Dr Janet Hall

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Arriving in Peniscola With Our Unwanted Legacy

Arriving in Peniscola with Our Unwanted Legacy
Dr Jan’s Europe Trip June/JUly 2010

Monday morning breakfast was extra good but we were disenchanted by our discovery that during the night we had been massively attacked by a creature with a big bite. John had some bites that were in very personal places (perhaps as punishment for watching that German TV?).

 Alas I was also suffering from craters and inflammation over my arms in particular, which became very itchy and weepy –oh dear! Was it the mosquitos the night before when the window had not been closed or the bed-net had not been placed early enough? Or was it the sting of something under the mulberry tree?

We had a 2 hour drive south-west to the coast and our destination, Peniscola. We called our contact, Debbie, on my newly-charged mobile phone, and she welcomed with excellent instructions to meet her at an easy spot to locate (why don’t they all do that!). We followed her to our bungalow “Pisces” with a sea-view up high in a development of townhouses.

The owner lives in Switzerland and has a terrific copywriting pitch on her internet site – here is paradise she says – and John and I agree. Everything inside is white and spacious and the terrace is cool and spacious and there is the sea reaching out beyond green bushes and rooftops.

Eager for lunch we followed Debbie’s advice to walk across the backblocks to another development which has a pool and a restaurant . We can use the pool if we get a beer there. We have a beer and we have the Spanish lunch – salad to share, cannelloni for John and cheese and pate for me (where am I again – France?), veal cordon blue for John and fish for me and a dessert each. All for $20 each – but wait there’s more. In Spain you also have included if you choose, a whole bottle of wine! It can be a bit rough but it is included! You can of course choose water instead…

It was very hot so we jumped in the large pool to cool off and then the siesta by the pool appealed. However we were overcome by naughty Spanish teens and subteens from the townhouses who obviously have never been taught pool rules. They ran, did bombers and generally made a racket  and not one supervising mother told them off (I was wanting to…) so we went home for a real siesta.

Later on, John had a major challenge with the need to send an important email so we drove down the hill to the town for the internet(very carefully as the road is just wide enough for two cars and has lots of curves).  We only went to the modern lower town (there is a castle on the hill with little old town streets to explore soon) to the Bar Manadarino where they have wireless. It was very modern and cool so enjoyed that space and John got part of his job done.

We then moved on to the supermarket for our supplies – an adventure in itself because Spain has an amazing variety of hams and even in the deli at the supermarket the choices are bewildering.

Laden with our goodies – we went home to Paradise to sleep and try not to scratch our legacy of bites.


Sunday in Spanish Penedes Wine Country

Sunday in Penedes Wine Country

Sunday breakfast in our bnb was a buffet that went from 9 till 11am. Up first, we enjoyed our yoghurt and fruit, warm bread rolls with cheese and tomatoes and the dessert course of jam. Best bnb coffee too!

Then we followed the winding backroads across beautiful vineyards with the serrated mountains on the horizon (barren hills which really do look like a serrated knife). It was truly picturesque.

We found the winery which is the source of our favourite Cava  -Freycinet (pronounced Fray-sha-nett for you Aussies who like us, always pronounced it like the place in Tasmania). We just took photos and bought a bottle of our regular tipple in the massively luxurious shop. They cater to large crowds. We should have known that you had to “book your chook” even to have a wine-tasting and winery tour in Europe.

On to another of the largest vineyards which was designed by a famous architect around Gaudi’s time. Same problem – no booking, just looking – with the gate guard making sure that we admired the buildings from afar-except for the shop.

Fortunately our hosts had suggested a restaurant for lunch which was a really large rustic place in the middle of “ nowheremuch countryside”. We were the first to arrive at 1pm (Spanish eat usually from 2-4).

The staff were wonderfully attentive and we had a good chat with them about the menu and wine choice (which was a rose which we took a shine to and were able to buy some bottles of to take-away –yes, even the restaurant had a shop!).

 John knows Spanish meals, having lived in Barcelona once for 3 months and made many trips, so he tried the entree of artichokes and bacon. I stuck with the safe prawn salad. Then I had a lamb shank and John had a stew pot with veal and prawns –Mar and Montagne (think surf and turf stew Spanish style).

I was determined to not have dessert but the head waiter cajoled us into it as a share –“uno para dos”. It was their trademark special and it was specially yummy –  a big ball of chocolate covered mousse-cake.  It was all “interesting” and cost a fortune compared to most meals because they only serve a-la-carte on Sunday – but hey- it was Sunday Lunch and we were hot and thirsty and out in “nowhere”.

Back to the bnb for a siesta and then a late afternoon sun-bake by their rustic pool. No dinner needed for us –luckily because it was Sunday night and what would be open in the country?

John did experiment with the TV –Spanish of course and only German as the other option –
Advertisements which were far too naughty for a nice girl like me to watch!


The Lost Day Of Travel from France to Spain

The Lost Day of Travel from France to Spain

Dr Jan’s Europe Trip June/July 2010

Time waits for no man and neither do trains. We learnt this on the Saturday we left Collioure and had to drive north to Perpignan to leave the car. Yes north and not south because we had to leave the car in France at a depot for the hire-car. It’s crazy that you cannot drive from one country to another in Europe with hire-cars ( unless you return to the same country .)

We had to confess about our broken driver’s side mirror but it was laughed at by the hire-car admin guy who produced a list of car damages and checked us on a list for the mirror as if he does this every day. We were relieved to find it costs probably only about $130 but still annoyed that we didn’t do it -the vandal did! We hope to claim insurance.

Yay!We were in good time for the train to take us to the Spanish border –

But Boo! -because we had had no idea how long the dealing with the broken mirror would take we hadn’t booked our chook (I mean train tickets) and we had to wait 35 minutes in a queue and therefore missed the train. When was the next then? Only 2 and half hours later – …we wait!

If you think that’s bad enough we then find we will not get to the Spanish town of Figueres in time to collect our Spanish hire-car because it was Saturday and it closes at 1.30. And to add insult to injury my mobile phone was running out of juice and I could not get a call through to the hire-car company.

We finally got to the French Spanish border at 1.30 and had to wait yet another hour for another train! At least it was lunchtime and we could get a beer and a sandwich we hoped? Well only by the seat of our train did the sandwich arrive! That is, we had to take it on the train to eat.

I noticed a guy on the train took a mobile call and recklessly tried the flat battery of the mobile again to call and hooray – got through to explain we were late and could we pick up a car in Barcelona. Mercy be this was all arranged and we were very tired little vegemites arriving at the hire-car at 5.30pm.

Now here’s the good bit – because they hadn’t had the original booking at Barcelona they had to upgrade us to an Audi. John was smiling again!

Now here’s how the next bad bit unfolded – we had only a 1 hour drive south and inland ahead of us to our bnb in the Penedes wine region. We had been invited to have dinner with the other guests as it was Saturday night. We carefully followed the instructions which had been printed from the internet. Alas 2 hours later we were lost. We asked for directions finally from a Spanish family who were walking for their passegiata and they enthusiastically told us the street had been diverted due to construction.

So we finally arrived at Ariane-La which was a country bnb sitting high up on a hill overlooking the vineyards. Imagine our exhaustion! It was a very charming place and we sat out under a mulberry tree with 7 other couples including our hosts and a Finnish couple and their 2 young children.

The Spanish in- house dinner was unusual by French standards – cold melon soup with almond slivers, chicken pieces and olives and icecream with sauce made from the mulberries form the tree above us.

We eagerly drank a bottle of Cava (because only French regions can call sparkly wine “champagne” it’s called Cava in Spain)  and enjoyed learning about our fellow guests – the Finns, Germans and Spanish. As another bottle of red was opened one chap took over the conversation but in an interesting way. John and he were sharing views on sociology.

Folks who know me might be surprised to know that I said virtually nothing – I was desperate for the dinner to end and to have a shower and hit the lovely bed in our special room with its quaint fixtures (soft blue rainbow-net to screen the bed, wooden floors and fabulous view).

And so I did!