The French Riviera, Nice and Monaco

As we were driving out of Andorra I commented to Melinda 'hey there's no border patrol here!'

Melinda: 'Oh no i wanted to get a stamp in my passport!'
Adam: 'Nah not that silly, we should have bought a heap of cheap cigarettes and then sold them!!!'
Melinda: 'you reckon? You hardly know anyone that smokes?!'
Adam: 'No but I reckon we could sell them somewhere?!! There must be a market for them!!'

40 mins later (still on the same road with no possibility to have turned off) we were pulled over by French customs police! Car briefly searched and we were on our way.

Adam: 'Gee luckily we didn't try and stock up on smokes'

Top criminal I would make...

Any way, it took quite a long time to get through the Pyrenees and to a small town on the French Mediterranean coast. When we got there we got a cheap room that happened to have a balcony with a sea view (uninterrupted) with the Pyrenees in the distance at sunset!! To top it off, in the morning we received our breakfast of croissants and coffee on the balcony!!

The next day we drove to Nice, which happens to be quite nice. The only thing I didn't like was the pebbly beach, but the water colour was almost unreal (very bright blue).

We also made a day trip to Monaco, where I declared that I should change my career path from Engineer to 'Rich Prick'. You see there are lots of rich pricks in Monaco, they drive rich prick cars, have massive rich prick boats and eat expensive rich prick food.

Some rich pricks boats...

Some slightly less rich pricks boats parked next to the Grand Prix circuit

I had some trouble finding the local job centre, so I will have to try again later...

Future rich prick???

Andorra - my new favourite smallest country

We drove for about 7 hours from Mar Menor up to Tarragona, a small town on the coast south of Barcelona. We had been there once before on a trip to Spain in July 2005. Everything was fairly dead because it was the off season for tourists and alot of camping places were closed.

So we made the call (checked the GPS) and headed for Andorra. It took a couple of hours to get there winding along the steep walls of a river, through tunnels and finally the border. They didn't seem particularly interested in us, but people coming out of Andorra were being thoroughly searched for cheap duty free!!

We got a camp site in Andorra La Vella (the capital of Andorra). It was the coldest weather we had felt in quite a while! We stayed for a couple of nights and did some driving around. Being in the Wagen I felt invincible and drove straight up a ski field (no snow) past all the ski lifts! (It seemed ok and there was a track there?!!). Melinda on the other hand was not so hot on the idea and I think there are some permanent fingernail marks in the 'Jesus bar' and on the dashboard!

Its a beautiful country with loads of duty free shops, but if you get out of Andorra la Vella its really beautiful. After a couple of nights there, we thought we better get moving so that we could see the French Riviera and Monaco! (Although I could have stayed there for a lot longer!)

A salty lagoon and windsurfing grandparents

After we left our cave hotel, we headed east for the Mediterranean cost and the Mar Menor lagoon. A lagoon formed by a narrow 20km spit of land on the South East corner of Spain.

When we got there, there were heaps of caravans with oldies complete with bicycles, satellite TV dish and small dog. There must have been an oldies windsurfers convention too, there were heaps of people who looked like they are in their 70's out windsurfing on the lagoon!

We only stayed one night here before heading up towards Barcelona, and for the first time in a while, towards the UK.

Sierra Nevada mountains and sleeping in a cave

Leaving the Costa del Sol, we took a drive through the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains. It's a long, winding and dusty road up through the mountains and through several villages. We drove through most of these villages during siesta so there was hardly a soul about.

We eventually reached the pass (Puerto de la Ragua) at 2000m, which is normally covered in snow in winter. Just about 1km down the road, we came on to the North side of the Sierra Nevada and a spectacular view of the valley below.

We stayed the night in a small town called Guadix at the bottom of the valley. Apparently there are around 20,000 cave houses in the area so we stayed in a cave hotel! It was fully decked out as a normal house with kitchen, lounge room complete with fireplace, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom! No problems sleeping in there because as soon as you turn out the light - it is really pitch black. Just like a cave... (der!)

The Costa del Stuff-all

We spent a couple of days at Estepona on the Costa Del Sol, a favourite destination for British retirees. Also a place to come if you are a British 'celeb' (i.e. you have been on TV once and showed your boobs) and get photographed for trashy magazines.

The place was like a ghost town. There must have been thousands and thousands of little apartments which were all closed up and nobody around. Even on the beach there were only people every 200 - 300m. Apparently we had arrived in the off season!

It was nice to spend a couple of days on the beach doing very little other than reading a book and topping up the sunburn. With great views of the Pillars of Hercules (the two mountains at the mouth of the Mediterranean - one is Gibraltar and one is Monte Hacho in Africa) and perfect clear blue skies, we couldn't have asked for more.

Should I stay or should I go???..and THE ROCK!!

We headed to the windsurfing mecca of Tarifia which sits on the European side of the Straights of Gibraltar. With Morocco clearly visible only 14km away and the surf in Spain looking non existent, we decided to see if we could get over to Morocco!!

- Space on the ferry, check.
- Insurance coverage, check.
- Enough wax for the surfboards, check.
- International Drivers License..... oh bugger. End of that idea.

With our dreams of Moroccan waves dashed (they lasted for around 4 hours), we headed for THE ROCK!! (not the wrestler, the peoples champion - but a large land mass on the bottom of Spain, looking similar to the peoples champion...).

The excitement held as we waited in the long car que for around 45mins to get over the border. As you drive in to Gibraltar, you have to drive over the airport runway! It certainly was bizarre after being in France, Spain and Portugal to see signs in English, little English post boxes and even a couple of Bobbies on the beat!

We didn't stay long, it was a Sunday and there wasn't much open. So after a quick drive around the rock, we left Gibraltar and headed for the famous Costa Del Sol.

Los Canos de Meca - Nelsons Naval Victory for Brittain

Crossing back in to Spain we stayed at a place called Los Canos de Meca on Cabo Trafalgar (Cape Trafalgar), the site of the famous Brittish naval victory over the Spanish and French. It is this battle that caused Trafalgar square to be built in London with Nelson's Column. (Common knowledge if you are English...)

We only stayed one night as the surf was flat.

Lagos

Can you guess where we are??

Only 20 or 30 km away from Sagres is the famous Portuguese town - Lagos! Its very popular with tourists and we could see why! Its a beautiful little town with small cobblestoned streets packed with restaurants and shops. And its positioned on a nice sheltered bay with yellow sand beaches in copper coloured coves.

We were walking around one evening in town after we had finished dinner and as we walked past a pub I recognised a guy that I play rugby with! What a small world, he was there on a surf camp for the week. So we met up with the next night for some beers and to swap some tales/lies/stories about what we'd been up to.

We stayed in a camp ground in the middle of town with rock hard ground with a heap of gum trees (native to Australia). Gum nuts on hard ground do not make for a comfy bed...

While we were in Lagos I sorted myself out with another job back in London for when we came back from holiday. The only bad bit was that they wanted me to come back a week earlier than we wanted to. So we decided to push on, back in to Spain and towards Gibraltar.

Our favourite restaurant for lunch