We set off three weeks ago. On 20.12.2024 to be precise. The first four days were actually just driving days. Driving, sleeping and repeating. In between we refueled and once we went shopping in France. That wasn’t too bad because we still had a cold at the time. Presumably the stress of the last few weeks and running around in the cold in sweats too often was having an effect.
On 23.12.2024 we finally arrived at our first pitch (Autocaravaning Palamós) in Spain. We wanted to spend the Christmas holidays on the pitch with a view of the sea and finish sorting ourselves out, as we had ended up just putting a lot of things in the vehicle and throwing them into the rear garage. We had already emptied many bags during our stopovers and stowed away the contents, but the shower still looked more like a storage room with lots of boxes and bags and I still had to tidy up the rear garage.
In the early evening on Christmas Eve, we suddenly heard unusual sounds for Christmas. After a bit of guesswork, we looked out of the window and saw that a man on our terrace had started playing his bagpipes for the whole place. As luck would have it, the next day he was also looking for someone with a cartridge gun, as he wanted to siliconize something. As we are very well equipped with tools, I was able to help him out and thank him for his serenade the evening before.
After a few quiet days and a walk to the sea after our cold had subsided, we continued on our way south.
We wanted to get out into nature for the first time and enjoy the peace and quiet. Unfortunately, the access road and maneuvering at this spot was a little difficult due to the branches of the cork oaks, as you can see on YouTube soon. However, we had a very nice and quiet spot with a great view. We also met Beatrice and Nikolaus from Vienna, who were also standing in the woods with their van. They were looking for a tandem because they wanted to ride it from Casablanca to Senegal. Unfortunately, we didn’t exchange any contact details, but maybe they’ll read this. I would be really interested to know if their plans worked out and where they are now.
Next we drove to a place on a pond near Lloret de Mar, which was the German/European(?) “Springbreak” location when I was at school, a long time ago, as far as I remember. Due to the lack of a high school diploma, or a proper degree with an exam etc. (in Bavaria, passing the 10th grade at grammar school automatically gave you the intermediate school leaving certificate), I never had the embarrassment of celebrating graduation with my classmates.
However, this was only a short stopover before our next big destination, Barcelona. I had already been here twice on business before the big C, but Heike had never traveled to the city before. You can see a few impressions in our second YouTube video, which will probably be released in two weeks. We spent New Year’s Eve here and in the evening we made ourselves comfortable in our motorhome, called Mando, for a cozy movie night and celebrated the New Year for us.
To be continued…