Tapp's Travels

13 RAUZAN There are two short sections of Péage on the A63 between the Spanish border and Bordeaux. One runs from just north-west of Dax for about 10 miles. The other is just south of Bordeaux before the road becomes…

11  LEAVING PORTUGAL – WHO SAID UNPAID TOLLS? I’ve just discovered that “Cima” in Portuguese means “top” and nothing to do with “cemetery”. So perhaps we were safe the other day after all! On Thursday a lady (Bridgette) comes on…

17 SARZEAU AND HOME I guess this will the last missive in this series. I’m sure you will be delighted to hear this news! Ecstatic, even! Unless we miss the ferry, of course! Yesterday we did indeed find another shady…

16  RETURNING TO BRITTANY Just shows how many of you are keeping up with my messages! Did anyone notice that part 14 was missing? No one told me that they’d missed an important section of the story! Well well… It’s…

12 BACK TO SPAIN AND ON TO FRANCE The only problem with driving across Spain in a diagonally NE direction is the lack of campsites. Realistically, for huge sections of the trip there were no camp grounds because there were…

10 QUINTA DOS MOINHOS Ahhh! Think I’ve lost part 9. It sort of half went, then got stuck – now it registers as a draft but nothing shows. So you can count yourself lucky! I’ll try and catch up later…

9 BAD BACKS AND WALL LIZARDS Now I’m trying to put together last week’s news. Somewhat abbreviated  ….  “Hurrah!” I hear. The reason why I’d been able to catch up was that I hurt my back really badly and ended…

8 TOLL ROADS IN INLAND PORTUGAL Inland Portugal is certainly hilly! Mountainous even, in parts. It’s now Wednesday 13 June. We spent half of yesterday trying to work out how to use their electronic-only toll roads. And the other half…

7 HEADING FOR PORTUGAL South of Plasencia, running alongside the A66 (of Ruta de la Plata fame) is a series of partly built bridges – some of them enormous – and tunnels and cuttings and embankments. A mammoth construction project.…

6 PLACENSIA AND MONFRAGUE AGAIN AND PIORNAL Today is Sunday but I’m a bit behind.  On Friday morning we walked on the disused railway that runs more or less parallel to the new one behind the campsite. Actually, I guess…