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Travels in the Van 2024: Week Six

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We are building up to the cycling challenge of this trip. The plan is to cycle up to the Col de portal to the Spanish/French border and back down one day. Then drive up again and down to   a village the other side, camp, sleep, and then cycle back up to the same border place - and back down again.   As we drive to the Pyrenees, and up to the town of Biescas, with the landscape changing, the streams flowing icy green-blue down to the river, I'm reminded of how powerful and terrible nature can be. We pass the memorial to the 87 people who died at Camping Las Nieves during a flash flood in 1996. I can’t help, but think that in the cheerful little town that we arrive at, and park up in the car park by the river, that event must’ve affected the community hugely. It’s the end of the skiing season and not many places in town are open, but we find somewhere to sit to eat, and chat to a Spanish family who are there for the skiing, and whose 13 year old wants to practice his English with us.
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Travels in the Van 2024: Week Five

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Spain again. We’re not really on a wine tour, but our next destination is Rioja territory.   This is where the sun is, and we finally find a campsite again. This one is special, all the ingredients you want. Hot showers come first and...people! This is the first time we’ve been on a campsite with other people since Porto. Bizarrely some of the vans are British which is unusual. It’s the typical combination of permanent caravans for weekenders from other cities and a smaller area available for campervan passing through. This is Haro. A lovely little town, where every day it seems, but we hit Friday night, there’s a very civilised gastronomic bar-crawl which involves going from bar to bar, sampling the Pinchos, the local term for tapas and drinking wine. It’s delightful, probably because it's mostly middle-age people and some kids having a good night out, a family thing.   We spend a good few days riding through the vineyard countryside in shorts. And after two visits to Bodegas to t
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