Off we go

We booked the same ferry as two years ago, the thirty hour Portsmouth to Bilbao. It is very convenient as it leaves at 22:30 on Sunday and arrives at 07:45 on Tuesday. So half of the voyage is spent asleep, with one full day to watch the crossing of the Bay of Biscay.

We were all packed by Saturday evening and so left home on Sunday morning and stopped at Stanford-in-the-Vale for the afternoon to see our very good friends and neighbours, Brenda and Paul. It was a typical summer's day in south Oxfordshire with sunshine and a temperature in the mid twenties. So we did what we always to do there and had a bbq and a massive catch-up with news of families and friends. What a great start to the holiday.

Overnight the ferry sails to Roscoff, docking for ninety minutes. After a flat calm crossing and a solid night's sleep we were there. It was cool and damp.

The cabin is compact and bijou and we are now using the time to plan our route in Spain. As the nice weather has been stolen by Oxfordshire and we think that northern Spain is experiencing decidedly cool and damp conditions too, we are probably going to make a dash for the south, specifically Granada and the Alpujarras in the Sierra Nevada.