Change of Luck!
Since I last added to this, Scott and I have been making our way down to Spain in a round about way, strangely enough, we have been going through more wine regions. We hit a place in Rasteau that we were tipped off to by our friend, the webmaster. The winemaker was so nice and she showed us all around, answering all of Scott;s questions. Winemakers seem to like it when people come in who know a bit about the process, instead of just saying, mmm this one is good, so I usually stay quiet or say it to myself.
We then headed through Gigondas, which is fun to say anytime (or substitute for any noun...try it!) Then to the famous Chà teauneuf du Pape. All around us are tractors pulling loads of grapes, grape pickers; which look like something from Star Wars, and all of the people out in the vines. Many of them wave and it is funny to see the harvest workers and Scott look at each other and wish they could swap places. CNP itself was crazy! I was expecting to see another small village alive with the buzz of harvest but it felt like a souped-up Napa- showy, expensive stores and restaurants, TONS of tourists, more tasting rooms than you could shake a Gigondas at, and harvest workers cruising the small streets at break-neck speed, screaming out the windows. Think of that next time you drink a wine from there and you see the quaint castle on the label and picture old men stomping on the grapes with weathered and stained feet, listening to the birds chirp. Those grapes were picked by sleep-deprived teenagers with dreadlocks who could care less about the wine, their main concern is where the party is that night and what other drugs they can get to stay awake for the next day. OK, I am stereotyping, some of them didn,t have dreadlocks.(and I still like the wine!)
Yesterday we also cruised through Avingnon, which means that we tried to see as much as we could without paying an entrance fee or getting our bikes stolen. For those who haven,t been; it is a city built in the 1100s I believe, walled and was the hope of the Pope for a while a long time ago 1300s I think. That is the abridged Sarah version, but basically an incredibly beautiful city with amazing buildings and history. It was strange to see and hear other people from the states again, I:d say it was the most we have heard since Bergen, Norway.
Later, we decided to head again South and find a campsite in a town nearby that had the symbol (^), which supposedly means campsite. Turns out, in some cases, especially when you ride 30 K out of your way on a deserted road over big hills, that symbol means, ha ha Scott and Sarah, in your FACE there;s NO campsite even NEAR here, but heres a sighn for another town 15 K even more out of your way that may or may NOT have one, you decide what to do. We followed those signs for a while, water running low and light dissapating. After getting directions at the grocery store in the town (Montfrin), we head out there, weary from our longest day yet, 150K and can FEEL the thermarest and just being horizontal. We get there and its closed. That was not in our plan, and we cant even sneak in like we have before because it is fenced off with a sign saying private property. Completely dejected, we slowly rode back to the map of the town, hoping that there was another site nearby. It was after 7 at this point and getting darker. We got to the map and just looked at it for about 5 minutes, sometimes looking away, hoping that when we looked back, one would have miraculously appeared. This was what we were doing when our new friend, Gregory found us. Basically, he offered to help us and went so much above and beyond we could not believe it. He was going out of town for the evening and offered his home to us, people he had just met! It has been so great to be in a home, if just for one night. It is also an amazing place, the building is over 300 years old and 4 floors with 200 year old doors and stone tiles, you get the picture. We hope that he comes to California so that we can return the favor. This whole trip we have had to depend many times on the kindness of strangers, and this one tops them all.
No news on the replacement computer yet, the claim is being processed and understandably, we are probably not their first priority. Today we leave for the coast, which we will ride along part, or all of the way to Spain.
We then headed through Gigondas, which is fun to say anytime (or substitute for any noun...try it!) Then to the famous Chà teauneuf du Pape. All around us are tractors pulling loads of grapes, grape pickers; which look like something from Star Wars, and all of the people out in the vines. Many of them wave and it is funny to see the harvest workers and Scott look at each other and wish they could swap places. CNP itself was crazy! I was expecting to see another small village alive with the buzz of harvest but it felt like a souped-up Napa- showy, expensive stores and restaurants, TONS of tourists, more tasting rooms than you could shake a Gigondas at, and harvest workers cruising the small streets at break-neck speed, screaming out the windows. Think of that next time you drink a wine from there and you see the quaint castle on the label and picture old men stomping on the grapes with weathered and stained feet, listening to the birds chirp. Those grapes were picked by sleep-deprived teenagers with dreadlocks who could care less about the wine, their main concern is where the party is that night and what other drugs they can get to stay awake for the next day. OK, I am stereotyping, some of them didn,t have dreadlocks.(and I still like the wine!)
Yesterday we also cruised through Avingnon, which means that we tried to see as much as we could without paying an entrance fee or getting our bikes stolen. For those who haven,t been; it is a city built in the 1100s I believe, walled and was the hope of the Pope for a while a long time ago 1300s I think. That is the abridged Sarah version, but basically an incredibly beautiful city with amazing buildings and history. It was strange to see and hear other people from the states again, I:d say it was the most we have heard since Bergen, Norway.
Later, we decided to head again South and find a campsite in a town nearby that had the symbol (^), which supposedly means campsite. Turns out, in some cases, especially when you ride 30 K out of your way on a deserted road over big hills, that symbol means, ha ha Scott and Sarah, in your FACE there;s NO campsite even NEAR here, but heres a sighn for another town 15 K even more out of your way that may or may NOT have one, you decide what to do. We followed those signs for a while, water running low and light dissapating. After getting directions at the grocery store in the town (Montfrin), we head out there, weary from our longest day yet, 150K and can FEEL the thermarest and just being horizontal. We get there and its closed. That was not in our plan, and we cant even sneak in like we have before because it is fenced off with a sign saying private property. Completely dejected, we slowly rode back to the map of the town, hoping that there was another site nearby. It was after 7 at this point and getting darker. We got to the map and just looked at it for about 5 minutes, sometimes looking away, hoping that when we looked back, one would have miraculously appeared. This was what we were doing when our new friend, Gregory found us. Basically, he offered to help us and went so much above and beyond we could not believe it. He was going out of town for the evening and offered his home to us, people he had just met! It has been so great to be in a home, if just for one night. It is also an amazing place, the building is over 300 years old and 4 floors with 200 year old doors and stone tiles, you get the picture. We hope that he comes to California so that we can return the favor. This whole trip we have had to depend many times on the kindness of strangers, and this one tops them all.
No news on the replacement computer yet, the claim is being processed and understandably, we are probably not their first priority. Today we leave for the coast, which we will ride along part, or all of the way to Spain.
posted by snsadventure at 12:35 AM
4 Comments:
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Neat! I really like what you're doing here...
When you have a spare moment you should come over to my cad drafting site to see what's on in the cad drafting world.
Keep up the great blogging!
Wow! Finally caught up on the blog. Apparently I've been a bit behind! Sounds like you guys are having the time of your life. I've laughed out loud several times! Talk soon!
Gigondas! Gigondas! Gazongas! Gigondas! It IS fun to say. It's like that one gigondas time that gigondas tried to gigondas and all the gigondas ended up with gigondas on their gigondas! Ah, man, that was gigondas!
okay, i'm starting to sound like a french smurf, so i'll stop now...
:( You could have lied and told me that CDP was quaint, hilly with big stones, and vines in ancient profile as the sun set blanketing the Rhone Valley. The truth is never so glamorous.
Ew, and watch out for those FILTHY,DISEASE ridden cats. You will probaly come back with some treacherously pathogenic Spanish Feline Influenza.
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