2 Years of retirement.

After 2 years of living in our motorhome I've decided it's time to start a blog!
"Not before time" some people will say no doubt!

Well - what have we been doing for 2 years? Travelling around Europe!
We started our European adventure in July 2007 with a trip to Norway. 3 weeks and 2,000 miles!
We visited friends, Marie and Ken in Oksendal and Rex's brother Peter and his wife Rutt in Bardu.
Impressions of Norway? Wild, beautiful, narrow roads, even narrower tunnels, mountains, friendly people, very expensive, snow, ice, ferries, fjords, like Scotland but further away!

Favourite places in Norway? Oksendal, Flam, Bergen.

The next European trip was in November 2007. We headed south through France with our friends Ray and Joan and their Weimaraner called Flint.
We took a week to get to Spain and then drove down the Mediterranean coast to the south. We stopped off to visit friends Roy and Dianne who have settled near Murcia. Next stop was The Costa Del Sol and Cabopino for a week.
After a rest for a week we headed on across to Portugal and the Algarve. We spent the next 6 weeks at Monte Gordo. We were there for Christmas and Stuart and Jake came out to join us for 2 weeks.

Impressions of Portugal? Poor people, strange language, lots of fish meals, great beach, plenty of Dutch and German campers, quiet roads.

After New Year we went back over the river to Spain. The first place we stopped was El Rocio, a pilgrimage and equestrian centre. No roads in town - just sand, no road signs - just mayhem! Great place to people watch especially at the weekend when the pilgrims arrive.
From El Rocio it was a short drive to El Puerto De Santa Maria where we stayed for the next month.
While in El Puerto Ray and Joan had to return to England so we carried on alone and went to Conil De La Frontera on the Costa De La Luz. We were very impressed with this area and decided to return later in the year.

It was getting time to think about returning to England and so we set off north east. On the way we stayed for 2 weeks in Orgiva just south of Granada. It was made famous in the Chris Stewart books " Driving over Lemons", "Parrot in the Pepper Tree" and " The Olive Blossom Appreciation Society". It's a magical place in the Sierra Nevada mountians yet surprisingly the weather is generally quite mild in the winter. We were there in March and it was hot!
Friends Laura and Andi joined us there for a few days before the 4 of us ( and the dog "Small Dog" ) moved to Las Negras in the Cabo De Gata National Park. We only stayed there for 2 nights before setting off again, visiting Roy and Dianne near Murcia then heading up to France.

After crossing into France we stayed at a campsite in Le Boulou first then another at Leucate Plage. Over Easter we camped in Carcassonne for 6 nights. We visited the fabulous old city - the set for Robin Hood -Prince of Thieves.

Then it was a dash up north and the shuttle to England.

We had had a great winter - the weather was good most of the time - we stayed in some lovely places and visited other great places like Seville and Cadiz.

Impressions of Spain? Warm, sunny, friendly, language I can get by in! noisy yet also tranquil.

Favourite places on this trip? Orgiva, Seville, Cadiz, Carcasonne, El Rocio.

Photos from the places we visited are on Flickr:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/16531440@N07/ and also in my Facebook albums.

ps - I wrote this in May and it's taken me till now to publish it! I promise to try harder!!