European Adventures part I

Get ready for a whirlwind tour of Europe, because I have been to Timbuktu and back in the past two months (not actually, but probably the equivalent in travel time!). But prepare yourself: this is going to be a long post! Enjoy!

When I left off my last post, I had just spent 5 days in Lower Normandy, northern France, near Cherbourg, and I was just about to embark on a weeklong bike trip in southern France with a friend from high school, Surya. Well, we finished the ‘tour à vélo’ without any major mishaps, so I’d call that a success! Lots of great biking, laughs, and many an adventure getting lost on unsigned, rural French roads made for an unforgettable week. Surya had already been biking for a week when I joined up with her so she showed me the ropes of bike touring. She had biked from Arles, up to Avignon, then Nimes, Aigues-Mortes, and Frontignan where I met her. After that we headed south along the coast, to Cap d’Agde for two nights, then Valras Plage, and Narbonne for two nights before biking back to Paraza, where we had rented the bikes. Here’s a map of our route:

Green dot is Frontignan, where I met up with Surya after her first week of biking. Red dot is Paraza where we left our bikes at Mellow Velos, the company that we rented them from. This is a very rough sketch of our route!

And of course, here are some of the highlights from one of the most adventurous weeks of my life:

My bike, AKA my life for the next week, all loaded up with panniers and my thermorest as I waited for my train to go meet Surya.

Mediterranean!!! Upon meeting each other, Surya and I found a great spot on the beach to relax, tan, swim, and catch up!

Self-timer jump shot = a success!

Our humble abode

I am very thankful that Surya had her tenting gear with her as we ended up camping every night of the trip except for one. We had tried to book hostels for a few of the nights so we could dry out the tent and our clothes but it hadn’t worked out. Lessons from that experience: don’t book through tourism offices and don’t try to reserve a room over the phone. Well actually I guess the overall lesson is plan more accommodation than one day in advance… we learned that one the hard way! Surya’s tent, no matter how old and not really waterproof it was, turned out to be our lifesaver! That tent deserves some TLC after what we put it through!

Us and our bikes, after the first night camping in Frontignan

On one of our 'let's get lost' adventures we ended up right by the ocean in howling winds.

Yours truly biking along one of the WONDERFUL bike paths that traverses this area of France

An example of the gorgeous biking that we did, canal-side :)

...and on lovely little roads in the middle of nowhere! 

Chateau de Moyau, where we did a bit of wine tasting on Easter Sunday.

Myself in front of the vineyards of the chateau. 

The canal-side bike path on the way to Narbonne from the coast, which was some of the best biking of the week! 

Bike trip buddies :) 

Bike trips are addicting, that’s all I can say. After doing this one, I can’t wait to do another. It doesn’t matter where or when but it’s an awesome way to travel and get out of the big cities.

After our biking adventure, Surya and I begrudgingly loaded up our backpacks and gave back our bikes, both shocks after having our own transportation and not carrying our stuff on our backs for the past week. We trained down to Perpignan, just near the French border, and met up with Olivia, our friend from high school!

United! L-R Surya, Olivia and me

It was a great reunion, made even better by the fact that for the first time in a week we had the use of a kitchen, and so we splurged a bit and made this delectable salad:

Arugula, strawberries, cheese, and walnuts with a thick balsamic dressing. 'Nuff said.

Cheers to our first night in a while with a kitchen!

We spent an afternoon getting our tan (read: sunburn) on at the beach in Perpignan, as there wasn’t very much to sightsee in the city itself. Then to Barcelona!!

The architecture in this city is phenomenal. While I wasn’t so keen on the throngs of tourists (I’m a huge hypocrite: I hate all the touristy stuff and crowds and yet I am a tourist myself) and the annoying street vendors that squeak in really high pitched voices, the Gaudi buildings, La Sagrada Familia, and the huge market La Boqueria were well worth the visit.

So true! (On the wall of the hostel in Barcelona)

La Boqueria, the enormous market on La Rambla in Barcelona

Inside La Boqueria. This is just one of many similar fruit stands that fill this huge market!

Nuts galore!

One of the Gaudi buildings. What amazing architecture!

And of course, La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's lifetime project that has yet to be finished. Even with all the cranes around it, this masterpiece is still impressive!

The hostel we were staying at, Center Rambles, organized discounted nighttime outings. The first night’s treat was a flamenco show at the club we went to, but the real highlight was on the second night when we went to a club right at the ocean! It was so nice to just sit on the beach listening to the waves crash against the shore when we got tired of dancing. The one downside of clubbing was that in Spain, their internal clocks are set a few hours later than in North America, so the party doesn’t really get going until 2am or so, and finishes at 5 or 6am. This made sightseeing during the day a bit painful, but everything was so worth it!

After Barcelona, the three of us went to Cadaques, a small, seaside Spanish town near the French border.  Cadaques is the most picturesque Spanish town you can imagine: small, winding, scooter-only streets, white buildings with blue trim and windows, and a lovely view of the ocean.

The view from our hotel!

It was Sunday when we arrived, and by the time we had dropped off our backpacks and gone in search of food, the supermarket was closed, so we opted to try some local dishes at a promising-looking restaurant. Gazpacho is Spain's 'thing' so we gave it a shot, ordering two different bowls between the three of us, and I'm happy to say that it was absolutely delicious! We had a bit of trouble communicating what we wanted to the waiter, because one of the bowls was part of a bigger meal yet we only wanted the soup, but with a combination of French, Spanish, English and sign language, we managed to order what we wanted!

Gazpacho :)

On our only full day in Cadaques, we went on a 2 hour hike to Cap de Creus, at the point of the peninsula. We didn't have the greatest weather and the skies started to drizzle on us a bit, but the landscape was absolutely beautiful for hiking!

Me, Olivia and Surya :)

Casa Salvador Dali, where the Spanish Catalan surrealist painter spent quite a bit of his childhood.

Tree pose on the beach

Stunning coastal scenery

Steps leading up to the lighthouse at the tip of the Cap de Creus peninsula

Don't fall!

Again, don't fall!

More stunning rocky coastline

Cadaques

After spending 2 nights in Cadaques we hopped on the bus back to Figueres then took the train all the way up to Nimes, a city in southern France with a rich history dating back to the Roman Empire.

The Amphitheatre, of the 1st or 2nd century AD, is the best-preserved Roman arena in France.

Les Quais de la Fontaine, laid out in 1738-55

Jardins de la Fontaine

Maison Carree (Square House)

Amphitheatre in the morning light of sunrise as I walked from my hostel to the train station for an early train out

Unfortunately I only spent one night in Nimes, as I had a family in Lausanne, Switzerland that I had already planned to meet up with the next day. Luckily all the major sights of the city were on the 1 hour walk to our hostel, so we got to see a fair bit of Nimes.

The next morning I traveled to Lausanne, on Lake Geneva or Lac Léman as it is known in French, in Switzerland to meet up with a family who is friends with a neighbour back home in Nelson. They graciously hosted me for a night in their lovely house on the outskirts of Lausanne, and showed me around the area as well! René, the father of the family, picked me up from the train station and on the way to their house he pointed out this huge castle in the middle of the countryside.

That evening I went into Lausanne with René's son Cedric and walked around the old town while Cedric had martial arts training. Lausanne is such a beautiful city, right on the edge of the lake. Here's a few pictures from my self-guided tour:

Sunset in a park near the old town

The next day René took me on a bike tour down by the lake:

A reallllly old church that we passed.

The headquarters of IOC are in Lausanne!! Who knew?

Megaliths, I think they're called, that construction workers found when digging up the ground for a parking lot.

The view of Lac Léman and the Pre-Alps from the vineyards on the mountain slope above the lake.

Crazy track that vineyard workers use to transport leaves and grapes and stuff up and down the steep mountain!

Chateau de Chillon, at the top end of the lake

View towards the Alps from inside the castle

After touring around Lausanne all day, René dropped me off at his brother's place, who is also one of my neighbour's connections in Lausanne. I had dinner with him and his wife, then took the train back to Bern. I needed a day to recharge, get rid of some items I didn't use or need, and do a seriously needed laundry. I did head downtown for a few hours in the afternoon of my one day in Bern though, mostly to look for runners because mine are on the way out. After a while I gave up looking for runners as they all seemed so expensive and I didn't want to spend that much in a rush, hoping that mine would survive the next month of traveling (they did! Barely though), and went to the Barengraben, or the Bear Pit, which is one of the main attractions of the city yet I had never been there in my five months living in Bern.

The bear pit isn't really a pit anymore, after they did some renovations a few years back. Four bears live on this fenced-in slope above the Aare river.

Three of the four bears

Beautiful Bern

That's all for part one of this three-part series documenting my travels in Europe over the past two months. Parts two and three will be coming soon-ish, although this will probably be my last post from Switzerland! 

-Sonja :)