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.