Caroline Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I would like to say thank you to all the helpfull advice that has been given on this forum with regards traveling abroad. We have just compeleted our trip to Southern Spain, wonderful time we had too. We had no bother at all, although we had heard other campers that experianced problems. Our sign, phone and carmera were ready for instant use. So thanks all (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Is that it!......The best you can do? Come on we need details a proper report! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Agree with the Judge, so where did you go/stay/ and do you have any tips for us ??? Off in a couple of weeks to France. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 Sorry, I recognise the error of my ways. We left Portsmouth on the Cap Finister Brittany Ferries, at this time of year it is not essential to get there early as we did because first on meant last off !!!! My husband was right……….. The ferry is very nice, a main restaurant in which the service and food was excellent worth while for a treat. There is a snack bar on Deck ten and a small self service take away food shop, good for the lunch on the go when you get off. We enjoyed a small Spanish lesson on board and the best tip we picked up was that words in English ending in ‘ty’ in Spanish tend to end in ‘dad’ as city is cuidad and velocity is velocidad ect. Just before you enter Santander out in the Bay of Biscay there is an under water shelf that attracts Whales and Dolphins we spent a good couple of hours on deck and saw various types of dolphins and in the distance a few spurts of water of the whales, we had a very knowledgeable chap watching with us from ORCA who Brittany Ferries allow to do a small chat, helps to know what to look for. Landed at Santander, this looks a lovely port and the boat docks a short stroll from the main promenade it is a lovely entry in to the port. One thing I would recommend is that you check out local holidays, as we went over with out food as I was anticipating a nice trip to Carrefour in land, but as we landed on Maundy Thursday everything was shut and as it is a national holiday along with Good Friday. Luckily the service stations were open for fuel and supplies. We stayed over night at Camping Pico de la Miel, it was 5min of main road to Madrid at La Cabrera (Just North) not a very favourable impression was gained it was holiday time and cramped, in the shop we managed to buy supplies however some were well over the sell by date! We camped next door to a fellow English Man which was worth it as he had experienced false police problem around Madrid and it was nice to be warned. However the rain in Spain is not always on the plain and I do not think anyone would have tried it on next morning in the rain and we cleared Madrid with easy. We were aiming for Camping La Manga further south, this is a large site that stretches 1 mile from end to end, and lovely spacious pitches however in a motor home make sure you have ample pipe work to drain grey water away, did not find a dumping station. Facilities were good, table tennis tables a small crazy golf course, tennis of various types, basket ball courts, swimming pool (all free just take your own equipment), Store run by Upper and of course the Boulez areas, ATM machine and a bus stop just out side, a campsite bar that was very reasonable, and a restaurant that did a 3 course meal with a bottle of wine and coffee for 10.50 euros Mon-Thur and Fri – Sun 12.50 If you order a different wine they just add the extra cost on top of the meal not the full bottle price. There is also a night club that during the winter puts on entertainment. This could be to do with the large English contingent (150) that over winter here on a Carefree Rally it is a place we will come back to for this reason. Other than that you really do need transport of some form, we put our Ebikes through their paces and we could not have been happier with their performance we got them at the show from AS Bikes the ones with 36v…… we off roaded, slipped in the mud, climbed to heights unimaginable on normal bikes fantastic. However my husband is defiantly interested in towing a car for future excursions as he is slightly sore!!!! One thing to look at on this site is the Parcellers (not sure of the spelling) these are pitches that have been brought and made in to dwellings using static homes that are vastly improved on in many ramshackle ways! We went on a fact finding mission as well as a holiday and came back very green about the gills after chatting to the people who had been on the rally and how long they were going to be there and where they were going next…Barcelona, a month in Portugal. Got tips like…. Orange Squash or juice to clean the fresh water tank out. Ice cubes for the cassette loo as you drive along not going in to details use your imagination. Go to Wicks for their water filtration system. Recommendations for bulk wine buying. Cooking on electric a halogen oven is worth investigating further. We had a lovely time and met some excellent people all ready and willing to answer the questions we had. The way back was retracing our steps but to Bilbao this time, after Burgos there is a toll road to Bilbao……..take the A road the scenery after Victoria is marvellous it is a bit of a climb, (in the Van) but well worth is, we managed to pull of the road and have lunch at the bottom of a gorge which you would have missed on the toll road. Bilbao well………it is a dock outside of Bilbao at a place called Santurtzi so do not worry if you go passed Bilbao and do not get confused like I did because the signs say Puerto and a picture of a ship over the word Santander. I thought we were following signs to the Port of Santander took me a small panic to understand. The other thing postcodes in Spain cover a large area so if possible use the longitude and latitude on your sat navs. Ours was a Snooper 2000, which is taking a little while to get use to, but reading the manual again might help…!! I do hope you have found this interesting, I have tried not to waffle too much. :-> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Better........Stick with the E Bikes they keep you young! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 JudgeMental - 2011-05-11 1:19 PM Better........Stick with the E Bikes they keep you young! :-D Nah not with my back :-D Get a scooter. Nice report wish I had the time to do similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Great report Caroline - I'm really glad you enjoyed your first visit to Spain. Spain is (in our opinion at least) a wonderful, very varied, and very big, country; so there's LOADS more to see during your future return visits...........start planning for the next one. (The spelling of that Spanish word is "parcelas" (literally: parcels of land)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Momma Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 very good post, thankyou. I may live to regret asking but obviously my imagination is not very good.........Ice cubes for the Cassette Loo when travelling ???????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Well I understand the the action of the lumps of ice moving around the box bit, shifts those hard to move bits. Could be wrong! *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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