DAY 1

So now we are off to Holland to be at the fan party that Louis Rentrop and Jos Min have organised.  You can read all the details about the event elsewhere on the site but it looks like being a great time and we are looking forward to it.  Monica and I are also looking forward to driving to Apeldoorn because it will be like a mini-vacation for us and the first in over six years!  It’s about 2100 kilometres but we have allowed four days to get there so it shouldn’t be too bad.
 We are driving, partly because we have the time and partly because flying, especially out of Alicante airport has become so frustrating lately.  It will be an adventure too because, apart from Apeldoorn, we have no hotel reservations, we’re just going to drive and stop when we are tired and hungry!  Hopefully that’s not too risky at this time of the year!

We got off to a late start and decided to get as close to the north of Spain as we could on the first day, driving up the coast autopista (toll road) past all the lovely coastal towns and even Benidorm, the “boil” on the surface of the Costa Blanca!  Once it got dark we decided to close in on a hotel and this was when we learned our first lesson… find the hotel in the daylight!  When you’re in an unfamiliar place, navigating becomes a bit of a headache but we pulled into Vila Real, one of those small cities with a football team that is bigger and more important than the town itself.  This is not uncommon in Spain.
 The town had two hotels… and they were both full so our frustration began to show.  But we found our way to Castellon, a larger town with more hotels and after driving around the one-way system a few times, found a hotel that had everything we needed but an underground car park that was designed for go-karts, not the MPV we were driving.

But, at last, time for dinner and some sleep… tomorrow we head for France.  I miss the animals a lot already!

DAY 2

After breakfast we were feeling more energised and we battled our way through Castellon centre to the autopista again and were on our way past Tarragona and Barcelona towards the French border.
This was just a “slow down so we can check you out” thing and now we were in France driving through the Eastern tip of the Pyrenees, all of which was quite spectacular really.  I like this driving thing, it is much more relaxing, unless of course you begin to exceed the speed limit and your passenger/navigator/wife whacks you on the leg!
 Sad to say that the first thing I noticed about being in France was how much cleaner it is than Spain.  Sad because the Spanish (at least on the Costa Blanca where I live) seem to have no respect for the place they live in or for their fellow countrymen, neighbours or whatever.  The sight of so much trash everywhere, just dumped and left is, for me at least, quite disgusting and something they should be really ashamed of.  It’s also very disappointing to me because Spain has so many things going for it and yet this one really basic thing spoils it so much, especially, I imagine, for visitors.  But, enough of that…

The French autoroutes (toll roads) were excellent and the scenery was fantastic.  Lots of “picture post-card” villages in valleys, rolling, idyllic farmland, grazing cows and…… wine!  Through Beaujolais, Bourgogne, Gevrey-Chambertin, you could get really plastered in this part of the world but we had places to go so we rolled along at a steady (well almost) 130 kms per hour.  We were blessed with good driving weather too so we covered a lot of ground.  There were some major road works here and there (evidence that France, unlike Spain, actually uses the tolls to improve the roads) but nothing too inconvenient and it was amazing to me to see how much trade traffic covers this north/south route.  So many trucks and from places as far afield as Poland and Hungary…

We weren’t sure where we were going to stop but we had Lyon in our sights and this would have put us over half way there but, mindful of our predicament in Vila Real, we started to look for a hotel before that.  About the time when things looked grim, we found a Mercure just off the highway and it was perfect.  Not too expensive (in Europe these days just about everything is expensive) and it had wi-fi and the restaurant was open!!  So we enjoyed our first bottle of French wine (Pauillac) with our dinner and just chatted.  I think that’s been one of the best things about this journey so far.  Monica and I have been able to re-connect in so many ways.  Our lives in Spain are a bit hectic at the moment so making time to just “be” together has been difficult but this trip has been a blessing in that sense.  I don’t even remember what we talked about but I do remember I enjoyed it a lot!

Speaking of grazing cows and hectic lives… there have been times in my life (and maybe yours too) when things got so crazy that the life of a grazing cow seemed very attractive.  But then I sit and look at a steak and, well, you get my meaning!

DAY 3

And then something happens that takes you a different reality!
 We were up early and ready for breakfast before the next leg of our adventure but, as we made our way to the restaurant, passing through reception, we noticed a large group of senior citizens gathered there and the atmosphere felt quite strange.  We could see a tour bus parked in the street outside the car park and then we saw a couple of police vehicles with their lights flashing and then we saw what looked like a dead person on the ground next to the bus, covered in a sheet.  So alone!  She had apparently died on the bus and everyone was gathered there to try and sort things out.  Not surprisingly, that’s why the mood everywhere was so sombre.
 I must have thought a million things during the next 20 minutes or so, too many to list here but I suppose it reminded me, as I am now reminding you, that life is short, that it can be taken away at any moment and that we should make the most of every minute.
 This was a sobering experience and it still haunts me a little.
 Anyway, life goes on doesn’t it……

Now we were on our way again and our goal was to be in Germany before sunset.  Then we would only have a short distance to Apeldoorn where we could settle for a few days.
 The problem was Luxembourg, a tiny country in the middle of Europe and we didn’t know if it was in the EU or not.  This was important as Monica doesn’t travel in Europe with her passport, just the standard ID card that is accepted throughout the EU now.
Not only that, our van could not be driven outside the EU so we decided to avoid Luxembourg and head for Saarbrucken.
 My navigator and leg whacker was busy with her maps and the Michelin guide we had printed off before leaving home but she needn’t have worried because these roads have great signs and are very easy to follow.  Also we were heading for territory that I am very familiar with!  I think Heep played every town in every corner of Germany on every tour so I was already beginning to feel more comfortable and confident.

As we left France we immediately noticed the difference between German buildings, roads, cars and speed limits and we realised that we were a lot closer to our destination than we thought and this made my right foot a little heavier, leading to more “whacks” and more laughing (I love it when Monica laughs!).  I could only watch with envy as the BMWs, Mercedes etc. flew past me at the speed of light and even encouraging my wife to take a nap didn’t work!  There was no way I was going to be able to become fodder for the Polizei!
 So… where to stay tonight?  We were headed towards Koln now but we didn’t want to fight with the big city traffic so we decided to head for the Koln/Bonn airport where we quite sure we would find a hotel or two.  We found… one… and it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind but we were trapped and that was that.  Rather than complain about it we decided to enjoy it and, after a decent burger and a couple of Weissbiers (pronounced “vicebeers” and highly recommended) we went and watched TV for a while so we could make the most of an early night and an early start tomorrow.  This day had started out a little strangely but, by now, we were back to normal.  I wonder where that lady is now…

DAY 4

The last leg of the journey…

We battled our way out of the remains of this industrial sector of Germany and were finally headed for the Dutch border.  Actually we had covered more kilometres than we realised and before we knew it we were at the Dutch border, finally arriving in Apeldoorn at around 12:30.  We had driven over 2100 kilometres without taking one wrong turn and we found the hotel with no problem… of course our room wasn’t ready!!  So we settled into the lounge, had a cup of coffee, unloaded the people carrier and then we were able to move in.

We had to be at the airport by 6:30 to pick up Greg and Sherri (who had flown in from Sierra Madre, California) so we found a shopping centre, picked up a few things and then fought the traffic around Amsterdam until we arrived at Schiphol airport.  Their flight was actually early and we made it back to the hotel in time for an excellent dinner, a glass of wine (or several) and a lot of laughs and catching up.  It’s going to be a fun few days I think but, for now… time for sleep!