Alpine Adventures

Chuff chuff chuff... another train trip to the town of Chamonix at the base of Mont Blanc.

the last leg of the journey was a local train, where we made friends with the driver and got photos in the drivers seat,



but not only that... SASHA DROVE THE TRAIN! yay, and didn't even crash, though her stop was a bit rough at the station :-)



In all the excitement we made the decision to stay on the train past our stop seen as the train ended just one more along... not a good idea.

the kind train driver let us share his cab, but that dropped us off in totally the wrong spot - and in one of the only places in France with no street signs to figure out where we were.

So 10pm, just on freezing (0 Deg), lost. Fun times :-)

Managed to (after an hour of walking in the dark - torches are a good idea to take with you traveling) find the "road" we needed (glorified driveway) and then our Hostel :-)

Awesome place though - worth the effort. View from the front door



Up and away with our new friend Bruno from Brazil to Mont Blanc. 20min walk to the gondola.



Freaky sardine can style ride up to Aiguille du Midi, especially when the gondola sways traveling over the pylons, (even the military boys squeaked!) and then the view!

Ride 1


Ride 2



turns our Sasha's not that keen on heights



3800m on a beautiful, sunny, clear day. feel like your on top of the world! -







this is to prove how "high" we were



this guy must have been too stingy to pay for the ride up




Perfect day to be up there, not even really much wind (still freezing though @ -2)

Apparently the weather had been rough all week so we timed it really well.

Big friendly dinner with everyone at the hostel (6/8ish) and lots of stories. Early night and early morning then 50min walk to the train station to catch the bus (bit Irish)
and then off to Italy through the 11Km tunnel they put under the alps
Sun starting to hit the mountains on our walk.



Headed to a place called Cuneo in the North West of Italy, North of Genoa by the French boarder. 2 busses, 3 trains later we arrive at our home for the next 7 days. A pottery friend of a friend of Sasha. Looking forward to it (and doing some washing!)

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Location:Chamonix/Mont Blanc

Montpellier & Avignon

So we arrived in Montpellier and got set up in the hostel, dived quickly out onto the street to find food (taco's in France??) and then hit the sack quick as.

Had a few things to get done the next day so jumped on a tram and headed into the city - spent a few hours there and had lunch at a lovely little spot (of which I have no photo) then back to the Hostel to decide our next stop :-)

After deciding on Avignon as our next port, sorting out trains and accommodation we spent a bit of time mucking around until bed

Us playing surf boards with a spare mattress in the dorm :-), few funny looks from other room mates!






Pics of Montpellier








Nothing too amazing about Montpellier, nice, quiet sort of town with old mixed with new.

Arrived just after 11am the next day at Avignon - view from the train station into the old town where we are staying



Awesome walled old town

We have rented an apartment here for 3 nights - in the old town, close to the river and its amazing










went for a walk through town to a market and got some supplies - back home to make pasta for tea
Sasha chilling out at the apartment



- our romanti-magico dinner - home made ravioli with parsley and butter sauce and a green(and red and orange) salad :-)


the town here is really cute - lots of character, the river makes it really nice as well.

Monday went for a bit of a bike ride around the city and then into the countryside a bit - then finished with a lovely picnic on top of the hill looking over the Rhone

little river with a few water wheels on it







Got a ferry to the other side of the river - this is looking back at the town




and the picnic spot




Next stop - Chamonix/Mont Blanc :-)

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Barcelona the 2nd

So were on the train again heading from Barcelona to Montpelier in the south of France and thought it might be time for another update :-)

Barcelona is amazing - arrived at the train station after 11 on Sunday night. Got the taxi driver to drive us past the beautiful Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi.

Arrived around midnight at the apartment we rented a room in, met the flat mates and then hit the sack.

Sasha was up and about for the next two day soaking up all things Gaudi while I did such exciting things as catching up on sleep and doing washing. Was good to have a couple of quiet days (and get the dust and sand out of all my cloths!)

Tuesday was a good day to stay inside as 1,500,000 Catalonian people protested on the street outside for independence - fun to watch them all swarming from the terrace of the apartment

Wed we headed to have a look inside Sagrada Familia from the inside and were blown away. Huge, detailed - and while only 60% complete still super impressive

From the entrance - theres a better pic of in that Fred took last time we were here


. Inside - crazy size in there - column inspired by trees






One of few finished stained glass windows - really abstract but the light playing on the floor from it was beautiful


Took a trip to the top - some of the view through a little hole


the top half of one of the 3 heavily decorated arches on one facade - amazing amount of detail in it - little creatures running all over the show


even a puppy dog!


One of the turtles that hold up the columns (tough shell I think)


Spent an unprecedented 4 hours there (for me), and could have spend longer if not for the lack of food AND because we had a Spanish Tapas/Paella making class to go to!

Started off with a trip to the local market



Sasha braved the seafood section (while I ran for fresh air!)



Then the Chef took us to a offal seller - boys might want to look away now

He pointed out to us the testicals and penis of a bull - good for soups apparently.





Then we got down to the cooking side of it


Great night.

Next day was my birfday :-), nice easy start with Sasha bringing me breakfast in bed, stroll around the old town again, then a Flamenco show which involved much stamping of feet and clapping of hands.





And then dived into the back streets again to find tea.
Lots of fun

Now off on another adventure. Decided at the train station where we were going :-) nice and spontaneous.

Hopefully get some woofing in the next week or so (well thats the plan) but having a great time.

Ps: Still really hot and sunny here incase you were wondering :-)

Location:Barcelona

The surf and the bramble

Just completed our week at the surf camp in the south of France. Awesome time - sustained my first injuries of the trip - mostly to do with evil bramble and my attempt at a short cut back to camp...











Water was amazing, learnt a bit about surfing and how to stand up semi-regularly, ate loads of baguettes, read books and generally chilled out for a week.

Some pics of me at the beach with my magical anti crab socks




And standing up




some of the instructors and staff at the camp







and another one of the beach







Decided the next stop should be Barcelona so thats where we are now - cute dog-in-a-bag at the train station





we have booked a room in a flat in Barcelona and have just finished an Argentinean style BBQ (? no idea what the difference is) with 2 Argentineans, 1 Pole, 1 Ecuadorian, 1 Romanian and a guy from the US. Lots of fun.

Who knows what this week will bring...

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Location:South of France

France sans Fred

So I'm in charge of updating the blog now - no laughs at the spelling!

Very sad to see Fred off home, but very please to have met up with Sasha to carry on with our next adventure.

We spent that day at the army museum in Paris where I saw this cool gun and more body armour than you can shake a stick at




and then the afternoon at the Pompidu (??) Modern art gallery - cool building but confirmed my suspicion that i'm not really into art...

Bit of a mission finding a bed that night - Sasha had met a gallery owner who she had organised to stay with but long story short - we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Found ourselves bedless at 10pm.

Luckely that day I had sorted out a 3G sim for the Ipad and we were very pleased to have it for finding out where a local hostel was. all sorted.
Stayed there for 2 nights - spend Saturday night on the steps of the Sacre Coure watching buskers and listening to the live music - awesome.

Decided about midnight that we would like to go to a surf school for a bit - so found a train heading the right direction (made that train with less than a minute to spare) and tried to sort out something on the way down.

Got a place at the "STAR SURF CAMP" a really SUPER chilled out place by the beach. about 50 ppl here, all in tents and hardly any organisation which
was hard when we still didnt have a place to put our bags by that evening! Just have to go with this though. All good.


Had my first lesson an hour after getting here and today i'm just catching up on chores (like the blog :-) ) while most of the rest of the camp have headed down to San Sebastian for the evening/night. Should be nice and quiet.

Now Freds home I will have to make an effort to take some photos!

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Location:Moliets-et-Maa,France