Only one sleep to go

Almost there now. Just one more night at home and it's off to Portsmouth for tomorrow evening's sailing to Bilbao.

The plan as such is Portsmouth to Bilbao by ferry, drive to Barcelona, take another ferry to Genoa and then there is no plan. All we know is that we must be back in Calais for an evening sailing on Saturday 26th. Coming from such a disappointing(so far) summer in the UK, the idea of a little toodle along the sunny Italian and French Rivieras is pretty appealing right now but so is Switzerland, Austria, Germany...We'll see. The only two must do's for me are a visit to the historic Belgium town of Leuven for the fascinating medieval architecture, (Okay - it's the home-town of Stella Artois), and Monaco for a vodka martini and couple of hands of blackjack at the casino.

As I write it is hammering down with rain, feeling much cooler than the 18C it is supposed to be while the weather report from Bilbao is 25C and sunny. Even that's a little disappointing for the time of year but Barcelona and Marseille do show a lot more promise - and we only have a day in Bilbao in any case.

The car is almost ready. Tyres are inflated, oil, brake fluid and coolant have been checked, and the washer fluid topped to full. I haven't fixed the blind spot mirror or the headlamp deflectors just yet. I started on the wing mirror when the heavens opened and drenched me to the skin in just a few very wet seconds.

Packing isn't going to be as easy as I thought. I thought I'd go for a medium case for my clothes and a cabin case for books, toiletries and laptop. Being determined not to let clothes washing get in the way of a good holiday I have overdone it with the t-shirts, shorts and undercrackers so the medium sized case is bursting before I can even think about shirts, shoes and the million and one other things that I'm sure "may be handy".

All that aside, I have tickets, passport, cash and insurance......really what else is there that can't be bought when I get there? I may have to re-adjust my packing perspectives a little.

Looking forward to two weeks of sun, sea, sand (but not in the car!), drinking, eating and being generally very merry.

A bientôt :-)