Category: Travel

Vuelta a Burgos Stage 2

After yet another rain storm during the night we woke to fairly pleasant weather. In no particular hurry we had breakfast then headed northeast to the village of Monasterio de Rodilla.

We once again followed the route for a ways in the opposite direction, then turned around and went back to a spot we’d passed by. It was a decent sized pullout with good views back along the road.

Again there was a breakaway of five riders, and again all from local teams.

The peloton was only about three minutes behind this time.

After the last racer passed one of the team cars – Qhubeka – pulled to the side of the road almost across from us. He flagged down the ambulance and had a word with them.

They turned around just ahead of us and went back the other way – we assumed that a rider had crashed and the ambulance had to go back for him. We hope he’s alright.

We got going quickly and scooted up to today’s finishing city of Briviesca, where there was another lovely free aire.

After getting organized we took the doggies out for the short walk down to the finishing area.

There was a nice bench just waiting for us about 250 metres from the line so we sat down and relaxed for the short wait – and guess what? We’re on the Camino again – imagine that!

The peloton had caught the breakaway, as expected, and they all tore around the corner just below us and blazed past as one big bunch.

Some of the locals were watching from their apartments across the street…

Walking back to the campervan we passed the place where all the police motos had lined up – they thought it was quite funny I was taking a photo of their parked BMW’s.

We stopped at an outside table at a bar along the way and got a refreshing beverage, then on back to the aire to relax and have a light dinner.

Vuelta a Burgos Stage 1

After trying out the oven for the first time – roast chicken! – we treated ourselves the next night to a meal in the campground’s restaurant. We had a lovely smoked salmon and asparagus salad for a starter and both chose the veal with potatoes as a main. I don’t often opt for veal but it was pretty good.

The water seems to stop at least once or twice a day – there’s been a tanker truck filling up the pool and other things to compensate for the shortage.

On Tuesday morning we got going at a decent time to find a place on the route for the first day of the Vuelta a Burgos – another of our favourite races. We were accredited photographers two years ago and had applied again this year, but due to covid restrictions were regretfully turned down this year.

We headed southwest from the campground and picked up the route in the reverse direction.

After passing Santa Maria del Campo we turned around and backtracked to Pampliega, a picturesque town on a river where we decided to stay and watch/photograph from.

As we had some time we took the doggies for a walk around the village – uphill to the main part of town.

After asking a local fellow where a cafe/bar was – in Spanish! – we found the place we were directed to and stopped for refreshments, then on to the church that overlooks everything.

The door was open so I went inside – the stained glass windows weren’t that great but everything else was outstanding. I got ready to take my first photo but a fellow inside immediately said ‘no photos’, and pointed to a sign on the wall that I hadn’t seen.

It was a shame I couldn’t take photos – it was by far the most interesting church I’ve been in for a long time. Like in many churches the ceilings soar and are vaulted and the walls are covered in sculptures. But they also had a ‘wing’ with priests’ vestments behind glass – a whole bunch of them. Some looked like they were embroidered in gold thread and lots of silk. Also a display case that contained some relics, including some very old-looking scrolls.

Returning to the campervan we re-conned some possible spots to shoot from. There’s a fairly sharp turn before the riders get onto the bridge and we hoped that would slow them down a bit.

The river, along with the lovely park and walkways was a great attraction and thoughout the morning more and more locals arrived to swim and fish. They also opened both of the kiosks at each end of the park area and must have done a good business.

There was a good crowd gathered, and the race arrived with five in the breakaway – I got a pretty good shot of them coming across the bridge.

They were all from local Spanish teams and had been allowed to get a seven minute gap on the peloton.

I didn’t recognize too many riders in my photos but there are a lot of big-name racers here. It’s a good warmup race for the Vuelta a Espana later this month.

After the racers had all passed we took our time going back to Santa Maria del Campo where there was a very nice free aire for the night.

Colin got his drone up for the first time but the strong wind made it difficult to nagivate – it ended up in a tree, but we did manage to retrieve it safely and without damage.

San Sebastián Classico in the Fog

After pouring rain off and on all night race day dawned foggy and wet. I’m very glad I went for my scenic walk yesterday as it doesn’t look good for the great views today. The sheep didn’t mind the inclement weather, though, and meandered from a field on one side of the road to the other at their leisure.

The San Sebastián Classic is one of our favourite races and this will be the third time we’ve seen it. The last one was two years ago and young Remco Evenepoel was the winner.

We’re at the exact same spot we were at three years ago, just around the bend from the summit of the Jaizkibel climb, and they’ve erected summit markers

Some cars joined us during the morning and the occupants stood around under their umbrellas. I eventually approached a few that were in front of us and asked when the race was expected to arrive.

None of them spoke english, italian or french, but one young lady had a phone and she understood enough to show me a time schedule – for the women’s race (which, to be honest, we don’t really care about). Just a guess as to when the men will be by.

The first of the women arrived right at noon with a three-rider breakaway, the main peloton a minute or two behind, and small groups straggling along about half an hour back. Most of our fellow spectators turned out to be giving out water bottles to the riders, and as soon as the last rider passed they all left.

More fans arrived throughout the afternoon and once again our pullout was full. A few of them setup tables and had a meal while waiting, and it was really nice to see the fog dissipate and have some blue sky overhead.

It was quite funny – at 3:50 I got a nice clear shot of some of the police motos, then we watched as the fog blew in again and swept across the hill to envelope us once more. Only thirteen minutes later a lone racer arrived – you could hardly see him approaching through the fog.

Alaphilippe passed by about 3 minutes later with a couple of teammates…

I was glad to be wearing my winter coat as it was so cold and windy – it must have been awful for the riders.

Not wanting to drive in the foggy darkness we opted to stay another night at the roadside. Having no 4G or other reception we didn’t find out the winner until the next morning after we’d left – Nelson Powless of EF won – good for him!

After another very rainy and windy night we left on Sunday morning, backtracking a bit before skirting Pamplona where we turned west and on past Logrono to Burgos and a campground we’d been to before just south of the city.

The Camino is very big around here – even the highway is named for it.

We arrived in good time to the campground only to be told that we could only stay two nights, not three, but that’s ok. They have a decent restaurant but the wi-if sucks.

Finally Spain!

I forgot to mention the adorable hedgehog we saw in Ruffec on our way to the lab for my swab test. We were going down the main road thru town and saw something shuffling across the road – it was a small hedgehog! We were very worried that it might get run over so Colin quickly pulled to the side to stop the traffic, but everyone else also seemed aware of it and the little fellow made it safely across. It was very nice to see that we weren’t the only ones that cared about a little animal.

The men’s time trial at the Olympics was awesome – much more exciting than time trials usually are. Primoz Roglic won the gold and Tom Dumoulin got the silver – so happy for both of them. Hugo Houle came a very respectable 11th.

I made an excellent lasagna (if I do say so myself!) for our final dinner in France, although the pasta making machine is a bit different from the one I have in Papiano and the one I have back home. In any case it turned out pretty good and was well received.

Much to my relief we got the results of my swab test back before we left the house and were able to download and print it – I passed! Or maybe I failed – in any case it was ‘negative’ which is good!

We got away at the decent time of 9:15 and were cruising – until we reached Bordeaux. I know it’s always a bit of a pain getting past the city, even on the ring-road but it’s still frustrating. It took us at least an hour to get by before we were once again cruising south.

We reached one of our favourite campgrounds mid-afternoon – just north of the village of Souraide, near the Spanish border. We’ve stayed here at least three times before but for the first time noticed the ‘no dogs’ sign at the entrance – he let us in anyway.

Waking before seven the next morning we had a nice cup of tea – or two – before heading on to Spain. There’s a border crossing about 20 km away thru a small town that’s mostly duty-free shops just across on the Spanish side.

We kept waiting to hit the ‘border police’ that would ask for our vaccine certificates or test results, but there was no one. I got my brain poked for nothing!

We stopped for some groceries along the way – I’d forgotten to pack the potatoes, onions and frozen salmon before leaving so we did need to replenish some staples. We arrived near our destination right around noon and pulled into a large gravelled area where we stopped and had a light lunch.

Since we’d been here before we knew we weren’t yet at the summit of the climb so after eating we drove just a little further where we found the spot we’d watched the race from three years ago (where I got bowled over by the barrier because of the wind from the cars).

It’s a small pullout on gravel with room for about 3 campervans, right on the edge of the hill, with horses grazing below and the ocean in the near distance. When I was walking Mo she stayed pretty close to me – the vultures above us were hunting in threes and she’d be a plump little meal for them.

Some of the riders taking part in tomorrow’s race were doing a re-con of the route.

While Colin and the doggies had a little lie-down I took a walk along the side of the hill that the horses are grazing on.

The views are fantastic!

The horses remind me a bit of the ones we saw at the horse fair in San Emiliano two years ago – very beautiful.

As evening fell the sun coming thru the clouds over the ocean was quite stunning.

We had a lovely dinner of salmon, mashed potatoes and green beans – such is ‘wild camping’ for us!

Dinner Out, and Brain Piercing

On Friday evening we went out for dinner – we had an outside table and it was lovely – luckily almost the whole area was covered by large umbrellas as it rained off and on almost the whole time.

I made a very nice choice – duck breast with goat cheese sauce and roast potatoes. It was just delicious and I didn’t even have anything leftover for breakfast – highly unusual!

The next afternoon we went and had a very nice visit with Colin’s friend Jane. She has a beautiful house a short walk away right on the river and we had a lovely time sitting outside overlooking the large garden and swimming pool.

The neighbour’s cat likes to spend time here – a very cute calico.

Another bike ride on Sunday took us over 41 km in all, including a stop in Aigre for a fairly good cafe creme.

We also popped in for a quick visit with Joyce in Fontenille – Tony was out at the time. It had just started to rain when we arrived and during our short visit it just poured out.

Luckily there was a break and we made a run for it, arriving home without getting drenched.

We’ve started getting organized for our next trip, including me getting another covid test swab. I thought – ok, I’ve had one before, this shouldn’t be anything different – wrong!! I had to stand in the parking lot of the lab/testing place and the swab that approached me was huge. I went to take out my nose stud and the doctor kind of laughed and said ‘no – not necessary’. What I think he was really thinking was ‘no – it doesn’t matter at all – we’re going way further in than that’!

It was awful! I tried to pull away a bit but couldn’t. I had read a couple of months ago that people described the ‘swabs’ as almost piercing their brains, but after the one I had before I left Canada I thought they were exaggerating, but now I don’t think they were. I’ve never had anything that far up my nose in my life – it was horrible, but I did survive, and I better pass the test!

Monpaple Art, Tusson Cap, Hope Charity Hat

On Sunday morning we had lots of time for a bike ride before the final stage of the Tour started – they have it a little later now so that the presentations can be done near sunset at the Arc de Triomphe..

Our ride took us past the nearby village of Monpaple, which was having an art exhibition.

We rode by and on to Aunac where we stopped for another of the very strong coffees.

On our return to Mansle we did stop in Monpaple and had a look around.

There was an abundance of clown paintings – including clown’s painting – but lots of other subjects as well.

The final TdF stage was the usual boring bunk for the first couple of hours – the winner and his team riding side-by-side drinking champagne, etc. I always hope someone’s going to go for it but it never happens.

The only exciting part is when they hit the Champs-Élysées and do the eight circuits to the finish. I was, of course, loudly cheering on Cavendish, but he was pinned in and couldn’t get past Wout van Aert, who won yet another stage. That’s now a very difficult mountain stage, the individual time trial, and the final sprint that he’s won – seems like the young Belgian can do it all. Still, even though he didn’t break Merckx’s record the Cav did tie it, and what a comeback Tour it was for him!

On Tuesday morning we heard sirens rushing along the highway and when we drove up to Ruffec to do some shopping we saw why. A semi-truck had flipped into the ditch and looked like it had caught on fire.

There were several fire trucks and other emergency vehicles and it looked like they were trying to decide how to get the trailers uprighted.

On our ride on Wednesday we went to Tusson for coffee.

Along the way we saw a couple more of the ‘mannequins’ lounging around.

The coffee shop we ended up going to was awesome – it looked quite small from the outside but had a lovely fairly large terrace area at the back.

Most of the folks that came in for coffee and cake were brits, and we enjoyed the best cappuccino we’ve had since we left Italy.

For the first time I ventured into the church that’s on one side of the main square in Mansle.

It actually has some nice stained glass windows, and was wonderfully cool and quiet.

On Thursday we went to the Hope Charity shop in Sauze-Vaussais and picked up a few jigsaw puzzles and some books. On the way out Colin pointed to the hat section and I scored a great black sun hat – I could have used it last weekend and avoided the raccoon eyes.

At Last a Race – TdF ITT

Race day dawned sunny and beautiful, with enough of a breeze to make the flags fly well.

There was one campervan behind us in our great little pullout, as well as several cars that had arrived during the morning. The lady in the campervan warned Colin to wear a hat and indicated we should be careful of the sun – good advice, of course. I had already smeared shea butter on my forearms, back of the neck and top of my ears (more on that later).

As usual for the Individual Time Trial many of the riders took a re-con ride around the course throughout the morning.

Also as usual at the Tour the Caravan was eagerly awaited by all…

It arrived a bit late, but was worth the wait…

It was even bigger and better than ever, and we cleaned up on goodies…

Including several packets of the doggies’ favourite sausage treats…

Third off the line in the ITT was Mark Cavendish – having tied the great Eddy Merckx’s TDF stage record earlier in the week it’s not likely he’ll break it today, although he’s not a bad time trialer.

It was easy to tell whenever a French racer was approaching as the crowds before us would go crazy.

We’re a bit concerned for a couple of fans just down from us – they keep taking off their shirts and seem unbothered by the fact that they might look like lobsters tomorrow.

As soon as the last rider – current overall leader Tadej Pogacar – passed I ran to our neighbour’s campervan where they had the race on tv.

Wout van Aert won!

And almost better the young 2nd overall Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard was so fast he almost caught up to 3rd place overall Richard Carapaz. That would have been sweet!

We had contemplated staying another night but the traffic didn’t seem to be backed up too badly so we decided to get back to Mansle. The drive was better than expected and we were home in good time.

The next morning I realized what I had missed when applying the shea butter to protect from the sun – my forehead and upper chest were bright red. I look like a raccoon – or maybe the elusive red panda (and I don’t mean the small Italian car!).

Heading to the ITT

Got another nice ride in – a lovely route around to Aunac, with a stop for coffee.

Bastille Day celebrations were fairly subdued – no huge parties or fireworks that I could hear or see.

We got away mid-morning on Thursday – we’re both pretty organized and packing up the campervan didn’t take long. The trip south to the time-trial course took about 2 ½ hours as we travelled on smaller, quieter roads.

The yellow route marking arrows weren’t up yet, but it’s pretty easy to tell when you’re on the route…

We looked for a parking spot along almost the entire route, starting in Libourne and going almost all the way to Saint-Emilion before pulling over and claiming our spot.

We’d passed quite a few campervans already and knew many more would come but didn’t want to risk getting stuck on the wide shoulder as the ground looked a bit soft.

We’re in a nice wide spot with room for one or two more campervans, right next to a large vineyard. This is a UNESCO Heritage area and is well known for it’s excellent wine – we’re beside a field of Merlot grapes.

They’re doing spraying of the vines right now – great timing! We kept all of the windows shut for part of the day but luckily the sprayers knocked off fairly early.

We’ve discovered a problem with the campervan – the sink isn’t draining properly. There’s a bit right at the top that’s a plastic piece of crap and has broken so all of the drain water flows directly into the cutlery drawer underneath. I am now doing dishes in the bathroom sink.

The town of Libourne had their fireworks on Thursday night – I was already in bed but listened to them for quite awhile. Mo heard them too and did her usual little barky/growly thing at them before settling back down on my feet.

Just after breakfast Friday morning a fellow pulled up in a car beside us – the vineyard side, not the road side. We wondered if we were going to get asked to move, but all he did was warn us to close all of the windows as the sprayers would be coming soon.

We knew the machine was approaching, but appreciated the warning and kept the windows closed for an hour after he’d passed.

In the afternoon we took a walk back to the next group of campervans and on the way passed a very beautiful garden that must belong to the owner of the vineyard.

We had a rather lazy day – I finished the last of the three Genghis Khan books and was left wishing for a fourth. We found a second problem with the campervan – the freezer has stopped working and the chicken as well as the salmon were both completely defrosted. Chicken is Friday’s dinner so that’s ok and I made a teriyaki marinade for the salmon so it’s all good.

Late in the evening a bunch of vehicles pulled up on the road, including a semi-truck and several vans. They commenced to put up large signs and some barriers. Apparently we’re right at the ‘4 km to go’ point.

The team had men from several different countries, including a fellow from Louisiana who said he used to do setups for the Cirque du Soleil.

It was quite a production and they didn’t finish until almost 10:30.

Manx Missile Explodes – We Ride for Coffee

A week ago Friday there was a dinner at the bar – we both chose the scampi and chips. As usual there were quite a few Brits there, although they’d put the tables a bit further apart so not so much socializing. During the lockdown last year Edith and Sylvain had used the time to re-decorate a bit – it’s lighter and spiffed up, and looks really good.

When returning home from Ruffec one day we stopped to say a quick hello to Tony and Joyce in Fontenille. It’s the first time I’ve seen Tony since he did the two beautiful paintings for Colin based on two of my photos so I finally go to thank him personally for doing them. One of them is in Papiano, so I’d already seen it last year but the other – of Mo and Benny – I didn’t see until we got to Mansle ten days ago.

We’ve taken a couple of walks down to the campground, and the river is still pretty high, although after the flooding several weeks ago it actually has subsided.

They’ve finished putting the new windows in the Mairie and it looks pretty good – Colin is especially pleased that they’re no longer flying the EU flag.

Last Sunday there was a regional cycling race and Colin drove the lead car while I took a few photos.

Unfortunately the weather sucked and there were a couple of periods of torrential rain where I had to go and take shelter in the car.

During one break in the rain I took the opportunity to walk home before the next downpour hit.

We’ve gone for a couple of nice bike rides – the first up to Aunac for coffee. I have to say it’s very pleasant to ride on roads that aren’t just pothole after pothole – even the small back roads here are in much better shape than most of the ‘main’ roads in Italy.

This Friday we took a day-trip to Cognac, with a quick stop first at a bike shop in Angouleme to get new pads for my front brake. By the time we got to the campervan store near Cognac they had already closed for lunch so we took the opportunity to find a place to eat.

We came upon a cafe in a nearby village and had a lovely roast chicken lunch alongside a bunch of locals.

A very very exciting Tour de France stage a couple of days ago – Mark Cavendish has now tied Eddy Merckx’s stage win record with his fourth win of this year’s race. After being a last minute choice to even go to the TDF, and almost a write-off in some people’s minds makes it even more special for the Manx Missile.

Yesterday we went for another, longer bike ride, this time up to Aigre for coffee. A very good last minute decision was to wear my rain jacket/windbreaker – we were halfway to our destination when the clouds opened and we just got poured on.

The coffee was good and strong, although I do miss Italian cappuccino – cafe creme is not the same!

On the way home we got more rain, but thankfully it didn’t last very long. At the village of Villesoubis there are several cute stuffed ‘scarecrows’, two of which depicted bike riders.

Another special day at the TDF yesterday – Cdn. Michael Woods is now the proud wearer of the King of the Mountains jersey. It would be great if he can keep it until the end next Sunday.

Finally Mansle

After a bit of a sleep-in we had a morning cappuccino at one of the beach bars, then headed off at 10:00.

In no particular hurry we had a leisurely drive generally west and a bit north, passing through Gap, which was a bit of a drag.

The current highway goes right through the city, although they are finally building a bypass. Maybe next time we come this way we won’t encounter the same issue.

Somewhere between Gap and Die we encountered a road incident – several police cars were gathered near a dump truck that hadn’t quite made a curve in the road and had run headon into a barrier at the side – totally smashed the front-end in.

Our last night on the road (this time) was spent at the edge of the village of Le Champs de Raphael, where we’ve stayed before. I recall that last time I set up my tent and spent half the night wondering if I was going to get blown away in the wind.

The view is awesome, and you can just hear the clanking of the cow bells in the valley below.

When leaving in the morning we encountered a ‘deviation’ that was somewhat confusing. After going about 10 km in the direction we wanted we had to turn around and retrace our route almost completely, as did at least a couple of other vehicles.

We eventually joined the road that Colin was familiar with and made it up to Clermont-Ferrand where we turned west for the rest of the journey.

Whether new or old, viaduct or bridge building use the same basic structure….

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a small park that had some interesting wood sculptures.

Continuing on refreshed we reached Mansle in the early evening. Had a very welcome hot shower and a nice dinner of salmon with new potatoes and green beans cooked by Neal – very good ‘homecoming’.