España

We won't be going the way that was previously mentioned as due to the bad weather there have been landslides and on the French side of the Somport Tunnel and Pass the road is impassable.

https://trans.info/en/somport-tunnel-closure-to-disrupt-spanish-french-traffic-for-six-months-397470

So I need to map a different route

I have had a few days off as there were other things to look into. The rear bumper fix for Molly being one of them - more on that elsewhere.

So whilst I was playing with Max (the TomTom Go Camper Max satnav/GPS) I decided to let her/him/they calculate a return journey from Alcoceber/Alcossebre with the dimensions slightly altered to make the van wider.

If you have read the earlier blog (https://devall-travels.travellerspoint.com/809/) about the journey to Invicta Caravan Services you will get an idea how even the best laid plans can be ruined by Google having the wrong information in their Maps application! Plus the roads chosen were too narrow for Molly to pass trucks and buses safely without one (usually me as truck drivers know the size and weight always wins!) of us diving to the left to avoid contact.

On the summer trip in May we started coming north from Valencia. This time Alcoceber is around 110kms to the north of Valencia. The route though looks pretty much like the one we did on the way back in May. The non-toll route goes over the Somport crossing and maybe this time we will stay on the aire at Canfranc Station.

This is a work in progress...

I was looking on the Resort Condominiums International (RCI.Com) site to see if there was anything we could drive to and that was pet friendly.

Across Europe there were a few places but as we plan to travel in October that really ruled out Finland and Sweden, although maybe one day we can take Molly the Moho over that way.

There were a number of others in Austria and Hungary. One of the Hungarian places I have been before with my ex-partner. We went on our motorcycles and stayed near Heviz and Lake Balaton. It ruled out Austria as the size of the dog was restricted to 10kg! Reggie is around 17.5kg.

So that left three places for our dates in Spain. One where we have been before in 2022 and two others in Roquetas de Mar and Jaen.

After a chat we decided to try Alcossebre/Alcoceber again! There will be blog posts on this blog-site somewhere!

Last time we came for three full weeks and Reggie was getting a little frazzled towards the end. This time we are looking for the apartment part of the trip to be a more restful event. Days of not driving far if at all.

I am looking at using the P&O ferry on a Tuesday morning and heading non-toll south to Spain. Four nights for a more leisurely drive down. And a similar number of nights driving back. We can't check in until 4pm on Saturday.

The last time we went we called in to visit a friend at Moux between Carcassonne and Narbonne. Our overnight was at the "Flot Bleu" aire in St Cyprien Plage.

Using that aire as the endpoint for Friday's trip Google Maps has suggested a route from Calais that goes via Rouen, Chartres, Orleans, Nevers. Moulins and then to the coast.

On Friday, as last time, we can slip across the border on a short bit of French toll motorway and then onto the toll-free A7.

By the time we arrive in France it will be around lunchtime. I don't want to be driving 6 or 7 hours a day. After all this is a holiday.

I'll check the ferry times in the coming weeks and then check to see how many Tesco Clubcard points we have accrued to turn into 2 for 1 vouchers to pay towards the ferry fare. We currently have £83 that doubles up to £166. Although I think you can only use multiples of £5 or maybe even £2.50.

With P&O they are still in the 00's with their online booking and you can only use a Tesco voucher over the dog and bone.

Once that's sorted I'll look more in depth at the overnight stops. I expect we'll use Camping-Car Park Aires on the way up and down.

To change the route home from the same as going out, we could maybe look at the N10 route again. We have done this before and to be honest, it's a bit boring! But it's a quick way of getting home. I would also think that the vet in Cavignac could do Reggie's worming again. More about the way back later!

Aragón is go!!

I have this trip planned and as soon as we know the situation with Covid across Europe we can get things finalised and maybe even buy the tickets!

I wasn't going to maintain two blogs, one for Vera's trips and one for Spain, but with email updates (except photos are brought across from the email!) I can update both places at once!

Overkill?

The starter entry for this trip is: https://verastrom.travellerspoint.com/13/

Finally on September 30th I had an email from Travel-Up to say that my claim for a refund would be met within 14 days. As I paid with Tesco Bank MasterCard (way back in September 2019) I was hoping that refund would show on my next statement that they send on the 13th of each month.

By sheer fluke I was making a payment on PayPal for another purchase and went to "activity" and on October 1st there was a credit from Travel-Up. They said back in March, when I made the claim for a refund, that they would keep the cancelation fee of £75 from any refund.

This sounded pretty unfair as I didn't cancel the flights, British Airways did. A lot of people complained. Firstly, Spain was under a government lockdown with Spanish citizens stuck in their homes and unable to leave for any reason other than medical. The British Government banned travel to Spain.

So the amount that PayPal shows as being retuned to my MasterCard account via them is £75 down on what was spent on airfares. At least all the other components paid up in full.

I am grateful to get back most of what I paid out. I still think that Travel-Up have been underhand but there's not a lot can be done, other than when it comes to booking another flight, take my business elsewhere.