0396 Santander to Burgos

13th Jan 2016

Rain, cloud, snow ploughs, and an incredible cathedral.

We woke up to heavy and continuous rain – Oh no !  I hate wet pack ups in the morning.  To be fair, we have had very few really bad ones – Unfortunately this was one of the worst on the entire trip !!  We were close to the sea, and I guess the rain had blown in overnight, and there was nothing we could do except try to pack up as much in the dry as we could, and then just put our rain coats on for the last bit when we had to put the awning and pop top away.  So by the time we jumped in the van and headed down the road, we were a bit wet !

0395 Portsmouth UK to Santander Spain

12th January 2016

Life on the ocean wave……

The time has come to hit the road again, and at 6 am on the 12^th Jan we left Margaret’s in Milford in the dark and headed to Portsmouth to catch an 8.45 am ferry to Santander Spain.  We had decided to catch the ferry to Spain instead of driving through France because it was only a few pounds more expensive, yet saved us 2 or more days of solid driving.  Whether we would have bounced and crashed quite so much if we had driven rather than sailed is a mute point !

0394 Christmas and the New Year

Christmas 2015

Great fun despite the flu !!

As I write this, Christmas and New Year have come and gone, and at 5 am tomorrow morning we are off to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Spain, and then we drive down through Spain to Morocco.  But more of that later !  In the meantime, we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year with very close friends and family, even if the local winter bugs decided to do their best to thwart our fun !

0393 Nürnberg Christmas Markets, Germany

16^th – 18^th December 2015

Wonderful - But no snow !!!

We had booked a trip to the Nürnberg Christmas Markets in central Germany several months ago, in the hope and expectation that it would be at least cold, if not snowy – A real start to our Christmas in Europe.  Our good friends the Skidmores had never been to these markets before either, so the four of us were booked to fly there just for a couple of days.

0392 Winchester Cathdral Christmas Markets

13^th December 2015

Roast chestunts, German sausages and Ice Skating with the family

Every year at Christmas time, my sister’s family of nieces, cousins, grandchildren etc traditionally go to the Christmas Markets held in the courtyards around Winchester Cathedral, where the adults drink mulled wine and eat mince pies, while the younger ones go ice skating in a temporary outdoor ice rink which is erected every year for Christmas.

0391 Brighton and Lotus Things !

11^th December 2015

Brighton Pier and Lotus temptations !

A few days later Janet and I set off down to Brighton.  She had always wanted to see Brighton Pier, and I had never been down there either, so we set off to explore despite the weather being a bit wet and gloomy. 

0390 Around Effingham

28^th Nov – 10^th Dec 2015

Rugby, cycle rides, and country walks

For two weeks we were house sitting John and Di Skidmore’s home in Surrey while they were in Barbados.  More accurately, we were Percy sitting – Their Maine Coon cat which, needless to say, rules the house !  Luckily he is extremely friendly, especially to people who feed him !