The say started with some fabulous efficiency…. it rained heavily overnight, and whilst still damp and heavy drops blowing off the trees, but wasn’t actually raining.  Over time we have got quite good at knowing what we can all do to pack up and also have accumulated a good selection of equipment that packs down very well.  A man came up to us in the last site and asked us if we call the van the Tardis as they were amazed with how much we could fit in!  Once packed we showered and changed for the journey over the mountains to France.

We estimated that the journey would be around 4 hours however, there were some big jams which meant we were much slower.  Even a traffic in freckle is entertaining with all the other people enthusiastically waving, racing us or getting cross about our ability to pull away fast up a hill!  I was really struck by the size of the infrastructure in places in Spain… road over road over road all filled with cars… all snaking their way through the kills through tunnels!

We had a pit stop into a decathlon to buy some new camper van towels and the scamps bought some new goggles to add to their collection! We had a mcdonalds lunch and then did a ram raid on the spirits department in the supermarket to bring home!  The Gin and such like were so cheap!

We finally arrived at the campsite around 7pm after being slightly delayed by the border crossing.  We were on a tight timescale as the scamps desperately wanted to go to “torro piscine”, so we hastily set up and had a quick bbq before heading out…. rain coats packed!  Torre piscine is hard to describe…. basically there is a swimming pool, there are bulls and the rest is euro pop meets testosterone fuelled mayhem! basically the audience nominate themselves to do games, with a bull in the ring.  It is brutal! No animals are hurt but lots of people… including a child in the “Childrens race”  The scamps love it as does stew… i watch with one eye shut but it is none the less entertaining!

A late night for all of us, but happy faces! When fraser is old enough he is going be a bull fighter!! Great!

After a lovely evening sitting outside last night, I enjoyed the sounds of screaming babies, barking dogs and snoring men!  it wasn’t the most peaceful of nights, but the children and ginger slept well!

We woke up around 9 and I had a fab shower…. the showers here are great… no button pressing, just on and off like normal!  We broke in to the 2kg jar of jam I made to bring with some bread and had managed to locate the last jar of popping candy chocolate spread from last years trip in the back of the van with some fresh bread.

Over breakfast we hatched a plan…. got ready and headed off to the beach on our bikes.  It wasn’t a long ride.  The beach was long and sandy… it kind of wraps around into a bay with mountains behind.  Unfortunately the architecture of concrete blocks of apartments does little to compliment the view, but a wide path between them and the beach were a great route for a cycle along and it was super clean.

The sea was lovely… for the benefit of my super cool surfer friend Mr Langdown, the waves were clean! I’m not sure how to say they were big but calm in a cool way but thats what I would say they were!  The kids went splashing in the waves straight away… meanwhile stew and I thought we would teach Andy Murray a thing or two and have a brutal game of bat and ball!

We all needed a wee so had to go back in the sea for a play, before getting told off by the life guard for being too far out!

We had forgotten to take one of the 5 bottles of suncream (remember, I’m dealing with gingers here!) to the beach so thought it would be wise to head for shade…. we cycled along to see the other side of the bay first but were disappointed with the lack of ice cream stalls and then headed back to the campsite.

After a bite to eat the children wanted to go in the pool.   Accustomed as we are to continental swimming pool rules, Fraser donned his budgie smugglers, and went on in….. promptly to be told that in Spain we can wear shorts but have to wear a swimming hat!

iI wasn’t until the children had their swimming hats on that I realised why people ask me if they are twins.

The pool closed shortly after so we headed to the bar, where we had a beer and played Yhatzee… the rematch! Fraser was the champion!

We popped in and stocked up for the evening with an even more expensive wine… stew bought it and he splashed out €2.80, but its not nicer than the €2.10 one! once we had supplies of bread and wine we went into the town.  Again, it was surrounded by picturesque backdrop but concrete ugly buildings…. we thought we would head to the harbour for an ice cream, but the Spanish seem to take that quite literally… there were just boats and that was it! 

As we came back from the harbour passed the beach Stew found the reason that we should have watched the beach volleyball at the olympics!  

Once I tore him away from the beach I remembered I had spotted a bar beside an ice-cream parlour and decided we should head back into the town for the perfect combination.   The ice creams were huge and id seen someone drinking a gin and tonic…. and they were huge too! we had a the perfect afternoon sitting in the sun chatting. 

Once I got back on my bike to cycle home I had the feeling that the gin was much stronger than in the UK and after a wobbly ride home and a few thoughts of what a lovely time I was having, we arrived home safe for our last night in  Spain.  We had a fab bbq and are now sitting watching the bats with tired children asleep and our wine nearly gone!

This morning got off to a very slow start… the scamps didn’t wake up until 9:15, and I was sent off to the spa for a very theatrical massage!  I’m not sure it was supposed to be as theatrical as it was but the chap doing it seemed to enjoy the dramatic moves!!

After the massage I disobeyed the strong order not to drink coffee (come on!!), we headed to the restaurant for breakfast… where I had 3 cups… Stew and I had some pastries and a full english whilst the children had cereal and more croissants.

After breakfast we headed to the back of the bar to hear a talk on dolphins and whales.  We saw some dolphins off the back of the boat, and apparently the group that were out at 6am saw some orca whales up close.

Youre going to just have to believe me that there are striped dolphins in this photo!

A competitive game of yhatzee followed and before we knew it, it was time to get off the ferry.  I am convinced we were the last vehicle off the boat, and Im more convinced they take a look at the van and tuck us somewhere out of the way so that if Freckle doesn’t start we don’t hold everyone up!  Of course Freckle started faultlessly and we soon had our turn to get off!

I was really blown away by how beautiful this part of the world is…. the blue sea and rocky green mountains were beautiful. 

We headed for the campsite, and eventually got found our home for the night. http://campinglaredo.com/en/

After checking in, I took the precaution of popping into the shop for a bottle of wine.  Now usually in a campsite shop I would go for the absolute cheapest bottle, this time, I splashed out and went for the 3rd cheapest…. it blew the budget at €2.10.  So after a great BBQ, and the speediest camp set up ever we are enjoying a few moments peace before heading to bed for the night.

Welcome back for 2106!

Last year was a bumpy one for Team Adamson… for those not up to speed it involved a major house move (to a “project”), change of school for the scamps, some gas leaks, some ceilings falling down, a spell without a back on the house, a life changing diagnosis, and a long spell in hospital.  Through it all we learnt what we love , and what makes life great for all of us… we fantasised about a great big adventure in our camper.

There were a three things that we had to do on our adventure….

Start in Spain and work our way home

Be away for a calendar month

Cover all our best bits and find some new ones

Tonight I’m on a ferry to Spain, with Team Adamson, with a calendar month booked off work, a plan of the best places we have loved staying and some new places I hope we will love as much as the old ones. 

As I type, I am sitting in the corridor outside out cabin…. listening to terrible bingo entertainer, with a warm gin and tonic in a plastic tooth brush cup whilst the children go to sleep!  The gin is beefeater, one of my favourites, and the company is a big ginger chap, who I’m coincidentally rather fond of! Perfik!

So the trip… a calendar month… 9 stops planned, travelling from Spain to England.  We have the essentials; oyster knives, an inflatable boat and a candelabra, and a wine box of scrumpy cider… what could go wrong?

We grabbed the children 15 minutes before the end of school on the last day of term, and were at the ferry port within an hour…. on the boat within 30 mins and sitting sipping prosecco on deck soon after.  Grandma and Grandad were waiting for us to pass on the shoreline and penny could hear dads whistle on the deck… the other passengers thought it was very amusing.  All I could think was how long my dads arms looked!!

We treated ourself to a lovely dinner in the restaurant on the boat, the kids meal was fairly standard, whilst ours was pretty special.  The children were so tired they asked to go and get into their pjs!

After a visit to the duty free we settled down… with the annoying woman doing a bingo in the background… then we heard the words “quiz”, our ears pricked up and we decided that since we could hear every word they were saying that we would have a bash at it!  we answered all 20 questions and came joint 1st with 4 other teams… it was a tie break situation.  The annoying lady stood in the middle of the dance floor, I had assumed a track start position, the question was read and the winning team was the first to high 5 her!  ready to give the answer , with stew at the top of the stairs so he could help out…. I knew the answer straight away, and with the most nimble of sprints, we snatched victory winning an enormous Toblerone and a pack of playing cards.  

We are now back in our corner, with gin, plenty to chat about and a cracking adventure ahead of us!

This year we are setting sail for Spain, and making our way back through France…. We couldn’t be more excited but have some more packing to do… will write again soon!