Day three - journey to Estoril and arrival

After our night’s sleep in the huge bed, we had an excellent breakfast and then packed up. Gabrielle navigated the car out of the underground car park - tight squeeze - and then we hit the road, pausing only to fill up with fuel. It was still freezing temperatures in Salamanca so the car wash was not possible - our motor is still filthy from the lanes of Bishops Offley.

Day Two - to Salamanca

 It was an early start as we left the boat (bear in mind, Spanish time is one hour ahead so a 6.30am getup is early!), but after a breakfast on board, we went down to the car and disembarked after some complex manoeuvres to get around the hold. The road was unfamiliar as we have never landed in Bilbao before so we eventually hit the motorway south and began the drive towards Portugal. However, our first target is Salamanca. The road climbs steeply onto the heights of the Spanish sierra and we were soon well above 800 metres up where the weather is as cold as the UK. The climb up there takes one through some amazing tunnels and over stunning viaducts as the engineers tackled the challenges of the mountainous terrain.

Here we go again - Le Départ

 Leaving for a two months long holiday after entertaining over the Christmas period is not optimal. All your focus is on guests, meals and merriment and, when you need to get kitted out to leave for foreign climes, then time runs out quickly and the leisurely pack and go turns into a dump and dash.

Hence why Gabrielle spent the largest part of our journey to Portsmouth agonising over all the things she had forgotten to pack: eye cream, trainers, running kit, etc. Add to that stress, the fact that the entire nation had decided to leave for home after visiting rellies and you'll understand why we were stressed and tired on our arrival in Portsmouth, albeit we were in plenty of time. Still, a meal at Zizi followed by an action-free transfer onto the Cap Finisterre meant that the leisurely glass of champagne as the boat set sail was very pleasant indeed.