Kaixo eta ongi etorri from the Basque country, and

Hola y bienvenidos from Spain, and Happy New Year!!

We are in a wonderful campsite at Zarauta near San Sebastian on the north coast of Spain. I’m sitting in the sun with the computer on my lap wondering if I’m going to need to change into a tee shirt! We still need the heater at night but it is great to be outside for more than a brief time. We are parked on a cliff overlooking the town and a large surf beach set in a beautiful bay. 

Zaratauz Sunset even fishing boats inthe bay show up

Zaratauz in Spain, 6 nights to relax

Zaratuaz Sunset from campground

Colin has a heavy cold and we both need to just blob for a bit so we have been here 6 nights so far. We also had to fix our GPS that seemed to have ‘lost’ the Spanish maps , ie the first offer finished, it had when we first set it up last May. This is all done now with a 5 hour download without higher speed internet!

Christmas was just great with lots of lovely family time. Sarah arrived safely on Christmas Eve and we had a great night celebrating with friends of Marg’s brother and sister in law. Wonderful being together the next morning to open presents that are usually posted.  

Doug...Marg's brothers Chorus in action before Xmas

Sarah, Marg, Col……you light up my life!!

Xmas tree1

Xmas tree2

Xmas tree3

It is certainly tempting to go on eating and drinking when the weather is cold and the food is delicious. 

Special xmas day games!!

Tom, Sarah and Jessica on Xmas day walk through Panal

Ahhhh, those special xmas slippers!!

Yes or no only …we had to guess who each of us was!!!

The Xmas day walk…a bit muddy in parts but a beautiful day.

On Boxing Day we went to Sheffield to Marg’s brother-in-laws’ for more delicious food. The timing of the meal had been moved forward as snow was forecast. Just as we had finished eating the snow started and we left quickly. It was a long trip home through snow that was heavy in places. Later we learnt that Sheffield had received the heaviest snowfall. A full coach of passengers ended up staying in a church the night as the snow was too heavy for the bus to ‘safely get through’.

Boxing Day snow

Cold!!!

There were a few more snowfalls but mainly at night and we had cold crystal clear days so we went on several walks along icy tracks and passed frozen lakes. We rounded off our time in Harrogate by attending a pantomime at the beautiful Harrogate Theatre. The performance was really well done with heaps of audience participation by children with led lit up wands, parents with ice creams and some very motivated grandparents!

Other walks around Harrogate, this time in winter…

Washburn valley walk1

Washburn valley walk2

Washburn valley walk3

Washburn valley walk4

Road to Washburn valley walk

Fountains Abbey walk….coolish day

Fountains Abbey, always beautiful.

One of Fountains Abbey's frozen lakes ice about 3cm thick

We drove with Sarah down to Hitchen to stay with our friends John and Sue. Sarah caught the train to London to spend New Year with her friends. We will see her again before we sail back to the UK at the beginning of March. It was wonderful to be with friends for New Year and in the couple of days we spent there some of the time stocking up for our trip (gluten free food is hard to find, however Sainsburys and Tesco seem very good).

Last lovely sunset of 2014 from John and Sue's in Hitchin England on new year's eve.

 Then we stayed one night in a campground near Dover and had a sunny day for the sailing, we could see the white cliffs all the way across to France.

Ready to cross back to Europe - White Cliffs in background.

Very pleasing signs on board as were at the very front (bow) and do remember some very bad incidents with ferry doors from a few years ago!!!

White Cliffs just visible through the salt encrusted stern facing windows on an extremely smooth and relaxing crossing.

So many crossings…traffic lights needed, we had at the best of seats looking towards France.

Our research had told us that there were not many campsites open in France so we decided not to sightsee and to just drive south. This was a pity as we had not been to the west coast before. France not only has lots of campsites but they also provide parking places for campervans called Aires de Service. Unfortunately not many of these provide continuous electricity so not much good for keeping the heater going in the cold. We stayed one night with cousins of Colin’s who have retired to Champagne Le Sec, a small village near La Rochelle, and were so very well looked after. Their old French house has been beautifully done up and we enjoyed catching up sitting around the fire. 

 Brian and their house in Champagne Le Sec

The old bread oven that would have been shared by 4 other  families attached to their house!!

Three family amigos……Sally, Brian and Marg
Much trading of family information in that Colin and Sally share the same great grandfather who worked in India for 19 years returning to the UK in the late 1870s! Included are two small pieces of newspaper cutting from his retirement 'gathering' in 1877. We hadn't seen Sally and Brian since traveling with Nick and Linda in 1977!!

Great Grandfather….#1 clipping

Great Grandfather…... #2 clipping

To get there we chose to use toll roads for efficiency, proved to be correct with the one exception……the actual tolls!! These turned out to be frequent and efficient!!

We have started to make arrangements for shipping Peedie back to NZ from the UK and firming up the dates for our flights home at the beginning of April. We know it will all go very quickly from now.