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