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Dan's Euro Jaunt - Day 11 p10 DONE!


Ekona

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Loving this thread Dan, look forward to your daily jottings and vids etc, where are you heading tomorrow? :)

Cheers dude, I hope it's entertaining enough to read, I'm missing quite a lot out but there's just so much footage and pics here and the laptop and interweb is too slow for me to get too much up each evening.

 

I'm off to a place called Zamora tomorrow, pretty much direct for here. Hopefully I'll get there by mid afternoon.

 

You missed Granada ?

I did, no choice sadly due to the time constraints. Besides, if I did everything in the one trip I'd have no need to come back again would I? ;)

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He wasn't too impressed no, he was the only one that was sitting still so there was a queue of people lining up taking pics of him basically :lol:

 

And while you lot werent looking, the others were robbing up the unattended cars :lol:

 

Looks like a hard life you are having there matey :sun:

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Day 7

 

 

Wow, one week already. Doesn't feel like it, although I already can't remember where I stayed Saturday night! :lol:

 

Today was only ever about getting from A to Z, from Algeciras to Zamora (see what I did there?!). There were never any nice roads planned, so no video was taken as motorways are dull and I didn't really have anything to say. Okay, so I did make a little one but I'll save that for another time when I get home.

 

Today was all about the chillaxing. The long cruise up in the sunshine which peaked at 28.5 deg c, and since the roads were clear I actually had time for a quick picnic stop which involved a pack of pretzels, a can of Red Bull and a read of the latest Total 911 mag on a picnic bench in a rest stop. Classy, I know, but it was relaxing all the same and the sun was perfect.

 

On the downside, it did mean that I had time for photos. Not always a bad thing, unless you suddenly decide to try and be arty and do a 'thoughtful' shot of you and the car, which in reality just came out very badly as I had to wedge the camera on another bench because I forgot to pack my tripod, and run like buggery to get the pose in before the timer went off. The end result looks like this:

 

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:blush:

 

It's kinda got all the right bits in (nice car, good looking bloke looking adoringly at the car, some greenery and some sunshine), but it looks utterly horrendous in the finish. Still, never let it be said that I don't mind a laugh at my expense :lol:

 

 

So onto the hotel. I'll be frank: It's stunning. 5 stars and worth every single one of them, probably helped by having their own winery here. I'm one of only two guests here (recession is still hitting hard in Spain) so I'm being waited on hand and foot. They've taken my bags, offered to park my car for me (which I declined), just basically stopping short of sucking me off. Which I don't mind, as he had tiny lips anyway.

 

I'm just going to stick the photos up and you can see for yourself how good this place is. Some taken on the D90, some on the JesusPhone5.

 

 

The exterior:

 

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My room:

 

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Every time you order a drink you get this medley of funny colour crisps and olives:

 

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And in the restaurant:

 

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Starter of asparagus mousse and smoked sturgeon

 

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Main of oxtail in rich local red wine gravy on a bed of potato and white chocolate foam with some pink flowers and a pink foam on top

 

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Dessert of crepe with crushed oranges, cointreau and chocolate ice cream

 

 

All food was as good as it looks, and is possibly the best meal I've ever had in my life. I'm not a fancy eater by any means, and have never had sturgeon or oxtail before so was a little unsure of eating them, but they were astounding.

 

Am now back up in the room chilling out, may treat myself to a bath in a bit (ooh, get me!) and then a good night sleep. I'm going to get up a bit earlier tomorrow and grab some pics of the car parked up around the hotel, it's too good a location to waste. More mountains are planned tomorrow on the driving front, but I've just discovered that at my next stop there's the only continous Roman wall in the world around the town, Lugo, so may get over there a bit earlier and explore.

 

 

 

 

 

One last pic, just for Rich and Dave. Spotted this and knew you guys would appreciate it ;)

 

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Day 8

 

 

Oh noes, car failure! :(

 

 

Not a great start to the day, that.

 

 

Launch control :D I clearly didn't secure the GP mount enough, as you can see the camera dip down when I transition from throttle to brakes :lol:

 

I went to Portugal today, seemed a nice enough country from the 30 mins or so I spent there. Very different landscape to Spain, different fauna growing beside the road, different road surface, even the villages looked more rural. I'd like to see more, I think.

 

 

And then I hit disaster. Proper, full blown, sod all I can do about it disaster. I do have a video of my thoughts on this, and I was going to upload it, but if I'm honest it's a tad too personal and I'm not comfortable sharing my feelings in video format, so text will have to suffice. Sorry 'bout that.

 

 

Basically, in the past I've had a minor brush with acrophobia. Nothing extreme, mostly when at work and I'm climbing a vertical ladder or multi-level scaffold and I get this odd feeling like my ankles want to lock up. They don't, and I push through and I'm fine. A couple of days back when on the mountain stuff in Spain I had a very similar feeling, but ignored it and carried on. I thought it was just one of those things. It wasn't.

 

I was climbing a mountain today, only 1850 above sea level but it was in a quarry so very steep sides. Bit of snow still on top, even when the valley below is 30 deg c, but the roads were perfectly dry. Suddenly I had a very acute awareness of the height of the mountain and how far the car could fall if I got it wrong, and my ankles suddenly went very tight. Almost to the point where I had to stop driving, kind of tight. It's hard to explain if you've never suffered, but it was a horrible feeling and I descended the mountain slower than any car has ever possibly done so before. I was glad to get held up behind a Citroen Xsara, just to slow the pace and give me something to follow. Normally I reckon you could take the corners happily at 70mph in a normal car: I was struggling to get to 50mph.

 

I have no idea what to do now. :(

 

I've still got two days of driving left, and the routes were planned for mountain stuff. I'm clearly going to have to take them out now if they're too high (will check this evening), but I don't know how else to fill my time. Car failure I can deal with, nowt I can do about that, but myself failure? I feel a total f*cking failure. Proper.

 

 

Sorry, not the cheery update you were probably expecting, but it's the truth. I'm determined to enjoy the rest of my trip though, just means I'll need to stay nearer the beach with bikini wearing ladeez than watching snow on a mountain! :D

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Sorry to hear this Dan. Years ago I used to do proper rock climbing and now I don't even like looking over the escalators in the Shopping Centre and I have no idea why.

 

I'm sure there is a proper professional answer but for now my immediate thought is that the idea of the trip is for you to enjoy yourself. If I was me I think I would plan an alternative route....eg. the coastal routes ... where you get some rise and fall and beautiful scenery but without stuff like the Picos de Europas. You can go along the coast across Northern Spain (Comillas, Santander etc) and round the corner to Biarritz, which is a great place. That road cuts round the side of the Pyrenees.

 

Good luck. It's not a competition... it's a holiday....and good on you for having the guts to be open about it. You're not the only one.

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I think Neil is spot on, change your plans and find a route you enjoy.... Or take a bit of timeout and sit on/near a beach and chill if it helps but don't beat yourself up about it. I've had that feeling driving between lakes Bala and Vyrnwy before now :lol:

 

Thanks for the superb updates so far

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Right, change of plan sorted :)

 

I've checked the route for tomorrow and I think it should still be okay, only one hairy looking bit but the rest seems good so I may just keep that as-is. If not, then I've already seen a couple of beaches nearby I can head to.

 

I've cancelled my hotel in Bordeux and moved it waaaay up to Caen. Sadly I'm a day too late for the anniversary, however this means I can take in the Normandy beaches again. I've been there before and it was incredibly powerful, so going back seems a good idea. It also puts me closer to Calais for the crossing, and avoids the Pyranees, so win/win.

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but don't beat yourself up about it.

 

Beautifully put. It's bad enough to have had suffered this problem....the last thing you need is then to give yourself a hard time. There are plenty of people who wouldn't dream of doing half the things you take on routinely. One of my male relations gets into a tizzy just driving to Sainsburys in Wallington....so if the scale of challenge/ambition/achievement is, say, 1 to 100 you are probably still in the top quartile.

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Right, change of plan sorted :)

 

I've checked the route for tomorrow and I think it should still be okay, only one hairy looking bit but the rest seems good so I may just keep that as-is. If not, then I've already seen a couple of beaches nearby I can head to.

 

I've cancelled my hotel in Bordeux and moved it waaaay up to Caen. Sadly I'm a day too late for the anniversary, however this means I can take in the Normandy beaches again. I've been there before and it was incredibly powerful, so going back seems a good idea. It also puts me closer to Calais for the crossing, and avoids the Pyranees, so win/win.

 

:thumbs: Look forward to more updates.

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Bloody hell mate, sorry to hear this (the Acophobia part not the sodding 12v supply) don't quite know what to say other than top man for sharing that on here, could have just so easily not said a word but then maybe the sharing helps, I hope so. Another way to look at it is you've seen quite a few mountains already so a change of route and scenery will make a change too. I have to ask, if you were aware of this problem and you clearly were, why did you plan so many mountain routes? Was it a challenge or did you think it wouldn't kick in when you were in the car? Best go nad have a well earned beer or two but I sense you may have already done that :) Hope all goes well tomorrow, shame to miss Bordeaux but there's always next time, take it easy :thumbs:

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