I had never heard of Tours before and had little idea what to expect. Our hotel was neat and I even got a double bed to starfish on. We'd booked to do a Chateaux tour the following morning so for that evening, we simply went for a walk along Rue Colbert which was the medieval street that lead to the old town. We found a little restaurant and had ( Read more... )

Bright and early we caught the Busabout bus in to France. The trip from San Sebastián to Paris is the longest on the Busabout loops with two optional stops along the way and who am I to skip out on France? So we stopped in Bordeaux for two nights where we did very little except be amused by the quaint little hotel we were in and drink wine. If you' ( Read more... )

So, I'd heard a number of bad reports about the hostel accommodation in San Sebastián so I steeled myself for badness and was faced with complete farce, farcical farce. With some farce on top. In short, I booked a 6 bed, was put in a 12 bed that had no beds available and keys that didn't work. Was told there were no other beds available and that ( Read more... )

Day 1 - headed out early on the bus with a little breakfast stop along the way and we eventually stopped in Cordoba for lunch. Cordoba is one of the most impressive places I've been to so far. We entered the city by crossing the river via the Roman Bridge which gives an amazing vista of the Moszquita. The Moszquita is a Mosque which was taken over ( Read more... )

Having arrived on the over night train, I dropped my bag off to store and hung around for a while waiting for a 'free' walking tour. I usually do the free walking tours in every city I go to, and this one was ok, but the guide grated in my nerves a bit and at the end I had only a €10 but I had only wanted to give her €7-8 but felt too ( Read more... )

So, we rocked up in Madrid and I had a couple of hours before I needed to head to the over night train which luckily wasn't far from the drop off point. So, I sorted out my hostel booking for Madrid (it had gone haywire and it was a stroke of luck that I double checked on arrival) and went out for tapas with a bunch of people from the bus. After a ( Read more... )

We got in to town in the afternoon and promptly went out looking for lunch. Valencia is the home of Paella and I'd heard there were places you could get take away Paella, so naturally I went in search of that. I found a great little place with about 8 different types of Paella, naturally I went there for lunch every day. We had a walk through town ( Read more... )

Capital for pick pocketing! Happily, I was not a victim. Nor was I a purp! We arrived in at Barcelona late in the afternoon and I managed to squeeze in a shower before heading out to find some Tapas. After much wandering and rejecting too many "not Spanish enough" places, we settled in for a Tapas taster plate and jug of Sangria. My allergies were ( Read more... )

Once home of the Pope, Avignon was a delightful 2 night stop. I arrived in the middle of the day and we made our way to the hostel in the centre of town. I dropped my gear and went straight out as Monday's usually see museums close for the day. I went to Musee Angladon which is in a former home and houses a number of modern artists works including ( Read more... )

Arrived in Nice and since I've been before, I decided instead of hanging around in town, to hop a train to the next country, Monaco. Second smallest country in the world (Vatican City just beats it) seemed like just the place to go! I met some Germans on the platform and helped them figure out they were catching the same train as me but to the last ( Read more... )