Heading for the summer again - to Spain this time

Friday 29th June 2007


I was a mite concerned that I was going to have trouble getting down through England with all the floods in the middle of the country so I decided I had better leave Edinburgh on Friday to catch my EuroTunnel train on Saturday evening. Actually, I would have made good time since I didn’t encounter anything like rain or even evidence of previous rain all the way down. What got in my way were roadworks on the M6, congestion at Birmingham and finally as I reached the actual outskirts of London, Cricklewood was closed off by Police and we were redirected around the longest way, then the bomb scare in Central London further added to my woes meaning that I did not get to Mia’s until after 10.00pm.
The next day, after a really good night’s sleep and a very slow morning, I was treated to a delicious brunch courtesy of Kristen before I took off for the EuroTunnel. Today, the rains had hit and it took me about an hour and a half to get out of London. It rained all the way down to Folkestone and was still raining 35 minutes later when I hit Calais. I drove down to Rouen, about 3 hours away where I had booked a hotel for the night. Not the newest, flashest or cleanest, but nice view over a square and the night receptionist was lovely. After parking up and lugging my bag up to my room (no lift!) I went for a stroll and discovered that it was not in the best part of town either - I got propositioned (although I wasn’t quite quick enough to pick up how much I could have earned) which I very firmly turned down. I wasn’t even dressed in a way that might have given rise to any thoughts of that as my profession so I was somewhat taken aback. However, it was only my feelings that had been hurt so I moved on and back to the hotel.
The next morning, I took off pretty early towards Saint Malo. It wasn’t a long drive so I got there in time for lunch. I found myself on the waterfront, but it didn’t look right - the tide was out so the boats were lying on their sides and it was windswept and there were only 2 or 3 dodgy looking restaurants along the promenade. I got some lunch at one of them and then went to find my hotel, (Hotel Belem - very nice, lovely people, rubbish internet, way out of town). Then I went back into town and found the old town, within the walls which was wonderful. The hotel had recommended a restaurant called Le Brick for dinner so that was where I went and they were right.
By Monday, the weather had packed up here as well so I spent the day visiting the Grand Aquarium. It was magnificent, including the giant crabs, moray eels and some other pretty weird looking marine specimens. I also had a ride in a Nautibus, which is kind of like a submarine trip at a theme park, quite interesting. It was a real theme park kind of day - I finished it off with McDonalds for tea.
On Tuesday, I went down to Bordeaux as a stopover on my way down to Madrid so I didn’t get to have a look around, which is a shame but maybe later, on my way back up.
I left Bordeaux early as it was a long drive down to Madrid. The weather was still rubbish, although not so cold. As I passed into Spain, I discovered that if I was going to die anywhere on this trip, Spanish roads would be the place - Spanish drivers are dreadful. About an hour out of Madrid, the weather suddenly came right and I started to melt. By the time I eventually got to my hotel I was extremely hot, grumpy and tired. I wanted to have a swim but the pool in the picture didn’t exist, and there was no electricity until 7.00pm. I had to park under the hotel 2 floors down in pitch dark and lug the bag up to the first floor of the hotel (thank goodness I didn’t get a room any higher) The first thing I did was have a cold shower (don’t need electricity for that), mop up the bathroom floor which was flooded every time the shower was on, then went to get something cold to drink. I found a nice cafeteria across the road from the hotel and had a coke, a G & T, and something to eat before returning to the hotel for an early night. I discovered that the little fridge in the room did not keep things cold so all the food I had bought spoiled very quickly in the heat, around 31 degrees each day!
I slept well until about 10.00am despite the constant hum of a large generator all night, and no air conditioning. I decided that all I could do that day was find a pool and spend the day in it. I got instructions from the receptionist and navigated the Metro successfully to a pool which had changed from being a public pool on 30 June to a private pool on 1 July. I was very angry, mainly because I was so hot so I went back to the hotel and picked up the car and drove to another pool I had found on the internet. Parking was a bit of an issue but I made it and fell into the pool at about 2.30 and didn’t leave it until about 6.00. I got back to the hotel only to find that the power had gone down again and wouldn’t be back until 7.00. So I went back to my little cafeteria and had a couple of G & T with a light meal - couldn’t eat anything proper, it was just so hot. I’m not complaining because that was what I wanted and I am getting it in spades but I have yet to acclimatise.