*edited*
I was talking to SWMBI SWMBO the other day.
It’s a thing.
We do it often.
Anyway.
The subject of holidays came up.
Now then.
Holidays present something of a problem.
Or two.
For example:
I have a little bit of a hankering to sit on a motorbike and trundle around the warmer parts of Europe for a week.
As I did last year, with my round-Spain tour.
But where to go?
Having done southern Spain (but thoroughly enjoyed the experience), I’ve been looking at the map.
Yeah, dangerous I know.
Wherever I do choose, the simple criteria is that *getting there* has to not be stupid mileage from the UK.
For example, I love the idea of trundling around mid-to-southern Italy, but just getting there is a hell of a stretch in itself.
So much of a stretch that the journey *to there* might take the fun out of it.
So I’ve been looking at France.
Southern France, to be precise.
And that is a problem in itself.
Southern France, in case you didn’t know it, is in actual France.
A little French geography for you there.
And unlike my Spanish, my French never really made it out of the ‘où est la plume de ma tante‘ and/or ‘où est la piscine‘ starting blocks.
And I find the thought of being an ineffective communicator in a foreign country quite intimidating.
The other problem is that if I get too close to northern Spain, I might not be able to resist the pull of the country in which I used to live, and could quite quickly find myself in Barcelona.
Where I’d potter about for a bit.
Before heading down to warmer Valencia.
And then southwards to even warmer Alicante.
Hmm…
You know, from Alicante I could get a ferry across to hot Algeria.
Poke about in Algiers for a bit.
And then motorbike westwards to Oran.
And then over the border in to equally hot Morocco.
And then on to Fez.
Then continue west to Casablanca.
Then head up to Rabat.
Then Tangiers.
And then get the ferry across to Taifa del Algeceras
Then trundle around Gibraltar for a day or two.
Then head west and north to Cadiz.
And then Jerez.
Sevilla.
Merida.
Caceres.
A couple of nights in Salamanca.
Palencia.
Santander/Bilbao.
Plymouth.
Home.
That’s an absolute beauty of a road trip.
But it would take more than a week.
Maybe two.
Possibly three.
*edit*
Well, the border between Algeria and Morocco is closed because of a territorial dispute.
So it would be down to Almeria and then a ferry across to Melilla and then through Morocco.
The trip would be something in the region of 3,500 miles.
Over 15 days that would average 234 miles/day.
Travelling for 20 days would bring the trip down to 175 miles/day.
I think SWMBO would have an opinion on this.