The trip

And….. we’re off

On January 18 2021 we started our trip to Spain. We had intended to leave on the 19^th, but both Belgium and France had just changed their anti-covid lockdown rules. In France the curfew was now from 18:00 to 06:00 hrs and in Belgium we weren’t welcome until 06:00 hrs, making it impossible for us to drive from Holland to Spain in one day, or even two. So, we left a day early and booked two nights in apartments along the way. Because restaurants were closed as well, Mirjam had prepared and frozen meals for us for the first four days. Staying in apartments rather than hotels allowed us to cook ourselves and Mirjam just heated up the meals and ensured a feast every day. Breakfast and lunch were also taken care of by packing bread, coffee, tea, cheese and everything else that we thought we might need.

We also packed things for the cats of course; Food, bowls, a litterbox and litter. They drove in Karim’s car, because their carriers didn’t fit in our two-seater. I had made sure the apartments were pet-friendly.

When we left Graeme’s apartment in Breda, where he graciously allowed us to stay the five nights between the day we sold the house and our departure, Fred & Hanneke and Willy were there to send us off. That was so nice of them. And they gave us a care package filled with items we might miss, or need, or that might help us if we feel homesick.

On the first day we drove from Breda to an apartment close to Dijon. Not a very long drive, but stressful for the cats who had just gotten used to Graeme’s apartment. They whaled for quite a while and poor Karim had to endure that most of the time. We had decided to change drivers every 1.5 hours, so no one would drive for more than three hours at a time and every one had at least a 1.5-hour break. That made the drive easy peasy lemon squeezy.

When we were close to the apartment, I called the host who gave me the code to the key-box next to the door. He also told me he had switched on the heating in the morning so it should be nice and warm. It wasn’t. It was very cold indeed. They owner came and let out some air from the radiators and that made them work a lot better. But it was too late for us. We spent a very cold evening and the apartment didn’t get comfortable until about five minutes before we left. Another thing with this apartment was that although it slept a maximum of six people, there was just a two-seater sofa. The dining room table had six chairs, but they all felt like they would collaps the moment you sat on them.

The second day we drove to Montpellier, again a 6-hour drive or so. The drive was uneventful and we got to Montpellier as planned at 17:45 hrs, 15 minutes before the curfew would start. I had received a message from the host of the apartment with a link to a video with instructions on where to find the key box. In the video they also said that the GPS probably sent you to the wrong address. It had. But I quickly found the key box, which turned out to be empty. I called the number we were given, but rather than getting the host on the phone, it was a number to “telephone support”. The man on the phone told me that he would contact the owner for a solution. We waited for a call back as the curfew started and we were outside the gate of a wrong address with two cars and two cats. After a long while of nothing, I decided to call the support number again and the gentleman told me he now had received instructions on how to get us in. I explained we didn’t know the correct address and unfortunately, neither did he. “Just go into the hall of the main building,” he said. I didn’t see a hall, just three locked gates and a complex of buildings behind it. When one of the gates opened to let someone out, I decided to go into the complex and try to find a hall. I walked around for around 15 minutes with the telephone support man telling me to go into the hall of the main building. There was no main building. I decided to go into every hall I saw and finally found the right one. Now, the man was able to give me instructions on how to find the key. I had a look for a red box, which turned out to be a fire alarm box the glass of which was broken. In the box was a key to the mail box of the apartment. In the mail box were the key to the apartment. I managed to get in and found the electricity to be shut off. In the dark I managed to find the main switch and was now ready to go get the others. An hour after arrival, cold, tired and hungry, we finally got in.

This apartment was cold too, but warmed up quite quickly. Mirjam heated up the lentil soup she had prepared in Breda and the cats quickly found their way about the apartment. Good thing we had soup, because there were no knives in the apartment.

Day three was the longest drive. 12 hours.

Just like the previous two days, we were never stopped and questioned about the reason why we were driving through these countries. We had worried for no reason. We drove the 12 hours without any trouble and arrived at our B&B Casa Barranca in Santa Maria de Nieva in Spain around 19:30 as planned. Mirjam and I had stayed there before in July 2020 and we knew they had apartments as well as rooms and we had rented an apartment. What a remarkable difference with the two apartments we had stayed at in France. This one was spacious and clean and well equipped. The hosts, Elaine and Gavin were as nice as we remembered.

The next day, we had an appointment with the bank and the notary, where we would sign the deed to the house.

The day started off great, with a lovely sunrise:

More in the next blog…