Greece - the next stage of our adventure

Fishers Farm Wisborough Green

Leaving Velez Rubio we headed back to Totana for a few days before heading on to our friends, Janet and Frank at Quesada (Murcia region) where we had arranged to have the motorhome serviced in a local garage and stored for the week whilst we headed home to the UK, flying Ryanair from Alicante. The return flights to Gatwick didn't cost a lot but all the regulations stipulated by Ryanair stressed us somewhat! Are the flight bags the correct dimensions? When do we check in online and why do we have to pay just to sit together? It's all so complicated.....
Nevertheless we made it home unscathed and enjoyed a hectic week catching up with our friends and family especially time spent with our gorgeous granddaughters- we had a brilliant day out at Fishers Farm park with all the animals and activities.
The week flew by and we were soon back on the plane heading back to Spain to start the next stage of our adventure.

Cambrils promenade 

There are a number of ways to get to Greece, we opted to take a ferry from Barcelona to Civitavecchia in Italy, drive northeast across Italy to Ancona and then to take a ferry from there to Igoumenitsa on the west coast of Greece.
The first crossing was 20 hours and the second 16 hours so we added a cabin for both journeys. You can opt on the Greece ferry to camp on deck in your motohome which we have heard is good fun but we decided to have the luxury of a cabin. Together the total cost of the two ferry journeys worked out at 635€ (about £600) which we thought wasn't too bad, it gave us a great feeling of excitement booking our trip to Greece- we have never been quite so adventurous before!
Having spent a lovely few days with Janet & Frank (which included a night out for fish & chips, a visit to the Saturday market at Almoradi and Janet cooked us her fabulous Paella which has to be the best ever - and has completely spoilt us for having Paella anywhere else!) we headed north towards Barcelona stopping at Cambrils enroute.

Our ferry to Italy was booked for 10.30pm so we allowed plenty of time for the Barcelona city traffic and getting checked in etc. Once we arrived at the port we parked up in the holding area and had time to eat our evening meal before we eventually boarded - that's the lovely thing about travelling around in your motorhome- you have everything with you (including the kitchen sink!)
The whole process of boarding was totally chaotic but we made it and were soon settling into our little cabin for the journey. We had an incredibly smooth crossing, slept well with the gentle rocking of the boat and enjoyed the sunshine on deck the next day. It would have all been perfect but for the couple of hundred Italian teenage students on board (quite well behaved but noisy) and having to wait ages after checking out of the cabin to disembark.
At last we arrived on Italian soil ready for a brief stay in the land of Pasta, Pizza and Pompeii.

On board the Cruise Ausonia - Grimaldi lines