roemin around

Hondarribia is a lovely Basque town on the border between France and Spain. Our first day here in the Jaurigui Hotel was a free day to recover from a full day of travelling and get acquainted with the town. We walked up to the medieval old town in the morning which is lovely and had an excellent meal of scallops and calamari in the Gran Sol tapas restaurant in the evening.

We joined our group of 39 GRJ travellers and successfully passed the new EU entry system to take the 8:01 Eurostar to Paris then an hour coach transfer around the periphique to the TVR terminal at Gare Montparnasse.  The train was very full and we were crammed into 2nd Class coach 17. Not quite the pleasant 3 HR journey we were expecting to Dax. The final part of the journey was another 1 hour luxury coach ride passing St Jean de Luz. We actually did this bit of motorway 21 years ago in our motorhome on the way to Playa Joel for our first holiday on the north coast of Spain.

We are on our way to the Basque country by rail and need to meet our party at St Pancras at 6:00am so an overnight stay is essential. We traveled via Foxconnect to Narborough and BR to London and stayed in Fairway Hotel just across Euston Road and only 5 mins walk from GRJ office by the Eurostar terminal. We spent the evening in the nearby Coal Drop Yard area which is full of restaurants and designer shops. It was once a large gas works before being redeveloped as a trendy business (Google office here) and leisure destination. We had some food in a young people's market style bar and an early night.

 After 22 years of roemin around in our motorhomes we have decided that we need to move on and explore the world of Airbnb. We have had an amazing time driving around Europe, which is why we bought them, but those days of driving for weeks on the wrong side of the road are no longer a safe or attractive proposition. So in June I sold the Moniche and we will be roemin a bit longer - but by car, plane and cruise boat in future.

I had a rather restless night worrying about how the bookcase would fit into the van and whether the additional weight would be a problem. Before we left the site I emptied the water and waste tanks and moved any heavy items as far forward as possible.  We have never been to Sezincote although it is just opposite Batsford Arboretum, so I booked a garden and house tour, £30 for two. The 1st May is the opening day of the 2025 season.  The house is unusual in its Indian inspiration The supurb landscaped garden is multi-level with streams and ponds and unusual mature trees. The house tour is rather boring with only 4 rooms on limited public display. Although Indian on the outside with connections to the Brighton Pavillion, it is a collection of random periods and sources on the inside, collected by the existing family. It is used for the occasional wedding but otherwise is still a family home. We had coffee in the  Orangery which is the only part licenced for weddings. There ...

  After a rather chilly night we awoke to another perfect looking day. Warmed up some bacon from the night before for breakfast and had a day in Stow on the Wolds looking in the Cotswolds Store for a new bookcase. Right by the door there was an ex-display solid oak one reduced from £699 to £150 which was ideal but we had to take it away ourselves as it was a sale item.  We went for an expensive coffee and cake £18,50 at Huffkins to mull over whether we could pay and collect the next day. I decided to give it a go so we paid for it and arranged to collect it the next day on the way home. We had a shandy on the lawn at the Stow Lodge hotel (expensive) then we walked back up the hill to the Tesco where we were parked and did a bit more shopping before returning to site for a bit more sitting in the sun. Just a simple tapas style meal tonite with some Tesco yellow stickers and stuff from home.

  We are off today for our first trip of the year (and maybe our last) to the Cotswolds for 2 nights. We are going to Moreton on Marsh CMC site, which is the first site we ever pitched on back in 2003. The weather forecast for the week is dry and sunny so good timing for once. We left home at around 11:30 for the 90 min drive stopping at the CoOp in Moreton for some provisions. After hooking up at aound 2:30 we walked into the small town via the camping pod area (that wasnt here in 2003) and the path which comes out in the market square. The market was just packing up so we shared a gelato, bought some budgie seed and expensive cheese, then wandered back via the main road to site. These is a wood fired pizza oven on site tonite but we have bought a piece of steak to grill on the plank. There are quite a few small campervans here, including German, Dutch and an elderly Belgian couple right behind us. We relaxed in the warm sun for a few hours before grilling the steak and some bacon...