Today we depart Ireland for France. We have mixed emotions about this - we really like Ireland and have made friends with some wonderful people. I suspect that leaving friends behind is something that we are going to have to get used to. As I type we are sitting in the ferry port lounge which is deserted because the next ferry out is at 6 PM tonight and it is 11 AM. Really quite nice as it is quiet and we have a beautiful view of the Irish sea as it meets the Atlantic. Great opportunity to get some of the web site updated and staged for downloading. The picture at right was taken as we were leaving the port bound for France. Not much light I’m afraid.

Fast forward...it is now Friday the 13th and we have been in near-constant rain since we left Ireland! It was a bit stormy as we headed to sea, and the ride got a bit bumpy during the night. By morning it was fairly calm, but raining steadily. We headed out from Cherbourg after trying all the roundabouts at least once and we were on our way, feeling like this was truly the beginning of our journey. From here on there are no scheduled stops and no timelines.

We quickly remembered about the Logis de France group of hotels and decided to stay only in those. If you have not tried them, you must. The lodging is fairly basic but clean and nice. The best part is the food! Each has an accomplished chef who prepares regional specialties for dinner. Every one we tried was fantastic! 

As we drove through through Bordeaux, it was immediately obvious we were in wine country - there were vineyards everywhere and hundreds of wineries. This place must be a zoo during tourist season! In every corner there are a dozen or so placards listing the wineries down that road. Huge roadside businesses advertising “vente directe” dot the landscape, along with their 20’ high wine bottle announcing their presence. 

One other item about eating in France; for lunch, start looking for the trucks (lorries) lining the side of the road shortly after noon. This will identify the restaurant for lunch. Lunch is served between 12 and 2. The restaurant will have several plats du jour, either a la carte, or menu (which includes an appetizer or dessert and cafe). Each time we have stopped, the restaurant is packed and the food is good but reasonable. Of course, riding up on the bikes provides sufficient entertainment for all. Oh, and at several places the wine is included with the lunch and flows freely. So think about that at 2 PM when all those truckers hit the road! We have been sticking to tap water, which appears at each table, chilled and regularly refilled (that was a surprise).

Further down the road near Toulouse, vineyards still dominated the landscape, but were joined by large orchards of peaches, pears, apples, and kiwi, as well as fields of corn. And the vintners were processing the harvest as the smell of wine was in the air everywhere. Some vineyard still had fruit on the vine, but most had been harvested and the leaves were turning gold and red, announcing the oncoming fall. 

Nearing the Med, we cut south to take the scenic route to Perpignan. It truly was scenic as you come up to the base of the Pyrenees. The hillsides were were a palette of gold and green, spotted with red, then topped majestically with the gray rocky slopes of the mountains. Of course, it would have been even more enjoyable if it had not been raining the entire time, but even still, it was truly gorgeous. In one stretch of the road, we followed the river as it cut through the mountains, huge rock edifices towering on either side. Several places the rock has been cut away just enough to allow cars and small trucks to pass - this is not a place to bring the big motor home!

As we approached the coast, the landscape flattened and the trees gave way to grassland. And the rain poured down even more relentlessly. And the wind blew.  Are we having fun yet? Where is the sun? So we head on south into Spain, hoping there we will find the ever elusive sun. But to no avail. We finally stopped north of Barcelona along the sea at one of the many seaside resorts. This one full of German and French holiday makers also seeking the sun - and equally disappointed at the volume of rain. 

Sunday, October 15 and we have arrived in Alicante. Drove about town a bit looking for a place to stay. Found the new university campus which is beautiful. Now the task of locating a place to stay begins. As we traveled down the coast we fund huge encampments of high rise apartments and condominiums. Like ghost towns. Everything closed and hardly anyone about. We drove through three of these south of Valencia yesterday before we (finally) found a hotel that was open. This time we booked in with the Spanish. It looked as if this was a weekend getaway for most of them as the activity his morning was people packing luggage into their cars and departing. Only saw one tour coach whereas the vast majority of vehicles in the place we stayed the night before was busses.

Today has been blue skies and sunshine, about 70 degrees - marvelous! Great ride down the coast until we encountered a huge backup of slow moving traffic. We were able to work our way to the front and fund that the slow poke holding back all of the traffic was someone in a Rolls Royce with the top down driving about 30 miles per hour on a road that is posted for 60 mph. Amazing. The fun part was being constantly on the alert for the road racing motorcycles that seem to be as wild and erratic here as they were in Ireland. Passing on blind corners, excessive speed and just plain foolish driving behavior.

After we checked into our hotel we went into town for a bit of dinner and encountered 4 other motorcyclists - two couples traveling on two BMW’s. Jim was disappointed that he couldn’t take a picture of their bikes but the next morning found their bikes in the parking lot at the hotel we were staying in. Pictured at left are the bikes. We shall hereafter refer to the one on the left as having the “ultimate top box”. Reminds us of a barrel that Verna used for compost. For security they have a lock connecting both of the front wheels of the bikes.

This is an adventure, right? Ah yes, we have a new number one one the expense chart - gasoline for the motor bikes! Seems the cost of lodging has fallen to number two with food holding at number three. And, to make traveling even more expensive the French and Spanish think that their respective Autoroutes and Autopistas should be paid for by each person choosing to drive on them. We wonder what all the tax that is collected on the sale of gasoline is used for if not the roads? So, we stick to the “N” roads and move at a relatively sedate pace. We’ve noticed now that we are in Spain, the price of gasoline has dropped somewhat, thank goodness!

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