Day 2 - Running with the Bulls in the rain


Started the day watching a pod of about 200 dolphins swimming alongside the ship. Something to write home about, but not worth a picture as they were a bit far away. Still very life affirming to see something like that. I thought I'd get bored on a ship for this long but its a nice relaxing start to the holiday and I've chatted to some very interesting people, including a guy called Lucky who seems to have done just about everything including getting his name from an incident when a lion came into his room in the bush, wandered around and over him and then left... Lucky indeed. Also chatted to couple of young tearaways who were seriously into cars, one of them being a drifting fiend who grew up in Camden off Queens Crescent

Two hours to go now, and its passed very easily. Next stop Santander and then on to Pamplona...

...except that its pissing down and freezing cold! Good thing I decided to stop in Pamplona as I couldn't have gone much further. I'm soaked to the skin and cold to the bone.

On my drive around the old city I spotted a four star hotel and pulled up. They had one bedroom left so I took it. The Hotel Puerta del Camino is lovely and the room is great. A crowd gathered around the car, amongst whom was Javier who is a rally co-driver and mad about cars. He invited me to come to dinner with him and about a dozen of his workmates, so I went. A great bunch, none of whom spoke much English but we got by. A great night out in the heaving nightlife of Pamplona on a Saturday, and being shown around by a local was a real treat. We ended up in a typical local club for a few drinks and I got to bed at about 1.

There's no rush in the morning as the weather is still absolutely foul and the rain is coming down in stair rods. If its no better, I'll be in no hurry to get off early.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7 - Bilbao or Bust

Image
And so our trip ends in much the same way as it began.. in the rain. But this time, there's no respite as we're going to have to get to the ferry... The picturesque way we had planned is out of the window (even if we had windows in our cars!) so it's a straight run to Bilbao. We drove through town to take a look and stopped for a brief lunch, But then it was on to the port and our ride home. The ferry journey was pretty uneventful as was the drive from Portsmouth home. So, how to sum up this holiday? Well, we may have been Andorra Adorers before we left, but since the two cars that got to Andorra didn't actually drive the roads, and I didn't even make it there, the title of this thread is a misnomer at best. And my false start put a real dampener on the break, too. But would I do it again. Yes, of course. When the weather was good, the roads were great and quiet and it was unbeatable - even by the high standards set by the Alps. In fact, I'd say that this...
Read more

Day 1 - The ship

Finally, the day of departure, take two. After a morning of removing two days worth of clothing from my luggage and tidying the flat, I set off for the coast. Three points of interest, the first being the two most stupid questions I have ever been asked about the Atom... "Are you allowed to drive that?" answered by, "Well, I'm old enough", and "What is it supposed to be then?" Answered by, "It's not supposed to be anything - it's an Ariel Atom".  God, that kid was dumber than dumb. Second point, there was a cop with a radar gun on the A3. As I sailed past at 50 in a 50 he actually gave me the thumbs up... amazing for a radar slinger. And the third, of course, it rained. Torrentialy. I got soaked on the way to Portsmouth, but it was lovely and sunny for the last 20 minutes, so I managed to dry out. Getting onto the ferry was pretty straightforward, and having dropped off my luggage in a four berth cabin which was barely big enough f...
Read more

The Prequel

Day -1 So, it's time to get ready for the Atom assault on Andorra. Bags packed? Check. Telepeage sorted? Check. TomTom programmed with routes? Check. GoPro charged? Check. Car sorted and ready to go? Che... oh, hang on... It's 4.30pm and the starter motor has just packed up. This is a disaster. I can't go anywhere without a starter motor unless I park on a hill ever time I stop, so this has to be sorted. Calls to all the local Honda dealers to source a replacement have ended in the frustration of dealing with robot humans tied to computers. The Ariel factory doesn't have them in stock. Even eBay is coming up blank. I'm stuffed. The ferry leaves tomorrow at 12 and I need to be meeting the others at Portsmouth for 11.00. As always with things petrosexual, I turn to the guru... Bachi has a plan. His engineer, Paul, might be able to help. A few phone calls later and a replacement starter is is on a van to be delivered at 7:00am. Paul will strip out the old starter ...
Read more