We were headed to Spain and France and decided to take the longer slower but more relaxing route of going by ferry from nearby Portsmouth, to Bilbao with Brittany Ferries. The trip takes 2 nights so we left at 22:00 on Sunday arriving amazingly on Tuesday morning.
It had been a crazy few weeks of packing and adjusting and fitting last minute items like insect screening, electric fan and baggage netting. Finally we were ready and with a last check to ensure we hadn't shut one of our cats in somewhere, we headed East to Pompy, stopping at Port Solent enroute for dinner.
We were checked in early and as these always do, it took an age to get on the boat. You have to cross some rippled metal ramps that shook the van silly no matter how slow you drive, but at least we knew we were properly stowed in "ship-shape" fashion.
Whilst on the ship we were lucky enough to have the benefit of some neighbours of ours only a few cabins away, so Callum had his friend Gregory to play with in the afternoon. The children were happily entertained by the ship's party games, quizzes, balloon modelling and the highlight for Callum, meeting Pierre the Bear. There was even a salty swimming pool on the top deck. After a full day of racing around the boat we said goodbye and everyone had a good night's rest before heading off to their separate campsites in the morning.
We were off to an area of Northern Spain called Casitllia y Léon, staying at a fabulous camp site on the edge of a small town called Riaza.
The campsite was large but with plenty of space and had a little shop, restaurant, children's playground and access to the town swimming pool. The shower blocks were very clean and there were even child bath cubicles, which had a mini bath set at adult waist height for washing small children. Interestingly there was only 1 washing machine which was never in use as the Spanish seem to prefer using the special sinks and hand washing their clothes.
That evening we headed into the village square, Callum on his bike (his new skill acquired days before we left) , and manage to get some dinner despite our dreadful lack of competent Spanish. We were initially a bit thrown by the different meal times in Spain. Lunch 2-4pm and dinner is 9-11pm! But we soon adjusted and settled into our first night in our little van, our home for the next three weeks.
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Location:Portsmouth, UK
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