Tag Archives: G and B Travel

Sunday 28th February 2021 – SPOT THE …

lys noir chantier navale port de Granville harbour Manche Normandy France Eric Hall… difference between this photo and any other photo that I’ve taken of the chantier navale over the last few months.

Yes, as you have probably noticed, the yacht that’s been over there at the far end for the last I don’t know how long has now disappeared, presumably having gone back into the water at long last. I was beginning to think that she was going to be there longer than I’m going to be here, but there you go.

What else didn’t go on as long as I was expecting was the amount of time that I stayed in bed last night. There are some days when I have an alarm to help me to be up and about and I still can’t be on my feet by 08:10 so the fact that I can do that on a Sunday when there’s no alarm is something quite surprising.

After the medication I had a listen to the dictaphone to see where I’d been. I’d had a very big row with the people for whom I drove coaches at one time. I’m not sure whether I ended up being sacked or resigned but they were sitting there calculating my wages and then ended up owing me 29 days pay for days in lieu of notice. They said that I’d get it in due course. That had all been arranged and they said “what about these Friday nights where we start to sort out the yard so you’d come down and do the office while we do it?”. I made a very non-committal reply to that and wandered off. I ended up playing cricket again, a girls’ cricket team and I was keeping wicket. The girl who was bowling was a pretty wild bowler but she took this long run-up and the ball in the air took this beautiful swerve and caught me on the left shoulder where my catheter is instead of in the gloves. I have the ball back to her and she started off on her run again so I asked “where are you off to? Nantwich?”. She stopped for a minute and burst out laughing. Another girl who was fielding at slip started to move back behind me. I said “no, don’t go behind me!”. I explained that these balls swerving around so much, she’s likely to get one in the face the further back she stands. Someone else turned up from the office where I was working and said to the girls’ captain – he gave her a form and said “just fill this in for Eric, will you? I want to see how he gets on now that he’s in a higher age group” so they started to fill it in before they took their next ball. He asked “what shall I put your occupation down as? Are you still a bus driver with (those people I mentioned earlier)?”.

So what’s this thing about me going back to playing cricket and keeping wicket doing reappearing just now? That’s what’s bewildering me at the moment.

But somewhere along the way I was watching a very large pair of aeroplane wings with four engines falling out of the sky on fire and hitting a tower block, destroying the block and there was debris and all kinds of things all around. Later I talked to a few of the passengers who had been seated in what remained of the fuselage.

There was quite some time left before my visitors arrived so I worked on the notes for my trip to Central Europe back in July and I edited a couple more days.

Liz and Terry turned up at 11:30 and they brought me a lovely present, a nice vegan coffee cake that I’ll be trying out with my afternoon coffee during the course of the coming week. And I have to provide feedback on the recipe and the cake itself as it’s a new recipe that she hasn’t tried before.

people on the beach rue du nord Granville Manche Normandy France Eric HallWhen we had drunk our coffee we went out for a walk in the beautiful sunny early afternoon.

There were plenty of people down on the beach which wasn’t any surprise at all given the weather. It was quite warm for February, rather like an early May afternoon. There was not a single cloud in the sky anywhere and, just for a change there wasn’t all that much wind.

Liz, Terry and I had a lot to talk about as we walked around the path. I think that we’ve only ever seen each other once since the autumn. I’ve been on the road to Belgium quite often since October and they were stranded in the UK for quite a while.

english channel Granville Manche Normandy France Eric HallOne of the things that we discussed was the colour of the sea.

It’s a beautiful emerald greeny-blue colour in this kind of light, the kind of colour that you don’t see very often. It was rather unfortunate though that there was such a haze. It would have been the kind of weather where you might have been expected to see for miles down the coast and miles out to see but today you couldn’t even see the Ile de Chausey, never mind the Channel Islands or the lighthouse at the Cap Frehel.

For a change, we went down the steps at the far end and right around the headland on the narrow path. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been that way.

people on beach rue du port Granville Manche Normandy France Eric HallThe crowds were out around there too, walking around the path making the place look rather busy.

The people sitting on the old concrete gun emplacement with their feet dangling into the void was quite interesting, and there were even people sitting on the rocks against the harbour wall. There were a few people picnicking higher up in the cliffs, perched like seabirds on their little nooks.

We ended up back at home and Liz prepared lunch. She’d brought with her some vegan sausage rolls and a salad followed by a sticky lemon cake. It’s nice having good friends who look after me when it’s my birthday.

As I’ve said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … I don’t have many friends but those whom I do have are the best friends anyone could ever have in all of the world. Quality, not quantity.

We also had some of my ginger beer. And that was what I call “fiery” without any doubt.

After they had left I went and sat down in the bedroom and that was that for about an hour or so. I was well away with the fairies, right out of it and it took me quite a while to come round to my senses, which is quite a surprise seeing as these days I don’t have all of that many senses to come to.

Later on when I recovered I went off and started the weekend’s cooking, hours late.

First task was the pizza. I’d taken some dough out of the freezer earlier and that was now defrosted so I kneaded it again, rolled it and stuck it into the pizza tray to proof again.

And while that was doing, I made myself another batch of kefir, with the last of the mandarines from Christmas. I used those cheap mechanical bottles that I’d bought a while back but replaced the seals with some of the spare ones that I have which were more substantial.

While I was at it, I set another batch off on its way ready for next week.

Some pastry was next and I made myself a jam pie with some of the leftover strawberry jam. And with the pastry that was left I made a quick apple turnover.

home made vegan pizza jam pie apple turnover place d'armes Granville Manche Normandy France Eric HallBy now the pizza base was ready so while the pie and the turnover were baking I assembled my pizza. I had no fresh mushrooms so I drained a tin and dried them in the oven for 10 minutes. While the pizza was baking I fed the sourdough and the ginger mother solution.

Having had a big lunch, I wasn’t all that hungry so I only had a couple of slices of the pizza, and it was quite delicious. I’m going to have the rest with a baked potato one night this week. That should make quite a nice tea.

Tonight I’m going to bed early. There’s a radio programme to be prepared tomorrow of course and while I’ve already done some of it while I was away, it still needs a good deal of work.

And for some reason or other that I don’t quite understand, I’m feeling rather more optimistic about this coming week.

That’s a feeling that I can’t explain.

Wednesday 5th March 2014 – THE VIEW FROM MY HOTEL BEDROOM …

view from balcony hotel gaspa ordino andorra… was quite impressive late this afternoon. Not quite right now though because the sun had disappeared behind the mountains but 5 minutes earlier it was warm and gorgeous and I’d been sitting out on the balcony reading a book.

You may be wondering why I’d been doing that but the truth is that I was totally whacked.


bus L6 ordino andorra la vellaI’ve been on the public transport again – something that I seem to be doing more and more as I go about my business. This time though, it’s the bus. Something that I’ve not used since I was in Montreal in August.

Just €1:80 it was from the hotel into Andorra la Vella, the capital, and that’s good value at any price, especially as parking for anything over 2:00 metres (Caliburn is 2:12 metres) costs the proverbial arm and leg. And being on the bus is much less stressful too.


andorra national sports stadiumI found the Andorran National Sports stadium too. Andorra were playing Moldova in a friendly so I was determined to go to watch the game but, as you might expect, the best-laid plans of mice and men quite often go gang awa’ when I’m involved. The stadium is undergoing a total rebuilding and the match was being played elsewhere. GRRRRR!

But what a stadium! I’ve seen better stadia than this in the Puy-de-Dôme league back home. I’m not surprised that it’s undergoing rebuilding, but a well-known phrase involving silk purses and sows’ ears springs readily to mind.


historic old town andorra la vellaStill, my journey wasn’t totally wasted. I spent most of the day wandering around to see what there was to see.

This is part of the old city and you can see how the place must have looked before the money started arriving. It’s a shame that there isn’t a great deal left. Everywhere you go, there are modern buildings and major construction work and it is a little depressing to see history being swept away. Although what seems to be being swept away are buildings from the 1950s and 60s and the first stage of reconstruction.


old parliament building casa de la vall andorra la vellaI found the old Parliament building – replaced by a modern multi-million Euro concrete-and-glass monstrosity three or four years ago. There was a free guided tour on offer too – in English I was told, but it turned out to be a fine example of classical Spanglish renowned the world over.

Apparently there were originally 24 members of the Parliament but this was enlarged to 28 some years ago. Now there is a proposal to enlarge the Parliament to 42 (cynics amongst you can well-speculate upon the reasons) and so a larger building is required.


old parliament building casa de la vall andorra la vellaI’m not quite sure why though – a good weekend’s work with three or four sledgehammers and a couple of acrows and we could soom make room for the required number of seats (if they really do need to enlarge the number of deputies) in the Casa de la Vall but of course, that wouldn’t make a nice shiny new office building though, would it?

I shall have to stop doing this – I’m becoming far too cynical for my own good. But then again, I blame my lifelong employment in the tourist industry and at the seat of European political power.


church st esteve andorra la vellaNext to the Casa de la Vall is the Church of St Esteve. Not Esteban as you might expect but Esteve, for one thing that I learnt here in Andorra la Velle is that the official language of the country is not Spanish but, since 1993, Catalan. No wonder I’ve been having difficulty making myself understood here.

The church dates from the 12th Century but fell victim to what in the UK would have been described as “Victorian Frightfulness”, which is a great shame.


thermal therapeutic baths andorra la vellaWe talked about modern buildings just now, and here’s one. What do you think that this might be?

My first thought was that it was a cathedral designed by someone from the Donald Gibson School of Wanton Vandalism in Coventry, but it is in fact a temple of the modern 21st Century religion – a fitness centre and thermal spa. I did go for a wander around inside but, quite frankly, it left me speechless and, as you know, that’s not something that happens very often.


old stone building andorra la vellaBut occasionally, on my travels I did come across the odd building that was worth photographing, but it wasn’t always possible to find a good viewpoint for a photograph without being cluttered up my modern buildings, road signs and vehicular traffic.

Hence, a photo like this is something of a rarity, which is a shame. But then, I do wonder just how long this building will be here.


tax free shop selling guns andorra la vellaEvery third shop in Andorra is a tax-free shop, so it seems. And while yesterday we had a photograph of how friendly and accommodating the country is to terrorist bombers, here is a photo of how friendly and accommodating the country is to mass murderers, school assassins and armed robbers. Every weapon you want, and ammunition too, on display in the windows.

But with these tax-free shops, it’s clearly illegal to label the products with their prices. Seeing a priced item in one of these places is a rarity. My Spanish isn’t up to much, my Catalan even less, and so I’m not likely to be able to ask the prices or even to engage the shopkeeper in meaningful conversation, so from a real tourist point of view, these shopkeepers are wasting their time.


solar panels andorra la vellaAndorra la Vella means “Andorra in the Valley” and so I couldn’t overlook the opportunity of taking a photo of the valley once I had found a suitable viewpoint.

But it wasn’t necessarily the valley that had caught my eye, but if you look at the roof in the very foreground of the photo, you’ll see that it’s equipped with some solar panels. We do occasionally have some sun here in Andorra la Vella – there was a bit today in fact – and it does clear the mountains across the valley.

So there you are.


So no wonder I’m whacked – especially as I also had a busy night too.

While I worked at Shearings in the summer season all those years ago, I had a winter job driving coaches for a local company in Crewe, with right miserable old boss in charge. Last night he had all of his coaches out, taking a huge group of passengers for a weekend to France (I’ve done this).

And all of his coaches too – even down to an early-1960s Harrington-bodied AEC that heaven alone knows where he must have dug that up from.

Anyway, it all descended into chaos. With these 8 or 10 coaches, we each had our passenger list? But we never picked up the people we were supposed to pick up – there were amendments, additions, crossings out until the passenger list was just hopeless. And why we were not setting out intil 14:00 onn Saturday afternoon for our weekend out was something that was totally beyond me.

It did recall a real adventure with this company when I, and another driver, were taking two coaches to Blackpool. We each had our passenger list but when I arrived at the pickups there were very few of my passengers but a load of other people who were waiting for a coach from the company for whom I was working. The other driver had arrived first and just picked up the first passengers that he could, and left me the rest.

“Nothing very important in the significant run of things” I hear you say, but in fact the coaches were doing different optional excursions – hence the two coaches – and this led to all kinds of confusion and recriminations, and the other driver making alternative arrangements with regard to employment opportunities.