We awoke at 10am and checked out at 11. John thought I looked a little better after some sleep! We decided to wander into town to see a bit of the medieval Cahors which was quite an important place in History.
First stop was the fortified bridge that Cathors is famous for, the bridge was completed in 1378, its a pretty old bridge. Its also pretty spectacular. Took some pics and enjoyed this man made beauty amoungst some pretty awesome nature. The weather has been really good this two days and the jury are out wether or not John is sunburnt. We then wandered into the centre of town for some breakfast and to stock up for lunch. John really wanted to buy bread from a bakery and cheese from a cheese place. Getting the bread was easy and really cheap, we struggled however to attain the cheese. Walking round the town we felt that everyone was so relaxed and that they might have a greater quality of life here. It was ofcourse lunch time and they take 2 hours off for lunch! For breakfast we had the healthy option of French donought things with apple stuff in and lots of sugar. Good times. We never did find a fromage shop and had to settle for ham. Cahours is a truly wonderful place.
We left town at 1pm for the rather short drive to Emcamp in Andorra. Whilst driving, Ryan was at the wheel, John made sandwiches with the stuff we bought from Cahours, we traveled therefore pretty non-stop to Andorra. The scenery is pretty amazing, this whole area of France is dense forest and we were crossing a mountain range so we climbed to a very high altitude. Ears were poping. John was a little concerned at Ryan's driving up the mountain with all the hair pins turns, there were a lot so that you could gain alterdude. He was definatly tring to impress the girls in the polo that had overtaken them earlier. The air may have turned blue after the wheels screached and then normal driving style resumed. John wasn't happy but I had fun!
One the way we needed to go through a good few toll roads. I decided that it would be a good idea to break up the 50euro note that I had. after putting it into the machine and hearking the first few kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging... I noticed the error of my ways. kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging, kerging... about 20 2euro coins in total. Pretty smart of me huh. Attempting to shovel all the coins back into the car also was a fun challenge.
We stoped at the French-Andorran border for photo's, disappointingly there were no border guards or requirements for passports. Still got a photo of the flags and continued on into Andorra. A very different place, Andorra is strange to drive in as the population has had to squeeze into the any flat areas, building densely packed together in small pockets. Very cool scenery.
Andorra is of course famous for its sking, as we are here off season (starts 4th December) our hotel apartment was extremely cheap, like 35 quid. Yes I said appartment, we have a living room and kitchen and balcony. Shame we are here for only one day. Also as we are off season there are no tourists here, we didn't see any at all. Good times, we had a little wander round Emcamp having a few beers and walkining to a recommended resturant for dinner. We discovered why Andorrans have the longest life expectancy in the world, there a massive steps and high inclines to walk if you want to get anywhere. Pretty tiring! Also strangely on our walk we past 4 sheep grazing on a patch of grass between buildings, they must have to use any flat land they can.
Cathours to Emcamp: 179 Miles
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Europe Day One - France
Found out that John didn't need to work till midnight the night before our trip started. That was good as it would have been rubbish if we started the trip without any sleep. Unfortunately I still had some work to do when I got to John's the night before. I ended up staying up till 3am writing emails to people qat work to had stuff over to them. I turned off the lights at 2:58 AM and closed my eyes for the night... At 3:24AM after precisely 0 minutes of sleep, I was up, refreshed and ready for our lift to St Pancras at 3:45AM. John, on the other had a luxurious 3 hours of sleep!
Got to St Pancras for 4:45, checked in an had an early visit to Cafe Nero. It was there that I decided that Jazz was not meant to be played early in the morning. Got our seats on the 5:25 train to Paris and arrived at 9:20.
Now for some smash and grab tourism! Taxi from the station to the Eiffel tower the taxi passed the Louvre, which was one of the things in my list. Asked to quickly stop but apparently that's not allowed. No matter, a glimpse of the Pyramid from the Taxi was enough to tick the box for me. Got to the Eiffel tower and took some pictures that make us look photoshopped. Walked up to the Arc De Triumph with our Luggage in tow - Turns out it is further than I thought. Stopped on the way to get a backed morning snack. John managed to earn himself a filthy look from one of the natives for his pronunciation of Pain au Chocolat. Pretty yummy nevertheless. Got to the Arc De Triumph, sat and watched the chaos that is the roundabout at the Arc. We didn't work out if there were any rules to handling the roundabout, good luck and strong nerves seems the best advice. Photos of the Arc De Triumph and then a quick walk down the Camps Elisee and we had pretty much seen everything of cultural value that Paris had to offer... we headed back to the station to pick up our convertible!
We managed to bring all our documentation and voucher and didn't lose anything on the way. Sorting out our car went very smoothly... until we were told that there weren't any convertibles available. Arse. After a lengthy phone call with Holiday Autos (Who are NOT recommended) we managed to find that there was a convertible available at Charles De Gaulle Airport. We found outself in a VW Golf, heading to the Airport. I almost took a left turn onto the wrong side of the road (Thank you John for spotting that before it go too messy) and a stalled quite a few times. Having the gear stick on the other side pretty much broke my brain. So we managed to still end up at the airport even though we specifically tried to avoid it by going on Eurostar!
Picked up the new car, actually a convertible this time! And headed towards Cahors. Stopped a few times and arrived at Cahors around 8:30PM. Thought John had booked us into a proper dodgy place after the TomTom made us drive down the back of a load of run down garages but actually the hotel was fine.
Walked to the centre of town and found a restaurant on the high street. Sat outside as it was still so warm. Very French. John had Snails and duck (although he thought it was going to be beef) and I managed to order two salads (whoops). The food was fantastic, John fell in love with duck. We also had a lovely bottle of french red wine, a local vintage. The wine was as good as the food. What was brilliant about the meal was it was a resturant for French people, it wasn't a tourist area and no one spoke English. We were both confused over the dessart menu, there was white formage and red fruits, we thought this might cheese cake. It wasn't. John had it and it was just sweet cheese and fruit on top. Good for the heart. A fantastic meal.
Travelling:
Camberly - Kings cross: 37 Miles
Kings cross - Paris: 213 Miles
Paris - Charles de Gaulle Airport: 13 Miles
Charles de Gaulle Airport - Cahors: 370 Miles.
Phew! Goodnight.
Ryan
Got to St Pancras for 4:45, checked in an had an early visit to Cafe Nero. It was there that I decided that Jazz was not meant to be played early in the morning. Got our seats on the 5:25 train to Paris and arrived at 9:20.
Now for some smash and grab tourism! Taxi from the station to the Eiffel tower the taxi passed the Louvre, which was one of the things in my list. Asked to quickly stop but apparently that's not allowed. No matter, a glimpse of the Pyramid from the Taxi was enough to tick the box for me. Got to the Eiffel tower and took some pictures that make us look photoshopped. Walked up to the Arc De Triumph with our Luggage in tow - Turns out it is further than I thought. Stopped on the way to get a backed morning snack. John managed to earn himself a filthy look from one of the natives for his pronunciation of Pain au Chocolat. Pretty yummy nevertheless. Got to the Arc De Triumph, sat and watched the chaos that is the roundabout at the Arc. We didn't work out if there were any rules to handling the roundabout, good luck and strong nerves seems the best advice. Photos of the Arc De Triumph and then a quick walk down the Camps Elisee and we had pretty much seen everything of cultural value that Paris had to offer... we headed back to the station to pick up our convertible!
We managed to bring all our documentation and voucher and didn't lose anything on the way. Sorting out our car went very smoothly... until we were told that there weren't any convertibles available. Arse. After a lengthy phone call with Holiday Autos (Who are NOT recommended) we managed to find that there was a convertible available at Charles De Gaulle Airport. We found outself in a VW Golf, heading to the Airport. I almost took a left turn onto the wrong side of the road (Thank you John for spotting that before it go too messy) and a stalled quite a few times. Having the gear stick on the other side pretty much broke my brain. So we managed to still end up at the airport even though we specifically tried to avoid it by going on Eurostar!
Picked up the new car, actually a convertible this time! And headed towards Cahors. Stopped a few times and arrived at Cahors around 8:30PM. Thought John had booked us into a proper dodgy place after the TomTom made us drive down the back of a load of run down garages but actually the hotel was fine.
Walked to the centre of town and found a restaurant on the high street. Sat outside as it was still so warm. Very French. John had Snails and duck (although he thought it was going to be beef) and I managed to order two salads (whoops). The food was fantastic, John fell in love with duck. We also had a lovely bottle of french red wine, a local vintage. The wine was as good as the food. What was brilliant about the meal was it was a resturant for French people, it wasn't a tourist area and no one spoke English. We were both confused over the dessart menu, there was white formage and red fruits, we thought this might cheese cake. It wasn't. John had it and it was just sweet cheese and fruit on top. Good for the heart. A fantastic meal.
Travelling:
Camberly - Kings cross: 37 Miles
Kings cross - Paris: 213 Miles
Paris - Charles de Gaulle Airport: 13 Miles
Charles de Gaulle Airport - Cahors: 370 Miles.
Phew! Goodnight.
Ryan
Sunday, September 20, 2009
On to Europe
Well we managed to drive coast to coast in America without getting arrested, getting stopped by the police (except when the cab we were passengers in got puled over), getting shot, crashing the car or getting too lost. Although to be fair, some of those things almost happened.
Clearly if we can manage it through America then we should really raise the bar and add a language barrier to the mix. So John and I will embark on a trip of europe over a week and a half. We will attempt to travel through 14 countries getting glimpses of landmarks so that when we watch TV shows we can say "I've been there!"
With our expert (I have a B in German, C in french and D in Latin) knowledge of european languages we shall have no problem conversing with the locals, blending as if by magic into the backdrop of everyday european life - Think Marcus Brody in The Last Cruisade.
So here is the revived (and renamed) blog. Hopefully I'll do better at updating it this time but no promises.
Wish us luck and fair weather. I'll try not to lose my passport this time!
Ryan
Clearly if we can manage it through America then we should really raise the bar and add a language barrier to the mix. So John and I will embark on a trip of europe over a week and a half. We will attempt to travel through 14 countries getting glimpses of landmarks so that when we watch TV shows we can say "I've been there!"
With our expert (I have a B in German, C in french and D in Latin) knowledge of european languages we shall have no problem conversing with the locals, blending as if by magic into the backdrop of everyday european life - Think Marcus Brody in The Last Cruisade.
So here is the revived (and renamed) blog. Hopefully I'll do better at updating it this time but no promises.
Wish us luck and fair weather. I'll try not to lose my passport this time!
Ryan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)