Dave and Deb’s Misadventures in Europe – Driving with no Direction
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Give us a car and we run wild.
We are not sure if it was a good idea to rent a car for our travel around Europe or if we would have been better off taking trains.
We have never planned so much for a trip as we had for this travel through France, but as soon as we got behind the wheel of our car, the itinerary went out the window.
Bad weather in France!
It all started with the bad weather in France. We had planned on going through The Loire Valley, Bordeaux and south into the Pyrenees where we were going to rent bicycles and ride the route of the Tour de France. We were planning on seeing Nice and Provence. We wanted to hike through the hills and sip wine.
But then the rain came.
The weather was bleak and cold during our time in France. We tried to avoid it by driving south in search of the sunshine that never came.
Where does a couple looking for warm weather and beautiful scenery go in Europe?
Spain!
How can you not love Barcelona?
We had heard wonderful things about Barcelona from everyone that we know, and everyone was right. Barcelona is a beautiful city. We spent 4 days there site seeing and enjoying the energy of this vibrant city. We even planned on staying longer. We were going to explore Girona, Mataro and the surrounding area and we were going to work on our tans at the private beach club that our campground had reserved for guests.
But then the rain came.
We tried to spend a day exploring Montserrat. We drove the 40 km out of town on a steep and winding road. We arrived just in time for the hail to come down and a torrential downpour to fall from the sky. We were seriously worried about dents in our rental car and how much the rental company was going to charge us for hailstone holes. That is when we decided to go south yet again.
Sunny Southern Spain Was our Answer
Costa Blanca here we come!!
We have heard of its beautiful coastline in the south of the country. So we made our way to Costa Blanca. It was a long morning driving through the rain and hail. Was the sky ever going to clear up? It didn’t seem that it would ever stop. The day was so bad that we broke down and got a room for the night at a hotel rather than camping. We couldn’t face setting up our tent in this weather.
The Hotel Campanilo in Alicante was our stop for the evening. For 49 Euro a night including wifi and parking it was a steal. The room was quite charming too, with flat screen T.V, and a fluffy white duvet on the comfortable bed.
Alicante was indeed a beautiful town!
Things were looking up and when we awoke the next morning the sun was shining bright! The warm weather had arrived and we were sure that we were going to be spending many days in the Costa Blanca. Alicante was a beautiful town and the coast was as picturesque as it gets.
After exploring the city and coastline for the day, we found ourselves an unbelievable campsite. It seemed more like a resort rather than a campground. It had a giant swimming pool, health club, hot tub, several restaurants and it was located right on the beach. We thought we found heaven.
We lasted 2 more days.
Little did we know the place was over run with families with a lot of kids. Weekenders were up all night talking loud, young children were crying to the wee hours of the morning and toddlers were up bright and early yelling and screaming their heads off.
Kids were everywhere!!
We thought to ourselves, what are we doing here?
We checked out early with no plan or direction. Lucky for us, the woman at the front desk recommended Toledo. She explained that we are not in Spain at all in Costa Blanca and we heartily agreed. Not that it wasn’t beautiful and postcard perfect. If we were looking for a beach vacation, Costa Blanca would be exactly what we would want. It felt more like Miami Beach than the cultural Spain that we were hoping for though so it was time to move to the heart of the country.
Toledo was the place for us.
Here we come Toledo!!
We quickly packed up our car and kissed Costa Blanca farewell. Until next time when the weather is hotter and when we have more time to explore the southern Spanish countryside. Up to the north we made our way again.
Our Lack of Focus
We have been a little disappointed with ourselves. We had adventures planned during our time in France. We wanted to cycle, hike and climb our way through the country. But Europe is filled with such rich history and beautiful cities. It is hard to ignore them when you haven’t seen them before. We have caught the usual fever that so many other people catch when traveling through Europe. We are caught in a whirlwind and we just can’t stop.
We have been wrestling with the decision of traveling through the countryside and enjoying more adventurous travel like paragliding or white water rafting. We want to explore the forests and mountains, but at the same time we want to see where the Knights of Templar originated or where Don Quixote spent his days.
The Cultural Tour has Won Out this Time.
There will be many adventures ahead of us in our future travels but for now, we have decided to see the cities that we have always wanted to see.
We have only been to Europe twice before.
It is a diverse continent filled with historical cities and cultural sites. Places like Cannes and Florence are calling us. And hey, we have a car we can go wherever we want.
Unfortunately, that is our problem. We are like a couple of kids in a candy store. We want to sample everything and don’t have the attention span to absorb anything.
We have crisscrossed our way around a couple of countries and while we have no rhyme or reason we are certainly enjoying our wacky road trip through this tiny part of Europe.
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Road trips are my type of holiday – I empathise with you being spoilt for choice driving round Europe, but it’s not such a bad thing! I like your practical take on your travels, keep it up.
Ha! But you are having an adventure!
The key to travel in Europe is to follow the weather and you are here early for the north. I’m far south of Costa Blanca in Andalusia where the real Spain is and the weather is gorgeous ( usually even in winter), sunny & hot. It’s time to sloooowly head north. Most of it will still be cold and rainy even in June…& that’s not fun.
The second key if you want to see it all, is you need time. We’ve been roadtripping all over Europe for 4 years and have stayed 2 more years than planned. LOTS to see and it is important to go slow to really immerse in the many cultures and countries.
We love the rural areas, cities and biking, swimming, hiking, cruising rivers, taking cargo ships to cross great seas. You can do it all… with time… & cheap that way too, we do it on just 23 dollars a day.
You will be back for more. So will we. As we continue to circumvent the globe, we are happy to leave our RV as a super budget home/vehicle/storage unit here so we can return to Europe every summer on a tiny budget and explore new places as well as return to favorites.
.-= soultravelers3´s last blog ..Travel = Organic Garden Homeschool? =-.
I guess it is true then…the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain!
Beautiful pictures! Any chance you are at tbex?
.-= Nomadic Matt´s last blog ..Connecting on the Island of Ios =-.
Hey Matt,
True the rain does fall mainly on the plain! Actually Deb was singing that one quite often in Spain. Luckily the weather is getting better. We will be at the TBEX but only for the second day as we will be on the Twitter cruise until the 26th. See you then! We will be wearing Toronto Maple Leaf Jersey’s so we should be easy to spot!!
I love to plan for our travel adventures but I am also just as happy to throw those plans out the window if something else comes along. While it’s too bad you didn’t get to do and see everything you wanted to in France, if the weather wasn’t co-operating it wouldn’t have been pleasant anyway. You guys will have many more adventures here so let the open road take you where it will!
.-= Alison´s last blog ..Win Your Favourite Travel Photo as Art! =-.
Thanks Alison. We will come back because there is just so much to experience in France and we want to be sure to do it all!!
the best part of travelling sometimes is the unexpected.Just going with the flow and letting yourself wander into new experiences.Shame about the bad weather though
Rich, you are so right. We tend to not go with the flow well. We have to learn to chill out and relax. It is easier said than done:)
Travel comes in many forms and as long as you’ve been enjoying yourself, it doesn’t matter how wacky the adventure has been!
And I know the feeling of being a kid in a candy store. We should never underestimate the difficulty involved with deciding where to go next, especially when we want to go everywhere…
.-= Earl´s last blog ..An Unexpected Lesson From Meditation =-.
It is true Earl. We have never been so lost traveling. We try to plan something each day and can’t make decisions or we wish that we did something different. It is exactly what you said, we want to go everywhere and have very little time!
Hi, like reading your post. A wonderful holidays but i guess a little tiresome, as you covered many places in a short span. For me personally I would not do that I essentially want my perfect rest period.
But stil, Spain is amazing. Thanks for sharing your photos with us. amazing pics.
Tina
Hi – my partner and I will be driving around europ. My biggest concern is finding accommodation. is there a guide or book we can reference on mid range accommodation?