Vallespir, Gerona, Limberg: 3 countries in 1 day
note: An update was made to the post where we arrived in France (more photos) – we’ve also answered milwaukeedave’s question in the comments of that post as well.
Forgive me if I’m typing funny. The latop here qt Kim and Vim’s plqce is American English set-up at opposed to the French language one ze’d gotten quite used to at La Fargassa. Although now our place names won\t have appropriate accent marks.
We awoke on Tuesday morning in a small little village in France called Coustouges where we’d slept the night before after taking in the Bastille Day fireworks, close enough to our own American Independence day celebrations.
We breakfasted with coffee and toast with jam and cheese graciously provided by our host who, soonthereafter, kindly drove us to straight to Girona airport. The ride was through the Spanish foothills and was really pretty, Christine wrote the following in her journal:
This morning the drive through the end of the Pyrenees was gorgeous and breathtaking and I tried to remember it and appreciate it best I could knowing it would be the last time I was in the middle of majestic mountains for a while. The sun rising through the high atmosphere made the hazy mountain range different shades of blue and gray and purple as it stretched, craggy, out into the distance and into the Spanish Mediterranean sea. Crossing over the Spanish border it didn’t take long for the scenery to change, both the natural landscape and the architectural details. The mountains of France opened up to valley floors of Northern Spain, the land became a bit scrubbier and vegetation low to the ground. Color was found in surprising fields of cultivated sunflowers (beautiful in their color, disturbing in their farmed and manipulated organization. I wondered if they were destined for cooking oil). The Spanish remain very unfussy compared to French and it could be seen in two forms of self expression: political voice and community aesthetic. Gone were the colorful, bright pastel wooden shutters that decorate the small village houses in France to be replaced by wrought-iron gates and window grating on standard issue stucco buildings with red tile roofs. Beautiful in its own way but much simpler for sure. The city planning in Northern Spain is designed with agriculture in mind while the planning in Southern France seems more focused on how many tiny houses could be crammed in around the central hub: The Church. The French seem to love apperances and take joy in decorating things. This could also be seen in their execution of the coordinative protest efforts, along with Spain, against their common foe: the MAT (high voltage electrical lines the man is trying to run through the Pyrenees much to everyone’s loud collective protest). The French had hand lettered, cleverly painted banners saying No A La Mat hanging from balconeys next to flower boxes and French flags. They had a bumper sticker campaign picturing a Catalan donkey kicking down a MAT which was very cute. All this was replaced almost immediately crossing over the border with the long runs of grafitti saying NO to capatilism and NO to fascisim and most definately NO to the MAT and YES to Catalan independence and all of that accompanied by the anarchy symbol. This lack of pretension, the clearness of the grassroots effort driving the energy forward for the whole city makes me feel the Spanish more real, more earthy, understated but fierce and loyal to their cause which is most often the fight for the common man. I find their simplicity very inspiring.
The airport experience was quick and easy on both ends, but the flight featured a last-minute bout of nervewracking turbulance and bouncy landing – earning the pilot and crew a hearty cheer when the 747 finally touched down it’s wheels and we safely landed in Limberg, Netherlands. From the Maastricht-Aachen airport we took a bus to Sittard where we caught a series of four trains to Horst-Sevenum. Actually it should have only been three trains but there was a bit of a mishap getting off one of the trains. It was the last train for us to take that day and while all three trains had been of different style, the last train was quite charmingly vintage (read: old) and relied on manually opened doors in order to exit the train. We had a pleasant ride through the countryside until, right on schedule, the train pulled into the station and we happily waited at the doors with our bags, ready to go. The train stopped but nothing happened with the doors. There were no obvious signs to tell you to open the door (because really…a sign to tell you to open a door?) and there were little pictures on the floor near the exit door of a brown dress shoe with a red circle around it which I took to mean they didn’t want my feet just anywhere. There was no one around to ask and almost too soon, our last stop was rolling away as I was desperately tried to turn the large red levers on the door, but to no avail – it was more stubborn than a Catalan donkey! While the train rolled on to the next station Christine visited the car behind us and found a couple of lovely octogenarian women, one of whom spoke English and was only too happy to slowly get up and follow her back down to the exit doors in order to pantomime how we would open them once the train stopped again. Ten minutes later at the next station we were ready for it and gave the doors a hard turn and made it out! We looked back just in time to see the old woman had made her way out of her compartment a second time just to ensure we’d figured it out and gotten off okay. The train returning us to Horst came just five minutes later.
Our good friend and host Wim picked us up from the station with great cheer and gave us a hearty welcome to his homeland. The house of Kim and Wim is beautiful as is the surrounding coutry. We are excited to get exploring on the two bikes they’ve lent us. They are geniunely gracious people and being hosted by them is quite a treat.
Now we’ve arrived safely in Utrecht and the story of how we arrived is for a later day. The weather here is reminiscent of Portland and we’re enjoying the feel of a big European city – despite the initial shock of throngs of people moving every which way – the energy here is vibrant and super bike-friendly!
Tags: July 2008, Travel, Tag Index
seeingspain
July 19th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hey Cousin!
I’ve been following your travels here, I’m glad to hear you’re exploring our world in such a proper fashion.
I don’t know if you’re staying long in Utrecht, but I thought you might be able to snag a ride or a train down to Germany to see Little Feat play.
They’ll be in Köln, Germany (which is Cologne) on July 26th (saturday).
And if you want to go, there’ll be 2 backstage passes waiting for you. Just let me know so I can let my dad know.
Love you much, talk to you soon.
–Evan
PS – Our baby is due to be born in less than 2 months. Hope you come visit when you’re back stateside.