Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

Another city that we'd not heard of prior to arriving in Spain. Caceres is a city in western Spain in the Extramadura region.  Being the end of autumn, there were very few tourists so we could explore the old town uninterrupted.  We wandered the old town in a state of elevated curiosity.  Every view was of interest: a juliet balcony; the steep stairways; the narrow and winding passageways; more than 30 towers many with stork nests; a Moorish window in a Renaissance facade; an ornate church; a hidden oasis garden with oleanders and olives; Aztec inspired sandstone murals; plaza mayor; grapevines olive trees, pomegranates, persimmons and almonds, all growing on the surrounding hills.  Caceres is also increasingly becoming a food capital of the world. Modern tapas and shared dining plates is the primary style.  Lunch commences anywhere between 12:30 and 2:30 and service generally finishes around 4pm. Most restaurants don't open again, even for tapas until...

You can fit a lot into eleven days. We met our friends, Jim and Laurel from Brisbane in the beautiful Spanish city of Salamanca. The old town is a city of ornately carved sandstone and dates back to celtic times. The city university was founded in the 11th century and became a centre for learning in the 15th century. The city library is stunning and was originally a cloister with a well in the middle of the courtyard. After Salamanca our next highlight (other than seeing otters on a lake near Castelo Branco where we camped) was the Portuguese village of Monsanto. The village is literally nestled in and around the granite boulders. On top of the hill was an 11th century castle ruin built by the Knights Templar. It was foggy with light rain when we visited. We have since seen images of the rock formations and views on a clear day; and it is even more spectacular.  Since hearing about the huge winter surf at Nazare Portugal we have wanted to visit and were not disappointed. Fr...

On our gastronomic tour it would be remiss of us not to share the cognac experiences. Cognac is made in an area of western France just north of Bordeaux. It is an area of 80,000 hectares under grape.  Cognac is largely made from just one grape variety (90% is Ugni Blanc, also referred to as Saint-Emilion) and comes from one of five sub-regions surrounding the town of Cognac. The sub regions are determined by soil type. Cognac is a grape spirit that is twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Troncais. It is 40% alcohol and matures in the same way as whisky. Most producers have it under oak for many years beyond the legal requirement. Almost all producers in the region are under contract to the four big Cognac houses: Hennessy, Martell, Remy Martin and Courvoisier who blend and market more than 90% of the world’s cognac production. Even the highest quality smaller producers are unable to market most of their p...

A wise person once shared that we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.  For us this statement is s truism.  Local insights greatly enhance the travel experience because we all have limited time to mooch around. This past week the value of local knowledge was again reinforced.  Our friends recommended that we visit La Rochelle, the capital of Charente Maritime Department. We hadn't previously planned to visit this beautiful, white stone Atlantic coast city with its enormous harbour and marina but in hindsight it would have been a sad loss, not to have done so.  Over the next few days we visited a number of destinations that without local knowledge we wouldn't have known existed. La Tremblade's brightly coloured oyster cabins and ponds each producing wonderful oysters in the estuary. They are surrounded by rectangular oyster ponds The artist and estuary oyster producing village of Mornac sur Seudre has been classified ...

Heligan Estate is a large property with magnificent gardens that was owned by the Tremayne Family for 400 years. Prior to WWI it was a thriving almost self-sufficient community. At least 13 of the staff served in the war and nine tragically did not return. Unable to live with the daily reminder of the ghosts of his staff and friends Jack Tremayne left and rented out the property. The gardens became over grown and in the passing generations they became lost.  In 1990 a descendant of the family uncovered garden building remains whilst cutting back undergrowth. Since then, Heligan has become the largest garden restoration project in Europe.  The 200 acres of gardens consists of a jungle with southern hemisphere plants; a sculpture garden that uses the plants as part of the sculpture; woodlands of rhododendron some 10m high; 1.8 acres of productive garden for use in the café and sold in the shop; wildlife hides and a rare, heritage breed farm. So...

We had parked the car on the edge of the village in northern Provence. It was summer time, the cicadas were noisy, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the little laneways laden with plump sweet blackberries invited us in. That was five years ago and I remember it vividly: the abundance of sweet ripe fruit.  Blackberry foraging is one of life's most enjoyable pleasures.  For blackberries to be sweet, like all fruit they need to get adequate sun and not too much rain when fruiting.  In north Wales, near the town of Hope there is a park with spectacular views across to Snowdonia, Liverpool, Manchester and the Peak District.  The park was formerly silica quarry workings and after many decades has regenerated with native vegetation and animals. Blackberry brambles were in abundance with ripe sweet fruit. Some of the largest and sweetest blackberries I've eaten. Eating as many as we picked, with juice stained fingers we filled a container, thou...

Thanks to a tip from Tanya's aunt, “there is a good motor museum in Mullhouse”, on a wet day we ventured to it. Anticipating a small but interesting collection of vehicles, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Cite de l’Automobile is the French national motor museum.  At the entrance are life sized models of 1950's race cars suspended on wires and passing though the glass façade. The collection consisting of some 600-700 cars from the 1880s on, but largely consisted of the rarer 1880s – 1930s vehicles.  The collection includes some 100 Bugatti’s. Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy but set up his car manufacturing factory and design house in Mulhouse. Walking through the collection i t was easy to see the influence that designers like Bugatti and Porsche have had on the broader car industry.  Ferdinand Porsche designed the original VW Beetle, he then worked for Mercedes and then went on to establish his own label. Below is his 170H model Merc...