This is how we woke this morning....
This is how we ate...
This is the car we have rented for our first two weeks before we start our trek by foot to Santiago in what is known as "el Camino" or " le Chemin" expending on which side of the border you are on. I am finding these local French calling it " Saint Jacques du Compestela".
The car barely fits us and our six backpacks, each pack is packed to perfection to sustain each of us four months and also the necessary medicine etc to cover us for our two and a half months of trekking, totally on foot, for the Camino. Bronwyn had brought some headbands that have been worth their weight in gold to us as I have used them to secure our packs in the back of the car to the back row head rest. These have enabled us to have accsess to our packs without falling over. In the car we have a bag we call , " the kitchen" which houses our food for picnics.
Reichen has been scouting out trees in park like settings for us to use to hang our hammocks. This might sound crazy to most, it did to me when we first started taking lengthy trips to Europe,but for the most part it is tolerated very well, I have yet to see a negative encounter anywhere when done.
Eight years ago when Steve and I brought the family we got off the plane (exhausted) in Belgium. We had a day full of adventure , a trip to Waterloo and on to Bruge, one of my favorite cities in the World. Guide books referenced a campground in Bruge where I had long planned we would stay. We panicked when we found it was closed for good. We looked in the books that shared there was another out on the coast, about a thirty minutes plus drive and we headed there. We could not find it and stopped a police officer to ask for guidance and he energetically motioned to follow him. He drove us to a parking lot with several campers. Tables were set out beside the campers, families were socializing and somehow he communicated this was free. At the time this seemed strange, even dangerous...sleeping in a parking lot in our car ( or even setting up a tent). Though no one looked scarey and in fact seemed very confident with their set ups. The kids, by this time, were totally zonked and asleep so the need to put up a tent was not there. Still freaked out by this way of sleeping I told Steve we must find a campground. Within thirty minutes we did , it was closed for the night but we crawled over the small gate set up our tent and took care of our bill in the morning when their office was open. Over our month we came to highly embrace the " municipal" setting provided for travelers by te towns. The kids were almost always sound asleep by the time we were ready to stop and pulling up and sleeping every few days just worked for us. When showers and laundry were calling we got a formal camp ground. I know it sounds crazy but drive around Europe you see these kind of sets up everywhere. The beach we at right now has a free set up steps from the beach and a few steps up in the woods is where we have put our hammocks for our best nights sleep! We are surrounded by campers with precious linens out over tables and nice spreads for dining.
An example for free camping, what you don't see is between each camper are wonderful spreads of tables adorned with beautiful table spreads, food, wine and many people. Sometimes generations are present. Each a beautiful sight and many wonderful people....
...and this beauty....
Today we saw signs for Breck Plage ( Beach), with no agenda we drove to it. IT was hopping, far from quaint and very commercial. It was also Sandy! All of our beaches to date have been rocky. THere were vollyball tournaments and tons of commercial beach events. We enjoyed the day but knew we needed to head West at sometime and felt a calling to return to Saint Join and maybe have a " zero day" tomorrow , a day where we stay put.
Dog on the blog
No comments:
Post a Comment