Wednesday to Friday

La Rochelle wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. A bit too much of a busy city for our liking. We did find a spot by the beach to camp for the night, but when we got up in the morning we realized it was not the sandy, sunny beaches we had hoped for. So, off down the coast a bit further we went. We are now sat in St Georges di Didonne on a campsite right off a beautiful sandy beach. We spent the afternoon lounging out on the beach (working on our sun burns) and we are just settling down for a quite night of booking more flights for the World Cup season! The guy next to us is BBQing burgers though so I think I might have to splurge off of my strict Euro-diet of chocolate biscuits and cheese/ham sandwiches and go get myself one of those for dinner. They smell very tempting.

Morning in St Georges was much the same. We took a nice leisurely bike ride through the local town and checked out some of the shops along the beachfront and downtown. Little French towns are so cool! We then took advantage of the good weather to start getting some miles under our belts. The plan was to head just South of Bordeaux and crash the French side of the border for the night somewhere on the beach again. However, the closer we got to Spain, the worse the weather was getting. We were both in full on trucker moods, so we cracked a can of Red Bull and settled into an evening of driving.

The Spanish boarder was quite the experience. I think Jill was astounded to see the border patrol officers dressed in full black uniforms with balaclavas over their faces and automatic weapons in their hands! She summed it up perfectly – “I though the US border was intimidating! These guys are freakin terrifying! Where I come from the bad guys where black balaclavas covering their faces and waves automatic rifles in the air while shouting at people to get out of their car.” We made it through no problem though. They waved us on without a question. I don’t think any of them fancied spending a few hours with us unpacking and searching Tommy. After that Spain was relatively boring really. Not what either of us expected. We avoided the normal touristy coastline and took the trucker route through the centre. There was nothing there. The odd eerie little village with crumbling buildings and a serious lack of children, but that was about it. We drove well into the night and then pulled up in a hotel parking lot to grab some shuteye before continuing on our way to the coast.

Saturday so far has been a touch more exciting. We ventured off the road a few times to check out these empty villages. So weird - but pretty cool at the same time. There was this one old church that caught both of our attention. Surrounded by crumbling houses, this church was teaming with activity – by the BIRDS. I don’t even know what kind of birds they were exactly, but they were abnormally large things. They looked kind of like storks/ herons. They had orange beaks, gray bodies and white necks. They were all nested around this church. They looked like living gargoyles from a distance. Kind of cool. We have also been awestruck by the number of wind turbines they have around here. Every hilltop is covered in them! Hundreds. Smart really since the wind is strong as anything here.

We are now just pulling up in Vigo. Just going to find somewhere scenic to spend the night camping and then we’ll see what happens tomorrow. We are a few days ahead of schedule, but we were both quite bored with the middle of Spain and ready for more hours of sunny coastline. Should be a great way to spend the last few days before the beginning of the World Cup circus