The Rain In Spain ........

The rain in Spain is raining mainly on us this afternoon, so time for another update.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece Lily came to stay last week and it was great to see them all. We hadn't seen Darren since we left the UK and hadn't seen Helen and Lily since they came to Paris by bus to visit back last September. (By bus! With a five year old! How brave/stupid (delete as appropriate) is my sister!)

A fine time was had by all with Emma making the most of having someone "proper" to play with (Stephen and I don't count, I think she is pretty bored with us now). Lily had been counting down since the flights were booked and had even made her own boarding card weeks in advance.

The weather was, well, changeable. We had a couple of days when we could sit outside in the sun and then some rain. However, Lily and Emma don't let a thing like rain stop them, and decided that an outdoor mud bath was the order of the day.

 
Oh yes, you can take these two anywhere. So long as you go back and apologise afterwards.

Thankfully, the weather improved, the washing machine did its stuff and the day after we were off the Puerto Banus to look at the super-yachts.

Wow! is all I can say. Pershilla (our boat) would not have felt at home in this marina. She's a lovely boat and fairly long (12 metres / 40 feet) but would have looked like a scruffy midget amongst this lot:

It was like Bond Street-on-Sea, but with more ice-cream parlours.

Yes, those tee-shirts did wash up well. Top marks to Lidl own-brand washing liquid!



Out and About

We haven't really been doing a huge amount here is Spain, as it's nice just to laze around at home on sunny days or go and walk on the beach (we have an impressive and ever-growing collection of shells, stone and sea-glass), hence, not much blogging.

There's just something wonderful about sea-glass, IMHO

But, we have been out and about, our biggest trips so far being to Gibraltar, Mijas and Ronda.

The Rock of Gibraltar



Gibraltar - well, that was a little strange. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got!

I thought Gibraltar, being a tax-free/tax-exile sort of place would be shiny, tidy, wealthy - Bond Street-on-Sea sort of place. Errrrr, no. It's like most English seaside towns, but without the charity shops. Tatty, but not quite quaint. And it's shut on Saturdays. I have no idea why.

It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but one afternoon visiting was enough.

Emma thought it was great, but this was mainly because she got to go on two buses. We had been advised not to drive into Gibraltar, since there was no telling how arsey thorough the Spainish Border Control staff will be on any given day. Also, when driving you have to follow the signs to the next-door Spanish town (La Linea) as Gibraltar isn't on the majority of the roadsigns in Spain, as they don't accept its existance.

The queue into Gibraltar

So, we parked in La Linea, right by the boarder, walked across, and got on a bus to the town centre. The town is quite interesting in parts, being so hilly, but not great for walking around with a grumpy four-year old.

One of the many sets of steps in Gibraltar

However, she cheered up considerably when presented with a chocolate covered waffle in a cafe.

Ronda was another "must do" on our list, and, unlike Gibraltar, did not disappoint. An amazing white-painted hill-top town (and not closed at the weekend) with wonderful buildings, doorways (we love a good doorway) and views.

A side street in Ronda

 


A Good Doorway

Some of the views are not for the faint hearted, to take the picture below I had to step out onto an overhanging ledge (with a nice high rail up, thank goodness) which was suspended over this crevass in the rocks.

 
And, even better, we had some visitors staying, Chris and Sarah, who were escaping the wet, cold and snow in the UK.

Spain & Sunshine

When we originally planned our trip we had intended to take our boat down the Rhone, into the Mediterranean, down the coast of Spain and spend the winter on the southern coast of Spain.

Then we crossed the English Channel and remembered (a) how seasick Stephen and I both get (not Emma, she is the best sailor on the boat) and (b) how boring we find sailing at sea - there's nothing to look at, apart from your sick-bowl.

So, that plan was altered and we moored in Roanne for the winter.

However, the cold weather meant the return of Stephen's chest infection (he had pneumonia earlier in the year) and the damp air seemed to be causing Emma's eczema to worsen so, after a particularly cold spell (ice on the inside wall of Emma's cabin one morning), we returned to our plan to go south for the winter.

Pershilla with a sprinkling of snow

 

The view along our quay

After a bit of searching we found a lovely apartment just outside Marbella in an area called either Las Chapas or Elviria, depending on who you ask. We are a five minute walk from the beach which is sandy and virtually empty at this time of year.

The apartment is wonderful and we are still enjoying the novelty of having baths (there are two! What luxury!) and being able to use a washing machine whenever we want, instead of having to haul all our clothes to a launderette every couple of weeks.

The view from our patio - I just love the colour of the sky!

We drove down over four days, stopping at Beziers on the first night, then in Barcelona, followed by a night with my cousin Zack, his wife Inga and daughter Dayana and then a last stop in Granada. It was wonderful to see Zack and his family, we hadn't seen them all since Zack and Inga's wedding party, which must have been about 6 years ago.

In Barcelona, only having a short time available we decided we'd visit the Sagrada Familia. Our hotel was near an underground station, so off we went.

Thirty minutes later we were no near being able to understand how to make the underground ticket machine give us the correct tickets (even using the English language version of instructions) and since the station was deserted we admitted defeat, decided it was time for Emma's tea and went next door to Ikea for Swedish meatballs and chips.

Next morning we deciding that driving into central Barcelona and parking near Sagrada Familia would be easier than fighting with the ticket machine again, and so it proved. The building is absolutely amazing and is currently scheduled to be finished in 2025.

Sagrada Familia

Christmas in Spain was very quiet, partly because the apartment complex is pretty empty and partly because the main celebration in Spain is Three Kings Day, which takes place on Twelfth Night (aka Epiphany, January 6). In the evening of 5 January children leave their shoes out to either be filled by the Kings with presents or a piece of coal, depending on their behaviour.

Stephen took part in the celebrations by eating most of the Three Kings Cake which we bought. The cake was an enormous ring made of enriched dough (like a brioche or pannatone), split horizontally and filled with whipped cream and topped with candied fruits and sugar. Way too sweet and sticky for my taste, but he declared it to be delicious.

Our cake got eaten before I could get a photo of it, but looked a bit like this, but with cream in

In a similar way to our hiding coins in Christmas Puddings, two prizes are also hidden in Three Kings Cakes, a bean seed (it looks like a runner bean seed to me) and a small china figure of the Christ Child.

We have been taking things pretty easy here in Spain, enjoying the sunshine, walking on the beach, trying Spanish wine and exploring the area.

We have also enrolled Emma in swimming lessons; the first lesson was last week and was not an enormous success. The lesson is 30 minutes long, she spent 25 minutes shouting and screaming and the last 5 minutes having fun. However, every day since she has been asking to go swimming again, so I am hopeful her second lesson will be much better!

New Skills

We have aquired quite a lot of new skills on this trip, some more fun to learn than others (Stephen is now quite proficient at sorting out problems with the on-board loo's, for example. Essential & useful, but not much fun), and having spent most of yesterday killing my fingers mending the boat's canvas cover, I thought I'd blog about something much more fun that I have finally mastered - crochet.

Crochet seems to be having a bit of a "moment", lots of fun and interesting patterns on ravelry and some really excellent blogs too. My current favourites are Attic24, which is UK based and LeMondeDuSucrette, which is Lebanese.

I had wanted to learn this for ages and had taken a one-day class about a year ago, back in the UK. But, I didn't practice enough and forgot a lot of what I had learnt. So, when packing for the trip I added some yarn, crochet hooks and a "how-to" book to the pile of stuff to go on the boat.

I ignored it all for a long time, as I was worried I'd never grasp it, but a combination of remembering enough from my course, my "how-to" book and some YouTube video's, I have finally cracked it and am now totally addicted.

So addicted infact, that I have even been brave enough to go to a charity knit/crochet along in Roanne, where I was the only English speaker and also to write my own pattern for a hat for Emma. If you'd like to try out the pattern, it's at the bottom of this blog post and I will also post it on ravelry shortly.

If you are interested, here are some of the things I have managed to make so far:

A Granny Square cushion cover - the first thing I made. Unfortunatly, Stephen hates the colours, so not sure when it will be on display!

 

 A poncho & hat set for Emma. I got Stephen to choose the colours for these, so no repeat of Granny Square cushion colours problem

 

 

A dress and hat for Emma's doll Annabell. Sadly, Annabell is a pretty ugly doll with a weird shaped head, so a large hat was very important, as she spooks me when she's hatless

A hat for Emma. The first thing I've made to my own pattern.

 

 

If you would like to try my hat pattern, here it is:

 

Child’s Flower-Topped Crochet Hat

I made this is three colours, red (main), yellow (turn-up brim) and white (two rows, to highlight). It used about 2/3 ball of red (colour A), ¼ ball of yellow (colour B) and a few metres of white (colour C). I also used a button for the centre of the flower on the top of the hat.

It was made using charity shop wool which didn’t have a label, but I would guess it was DK wool. I used a 3.5mm hook

I made it for Emma, who is just 4. It fits her, but is fairly loose and will stretch enough to fit me too (although not very well!). It’s easy to keep trying it on as you add rows and, if you need to, either add more or drop some to make it fit properly.

Hat

1. COLOUR A: Ch4, sl st to form a ring
2. Row 1: Ch2, htr 9, sl st to join
3. Row 2: Ch2, htr in same st, then 2htr in each st, sl st to join
4. Row 3: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
5. Row 4: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
6. Row 5: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 2 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
7. Row 6: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 3 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
8. Row 7: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 4 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
9. Rows 8 – 16: 9 rows with 1htr in each st (or until the hat is the correct length). Fasten off
10. COLOUR C: Row 17: Turn hat inside out and work on the wrong side from now on. 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off
11. COLOUR B: Rows 18 – 22: 4 rows with 1htr in each st (may need more rows, if you made the hat with more rows than in this pattern). Fasten off.
12. COLOUR C: Row 23: 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off & weave in all ends

Three-Layered Flower Decoration

1. COLOUR C: ch3 and sl st to form a ring (or made a magic loop, if you are more clever than me)
2. Row 1: Ch3 then 11 tr. Sl st to top of ch to join. Fasten off
3. COLOUR A: Row 2: Join into top of any tr of row 1. *(ch2, tr) into tr st, then (tr, ch2, sl st) into next tr st*. Repeat from * to * 6 times. This forms 6 small petals. Fasten off.
4. COLOUR C: Row 3: Working behind row 2 make a sl st into one of the loops between two of the small petals. *Ch4, then sl st into a loop between the next two small petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the small petals
5. Row 4: Sl st into 1^st ch space. *ch2, 3tr, ch2* over the loop to make a medium petal. Repeat from * to * 5 times to make 6 medium sized petals. Fasten off
6. COLOUR B: Row 5: Working behind rows 3 & 4 make a sl st between two of the medium petals. *ch5 then sl st into a loop between the next 2 medium petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the medium petals
7. Row 6: sl st into 1^st ch space. *ch2, 4tr, ch2* over the loop to make a large petal. Repeat from * to * 5 more times to make 6 large petals. Fasten off.
8. Add a button to the centre of the flower for added decoration, weave in ends and sew the flower onto the hat.



Tranquillity and a Force 8 Gale

The Canal linking Digoin and Roanne is known as “The Tranquil Canal” and is certainly lives up to its name. The majority of the canal passes through countryside and farm land taking in a few small towns and villages along the way.

There were very few other boats, which we put down to it being towards the end of the season, but have since discovered is due to various French governmental departments ignoring each other.

The lack of boats, particularly hire boats, is apparently due to the large amount of weed in the canal. In France the navigable rivers and canals are managed by VNF – they operate the locks, maintain the canals and keep everyone moving, and the non-navigable rivers are the responsibility of the state.

At Roanne the Loire (non-navigable, therefore a state responsibility) is linked to the end of the canal (navigable, therefore a VNF responsibility). The Loire is full of weed and some of this passes into the canal. Well, quite a lot of it. So much so that the hire boat operators have all told their clients that if they want to go to Roanne and their propeller gets full of weed, the boater must pay for the repair.

So, they don’t come. VNF seem to spend a lot of time pulling weed out, but every day more comes in and the state apparently is unwilling to spend any money on a barrier which would allow water through but stop the weed.

And due to this a really nice marina is nearly empty in the summer, small towns and villages along the way have no tourist traffic and it contributes to the shops and cafes closing, which is very sad.

Roanne marina is full all winter; it’s a very popular winter mooring place and we are really enjoying being here. Some residents are year-round on big converted peniches and some, like us, just moor up in the winter.

The view from our boat looking back towards the canal

The weather has mainly been very good, still in the mid-20’s until the middle of last week, but we did have two nights with force 8 gales, which were less fun. We are tightly tied up, but the boat still moves around a bit, plus you have the sound of the water slapping again the steel hull, which didn’t make for a very restful night. Emma didn’t notice a thing and slept right through!

The view from our boat looking towards the end of the marina

There is a lot to do and see in Roanne, plus the marina social life, so there is no time to be bored, despite being in the same place for longer than at any time since we left home in the late spring. So far we have been to two parties, had guests from other boats visit us, visited the annual food festival, the Charolais Cow Fair and been to the circus, amongst other things.

The circus set up at the end of the marina last weekend and we decided to go, hoping that Emma would be able to sit still all the way through (which she pretty much did; only getting fidgety towards the end of the second half). I’m not a big fan of circuses myself; I don’t like clowns and don’t enjoy performing animals, which they still have here.

However, I did enjoy quite a lot of this show, particularly the acrobatic displays. Some of the animal performances made me uncomfortable, particularly the elephants, but the animals did appear to be in good health and well cared for. Oddly, the animals which didn’t worry me were the tigers, I just found myself thinking “Oh well, if they get fed up they can always eat their keeper”. Probably not the response the ring-master was hoping for.

Amar's Circus, picture taken from our boat

The Charolais Cow Fair was a very big hit with Emma, partly because going there meant a trip on the bus each way, and she loves buses.

A prize winning Charolais

As you’d expect, there were lots of cows (the clue is in the name) but also local food stalls an excellent mini-farm for children and some very, very placid miniature ponies taking children for rides in a pony-cart.



Emma on a pony cart

When not pulling children around the ponies stood patiently whilst hoards of very inexpert children attempted to groom them. From Emma’s point of view it was a top day out – two bus rides, lots of cows, ponies to play with and funny geese in the mini-farm. A pretty good day from my point of view too – E2.50 for the buses and E3.00 for the fair

Emma making a goose chase her hand through the glass

The weather is now getting much colder, so we will start looking for somewhere in Spain for a few months very soon. It will be a shame to leave Roanne and all our new neighbours, but some winter sun will be welcome.
 
 
 
 

 

 

Canal Du Centre & a Potty Full of Rain!

French canals have very matter-of-fact names. The Canal Du Centre is indeed in the centre of France. The Canal Lateral a Loire translates as "The Canal alongside the Loire". Which it is. And you can probably guess which two towns the Canal de Roanne a Digion runs between.

Anyway, we have been on the Canal Du Centre, and boy, have we seen some weather!

Being a luxurious type of boat, we have an outdoor potty, for when Emma can't quite get indoors quickly enough. It's about 12cm deep and after one 24 hours+ of non-stop rain, it overflowed. That's how much weather we've seen!

Stephen, between rain storms

But, it wasn't all like that and we have seen some fabulous countryside too (and some sunshine). It is all very rural here and most houses we pass have chickens, a veg patch and maybe some ducks too. The gardens remind my of the sort of garden my maternal grandparents and great-grandmother had, in Yaxley, Suffolk.

Dodging the rain, we stopped off at the Canal Museum in Ecuisses. There also used to be a tile factory in the village, making polychromatic tiles, so the museum covered that too.

The main part of the museum is housed in an old peniche, and once inside it is truly amazing how much space there is. Of course, it would have nearly all been used for cargo - the cabins and galley were also re-created and were tiny; much smaller than on our own boat.

Emma playing in the museum garden

 

The Musee in a Peniche.

All the locks on the first half of the Canal du Centre are called "Ocean 1" "Ocean 2" etc (Why didn't I take a picture of the sign for Ocean 11?) as the water drains into the Atlantic Ocean. Once you reach the highest point, the naming system changes and all the locks are "Mediterranean 1" "Mediterranean 2" as that's were the water drains to. All of a sudden and in a torrential downpour, we were officially heading towards the Med!

Countryside along the Canal du Centre

Actually, we only went a couple of locks further, as we have revised our original plan and decided to winter the boat in Roanne, rather than taking it down the Rhone to the Med. Various reasons for the decision - cost of mooring on the Med, the fact that with the high rainfall the Rhone would be very fast running, so risk of damage to the boat and (worse case scenario) maybe us too.

However, going to Spain for the winter is still on the agenda, but not by boat, and not just yet.

 
Next stop was Paray Le Monial, a place of religious pilgrimage for many. It has 34 convents, apparently, although we only saw one nun. It is a very beautiful town with an amazingly light and airy Church, dating from the 11th/12th century.


Church at Paray Le Monial



We were back into good weather again, which meant we had a lovely time strolling around the town and were able to sit outside at a cafe, watch the world go by and get an ice-cream for Emma.

Next stop - the aforementioned Canal de Roanne a Digion; our winter base.

Sancerre & Nevers

 So, was the bike ride up to Sancerre worth it? Yes and no. Yes, it’s a beautiful town with fabulous buildings and a great walking-trail. And No, because, whatever Stephen said, there is no way that was only a kilometre. Plus, I discovered a bus went up to the town and back to where we were moored, but only after we’d cycled up there.
 
Actually, we didn’t cycle the whole way there – we got off and pushed at the really hard bits.

There are some really well signposted cycle routes in this region, under the “Velo Loire” scheme. Trouble is, they do attract a lot of MAMIL’s (Middle Aged Men In Lycra). I know it’s great to have a hobby that get you out in the fresh air and keeps you fit. But really, is skin-tight, fluorescent lycra really the only way to go?

Anyway, back to Sancerre and a very important discovery we made there. Everyone knows about Sancerre wine, right? But, what about Sancerre beer?

On your behalf, we sampled some with lunch and I can honestly say it is some of the best beer we have ever tasted (and we’ve tasted a few). Stephen had the Blond and I had the Rose, which was flavoured with plant extracts. I really hope we see it again, but have a horrible feeling we won’t.

Stephen, modelling the latest in great beer

I would recommend a visit to the amazing little hill town, it's small enough to explore on foot and there is much more to it than just wine (although, there is a lot of that too).

On to Nevers, via another aqueduct. I had never been over an aqueduct in my life before last week, now I’ve done two! Truly, there is no end to the excitement on this trip!

Stephen at the start of the aqueduct

Nevers is another beautifully photographic town. Stephen described it as being a bit like Bruges – every way you turn, there is something to photograph. Except it’s all a bit charmingly shabby (which Bruges is not), but as you’ll know from my previous post, we are a bit partial to “charmingly shabby”.

Side street in Nevers - charmingly shabby

 

The Ducal Palace - not shabby at all

In a town we don’t know, we generally head for the cathedral/big church first, as they tend to be in the centre of things. This is half true with Nevers, as it has two halves (High and Low Town) and two cathedrals. We visited the High Town Cathedral, which is magnificent and has some beautiful modern stained glass. The cathedral was largely destroyed in WWII by the RAF, who were trying to bomb some nearby foundries, but other than the stained glass, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Emma’s highlight of Nevers has got to be the “Rolling Ball Fountain”. This consists of a really big, solid ball of marble which is pushed round and round by water coming up from underneath. It took us several minutes to decide that, yes, it really was just the power of water moving it.

Emma & friends at the Rolling Ball Fountain

We are off the Decizes next, where my parents are joining us for a couple of days. We plan to travel down the canal to Digoin. At the moment it is still shorts and t-shirt weather here by mid-morning, so I am hoping it lasts at least for the next week!