Starting the drive north.

One thing I needed to make sure on this trip was that when we arrived in Sheffield, Neil was not without his golf clubs. When we moved out to Spain, our furniture was delayed by 3 weeks and the golf clubs were with the furniture. Neil was not a happy man.

Using a groupage removal means there can be delays on when your furniture arrives. We had been quoted anything between 5 and 14 days, although they thought we would be one of the earlier drop offs as the storage depot was in Sheffield, one reason we chose this company.

Although we were due to arrive in Sheffield on Sunday evening, the van wasn't due to leave France until the Wednesday and had a couple of days travelling before they got to the depot.

We had the luxury of travelling in the big car going home unlike the journey to Spain, but we didn't have room for Neil's golf clubs if we wanted to take the dogs AND suitcases with clothes in.

Not a problem, we got a top box. Neil's clubs & golf trolley fitted in lovely and we even managed to get some bedding packed around them so we had something to use while we waited for the van to bring our stuff. We wouldn't have a bed, but we we have some bedding! Whilst night time temperatures in Spain meant we were throwing covers off at night, it was still cool enough in the UK to need a quilt.

It was 6.30pm when we finally got onto the motorway and started heading north. Our destination was 5 and a half hours away, not including stops and we would need a couple of stops for the dogs. We had a cool-box filled with sandwiches and drinks so we could keep the stops as short as possible and we knew we would be arriving late.

What I hadn't realised was that I had chosen a hotel that didn't have a 24 hour reception. Fun and games were waiting for us in northern Spain.

We were headed for L'Ampolla. I had chosen the distance based on leaving about 4pm and the hotel on the basis it was right on the side of the motorway so we would not be spending too long trying to find the hotel once we reached the area.

How wrong can you be?

We reached L'Ampolla around midnight and started looking for the hotel as we came off the motorway. We knew we didn't want to be in town or on the sea-front so we took the road away from the town. Within a few minutes we were heading out into the countryside without a building to be seen anywhere. It felt wrong and after a few more minutes we decided we would be better to turn around and try another route. The map I had printed off was not helpful. We found a narrow lane to turn around in and headed back. As we entered the town I noticed sign boards with lists of hotels on them and direction arrows - and ours was listed so we started to follow the signs.

And follow the signs.......

And follow the signs.......

We had gone right through the town and along the sea-front, which, even at mid-night , was buzzing with people. Then suddenly, as happens, our hotel had vanished of the list but we hadn't seen it.

We turned around again and as we drove back I notice a sign-post off to the left with the hotel name on it. We followed the arrow.

Out of civilisation and into the open countryside. We lost tarmac roads and even drove through a large storm drain but we were still following the arrows. Finally, after a few more twists and turns, we saw a large sign at the entrance to the hotel - we have been driving around for almost an hour. It was almost 1am and we were both ready to fall into bed. It had been a long day.

Before dragging the case into the hotel we decided we would check-in and find out where we were going and also give the pups time to have a bit of a walk around. We reached the door to the hotel reception ..... and it was locked. My lack of attention to detail when I booked had failed to notice that it wasn't manned 24 hours a day.

We wandered around the carpark with the dogs and chatted about our options. We could have a few hours in the car before setting off or we could just carry on driving and take it in turns to drive and sleep. In the end we decided we would carry on driving. Before we got back to the car Neil suggested I should ring the hotel number and leave a message to say we arrived but they were closed so we couldn't book in, in the hope that they would not charge us for the room, so I rang the number and instead of an answering machine cutting in, a rather sleepy man answered.

In my best Spanish I explained what had happenend and he told me to wait a few minutes and he would come down and let us in.

And so, we did get to sleep in a bed that night. We needed to be on the road early to make Calais by 10pm the next day but at least we could have a few hours sleep.

A long day was finally over.