It’s not fair! Why are these postings called “Postcards from Harry” when I’m doing half of them?

 Wha’ever …

Grumpy old box!

Oi … with age comes wisdom.

Not in your case.

I’m not much older than you anyway … and I’m only grumpy cos you keep waking me up!

Si tu veux …

 

Labenne, Sunday 30th October. We’re still here! THEY are hoping that the weather forecast is accurate and today they’ll be able to pack up a dry awning. Besides, they had a special excursion planned for yesterday.

 

They’d seen some posters and leaflets about ‘La Rhuna’ and the little train to the top of the mountain – 905m. (Scafell Pike 978m), so they found the station at the top of a road pass and picnicked beside the car park.

 

  

The train ride was quite exciting (they say) with some very steep gradients,

 but the cloud cover lingered all afternoon and they never got to see the splendid panorama as on the publicity. (Google ‘La Rhuna’ and follow any thread, especially “images …”) (Actually, some of the photos on the web are not very different from some of mine – apart from the blue skies! SKT)

At the top trains came and went…

 

 …while they hung around hoping the cloud would lift, which it kept appearing to do, very briefly, then it closed in again. They had a coffee and browsed the gift shops – bought some gifts, too.

 

However at 5pm they decided to board the second-last train and by queueing in good time they were able to choose a good place on the train for the ride down. The views were better on the way down as the skies cleared,

 

 and, of course, as they drove down towards the coast, there was the sight of La Rhuna’s summit completely free of cloud! (That’s life, init?)

 

On the coast, another slight disappointment, or error of judgement; they made for Hendaye (the last town in France) hoping to see the sun go down over and into the sea. A really careful look at the map will show that Hendaye actually faces north with a fairly high promontory to the west, so the sun went down behind the hills and not into the sea at all! Silly Daddy!

 

Still, after looking at several options, they chose a sea-side restaurant and enjoyed pizzas to rival a certain Italian restaurant in Bowness, well known to some readers. His was a delicious selection of fish and seafood, with extra prawns (big ones, shell-on, messy!) instead of olives.

 

The drive ‘home’ was a bit expensive because of the use of the motorway – HE refused to ‘do’ Bayonne in the dark!