France (the south side)

Our next stop was the French Riviera or Cote d’ Azur in the south of France. We had a pretty rough 10 hour overnight bus trip from Barcelona to Nice, with the driver taking corners very fast and turning the lights on every time we stopped. He even put some upbeat Spanish music on at 6am, probably to keep himself from nodding off. But hey, at least we made it safely and on time! We soon found out that France was quite a bit more expensive than Spain when we brought some food and a train ticket - just something we have to live with while traveling.

Nice is the largest city in the area and we checked out parts of the city while we waited for friends (Matt & Hannah) to arrive in the afternoon. We were based in Mandelieu which was a bit out of the way, but for a reasonable price we had a nice modern apartment and swimming pool to use. We decided to check out the local sights before hiring a car for two days to explore further afield, so headed to Cannes just along the coast. It was pretty obvious from the start that this was a place for wealthy people, judging from the nice cars, resorts lining the beach and multimillion dollar boats in the water. Most of the beach was for resort use only but we managed to find a small area at the end of the beach free for the public.

Locals playing cards at Cannes beach

 After picking up our hire car (and Matt having an interesting drive home on the right side of the road) we headed inland to St Paul du Vence. This town has a lot of character, being perched up on a hill & surrounded by vineyards. It was built back in medieval times and we had fun exploring the town by walking along the narrow paths. We decided to try and get home by avoiding the toll roads, which proved to be the wrong option. We ended up heading along the coast and having to go through Antibes, Cannes and Mandelieu which all had very heavy traffic. I think it took us 2 hours instead of half an hour on the toll road.

Town out in the country - St Paul du Vence

We decided to check out Monaco the next day with the car, and a small coastal village called Eze on the way home. Monaco was surprisingly easy to get to along the main highway, and although it is technically in a different country, we didn’t have to stop at the border. Monaco was something else! After driving past about 3-4 Ferraris on the way in, we went up to the palace and took advantage of the views. We enjoyed checking out all the luxury boats sitting in the harbour and seeing the track for the Monaco Grand Prix (which had been on the previous weekend). It felt like we were a bit out of our league here but was still an experience to see how the rich and famous live. We only spent a couple of hours here as they charge by the 20mins for parking and it wasn't cheap!

View down to Monaco city

My favourite part of France was definitely the village of Eze! This cool little town is perched up on a small mountain right on the coast. It was a steep walk  to get up to the top but the views were stunning to say the least and well worth the €6 to get up to the viewpoint. Not a bad spot to have lunch in amongst the cactus gardens at the top! The town itself has some interesting history – dating back to 2000BC when it was first populated. Some of the original buildings are still standing today due to the way they have been built. The streets were purposely designed to be narrow and roofs are made of terracotta to help the stonework withstand the harsh summer heat.

Old town of Eze up on the hill

Narrow paths & terracotta roofing in the town of Eze

First stop... Spain!

We left Aberdeen on the 14^th May and arrived in Madrid around 8.30pm for the start of our big European adventure. First impressions of Spain were good as it was really easy to get from the airport to our accommodation thanks to the awesome metro service. We stayed in Sol which is a buzzing area of the city and soon found out that they love to party here as people were still out making lots of noise to 6am on a Tuesday night!

We made the most of the free walking tour offered in Madrid which proved to be really worthwhile! Our guide was very passionate about the history of the city and told us all about it. One thing I found pretty crazy was that back in the day (in the times of the Spanish Inquisition) the Catholics were more powerful than the government. Because of this, anyone who was not a Catholic was either forced to become one or punished which was pretty controversial! On our last night in Madrid we headed to a famous churro’s cafe (called Chocolateria San Gines) which we had been told about on the walking tour. For a total of €6 we got one cup of hot chocolate (which is actually thick dipping chocolate), a cup of coffee and 12 foot long churros! They were pretty tasty but after 6 each we were stuffed to say the least.

Foot long Churros in Madrid

Favourite Madrid building - the City Hall

After 3 days in Madrid we caught a train up to San Sebastian at the very top of Spain, the capital of the Basque region. San Sebastian itself is a small city situated between three steep headlands and two beaches. The old town is the most central part of the city and this is where our hostel was located. We were greeted with some average weather but managed to check out the old town and the beaches in between showers during the first couple of days. One thing that stood out from the start was the huge statue of Jesus up on the central headland which reminded me a lot of Rio de Janerio. The weather finally cleared up on the 19^th (my birthday) which made the place a lot more enjoyable. I managed to borrow a board from or hostel to go out for a surf on the morning of my birthday. San Sebastian is renowned for its world class surf beach. It has become a bit of a surfie town with the beach being right on the coast, and to be honest it reminded me a lot of Byron Bay in Australia. The nice weather carried on for most of our stay and we took full advantage of this to explore some of the surrounding area. We climbed up all 3 headlands, had a day trip to a surf beach along the coast called Zarautz, spent a lot of the time at the beach and went for a couple of swims. 

San Sebastian has the most bars per square km in the world, most with plates of good looking bite sized food on the bar tops (these are a type of tapas called Pinxtos). One of our last nights in San Sebastian we headed out with some people we had met at the hostel for a Pinxtos tour. We went to three bars, had some amazing food (my favourite being a tender beef cheek) and then finished off the night by eating some of the famous cheesecake from La Vina – which was well worth 5 euros! It reminded me of a Crème Brule as it didn’t have a base and had a nice caramelised coating.

View of San Sebastian from western headland

Surfers taking advantage of incoming swell breaking off wall

Our last stop in Spain was the famous city of Barcelona for a week. We soon figured out this place was pretty cool when we went to the beach on the first day. After eating some amazing paella packed full of seafood (mussels, clams, prawns, crab, squid, fish & more) we sat and watched a local band playing, with people drinking mojitos and dancing away by the beach. One thing I loved about this place was that they had outdoor gyms set up on the beach for anyone to use (which I took advantage of a few times during our stay!). The main street running from the beach is the famous Las Ramblas which is something else! It is obviously set up for tourism with tourist shops, street performers, and restaurants lining both sides and the centre of the street. There is a huge food market about half way along called La Boqueria which had just about every type of food imaginable – a good stop for a cheap lunch!

We took advantage of another walking tour which gave us a good insight into the city’s history, and showed us a few places we would have missed if we didn’t do the tour. It was interesting to learn about the buildings in the centre of Barcelona. Some of them have bases that were built by the Romans in BC, and over time there have been many different layers added on as the population grew.

La Boqueria Market - just off Las Ramblas

Christopher Columbus Statue near beach

You can’t go to Barcelona without seeing some of the famous Antonio Gaudi’s work. He was a famous architect around in the late 1800’s, and his buildings definitely stand out from the rest. He was the founder of modernism, a different type of architecture in rebellion of the more traditional rich people who were controlling Barcelona at the time. We visited the Sagrada Familia which I can safely say is the most impressive church in the world! The building is so intricate that it is still being built (130 years later) and should be finished by 2040 – it will be the tallest church in the world when finished. Gaudi was obviously very religious but brought change to the way the traditional church was built – sparking up a bit of controversy. We also visited La Padrera, Casa Bastilla (weird looking apartment blocks), and Park Guell (which has designs that mimic nature). All well worth a visit.

The famous Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's lizard at Park Guell

My favourite day here was when we hired bicycles and biked around the city. They have cycle lanes set up throughout most of the city, and because it is so flat, cycling is the perfect mode of transport. Even Haylee, who is a bit of a novice on the bike, enjoyed cruising around for 6 hours.

Haylee mastering the bike.. Boom!

Tasty Paella pack full of seafood, just the ticket

One thing we noticed here in Spain was the amount of beggars, buskers and people trying to sell gimmicky little souvenirs to you. Spain currently has around 25% unemployment so I am guessing this is the main source of income for many people. In San Sebastian we always came across this one guy who was trying his best to busk playing the saxophone, but instead sounded like a sick cat! And in Barcelona, Las Ramblas was lined with Indian guys every 20 metres trying to sell mouthpieces which made them sound like a chipmunk.

As the weather was nice during our stay we went to the beach most days. On the weekends the main beach was packed with people, and when the sun is out in Barcelona, quite a few of the local ladies don’t seem to mind getting topless which is something we don’t get so much of back in NZ. 

We have now finished the first leg of our trip and move onto the South coast of France next for more sun & beaches (hopefully)..