3 Days in San Sebastián
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
View of Monte Igueldo from our van I loved San Sebastián. It’s small enough to be charming, with the intertwined streets of Parte Vieja enticing you, as well as the multitude of lively pintxo bars. The laid back, utterly cool Zurriola beach and the masses of even cooler surfers give you the perfect spot for sunset, all a stones throw from Gros where the locals like to hang out. All that’s enough to seduce you without even mentioning the food markets, the Michelin star restaurants and the incredible people.  There’s so much culture here and so much class, but because we’re ..read more
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Holiday Mode
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
Sunset at Zaragoza vineyard Three months to the day since we left the UK and started our drive around Europe. In these three months we’ve learnt a huge amount about the van, each other and how to sustain a balanced and positive outlook. We’ve learnt how much stress the van can withstand, in terms of hours on the road as well as roads we really should be avoiding in this heavy beast, and of course we now know the answers to “Is that creaking sound okay?” and “That clunk that just happened, that’s nothing right?” We’ve learnt that depending on the weather we tackle different task ..read more
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France Vs Spain (the drivers)
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
Claude in Barcelona, Spain We’ve clocked 3,000 miles so far in the van. I’ve driven through towns with streets so narrow and balconies so low we just get under them, slowly trundled up mountains with winding roads and sudden drops that give me vertigo, and made it under a bridge that was clearly signposted as lower than our Claude, yet the most stressful driving I’ve been faced with certainly has to be on motorways.  I’m a terrible passenger, so for everyone’s benefit I am designated driver. Lucky for me, Paul is an excellent passenger who for the most time is an excellent map read ..read more
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70 Days and counting
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Paul
3y ago
Rooftops in Gruissan, France So its been nearly 40 days and close to 2,500 miles travelled in the van since I last sat down to write a blog entry so it’s probably safe to say it has slightly slipped down the list of priorities while we've been on the road. I’m currently staring down at a list I’ve been keeping of each place we’ve stayed in the van, something which I thought would come in handy when writing my regular blog entries… However, here I sit, in a field near Girona, Spain trying to put together some words on what we got up to in French towns like Bonleiu or Gruissan. I’ll summaris ..read more
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The key to blogging is writing
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
I'm just not good at updating blogs. I thought with all the time it the world  I would love sitting there, sharing stories about our travels. But it turns out even when there's nothing on the agenda, there's always something else to do.  I once started a blog and the first post (which has never seen the light of day) was called sailing &  procrastinating. I haven't done much sailing since my circumnavigation but I have done plenty of procrastinating. What's been occurring? Well we made it to Spain, driving through glorious fields of Sunflowers as we headed south west throug ..read more
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We drank a lot of bubbles
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
3 weeks to the day since we left for France.  820 miles (or there abouts) later, Claude is still going, even got up a mountain.  And despite not hearing from us in a while Paul and I haven’t killed each other.  Yet.   After having absolutely no idea of where we were going and what we were doing we realised that, unfortunately, we did have restrictions on time, which meant having to plan a little more than we’d hope to.  We gave ourselves four and a half weeks to travel from England down to Benicàssim so our original want of heading East towards Czech Republic was ..read more
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Mishaps and hiccups
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
Not even here a week and the bikes are out already.  Anyone who knows Paul will know he's a keen cyclist, me on the other hand I give myself an 'A' for effort and certainly enthusiasm.  I also give myself an 'A' for polishing off nearly a bottle of wine before a blink of an eye. The looks Paul was giving me as he asked, 'Are you sure you want to go for a ride?' 'Yeah!' I said. Which is when the hiccups started. Not a great look stumbling around the campsite, getting a helmet on, and setting off on your new road bike I assure you. But off I went... hiccupping until at least a couple ..read more
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So this is France
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Paul
3y ago
Berck Lighthouse If you hadn’t guessed already, we’ve left the wonderful British Isles for Europe, so as of last Saturday it’s Bienvenue vers la France! After a bit of a delayed departure we rocked up at the Channel Tunnel without any booking, or still any real plan, but boarded without any issue and before we knew it we were on the continent and driving on the right side of the road. We’d already decided to get away from Calais as quickly as the van would go, which isn’t all that quick (especially up hill) and after consulting Google and the European road map decided to head down the coast ..read more
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"What are you up to at the moment?"
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Lara
3y ago
I get asked this question every time I go out with Paul's colleagues, and not just by one person but pretty much all of them. It's such a dull question and I'm having to reply with an even duller answer.  But that's the way it has to be, for now. What I want to tell them is that we bought an amazing van, apparently called Claude, and as of May we plan to cruise around Europe until we get bored, cold or our Claude breaks down, and that I've taken a temp role a stones throw from our flat with end dates that match our leave dates. I want to tell them we're undecided about whether we're goin ..read more
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We bought a van
We Barely Blog - Life in a Van
by Paul
3y ago
Our new home is a 2002 Vauxhall Movano with just a touch over 83,000 miles under the wheels. ‘Claude’ as I have affectionally named him (Lara may say otherwise), started life as retirement home transport in Dorset before being converted into a camper van by a couple living in Scotland. So why ‘Claude’ I hear you ask, well the Vauxhall Movano is a reliable, hard working and often misunderstood vehicle so to me there’s no one better to name our new home after than Southampton Football Club’s First Team Manager, Claude Puel. The Frenchman has taken a bit of flack in his first season i ..read more
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