On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Tuesday 14 September – part two: it’s not really like a millpond out here...

As we got outside of the harbour, suddenly things became a lot choppier and I was having to hang on for dear life at the front of the boat. I decided it was time to head back to my seat, as standing in these conditions was not my idea of fun. There was a guy outside with me and he made a similar decision at almost the same time as me!

Not long after I returned to my seat, suddenly the guys in charge of the boat undid the ropes, which had, until then, stopped us going to the bottom of the boat to see the ocean beneath us. All of us headed down there, except for Barb and Frances, who were adamant that they were happy where they were.

It was a few steps down there, but boy, you knew about those and then you had tiny stools to sit on, from where you could watch the underwater world beyond unfold in front of your eyes. At first, there was lots of ribbing, as, clear as the water was, we couldn’t see any marine life. Where were the fish we’d been promised? Aaah, there they were!



To begin with, we only saw one species of fish, which was a bit disappointing, but suddenly we found shoals of the creatures, mainly tiny fish, which was fascinating to see. I felt very privileged to be invited into their underwater world.



We could also see the bottom of the sea, which I guess wasn’t too surprising, as we were still quite close to the harbour. I’m not sure that you can see it in these photos, but it was wonderful to see it for yourself. I loved the dark and light patches you could see in the water. There was something mesmerising about watching those colours change.



From the moment we went down there, I thought it was hot down there and it got hotter, the longer we sat down there and the more people that came down. It was soon getting unbearable and, added to that, the boat was starting to go up and down, which wasn’t helping my head. Perhaps I should have taken those sea sickness tablets after all...

Eventually, after keeping my eyes as firmly fixed on the deeps for as long as I could and trying to ignore the fact that, every so often you could see over the waves, which I found really messed with my head, I gave up down there and headed back upstairs, figuring it would be cooler up there. Boy, was I wrong!

I later found out that the crew had closed all the windows upstairs for some completely unknown reason and it was like a sauna in there. I literally was dripping with sweat and, as often now happens with my chronic fatigue, when presented with real extremes of temperatures, my body almost seemed to stop functioning. Suddenly my arms and legs felt like they had ten ton weights attached to them and I couldn’t move them.

I desperately wanted to get outside the boat to feel a breeze and cool me down, but I just knew I didn’t have the strength in my body to do that. Eventually, I managed to reach across into our backpack and pull out an ice cold bottle of water that had come straight out of the fridge and was able to rub it over my neck and head in a bid to cool me down. The problem was it did the job a little too well and I actually started to shiver so I thought perhaps I’d better stop with that idea...

We changed direction and then there finally was a breeze – Hallelujah for that! Finally I was able to start cooling down enough to appreciate the ride a bit more and the views of the coastline outside. Sure, we were bobbing up and down a bit, but it wasn’t too bad and at least I could now start to appreciate the views.

Mark was outside at the back of the boat, and as soon as I felt able to, I went out there to join him. It was so nice to feel the wind again and cool down. He got some nice shots of the coast from out there:



Even better, we could now see that we were heading back towards the sanctuary of the harbour, not a moment too soon. We went back inside and Frances and Barb still weren’t looking at all good. They were huddled in pretty much the same positions that they had been throughout the ride, both looking rough. I wasn’t mean (unlike some – Dave? ) and decided taking photos of their suffering wouldn’t be very fair. They didn’t look in a good state. :

We finally docked back at Calpe and very gratefully headed back on to dry land, avoiding the encouragement of the girl who’d taken our photos as we boarded the boat to go and see our photos. However nice they were, I suspected this was one voyage that perhaps we wouldn’t want a souvenir of....

Barb had her own souvenir and wasn’t in a good way at all, as she was feeling the effects of the bobbing around and had the startings of vertigo. We all agreed that we should do whatever she wanted, as we didn’t think that going back to the villa straight away was necessarily a good plan, not with all those twists and turns.

Instead, we headed over to a nearby restaurant to get some Sprite, with Peter and Frances joining us a few minutes later. Fortunately, she didn’t suffer any lasting effects from our adventures. Soon, Dave was joining us, with Barb feeling well enough to at least sit in the car on her own, while we all got some Sprite. After that, and the use of an ice cube to try and cool myself down, I think we all felt a lot better. I was relieved how quickly the feeling did return to my legs and arms, after I got a bit cooler. Finally, I could move around again, without feeling like an old woman.

Eventually, we felt well enough to head back to the villa and we followed Dave, who was driving gingerly through the twists and turns. We lost count at 43, as we thought we’d reached the turning for the villa, but it was, in fact, a couple of miles down the road, so we ended up guessing at about 60 turns maybe?

We stopped at one point, as there was one tree that I just had to get a photo of, as it was so stunning.



At one point, Dave pulled off the road, so we assumed Barb wasn’t feeling too well, but we kept going, as we were on a mission – to get lunch for everyone. Having told everyone how good the pizzas were yesterday, we ended up going to stock on those for everyone. We also got a huge slice of watermelon for just €1.50. ($2) Bargain!

It turned out to be a lovely lunch and exactly what we all needed. My goodness, the watermelon was good. We figured we’d take some of that, along with some sandwiches, for our dinner tonight, when we headed to our hotel at Onda, which would be our first stop on the journey home.

Next: I think it might be broken...

[Colexis Mom]

Great pics from the boat! Sorry to hear you and the others weren't feeling well on it!

[Kenny]

Yes, good pictures from the boat! I'm glad you all managed to work through the effects of the ride and enjoy lunch!

[sc507]

Sorry the you were so sick on the boat Glad you were able to perk up enough to enjoy a little of it though....

That tree that you stopped to take a picture of was gorgeous!

[Lumieregirl]

Another great update. I went on a similar glass-bottom-boat tour, and felt the same effects It is a really neat thing to do, but some of our inner ears simply won't cooperate ...

[KMB733]

Sorry no one was feeling well on the boat. You got some great pictures though!

[chezp]

Tuesday 14 September – part three: I think it might be broken...

Once again, it was a hot and sunny day, with temperatures well into the high 80s. It depended which thermometer you believed, the one in the car, which seemed to be more conservative, whereas the one outside by the table seemed to be a lot hotter.

As soon as we’d got home, Barb headed straight to bed and slept for a couple of hours, before surfacing. When she got up, she looked better than I expected her to, showing the rest had definitely done her a lot of good, especially as she’d said earlier than she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep.

We sat around, trying to keep out of the sun for the next couple of hours, as it was just too hot. Eventually, the time came to start packing and, my goodness, we had a lot of that to do! I think it took three boxes to get the alcohol into the car, but it all fitted into the boot (trunk) pretty well in the end. Remember this....

We then made our dinner, which was a ham sandwich for Mark and cheese sandwich for me, along with a huge chunk of watermelon each. Then we were ready for the off and Dave, Barb, Peter and Frances all came out to wave us off. I was actually really sad to be leaving them all behind, as we’d had a wonderful time with them and we were both sort of jealous that they got to have another few days’ fun together once we had gone. They were off to their Swedish neighbours’ tonight and we both would’ve loved to have joined them there, but it wasn’t to be....

Still, we had our own journey home to make – and ironically, it would take us longer than Peter and Frances, who would be flying home on Saturday, a day earlier than we’d make it back.

We set off on the road to Onda, two and a half hours away, where we’d be staying the night. The main reason I was leaving tonight was to lessen our journey up to Barcelona the next day, otherwise we’d have a dull five hour journey ahead of us just to get to our first destination of the day.

The scenery wasn’t bad this side of Valencia, but the further we got, the less there was to see.

v

I must admit that I’d forgotten just how far away the airport at Valencia was, it’s a lot further than the other closest to Dave and Barb’s place in Alicante.



Eventually, we turned off and headed for Onda, which the signs told us was a historic place, but everything we saw on the way into the town suggested that it was a major site for ceramics.



We found our hotel for the night, the Express by Holiday Inn, easily enough, but our next challenge was finding a gas station, as once again, the car needed filling up. We went round and round in circles for ages, first trying to use Tim to find a station and then trying to follow the signs to Carrefour and failing. We got there in the end, but my goodness.

Worse was to come. As Mark was filling up, I said to him that I thought it looked like the boot (trunk) was open on one side. I tried to open it, so that we could shut it, but it wouldn’t open. I said that perhaps it was broken, hoping and praying that it wasn’t. We paid for our gas and decided we’d have to deal with that problem when we got to the hotel.



Once there, I went to check in. I kept trying not to turn round to see how Mark was faring with the boot, but every so often I did, and sadly there didn’t seem to be any progress. Finally I was checked in and went outside to see how he was doing. As I’d feared, no progress at all with it. It wasn’t looking good.

We managed to get all of the luggage out of the car and headed up to the room.



Once up there, we decided that we’d call the breakdown number we had for Skoda and see what they could do. Sadly, there wasn’t much they could do, as they can only help whenever the car’s undriveable, but they did give us the contact details of two Skoda garages, one in Barcelona and one back towards Valencia. Although it was the wrong way, we decided to go for that one, as a) Tim could find the address and b) it was only an hour’s drive away, as opposed to three plus hours to get to Barcelona. As they of course close for siesta in the afternoon, I didn’t want to get delayed and get there just as they were closing. : There was nothing more we could do tonight, but that didn’t help to lighten my mood.

The other thing that wasn’t helping were the insect bites. I was in agony with them now. Although the four on my legs were slowly dying down now, the one on my arm was showing no sign of doing so and was literally burning to the touch. I was doing everything I could think of, putting it under cold water, taking anti-histamines and using antiseptic wipes on it, but nothing was doing the trick. It was no fun at all.

Mark did everything he could to cheer me up and insisted I had dinner, even though I really wasn’t in the mood for it. It wasn’t too bad, but I will confess that the cookies we had later did more to cheer me up! He also suggested watching a film, as none of the TV channels available in our room were available in English and we went for Bruce Almighty, as I think we both needed a laugh – and it certainly helped to do that.

Hopefully tomorrow would be better than today. We were both hoping and praying that the boot would be a quick fix.

Today we drove 141 miles.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 80s.
The best thing today was some of the views from the boot.
The worst thing today was how sick everyone was after the boat ride and the problems with the boot.
Today we tried going out on a glass bottomed boat ride
And the result was that it wasn’t a great idea, although the scenery was beautiful, but it was just so bumpy.
The most magical moment today was

Next: my little girl in a Spanish garage’s hands...

[Kenny]

I like the pictures... but I do hope the trunk isn't too much of a problem... now, why am I suspicious of 3 cases of Pink Fizz?

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures! Sorry about the boot problems!

[KMB733]

Hope the problem with the boot gets worked out. Great pictures!!!

[sc507]

Sorry about the problems with the car!! Since you've mentioned drinking your 'pink fizz' at home, I'll conclude that at least some of the boxes of alcohol made it out in one piece!

[chezp]

Wednesday 15 September – part one: my little girl in a Spanish garage’s hands...

We had set the alarm for an early start today, as our priority was to get the car in for servicing somewhere, although we weren’t sure where. The alarm went off at 6.30am and I really struggled to drag myself out of bed. The insect bite on my arm looked a lot worse this morning than last night. I had ended up getting Mark to wrap it in toilet roll to stop me from scratching it and fortunately that had worked, as I didn’t want to make things any worse. :


And here’s the infamous bite on my arm – nice, huh?

Mountains in the distance, as seen from our room

It turned out Mark had been awake since about 4am, as he’d been worrying about the car. I can’t blame him about that. We quickly showered and got ready and I must admit I was relieved to see that the car was still there. It wasn’t immediately obvious that the boot wouldn’t shut, but it was still a concern to us.

We had breakfast and it wasn’t a bad spread, with cereals, croissants and other pastries, cold meat and cheese, although unfortunately the fruit juice machine didn’t appear to be working, which was a shame.

Once I was done with breakfast, I went to reception to speak to Carmen, who was on duty. My goodness, she could be a Disney Cast Member, with the way she went above and beyond the call of duty. She was amazing. Not only did she try and contact the two garages that we’d been given details of yesterday, but she started to look for other options, so that we wouldn’t have to go too far out of our way. She suggested I went back to the room and she’d call me when she’d found a solution.

Time ticked past and I began to think that perhaps she’d had no joy, but then she called to say she had indeed got a solution for me. We went down and she gave us directions to a Skoda garage in nearby Castellon, which was about 20 minutes drive away and was on our way to Barcelona. Thanking her profusely, off we set with our directions, although we managed to programme Tim in the end and we found it easily enough, although we did miss the turn the first time around and had to go back round the block to get there.


There was a lot of traffic going the other way!

Creating the next amazing roundabout in Spain...

When we walked in, we were greeted by a lady who spoke a little English and, between her, my little Spanish and some gesturing, Fernando, who seemed to be the guy in charge of the servicing took down all of our details and managed to find our car on the system. It was a very impressive operation and, despite the fact that we could barely understand each other, I felt strangely reassured that our car would be in safe hands.

Once all our details were taken – and there was some hilarity with Fernando getting in the wrong side of the car and then realising there was no steering wheel there! – we were taken into the car sales area to wait for the work to be done.

I must admit, while we waited for work to start on my beloved little girl, I felt like a nervous mother. She really is my baby! She disappeared and I tried not to worry, concentrating on writing up some trip report and some PassPorter News articles (Sara will be glad to know I put my time to good use! ), but every so often Mark would update me. He told me first that the boot was finally open, then that a whole group of them were standing around, scratching their heads (not a good sign! ) and then that they appeared to be re-programming the onboard computer (hopefully a bit more positive... )

Eventually, about an hour and 20 minutes after we’d first been seated, Fernando came out to see us and told us that it would be about another 10 minutes or so, which was great news. We both went to use the toilets, after enquiring where they were, and settled down to wait for our little girl to be returned to us.

It was perhaps a little more than 10 minutes, then we saw Fernando explaining to his female colleague, who spoke some English. She came to talk to us and the gist was that it was all fixed, although they weren’t sure what had caused it and their advice was to take her into the garage as soon as we got back to the UK.

We headed over to pick up our car and enquired how much it was going to cost us. Theoretically, we are covered by a three year warranty, as our car is only a year old, but we had no idea whether that would work over here or not. Well, it did. Fernando told us that we had nothing at all to pay for the two hours’ work his guys had done. I could’ve hugged the guy there and then. I was so relieved that it had been fixed and it hadn’t cost us a fortune. Now that’s what I call great service!


The wonderful garage

We headed out of there, talking for about the next hour or so about how we couldn’t believe the service we’d had and how we’d never get that at home. : As we drove along, heading for Barcelona, I got various photos of the scenery along the toll road.


Again here there was lots of road building going on

Next: I’m sure this is the right train...

[Kenny]

It's really refreshing to get good, fast, friendly service so far away from home! Even better when it's all covered by warranty!

[sc507]

Your arm looks painful! Hope that clears up soon!! Glad you got the car fixed

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you were able to get the car fixed so quickly! Great pictures from the road!