Spanish holiday 2012
Discussion
I thought I would post a few pics and videos of this years holiday run down to Spain.
This year we decided to go all the way down to a Finca just outside Pizarra near Malaga.
We started off with a Sunday drive down to La Touquete via the channel tunnel.
Made the usual fuel stop at Tesco's Ashford.
Once in France we got straight on the road for La Touquete.
Very quickly started to notice a realy strong smell of fuel ???
Kept one eye on the gauge but as it was all up and down hill with lots of left and right curves, the fuel gauge was all over the place.
It eventually became apparent that I was loosing fuel and by the time I reached our exit and paid the toll, I had 'used' about 25lt in about 35km. We pulled over and straight away could see petrol dripping onto the road !!!
Quick fire extinguishing coarse for the Wife and it was bonnett off time.
One knackered two day old fuel pipe ?
Lucky no fire but an easy fix choping off 30mm and re-connecting.
Monday was the longest drive down to Bordeaux.
Service stations being the highlight off a long day.
Third day was planned as a short 3 hour drive to San Sebastian. Unfortunately I screwed up a little with a diversion to the coast which turned into a bit of a boring drive down a matrix of roads that never seemed to get anywhere.
Finally got back on the road, scrapped my Biaritz lunch and headed straight to SB.
Managed to get a very nice upgrade to a suite in the Maria Christiana Hotel.
Wednesday and day 4, driving down to Toledo and the Presidential suite at the Buene Vista Hilton
The Jakuzi on the sun terrace was a very good way to ease out 4 days of driving.
Thursday drive was to Granada and a two night stay over in another nice Hotel,
Didnt take any photo's of the Tuscan as I was directed straight into an underground car park.
Found other interesting transport and some top quality graffiti.
And so Saturday and heading for the Finca.
Finally arrived in the small town of Pizarra and parked up at a restaurant for refreshments while we tried to contact the owner of the Finca.
After 3 hours of failed calls and no response to our e-mails we gave up and found a room at the Crowne Plaza in Estepona. Turned out to be a great night of live entertainment and good food.
Also managed to get a another upgrade suite
And proved that I'm safe from being nominated for the bad parking
This year we decided to go all the way down to a Finca just outside Pizarra near Malaga.
We started off with a Sunday drive down to La Touquete via the channel tunnel.
Made the usual fuel stop at Tesco's Ashford.
Once in France we got straight on the road for La Touquete.
Very quickly started to notice a realy strong smell of fuel ???
Kept one eye on the gauge but as it was all up and down hill with lots of left and right curves, the fuel gauge was all over the place.
It eventually became apparent that I was loosing fuel and by the time I reached our exit and paid the toll, I had 'used' about 25lt in about 35km. We pulled over and straight away could see petrol dripping onto the road !!!
Quick fire extinguishing coarse for the Wife and it was bonnett off time.
One knackered two day old fuel pipe ?
Lucky no fire but an easy fix choping off 30mm and re-connecting.
Monday was the longest drive down to Bordeaux.
Service stations being the highlight off a long day.
Third day was planned as a short 3 hour drive to San Sebastian. Unfortunately I screwed up a little with a diversion to the coast which turned into a bit of a boring drive down a matrix of roads that never seemed to get anywhere.
Finally got back on the road, scrapped my Biaritz lunch and headed straight to SB.
Managed to get a very nice upgrade to a suite in the Maria Christiana Hotel.
Wednesday and day 4, driving down to Toledo and the Presidential suite at the Buene Vista Hilton
The Jakuzi on the sun terrace was a very good way to ease out 4 days of driving.
Thursday drive was to Granada and a two night stay over in another nice Hotel,
Didnt take any photo's of the Tuscan as I was directed straight into an underground car park.
Found other interesting transport and some top quality graffiti.
And so Saturday and heading for the Finca.
Finally arrived in the small town of Pizarra and parked up at a restaurant for refreshments while we tried to contact the owner of the Finca.
After 3 hours of failed calls and no response to our e-mails we gave up and found a room at the Crowne Plaza in Estepona. Turned out to be a great night of live entertainment and good food.
Also managed to get a another upgrade suite
And proved that I'm safe from being nominated for the bad parking
Edited by so called on Monday 17th September 16:54
You should've also mentioned about your roller coaster down hill with no brakes!! cookie450 said:
Looks like a great trip tony. Bit of a worry with the fuel pipe though. What caused the problem if it was only 2 days old ?
Take it you're back in sunny shavington now
Cheers
Steve
Hi Cookie450, I think the quality of the pipe was suspect so I stopped at a Ford Dealer and got some Multipart stuff. (Made in Germany is always a safe bet).Take it you're back in sunny shavington now
Cheers
Steve
Yep back in Shav now.
So next bit.
A day late but got to the villa. When I say villa, it was a Swedish log cabin on a very nice Finca owned by a very nice Swedish Lady and her Scotich man friend.
The dirt track and concrete drive up the side of the hill was a real bone shaker but we survived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDaOa4HznHU
So two weeks lazing around a pool and it was back to the interesting bit of driving home.
The first run was to a hotel 50 miles north of Madrid with regular coffee stops en-route,
The day ended up being a little bit more interesting than expected. We got to within 30km of the hotel and started to get tangled up in hundreds of annoying bike race people. We then discovered that the road ahead was closed and that it was some race called the 'Tour of Spain'. The inconsiderate sods had closed all mountain roads for a radius of 100km and it meant a 45 minute wait before the road re-opened or a 2 hour detoure.
By the time we had messed around figuring the alternative route, the road was re-opened.
So, back on track and weaving our way through the throngs of Bike Race fans and getting lots of thumbs up, We started to get a very strong petrol smell again. Not as bad as the fuel pipe problem but pretty bad all the same.
Finally got to the top of the mountain road and started to drop down the other side.
All seemed fine but then on a short straight before the next hairpin bend, dropped the clutch to change up and the engine died ??? tried several times to bump start her but no.
So we find ourselves free wheeling down steep mounatin roads with hairpin bends thinking a, brakes without servo assist are quite crap and b, How will the breakdown man find me in the middle of a forest in central Spain.
After a few minutes of no brakes and letting a car past, I dropped her back in gear and bump, we have power. No petrol smell, car running better than before ??? Nothing like that TVR moment.
So to the Hotel.
So the next day we decided that we would take the ferry back to Portsmouth instead of the two day drive through France. That meant extending our next hotel, again in San Sebastian, for an extra night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdIl6JpWiHA&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zhHPiQpyo&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PsmRjPMBM&fea...
A day late but got to the villa. When I say villa, it was a Swedish log cabin on a very nice Finca owned by a very nice Swedish Lady and her Scotich man friend.
The dirt track and concrete drive up the side of the hill was a real bone shaker but we survived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDaOa4HznHU
So two weeks lazing around a pool and it was back to the interesting bit of driving home.
The first run was to a hotel 50 miles north of Madrid with regular coffee stops en-route,
The day ended up being a little bit more interesting than expected. We got to within 30km of the hotel and started to get tangled up in hundreds of annoying bike race people. We then discovered that the road ahead was closed and that it was some race called the 'Tour of Spain'. The inconsiderate sods had closed all mountain roads for a radius of 100km and it meant a 45 minute wait before the road re-opened or a 2 hour detoure.
By the time we had messed around figuring the alternative route, the road was re-opened.
So, back on track and weaving our way through the throngs of Bike Race fans and getting lots of thumbs up, We started to get a very strong petrol smell again. Not as bad as the fuel pipe problem but pretty bad all the same.
Finally got to the top of the mountain road and started to drop down the other side.
All seemed fine but then on a short straight before the next hairpin bend, dropped the clutch to change up and the engine died ??? tried several times to bump start her but no.
So we find ourselves free wheeling down steep mounatin roads with hairpin bends thinking a, brakes without servo assist are quite crap and b, How will the breakdown man find me in the middle of a forest in central Spain.
After a few minutes of no brakes and letting a car past, I dropped her back in gear and bump, we have power. No petrol smell, car running better than before ??? Nothing like that TVR moment.
So to the Hotel.
So the next day we decided that we would take the ferry back to Portsmouth instead of the two day drive through France. That meant extending our next hotel, again in San Sebastian, for an extra night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdIl6JpWiHA&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zhHPiQpyo&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PsmRjPMBM&fea...
Edited by so called on Friday 14th September 21:18
Edited by so called on Saturday 22 September 15:20
Jasper Gilder said:
Looks like a great trip - but you did set yourself big mileages - still - Spanish motorways are pretty good and traffic free and the Hotel in San Sebastian looks good - is it run by an American chain?
Hi Jasper, yes we set reasonable distances but it didnt leave any time for exploring good roads. I didnt take the road you advised me in Andelucia as we just wanted to get to the next hotel.The hotel in San Sebastian is the Maria Cristina.
Its a Sheraton Luxury Collection Hotel, fantastic.
Had a facelift two years ago.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/property/over...
spartridge said:
Hi Tony - what camera are you using and how is it mounted? Just playing about with a new purchase prior to a trip next week. Angle and lack of wind noise are pretty good...
The first video is my I-Phone in my Wifes hand.The others are a Contour Roam 1600.
It has the usual mounts for helmets etc and has key way grooves to slide on the mounts.
I used one of the mounts fixed to one of those dash top GPS mounts. So it is just sat on top of the dash.
The video quality is very good but the volume is tooooo low. I have to use ear phones. The firm have fixed the problem and they have offered to exchange mine.
I will change it as I think its good. The only thing that I would say is that the next model up can be controlled with an I phone App. so that would have been better.
so called said:
The hotel in San Sebastian is the Maria Cristina.
Its a Sheraton Luxury Collection Hotel, fantastic.
Had a facelift two years ago.
Thought so - It's Starwood who also run Marques de Riscal which I've used a few times in recent yearsIts a Sheraton Luxury Collection Hotel, fantastic.
Had a facelift two years ago.
If it's been facelifted it should be good - very Bel Epoch
spartridge said:
...I'm getting the impression that sound quality is the tricky thing with these type of cameras, particularly addressing wind noise. Think I may have cracked it with some draught excluder foam over the mic though!
I know what you mean but the issue on mine is a definite fault.It doesnt have an external mic either so is limited.
Another reason why I want to look at the next model.
Hi Tony, glad you had a good trip! One day, someone somewhere will go on a TVR road trip and have a day without any issues! Or maybe not...
Great pictures as well, i've not looked at the vids yet as I'm currently sorting out my roadtrip pictures. I put a few up on my thread but will add some more shortly.
When did you get back? I arrived back yesterday morning. The longest delay of the trip? 1hr 25mins from getting in my car on the ferry to get through passport control... Good old Britain.
Great pictures as well, i've not looked at the vids yet as I'm currently sorting out my roadtrip pictures. I put a few up on my thread but will add some more shortly.
When did you get back? I arrived back yesterday morning. The longest delay of the trip? 1hr 25mins from getting in my car on the ferry to get through passport control... Good old Britain.
RyanBigJohnson said:
Hi Tony, glad you had a good trip! One day, someone somewhere will go on a TVR road trip and have a day without any issues! Or maybe not...
Great pictures as well, i've not looked at the vids yet as I'm currently sorting out my roadtrip pictures. I put a few up on my thread but will add some more shortly.
When did you get back? I arrived back yesterday morning. The longest delay of the trip? 1hr 25mins from getting in my car on the ferry to get through passport control... Good old Britain.
Hi Ryan, I got back last Wednesday. My Boss in Germany wanted me to give a presentation at our World Sales Conference Last Sunday and only told me on Monday last week, so a few adjustments to get back a day earlier.Great pictures as well, i've not looked at the vids yet as I'm currently sorting out my roadtrip pictures. I put a few up on my thread but will add some more shortly.
When did you get back? I arrived back yesterday morning. The longest delay of the trip? 1hr 25mins from getting in my car on the ferry to get through passport control... Good old Britain.
I must admit that I didnt take enough photo's. I never do for some reason.
The videos were as much a test of the camera as anything. The volume is so low I need earphones to listen to it.
We took the ferry to Portsmouth and it was realy slow getting off there as well.
Gassing Station | General TVR Stuff & Gossip | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff