Playa Tropicana and beyond. 20/7 - 25/7.

Following Benicassim we stayed at a caravan park called Playa Tropicana for a few days. Great surroundings and facilities, about 60 km's north of Benicassim and right on the coast. We went to the beach which is directly opposite the campsite and apart from that have nothing major to report as we were relaxing. Ahhhh! Nice! We managed to push start the van ourselves this time thanks to good positioning at the site. We drove to Barcelona with the hope of sorting the starter motor but have not been successful. We took the van to a Fiat mechanic as we were told that the motor in the Talbot is a Fiat Ducato. The guys at Fiat were generous to us with their time however they could not help us. They reckon that the serial numbers on the engine don't match up with Fiat numbers. It is most likely a Peugeot meaning that the Phat White Duke is actually a Fat faux Duke. Anyhoo, we are now in a lovely campsite called Camping Barcelona. Tonight will be our third night here and it has been very enjoyable. Yesterday (Fri 24/7) we caught the bus from the campsite into Barcelona. Very convenient as it went from right outside the campsite to the heart of the city and back. On our tour back in 2000 we visited Barcelona but I had forgotten how lovely a city it is. First stop was La Rambla. After a yummy espresso and a chocolate croissant (yeah baby) we walked down the paved foot traffic only part that runs down the centre of La Rambla. We took in a visit to the Museu de l'Erotica for a bit of a giggle. On display is a variety of different artworks from all different cultures. Some more artistic than others... as you can imagine. Things of note were: original Playboy covers from early editions (very modest by today's standards); some prints from the 1800s (beautiful artworks in their own right even though they are a bit raunchy) and an original copy of a Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe) calendar. Apparently Ms Monroe was paid the exact sum that she needed to get her car out of hock and that is the reason she agreed to do the saucy shoot. The things we do hey! After a walk towards the port we needed a bit of rest so recharged with a lemonade and watched the world go by for a bit. We pushed on walking through a few side streets and visiting a funky bar for another drink and a snack. We took in some window shopping before jumping on the Metro to see La Sagrada Familia. An amazing building that was started in 1882 and still isn't finished. It is a pretty crazy looking building and historically very interesting so check out the link if you want to know more about it. Our day was drawing to a close so we Metroed it back to where we started the day and treated ourselves to some consumer/exploitative/mass market fun at the Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona. We chowed down on some yummo Nachos and nearly missed the bus back whilst we were finishing up. A really enjoyable day and yes, very tiring. By the end of the day I was suffering with my first case of swollen ankles. Today has been spent chilling out by the pool. We will be on the road again tomorrow to head a bit further north. We are thinking we will try to get the van fixed once we reach France. Till then we are a bit of a comedy act with our push starting.

Benicassim 17-19/7

On the Friday we set out from the van area to a bus put on by the festival to go to the beach. Heaps of other festival goers had the same idea (it's what you do in sunny Spain) so when we got there it was heaving. There was still enough room to find a spot and have a swim though, very nice. We also had lunch at a local hotel which turned out to be pretty reasonable in price. Kirsten was very impressed with her calamari. We went back to the campsite where a bit of a storm started to develop. By mid evening it was developing into a gale. There were also a lot of sirens in the distance as it looked like something was on fire just beyond the confines of the whole site (we never did find out what it was). We ventured out to see a bit of Paul Weller on the main stage, the sound was affected quite a lot by the wind and he ended up cutting his set short due to the weather. It was very blustery, dirty and starting to get cold by this point. Kirsten returned to the van while I stuck it out for another hour waiting to see if Kings of Leon would play but unfortunately that was it for the evening as event organisers deemed it unsafe for bands to continue. The campsite was strewn with rubbish and crap flying everywhere by this stage, heaps of dust and sand had come in through our roof vent. The next morning it was calm again but there was litter, trashed tents, debris and belongings all over the place. We spent the day in the van trying to catch up on a bit of sleep before we saw our first Spanish band of the evening, Unfinished Sympathy who were quite entertaining. Next up was supposed to be Lilly Allen but she was a no show due to illness. Maximo Park played instead, which was quite good as they were meant to play after Kings of Leon the night before. Lots of fun and onstage antics. Elbow were on next, a really good performance from them, I'd say better than Roskilde although I admit I did fall asleep during some of their set at Roskilde due to the late nights. Franz Ferdinand finished off the bands component for Saturday night and they got the capacity crowd jumping to 'This Fire' in particular, they were clearly enjoying themselves and the crowd lapped it up. Our last day at Benicassim was another warm one, we first set out to see Calexico at about 8pm, then TV on the Radio on the same stage so that was good for a bit of relaxing in one spot. TVotR played a great set. We'd not seen them before having missed this year's Adelaide Big Day Out. They were well worth seeing. Second to last we saw the Psychedelic Furs, who I was quite looking forward to. They sounded pretty good, it was funny as their singer seemed to be surprised that people were applauding and getting into it. They played the obligatory 'Pretty in Pink' - well too. The last band for us on the night was The Killers and I have to admit I was surprised at how good they were. I think it helped that a 60% or so British crowd (who love them) probably brought out their best and they performed really well. Once again, I forgot how many hit singles this band has had and they went through most of them with some huge singalong moments from the crowd, they absolutely lapped it up. We retired to the van very worn out but pretty elated by everyone we'd managed to see over the four days. Leaving Benicassim on the Monday we were able to get a new spare tyre but the local garage was unable to help us with our starter motor issues, we are hoping we can get it sorted in Barcelona.

Benicassim 15-16/7

We set out for Benicassim from San Sebastian on Wednesday 15th. Not too much of a long drive compared to some, around 500 kilometres. We managed to have a couple of dramas on the way though, firstly we had to refuel (carefully) without stopping the engine and then secondly we had a tyre blowout on the motorway, about 200 km's from Benicassim. Many of the countries in Europe require safety equipment so I put out the reflective triangle on the side of the road, put on the reflective vest and set to work changing the tyre which had blown a huge hole in it. Fortunately we've been traveling at pretty modest speeds, under 100 km's an hour so we don't strain the van too much. I had pretty much finished the tyre change when a bloke pulled up, a Brit who saw the GB sticker on the back of our van and wanted to lend a hand to who he thought were his fellow countrymen. He helped me push the van while Kirsten roll started it and... success! When we arrived in Benicassim it was slightly better organised than Bilbao in that there were signs, but unfortunately the staff and police manning various checkpoints or roundabouts weren't very helpful. We eventually learned that the carpark was closed in the evening and we'd have to come back Thursday morning. We managed to find a park in the very busy city centre (on a slope for the next morning) and tried to get some sleep amongst all the racket being made by people coming down from the campsite in the hills to party central in the town. On Thursday we set back out to the campsite after a late breakfast and got the van onto the site at last. Thankfully we were able to hook up to some power for lights and a fan (thanks to Garry our van neighbour!) - in Spanish fashion they'd under estimated the amount of sockets needed for the vans on site so we piggy backed next doors. Once we had our wristbands on we felt a bit more settled. While the main site opened up we relaxed listening to the first Spanish band of the day, The Coronas. We then saw The View, who we don't know a lot of but they sounded ok. They certainly had a family of Brits near us rocking out, the dad was encouraging his kids to rock out with abandon. Next up were Mystery Jets, who seemed to have a little trouble with their sound but they came across well. Later we saw Gang of Four on one of the smaller stages, the more intimate setting suited them and we were pretty pleased to see one of the seminal 'Post-Punk' bands, especially (in retrospect) as we missed seeing Magazine the night after. The band area was a bit smaller than Roskilde and fairly open so it was quite easy to get around, something we were glad of as everything was on quite late. We ended up skipping Oasis to see New York band, The Walkmen. You might remember this song:

One excited punter said it made his night on the way out, we were also pretty impessed. Final band on opening night (that we were staying up for) was Glasvegas - putting in a great effort in front of a mostly British crowd, covering 'Be my Baby' and 'Wonderwall' as well as a huge singalong to their hit 'Daddy's Gone'. Returning to the van we thought our proximity to the band site might cause a bit of an issue but thankfully it wasn't too hard to sleep, helped by the fact that not many of our neighbours seemed to be partying hard. Woo hoo!

Bilbao BBK - 10-11/7 and around Bilbao

As the festival started later in the evenings, we spent the heat of the day relaxing in the van and trying to catch up on a bit of sleep. As Friday night rolled around we were ready to set off up the hill again. We'd been an hour out as I didn't realise there was a time difference between France and Spain lukily we arrived just as the Kaiser Chief's kicked off their set. They sounded good and they were getting a good response from the growing crowd. Jane's Addiction were up next, we'd not seen them since Adelaide Big Day Out (I think 2003??) but they seemed to be getting into it a bit more, it might have had a lot to do with Perry Farrell's disturbing red jumpsuit/catsuit (he also slipped into a bit of 'jazzercise mode'). Dave Navarro doesn't look like he's aged at all and was possibly wearing the same outfit he wore in '03, namely just leather pants. Echo & the Bunnymen were our last stop for the evening and they sounded really good, unfortunately we didn't stay for the whole set as it was getting quite late and cold by this stage. Asian Dub Foundation, Primal Scream and Placebo were the headliners for our final night at BBK Live. ADF were good but not great so we spent a bit of time walking around the festival site. It was quite small so it had a good atmosphere, also helped by the smaller amount of attendees, around 10,000 or so. I've been waiting to see Primal Scream since we were in the UK on out last trip but their shows always sold out in record time. They played pretty well, covering songs from all over their career. Placebo probably put in the most effort of the night. They were also the most polished in terms of performance - impressive. Our late return to the van after the festival was hampered somewhat as we managed to get on the wrong bus, taking us to another part of the city. Fortunately we could stay on board, return to the festival site and get the right one. It added about half an hour to the return trip which we didn't really need at that point but it couldn't be helped. On Sunday we set off for a walk along the riverside to have some lunch near the Guggenheim Museum. We had a bit of fun deciphering the lunch menu as our Spanish is improving at a snail's pace. We both ended up with a nice meal. Afterwards we had some good advice from the local tourist office on where to stay next and then we went to the Guggenheim. There's a great living sculpture out the front named 'Puppy' which is made up of flowering plants, the photos might describe it best. Inside the museum we took the audio guide which discussed the inspiration behind the design as well as some of the choices in materials, it's a very impressive building. Some of the pieces on the ground floor were commissioned specifically to fit the spaces so they are really impressive. No photos unfortunately as they are not allowed inside but you might see some if you check out the link. We spent a few hours wandering around the museum, we didn't really like the work of the artist in residence on the second floor (personal taste the only reason here) but the permanent collection on the third floor was worth seeing. We set back to our van in the late afternoon to head off. Upon leaving we needed a push start from a team of travelers camping nearby. After that, it was only a short trip to a caravan park in San Sebastian, it featured nice grounds and park facilities (clean showers). The next day was marked by some heavy rain which was a bit average as we'd just washed pretty much everything we owned. Not to worry though, the Spanish sun sorted it all out the next day. We had some more campers wanting to party near us again but in the end I'm glad we didn't have a go at them as they helped us push start the van despite their hangovers.

Road to Bilbao BBK

As Tony Wilson says in the movie 24 Hour Party People (quoting somebody else) - 'the road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom'. Our road to festival excess was leading us to BBK Live in Bilbao, Spain. In order to get there, we had to get off the plane from Copenhagen, drive up to Grimsby and collect our tickets to the festival. As we landed at Heathrow a bit late due to weather difficulties, we only drove about halfway up the motorway before we needed to have some rest. We set off in the morning to arrive at Aunty Anne's early afternoon where we had a much needed clean up and cups of tea action. We ended up staying the night as the weather didn't look to flash on the forecast (thanks Aunty Anne!) and we set off reasonably early the next morning, Wednesday the 8th of July. We drove from Grimsby to Dover, then took the ferry to Calais, after which we made it to Rouen before we had a snooze at a park already full of long haul trucks and their sleeping drivers. Setting off the next morning, we had about 850 kilometres to cover to make it to Bilbao as the festival kicked off that night. It was a long day's drive and when we made it to Bilbao it became apparent that we didn't have the first clue about where the festival site was. After we had pulled into a servo to try and get some directions, we met a couple in a similar predicament. They had been to the campsite but had been turned away in their campervan (a very similar model to ours) and told to park somewhere else. They couldn't find the location of the carpark suggested to them as an alternative as their GPS had died. We were all set to lead Anton & Kim to the site (our GPS is fine) when (after a fair bit of diagnosis and battery charging - thanks Anton!) we discovered that our starter motor had died. After a push start, we were on our way and we found the carpark - a large free area where quite a few campers had already set up. With our long drive and then the drama of the breakdown we were both pretty tired at this point but we dragged ourselves out of the van to head up to the first night's action at BBK. We walked about 25 minutes from the van, uphill to a city bus station. We eventually found the festival shuttle bus about a block away from the bus terminal (more signs were needed). A quick trip into the hills, followed by another 25 minute walk and we'd made it to the festival site, very tired but pleased we'd made it in time to hear a some of Depeche Mode's set. Sadly we had missed the Ting Tings and Editors but due to van circumstance it couldn't be helped. Depeche were in good form, they played around with some of the arrangements on some songs so that came across well. Dave Gahan seemed to be suspiciously active in encouraging the crowd to wave or clap along, at times it looked a touch 'jazzercise'. Thankfully it didn't detract to much from the performance as a whole. Next up was Basement Jaxx, but as we were falling in a heap by this stage we headed back to the van and got into bed about 2am (I think).

Denmark and Roskilde Festival 1/7-6/7

We arrived in Denmark after a very early morning start on Wednesday 1 July. The train system was relatively easy to work out and we made our way from the airport through to Copenhagen central station where we changed trains to get out to the town of Roskilde. On route we saw many fellow festival goers, from all over the place. We had a bit of a chat to an English couple and shared a taxi with them to the festival site, but it turned out we couldn’t catch up with them once the festival started as I didn’t have any mobile coverage out in the Danish fields. We made it to the campsite by early afternoon where had a tent already set up as part of our ticket - nice. Due to our super early start we had a very early night. On Thursday the bands didn’t kick off until 5pm so we headed along to check out what else the festival had to offer. As well as the usual food and market stalls there was also a series of large skate ramps and bmx bowls. On Thursday afternoon we checked out some locals going through their paces and performing some pretty decent tricks. Apparently on the Wednesday there was more of a competition and some DJ’s playing so we missed out there but we were still happy with what we saw. Once the bands kicked off we went into the main complex, a lot easier to walk between the stages than at Glastonbury, only a mere ten to fifteen minutes rather than half an hour upwards. Thursday night we watched a couple of bands but ended up having a reasonably early night as we were still tired. Unfortunately we shared proximity with a group of louts who were keen to stay up and make a racket for the duration of our stay so that meant we didn’t have the best night’s sleep. They were also making friends with a group of Sydney boys in the tent next to us who could only be described as BOGANS. Friday turned out to be the biggest day in regards to the band schedule, we saw Satyricon, an old school ‘Black Metal’ band who turned out to be excellent, Isis, Mono (for one track) as well as a reformed Faith No More who were sensational. Mike Patton and the new guitarist (formerly of Guns’n’Roses apparently) were resplendent in coloured suits. The band were in great form, cranking through songs from their whole career in great style. A bit of band tension was aired on the stage as well, with the new guitarist accusing the drummer of throwing drum sticks in his direction. Mike and Roddy were keen to explain that ‘this is what we do’ and that the audience would have guiltily been expecting on stage fireworks anyway. Thankfully it didn’t end up detracting from the performance or their decent encore. We also saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, in even better form than their Glasto appearance, so that was fantastic. Oasis were on after that, we’d not seen them before and they sounded pretty good. They also seemed to be focusing on the greatest hits to a good response from the crowd. We stayed to 1am to check out Nine Inch Nails as they are meant to be retiring for an unspecified period following this tour. They were in top form, cranking it out for an almost two hours so were back in the tent by about half past three. Tracks from the last twenty years got an airing, including 'Head Like a Hole', 'Burn', 'Wish', 'Gave Up', 'Hurt' - awesome stuff. I was able to get relatively close to the front of the stage so we’ve ended up with some good photos from that. Just prior to the end of the set, Kirsten and I were standing well back to the side of the stage when I was knocked into by some Danish revellers running past. I ended up with a sore lower back and crashed into Kirsten, knocking both of us to the ground. Thankfully neither of us was seriously hurt and the guys responsible just ran off into the darkness. It was getting light at about 4.30am so we didn’t get the best night’s sleep (when combined with our neighbour’s revelry) so we ended up having a slow start and a quieter day on Saturday. Thankfully the band schedule allowed us to take it easy. We went along to see Trail of Dead, Elbow and a couple of tracks from Amadou et Miriam without missing too much else and then had an earlier night. The last day, Sunday, was a good one. We had breakfast at a food stall near the field where our ‘Get-a-Tent’, (set up tent) was located. We ate there each morning as it was easy to get to and pretty tasty. Not cheap though, we found the prices of food and drink in general to be pretty expensive even by festival standards. Pete Doherty was on at 2pm, we saw most of his set and he was in pretty good form, probably better than Glasto as well. The Eagles of Death Metal proved to be a fantastic highlight as they were clearly enjoying themselves and ended up being quite humble in front of an enthusiastic crowd. We got to see a bit more of Madness than we did at Glasto which we were glad of. They were having a good time getting the crowd fired up. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played after that, the band in better form than at Glasto, with better sound and we were also a lot closer to the action which was great. Our last band of the night was Coldplay, who we’ve not seen since T in the Park, a Scottish festival, in 2001. It’s easy to forget how many hits this band have had. They played a solid set of hits as well as a cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean in tribute to the late, great Wacko. The music continued late into the night but there wasn’t anything we really wanted to see so we headed back at the end of Coldplay’s set. Monday morning we had our final shower (yes! showers at a festival! - they were included in our ticket as well as flushing toilets) before catching a bus back to Roskilde town and then the train to Copenhagen. Thankfully we could leave our luggage at the railway station and we had a few hours to have a look around the town and one of the main shopping streets. We didn’t end up buying very much but it was nice to have a look around and have a drink. The flight back to London was delayed due to poxy weather in England but we ended up getting back to the UK after 9pm to pick up the van. We had tickets to pick up from Aunty Anne’s again so I drove for about half the distance up the motorway before we had a well earned rest at a service stop.

Leaving Glastonbury...

Took a long time. We just relaxed during the day and left at about 2.30pm when the queue out of the camp site had diminished. The motorway heading back towards London was heavily congested though and made worse by at least a dozen cars on the side of the road. Most seemed to be victims of the warmer weather resulting in radiator troubles. We were very relieved to finally arrive at our van park in Chertsey outside London where we we ate and then collapsed in a heap. Looking around the next morning there were quite a few animals, including squirrels, rabbits and some camper dogs (not camping on their own but with their owners). The next day we headed into central London for a few errands and the traffic was totally ridiculous, it took about two hours to get into central London, after which we had the dubious pleasure of paying the congestion charge.