The Rest of the Crazy Eurpoean Tour

We got up next morning to a typical Spanish day, all clear blue and sunshine, we went down and found tea, toast, cereal and more tea for breakfast on the table, what a great way to start the day. I had arranged to see the realtors to get hold of the keys and we met on time at 10am by the bank. It was like old times, he had sold me the house 5 years previously. He handed me the keys and I went straight up to take a look, it was a little dusty and basically OK inside for 3 and a ½ years without anyone living in it, we went out the back to check the covered patio and found a huge pool of mud, I was shocked to find the water guttering had buckled and a large collection of plants were hanging out of it. The culprit was soon found. The next door house had had some building work done on the roof and loads of sand had fallen onto the roof and drained into the gutter and plants had started growing and as the weight had increased the guttering just buckled and let the water drain inside. We started work and within a few hours the house was totally clean and we were doing some laundry out of the upstairs patio laundry area. We went onto the upstairs landing and opened the balcony doors it was fantastic. We went into town and did some shopping and bought some wine and passed by a house I knew and asked where the owners were, I was given a phone number and rung them. They were so surprised to hear from me, they invited us up for the evening and a meal. We arrived to be met by Joe and Lydia and their two little girls who I had never seen before. The sun was shining and we cracked open a few beers, we chatted all afternoon but as soon as the sun went down the air temp dropped about 15 C to about 10 C, it was very cool. We ordered a piella and the girls went to fetch it in the car and we cracked a few more beers. Time passed so quickly when your having fun. We left about 10pm and I told them we will come back before we leave back to the UK. The next day we went for a drive into the local ancient town of Antequerra. It was a nice day and the shopping at the local new mall was great. We bought more wine and beer and some interesting cheese and meats. We were eating like proper continentals fancy little pieces of meat and cheese and lots of wine. I called around at Joe and Lydias house again on the Monday before we left, I surprised them with a few beers in the afternoon and then we left for a meal in the local huge restaurant. I ordered spicy shrimps and a bottle of wine and everyone was trying something new and interesting. We had a great night eating and drinking this is the part of Spain I liked, the food and wine. The next day we packed up our car and locked the house one more time. We had arranged to travel to the local town with the realtors to sign a power of attorney to let them sign everything to sell the house for us. This meant I didn’t need to travel down to Spain ever again and hopefully sell the house this summer sometime. We went shopping again , I love shopping in Spain for food, we bought some wine to take back to the UK for my sister and neighbours some fresh crusty French bread and some ham of the bone, we sat in a park and made some sandwiches and drank a beer in the sunshine, we discussed Spain and agreed that it was much nicer than France. The people were nicer and the weather was nicer and the food and wine was nicer. It is such a pity that I don’t work in this part of the world. But there again the winter had been very bad and the cost of running an oil fired boiler was $120 a week. That is damned expensive and compared to Costa Rica the weather is still average. We drove from that town back onto the highway and set off on our journey across Spain and France. We stopped in a northern city of Burgos and found a nice hotel right on the edge of town. We ate more packed food and some cookies and had a fantastic nights sleep. The roads were great all through Spain and no tolls until we got to the border with France. We filled up with sweet sweet cheap Spanish gasoline and had a great steak and set off for our long drive across France. We were being hit by toll roads right from the border. The roads again all headed to Paris and in the south were again very boring. As I said previously I was using an old 2002 road map and I had huge problems getting lost and we pulled in for a fill up of gas and coffee and I saw a little map on the table pointing to all the same service centers on the way north and it was showing this road I hadn’t noticed on the way down, it showed it going all the way to Calais, I was astonished. So after we left I followed the new map and followed it all the way to this town of Tours, and we had to detour west but it took us to this new two lane toll road as normal in France and we were able to go around all those towns we got lost in and we were doing great time. We pulled over at a small town well north and found a little bar to get a beer and a bed, the last bed they had was terrible and sagged badly in the middle and all three of us had to sleep on it, it was murder and breakfast was crap a coffee and a croissant. But at least it only cost 20 Euro. We set off and kept on this new toll road all the way to Calais, it was fantastic. We must have saved about 5 hours and we got the early ferry back to the UK and we were back in Chesterfield about 9pm in time for a beer and some more wine to chill out and recount some of the stories of the trip.
I spent the next few days finally clearing all my stuff and furniture out of my house and it all went to my sisters new house which was short of furniture and she did have a huge garage where I could put my car. I even had people viewing the house while I was clearing out, that felt strange, I have had two offers on the house and the last one is for the full asking price.
I think every night we had a bottle of wine and a few beers, I was drinking far more than I normally drink, in fact I virtually never drink at home, but it seemed like a party atmosphere almost, Christmas like. Going to my sisters always seemed like party time and we certainly tried to have some laughs and it was nice to be with big sis. We packed a few things extra to take back to Costa Rica and the bags were very heavy, good job I am a frequent flyer with platinum status as they didn’t charge me with excess baggage and I was able to get into the business lounge and have a few drinks. The flight was long and tedious and the change in New York made it a bit different but I hate traveling through the USA now as the immigration thing is such a pain in the ass and having to recheck the baggage is not a normal thing to do. I wish I could fly through Madrid in future and fly like a normal person.
So life in the crazy fast lane for 3 and a half weeks. Flying to the UK driving over to France and Spain and sorting out two houses for sale and clearing all my shit away and moving into my sisters new house and taking some silly things back to my new dream house in Costa Rica, like a frying pan and a bronze cutlery set and some books, those books certainly cost lots of aviation fuel. Most importantly I got my new 250 GB HDD and digital camera.