Not your normal Christmas....

Belen in Cartagena (a small corner of a
very large display)

A Spanish alternative xmas tree

G.  Well it's been a very different run up to xmas! Sunshine, warmth and no pressure!  We went into Cartagena with our friends for tapas and to look at the Belen (the Spanish take on the Nativity scene) and the xmas lights - a nice change from 'over-the-top' UK. 

Miami or La Manga strip?

Very tropical looking.

Next day ( 22nd ) we had a walk along the Mar Menor at Mar de Cristal and the sea was so calm you could see the reflections of the hotels on the other side on La Manga. It was so quiet and peaceful it felt like the 21st Dec had really happened! . 

Juvenile black necked grebe (unless you
know otherwise)

Avocet

A proper tablecloth!! (thank you
Dorothy & Brian)

Bolly from Bron - excellent

Xmas day was spent cycling to the wild beach near the nature reserve at San Pedro for a champagne picnic.  Little bit cloudy but still warm enough to eat out! On the way, as well as seeing some flamingos, we saw avocets and some young black-necked grebes.

The Yaris has left the building.

Sunrise in Torre

Sunrise in Torre

Sunrise in Torre

After 10 years of sterling service, our trusty Yaris (which never let us down) which got us to Spain through gale force winds and mountains, has been sold. Really sorry to see it go but it was surplus to requirements, so sold it to an English estate agent/wheeler dealer who has lived in Spain for 20 years, who I suspect already had a buyer for it to go back to UK. I have no doubt it will get back to UK with no problems, and give many more years of service there - great car!

Sunset from the roof

Storage space is turning out to be a problem here, so numerous trips to local furniture shops and Ikea in Murcia have been necessary. We have enough to manage with for now, and will re-assess in a month.
Sunsets have been stunning over the last few nights due to the low cloud last thing at night. Also managed to get up to see a sunrise on the coast on Friday, which was equally as stunning.

Sunset from the roof

A faulty phone box from the aerial meant we had no phone for 4 days (which we didn't realise - we just thought no-one was ringing us), but all sorted now after a visit from the Teleast engineer.

Sunset from the roof

Still need to get some bits (headlamps etc) to get the Mazda legal in Spain, but all in hand now with a UK supplier I've used for years - just the Spanish paperwork to deal with now!!

Connected !

Our link with UK

We are now connected to the world wide web courtesy of Teleast, who have put us up a very nice satellite dish so we can get on t'internet from our house. They supply a wireless router, so we can get connected in any room (or outside) which is just what we wanted. Speeds are not great, but we have all the time in the world to wait, so that is not an issue. We also have a landline phone with free unlimited calls to any UK landline, and 60 mins of free calls to any Spanish mobile. All this through the satellite dish! Cost is only €38 per month, which is quite reasonable.
We have also utilised the satellite pole ( which they charged us €20 for!) to put up an anemometer to gauge the windspeed and direction, so it was put to good use.

A pan and a half still left 

Also today went to a huge paella for 500 people in the local tent used for council events, organised in aid of fund raising for the starving of the world. A very worthwhile cause which was very well attended.

Feeding one of the 500 

A very worthwhile cause - please support.

If you were wondering....

Sorry to do this folks, but if you were wondering why we came out here...  It's 3.00pm on Sunday, 2nd of December 2012, and we're on the roof terrace in full, glorious sun!! (After a hard day cycling along the Mar Menor.....)
Keep warm and safe in UK, and think of us shivering when the sun goes in!

Definitely NOT Bolton!

Not goodbye...........just see you later.

G.  Well we made it!  What a journey. We were asking a lot of the poor little Yaris.  A 998 cc 3 cylinder engine that had done over 100,000 miles - she was piled high with our stuff, plus roofbox and two bikes. The suspension was put under serious pressure!  My sister arrived to wave us off after we thought we'd said all our goodbyes which was great! We had to contend with high winds down to Portsmouth but we got there in good time for the ferry, which itself set off 90 minutes late due to the weather and was battered by the wind on the first leg to Roscoff overnight. 
415km in 6hrs 14mins at av speed of 67km/h with max altitude of 166m.
We finally managed to relax the next day through the Bay of Biscay after a very busy 3 weeks clearing out the house so if you do any shopping at the BHF, Age UK or the Hospice shops, the chances are that you'll come across some of it! 
The journey from Santander was really hair-raising. Gale-force headwinds over the mountains had us down to 2nd gear at some points and nearly blew us over more than once but we safely arrived at our overnight stop south of Madrid after 9 hours - twice as long as normal! We stayed in a log cabin at a converted mill (http://www.molinodecantarranas.com) which had an on-site winery so of course it would have been rude not to sample the produce........ 
504km in 7hrs 42 mins at av speed of 65 km/h with max altitude of 1480m.

Overloaded Yaris outside the log cabin

  The final leg of the journey took us through some lovely scenery on blissfully quiet motorways to our destination which our friends here had decked out in Spanish bunting! What a surprise and a great welcome. 

The Yaris has landed (and the golden traffic cone!)

We now have to find space for all this stuff! Yesterday saw us cycling in shorts in 20 degrees of sunshine but the temperature is dropping to 15 today and it's been raining overnight - I'm sure you're all very sympathetic! Xx
420 km in 6hrs 5mins at av speed of 69 km/h with max altitude of 971m. 

The clearout continues!

Glynis here!!   Well, most of our furniture has gone.  The British Heart Foundation collected a van load yesterday to sell at their furniture and electrics shop in Bolton.  We are now sitting on garden furniture!  Some more stuff went on Freecycle to a young girl setting up in a new home with nothing so she now has pots and pans and crockery and something to sit on - it's nice to know it's helped somebody and not just ended up at the tip!  (The cat is a bit confused because he can't sit on Brian's lap of an evening on the sofa any more)  The cat - Wills - goes to his new home this weekend - many thanks to Peter and Alison for finding him a home with one of their friends. Have been trawling through all of Hannah's schoolwork from the primary years.  We've kept some choice pieces but most of it has to go.  Also, why has Brian kept all of his cycling stuff from the mid 90s?  My advice to anybody now is to clear it out as you go along and not wait until you have to do it!!

These garden chairs needed a good drying out before we could bring them in the house!

SOLD !

This is the man we've been waiting for

The house sale has finally gone through with completion on 23rd November. We are booked on the Portsmouth to Santander ferry and booked into a hotel near Madrid for an overnight stay. Everything we are taking will have to fit into our V reg Yaris with 100,000+ miles on the clock, so lets hope we make it to southern Spain.

Just had a brilliant farewell drink with the lads from work - had a really good time, and have now got an extremely bad head. Thanks to Mike C, Mike F, Mike P, Chris L, Chris B, Rick, Dave, Sean, Gary, Sid, Frank, Jon, Chas and Paul. It was great to see you all and I will remember that for a long time.

Drunk??  Us??

Jubilado at last

Retired at last! I retired Friday 26th October and got a fabulous send off from work - I didn't expect anything like it. I got presented with a "golden traffic cone" for me to remember work by, and we will now take this all over europe to be photographed with us. My colleagues at work really did me proud - even the card was in Spanish (thank you Colin and Rick). Glynis retired on Wednesday 31st October with a tearful goodbye from all her friends at work - she will really miss them.
Now the house clearance can start in earnest - 2 visits to the tip already. Attic and garage are nearly empty and most rooms are sorted into tip, charity shop, e-bay, take with us and leave in house.

The golden cone in its first appearance in rainy Bolton

Back to UK

Safe on the drive in Spain, ready for its new life in the sun!

Left Mazda at house and flew back to UK to finalise house sale and work notice prior to coming out permanently in November 2012.
CAN'T WAIT !!!!!

Burgos - Home

Set off at 07:30 aiming for Albacete as the end point, but made fantastic time on excellent roads (although Madrid was a bit of a nightmare for traffic), so did the whole journey to the house in SE Spain in one day, arriving at 17:30. Always somewhere to eat just off the motorway at fantastic prices - can definitely recommend Hotel Los Cerezoson just off the Autivia del Norte (A1) about 40 miles north of Madrid just before the junction with the M 141 (GR N42 05.777  W3 35.678) - fantastic food, prices and service.

The mountains that separate the bad weather in the north from the good weather in the south - heading for the sun! 

689km in 8hrs 8mins at average speed of 85km/h with max elevation of 1420m

Santander - Burgos

All day on the ferry to Santander. Unfortunately tablet computer with all the maps on was stolen on board so a bit of a dampner there, but always replaceable.
Docked in Santander 2 hours late due to a medical evacuation in the early hours of the morning near Finistere.
Motorways to Burgos were fantastic - smooth, fast and quiet. Excellent hotel which we had pre-booked (www.hotelreyarturo.com) was very welcoming when we arrived at 22:30 and we had no trouble getting food and drink at that hour - no questions asked. (How different would that have been in UK?)
204km in 3hrs 37mins at average speed of 56km/h with max elevation of 1005m

Bolton - Portsmouth

Boot full to bursting

Set off at 06:30 to miss the M6 traffic - fine apart from junctions 10 to 8 as usual. Good job we set off early because the A31 to Portsmouth was closed in both directions.A car transporter full of cars being towed by a heavy wrecker recovery truck broke free and crossed over onto the northbound carriageway, shedding cars everywhere. Had to carry on down the M40 to the M25, through a couple of junctions, then back to Portsmouth on the M3. Still got there with time to spare, so the old adage "always better to be early rather than late" still holds true.
465km in 6hrs 8mins at average speed 76km/h with max elevation of 233m

All going well

Things are looking up!
Survey on the house has been completed by the buyers with no problems uncovered. also Brittany Ferries are back in business, so the sailing from Santander is still on, thank goodness, - we have been trawling through the alternative routes for ages.

Problems

Glyn has taken early retirement to finish work on Nov 1st. I have juggled leave at work to finish on the same day and handed my notice in yesterday - no going back now. This morning an announcement that Brittany Ferries (who we are booked with to take the Mazda to Spain) are on indefinite strike and all sailings are cancelled until further notice.

We cannot take any more leave so will have to race through UK, France and Spain to get there, to fly back on the Sunday!

So - the journey begins

The house is under offer and the Mazda MX5 is booked onto a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander. We will drive to our house in south-east Spain, leave the car there, then fly back to UK. 

We are taking very little with us so are having to get rid of the house contents - you collect a lot in 30 years!

Nervous times until the house is sold - fingers crossed!

MX5 ready for Spain