Well. We’re in!
The journey was a struggle. Ferry wasn’t too bad if you ignore sharing a pet cabin with a snoring dog.
The room itself was ok. Albeit basic, but clean enough. The corridor outside absolutely stunk though as people let their dogs wee in the internal corridor and not even clean it up. Luckily the door was well sealed.
Prices were decent. I threw down a decent amount of Lagunitas IPA at 6.50 a pint. However we had a meal of soft taco and chips which was only £8 and a red wine was 2.85 so not expensive which was unexpected.
As
@moon man mentioned either in here or another thread. Drinking water isn’t plentiful. They say you can drink from the toilet sink but it was warm and rank. A 500ml bottle was £3 so definitely suggest stocking up in Tesco before hand!
Then Tuesday morning the fun started. We were up at 6am ready to arrive at 8am. A bit of packing and taking the dog out and we were in the car ready.
We were one of the last ones to arrive at departure so had to wait for everyone else. There were some cool old 60’s looking army truck for distraction.
We then got to passport control and the guy mistook me for Spanish and then laughed at my confused face! However sailed through that.
Then joined the queue for pets and got waved into customs. I imagine being in a Transit it was likely to happen. We were also the absolute last vehicle to reach the section.
He opened the van, recoiled in horror at how full it was and then shut the doors.
Even though I was armed with my documentation of inventory and other proof we were relocating to Spain they decided I needed to pay import fees. Queue waiting 2 hours for them to come out and talk to me and get me to sign something. Then another hour of waiting not really knowing before someone tells me I need to phone an import company to assist with the paperwork.
They give me a number and at 11 I send the paperwork I have.
At this point there’s 3 other people in the same boat and we’re all conferring about what we’ve been told.
One guy then gets a form to complete. We head into the office and luckily they agree to print it for him.
I wait a further hour and then try and chase for the same form to be sent to me, get told “they’re dealing with it” and then ask him to send me his and return that trying to be proactive (it was a blank standard form”
2pm arrives and we’re told Customs is now shut for the day and we’ll be escorted elsewhere in the port whilst we wait for the paperwork to be emailed to us. Once received we can show it when exiting the port.
At this point, my wife who suffers fro
Chronic Pain/Fatigue and who’s not slept much on the ferry is struggling. We’ve been sat in Transit for around 7 hours and it’s not a comfortable place for anyone!
We arrive at the next waiting bit and the Guardia explains that the port exit shuts at 9pm. We can’t leave until we have a completed form stating we’ve paid the import fees.
Soon after and the guy getting most success gets an email to say it’s very likely it won’t be completed that day.
I make the decision to just book a hotel in Bilbao. The van has to stay in the port but we can leave.
I’m hesitant given the van contains all our worldly possessions but worst case I claim from the insurance and life is simpler!
2 guys decide to sleep in their van for fear of theft and the hope it’ll be resolved.
I lead the exhausted wife and dog around a mile to the nearest hotel. It looks excellent (HRH Palace in Bilbao) and £100 per night.
The rock up outside and it’s fairly special looking. The wife and dog are on the verge of collapse and we get to the room only for it to smell damp and musty and be a bit run down.
We’ve obviously got a **** room since I booked through Expedia and we have another pet room
At 3ish I leave to grab some food/well deserved beer and check my emails to find a proforma to pay €1100 in fees. I make the payment and head back to the van to retrieve some stuff.
I get back to the hotel room with snacks and beer and at 4pm have the required paperwork.
I umm and arr and suggest we take the hit, abandon the room and hit the road. Get a few hours in and then stop somewhere. It’s a 7.5hr drive assuming no stops/traffic and given we’re both in work Thursday figure that only driving 3-4hrs on the Wednesday means we arrive and can unpack and get ready for Thursday.
My loving wife agrees to leave the bed (I think had the room not smelt I’d have had more resistance) and walk the mile back to the van.
We get there and one guy has already left. Another had drawn the curtains on his cab so presumably decided to stay the night and no sign of another.
Around an hour into the drive my wife says “it would be nice to just wake up there”. I hear this and turn on god mode and work out we will arrive around 2am.
I’ve already exchanged messages with the Keyholder who was happy to meet anytime in the night so arrange to meet him at 2.
Traffic is a breeze and we stop after an hour for some petrol. At normal conditions the Transit gets ~450 miles to a 75L tank so around 20-25p per mile.
Given it was around 520 miles I figured that one stop would suffice.
Turns out that doing 80mph in a fully loaded van will cut this down considerably and I got 350 miles before having to fill up again around midnight.
Hit one petrol station to find it was changing from day shift to night **** and closed the 15 mins. This pushed me past 2am so I decided to try elsewhere.
The second petrol station (claimed 24hr) was shut completely.
At this point I had 20 miles range showing and was getting nervous. However 5 miles later a wonderful “Galp” appeared and all was good.
The headlights on the Transit are appalling and so I relied mainly on full beams. Luckily the motorway was quiet and this was fine, although had some flashes from the opposite side. I’d forgotten to put the beam deflectors on so must’ve been very annoying is the realization that dawned on me today!
We arrive around 2:05 with the wife’s body in agony. Turns out that whilst she said what she said. It was more wishful thinking and she’d have actually preferred to have stopped but kept quiete knowing I’d probably have wanted to push on!
We couldn’t see much since it was pitch black and hit the bed around 3am. Disappointed that United had lost again and not actually too tired. It helped massively to be in a manual car and concentrating on driving. When doing the trip in March I drove much worse since I relied on cruise control/automátic gears.
We then woke up to this spectacular view.
Had no food except a gifted bottle of Cava and so got dressed and headed into the local town.
It’s a fantastic quiet village with a few shops for essentials. Weirdly nowhere does fresh milk and you can only get UHT stuff.
Got back and started unpacking the van. Luckily it was still perfectly intact and nothing fell out at me.
I worked smart and so did an hour of unloading followed by a beer and break.
Finished around 4pm and dived into the pool and tested the dogs float. He seems to love being able to swim although makes a beeline for the edge to escape!
Had a shower and made tea and opened the welcome Cava. It’s now 8:30 as I finish it off. My wife had a glass and went to bed. I’m sat outside finishing the bottle. Getting bitten to death and writing this post.
Travel costs
Ferry £650 (including 2x £20 amendment fees)
Customs £1000
Petrol £250
Unused Hotel £100
Tolls £34
I still don’t seem tired but imagine I’ll crash at some point. Yesterday was brutal being up around 23hours and driving for 8.
Work tomorrow will not be fun as it’s quarter end so these 2 days and next week are gonna be hectic. I’ve not even unboxed my work stuff so need to do that early tomorrow.
Sun up so far. I’m massively happy with the choice. This rental is amazing. The local town is perfect. To the point I dropped my wife off in the middle earlier for breakfast whilst I parked to save her walking and when I found he she was crying with happiness at the fact this was now our life.
No regrets at all. Even if some tough times lay ahead.
Be great for cycling and learning the language.
Somehow I didn't even know about this thread?! (I've now read all of page 1, but succumbed to skimming pages 2 and 3!)
