So our last blog post was in March 2021, yikes! I was actually going to give up on the blog posts, until I was reminded by those of you who do read it that you enjoy them, so I thought I should continue them. The last post left us at my family villa in south Spain where we spent about 3 months with the Covid restrictions. We can’t complain though, it was wonderful to have that time in my old family home, just Stacey and I. We got to spend lots of quality time with my parents as well, and even my brother and his family came over twice! It also started a new adventure for us where we decided to sell HooHoo and build our own Campervan! This all started from helping clear out some belongings in the house, including breaking up some old wardrobes, and I remember looking at the wood and thinking; “this is good quality wood, it would be great to build the inside of a Campervan”. And just like that, I said to Stacey that we should sell HooHoo and get a van instead! We realised that it would mean we would save money on campsites as we could wild camp in a self-contained camper and that we wouldn’t have to go to sleep in a damp bed, or worry about heavy rain, wind or thunder again! Luckily we found a Ford Transit that was registered in the UK, and they part exchanged HooHoo for us (we actually ended up getting more than we originally paid for her!), and we sold the roof tent to a chap in Gibraltar (for slightly less than we wanted to), but it all came together, allowing us to purchase Luna. Actually when we came back from selling the roof tent, we got stopped by the Guardia Civil, which are the Spanish military police, and I thought they were going to tell us off for crossing a border, but luckily they just wanted to give me a breathalyser test and a drugs test, still scary though, but obviously I passed! Anyway, then the next 3 weeks we dabbled inside the van, beginning with a massive spring clean (as it definitely wasn’t valeted like they said, as we found a very old and dirty t-shirt under the radio compartment!) and then built our home step by step for under £200! (You can check out our youtube video for Luna here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKIaYcLTxzI&t=2s)
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| Floor going down! |
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Beautiful Madrid
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Finally by the time March came around we had a new home, and we set off around Spain (as we couldn’t go anywhere else because of Covid!). We had a blissful 5 months travelling around and visiting every corner of the vast landscapes Spain has to offer from mountain landscapes to sea views. We fell in love with Madrid, which isn’t normal for us to fall in love with a city as we tend to find them too busy and too touristy, but Madrid was magical.
We enjoyed the cheap wine and the tapas all over the country, as well as spending a week parked up in the little village of Sueras, just north of Valencia, where they had a spot for us to stay with free electricity and water so that we could do plenty of work. We enjoyed feeling part of their community and popping to the tiny village shops each day for bread and wine.  |
| Stacey working hard in Sueras |
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| Enjoying the sunset at Tabernas Desert |
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Tabernas Desert
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We visited the outskirts of Barcelona called Las Escalas, where we got to meet up with one of my students and her partner who invited us over for a BBQ one evening. And we also spent a few nights in the Tabernas desert, enjoying the peace and quiet and the glorious sunshine.  |
| Our new friends! |
After 5 months we went back to Portugal (as we were now allowed in) where we ended up bumping into some English folk in Porto. We all had Ford Transits lined up in a row! They kindly invited us out to watch the football with them (which we didn’t even know was on). We all got on so well, before we knew it we were bumping into them all over the place in Portugal. One evening we met them and got a little carried away, staying up into the early hours of the morning listening to loud music which allured a couple of SWAT vans with machine guns who politely asked us to turn the music off as we were right outside an apartment block! It was a bit daunting seeing them turn up, but they were more like annoyed parents telling their kids to be quiet.  |
| Lisbon with Sonia |
When we arrived in Lisbon we met up with one of my oldest and dearest friends in the capital, where we enjoyed catching up and reminiscing and even watched more football with it being the Euro Cup. They were very generous with lending us an apartment to stay in during our time there, which felt like a bit of bliss being able to stand up straight, have showers and walk around!
Also during our time in Portugal we walked the 512 Arouca bridge which is the longest swing footbridge in the world, (and very very high up too!), and the Sintra de Pena Palace, known as the most colourful palace in the world, which we got a ride up to in a speedy Tuk Tuk!
We ended our trip in Spain/Portugal with a family holiday back in the South of Spain for a few weeks in August, before driving all the way up to Santander to catch the ferry back home which was a long 37 hour journey.
Catch our next post to hear about our next adventures after working on and off for 6 months in the UK!
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