office have put together a really good walking map of the town to show off its beautiful historic buildings, including to our surprise, a Roman Temple.
Vic was a great first stop in Spain as we tried to remember our rusty Spanish and substitute the Mercis and Bonjours of France with Gracias and Buenos Dias of Spain.
From Gorges to Carcassonne
To the west of Ardeche is mountainous countryside that is cut through with canyons. This is the land of the Cevennes National Park.
On our way there we stopped off at the town of Anduze which is famous for its volunteer run steam railway. We decided to give this a go. It only runs 25 kilometres to the town of Saint-Jean-du-Gard and back again. You can ride both ways the same day and the train stops at Saint-Jean-du-Gard long enough to have a wander around, grab some lunch and get back on.
On the way back we stopped off at the Bambouseraie garden which specialises in Asian plants and Bamboo. To be honest it’s a bit over priced and it was very crowded at the entrance as everyone does the same thing. The Japanese garden and the valley of the dragon were pretty though.
It was a bit unusual that the steam train was pink but we worked out that this was a wrap to mark Breast Cancer Awareness month.
With the stops and the journey each way the train took all day so we stayed overnight in the station car park. This gave us the opportunity to explore the town of Anduze which was another pretty French medieval town.
The next day we headed towards the Parc National des Cevennes and the town of Florac-Trois-Rivieres, so named for the three rivers that meet in the town. This was a great staging post for our drive the following morning through the Gorges du Tarn.
The gorge was spectacular with towering walls, cliffside villages and a beautiful medieval town called Saint-Enimie half way through the drive, with steep narrow streets paved with pebbles, an old mill and the source of the river Burle.
We stopped for the night at a campsite by the river in the town of Boyne, at the far end of the Gorges du Tarn. Campsites are a rare treat but we’d seen the sign advertising the swimming pool so we were sold. It wasn’t until after we’d paid and settled in that we found out the swimming pool was closed for the season despite the weather being perfect in mid-October for a refreshing dip.
The next day we tackled another Gorge, The Gorges de la Jonte. This was another lovely drive and we stopped at the town of Meyruis for a walk and to stretch our legs after the drive. Our destination for the day was a bit further though.
This area is absolutely riddled with caves, over 3000 of them have been discovered and we wanted to visit the biggest of them. This was called the Grotte D’Argilan and is accessed from on top of the walls of the canyon.
This is actually the first cave in France to be opened to the public in 1890 and the old infrastructure of ladders can still be seen inside although it has been replaced by modern walkways and stairs.
Some of the formations in the cave are as much as 500,000 years old.
The tour through the cave actually takes you down more than halfway to the bottom of the canyon and there are bats in the cave which access the outside through small fissures in the rock.
The grassy car park of the cave was one of our most remote and quietest nights of the trip, with no one else around.
In the morning we crossed the Noir Causses which is the plateau between the gorges that the cave is found on. We were heading for an Aire, formerly a campsite, next to a lake in a town called Salles Curran. We wanted to enjoy a day lakeside while the weather was still warm enough for sunbathing and swimming.
We managed to find a place to park overlooking the lake with fabulous views and we were treated to some beautiful sunsets here.
It was soon time to get back on the road and we headed for the rugby town of Beziers. We arrived at Bezier in the middle of their annual urban walk, so there were streams of people walking around every corner as the route seemed to criss-cross the town down nearly every street.
It was a lovely town with leafy wide boulevards and felt like a very liveable city but maybe not a huge tourist destination. The Poets Garden was a real oasis though and worth a visit if you find yourself there, in particular Titans Fountain and waterfall into lac des grottes.
Just outside the town, we went for a very pretty cycle over the Orb Aqueduct and along the canal du Midi, which has a famous sequence of eight locks in a row, called the Ecluses de Fonseranes, dropping the canal 21.5m down to the level of the River Orb.
Narbonne, which was our next destination, felt very similar to Beziers, except with canals through the middle. We passed an enjoyable couple of hours walking the streets of the town and poking around the basilica and cathedral, although we decided to skip the Archbishops Palace. Narbonne was a significant Roman city, built up around a major Roman road, Via Domitia, that ran from Spain to Rome. The remains of the road have been uncovered right in the middle of town.
Next we drove to Homps as a stopover on our way to our next destination.
We had found a lovely free park-up overlooking a lake which is used as a reservoir to keep the Canal du Midi, which passes through the town, topped up. The canal du Midi is a 360km network of navigable waterways which links the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
We had been making our way towards Carcassonne which was on both our lists as a must-see destination in the South of France. Ever since reading the book, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse we had both been intrigued to visit this fortified town with its fairytale castle, perched on a hill above the modern town.
The Citadel, know as the Cite de Carcassonne, has a massive double wall surrounding it and then in the centre of the town there is another moat and wall with the inner castle inside. There are 52 stone towers in the outer walls, many with the witches-hat roofs that were added as part of the 19th century restorations.
The Ville Basse which is the lower city on the other side of the river Aude was at one time in competition and a separate town to Carcassonne. However, these days it is all considered as one town.
The Canal du Midi passes through the lower town and we took the opportunity to go for a cycle ride along part of it.
FromAtoB 