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Published: December 3rd 2006
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Well here goes.........
Siobhan & I finished up at work on Friday 15/09 & spent the following week packing up the house & making the final arrangements for the wedding & trip. It was a busy week for us & we weren´t helped by a storm on the Thursday night that took 14 tiles off the roof of the house of which most landed on our driveway. Luckily, we had just moved the car out onto the road, someone was looking down on us :-) We had other problems with the camper van & only collected her (now christened the "Big Rig") at 2 PM on Saturday afternoon. We had big problems during the week trying to get a part for the side of the van & when it did arrive it was the wrong size. After much stress & coaxing we convinced our panel beater to doctor the part & he worked late Friday night to ensure the Big Rig was on the ferry on Sunday.
Alls well that ends well, we locked up No. 64 at 8 PM after a big push all day Saturday to get it in shape (with much help from friends & family)
and the Big Rig & Maurice headed south to Limerick while Siobhan headed to Kill.
Siobhan flew to Barcelona on Sunday morning while I left Limerick with the best man "Dill" after 10:30 mass to make the 4 PM Rosslare to Cherbourg ferry. Siobhan arrived in Barcelona early & made her way to Tossa de Mar, Costa Brava with 5 days to wedding day. Dill & myself had a smooth crossing arriving in Cherbourg early Monday morning. Knowing that it would be a while ´til I had a pint of guinness again (or at least a good one), we drank plenty on the crossing & as luck would have it, happened upon an empty cabin late in the night which ensured we had a good kip & were showered & fresh for the start of the road trip proper next morning.
We headed south with plans to make it to Tossa by 1 PM on Wednesday leaving us 2 days to wedding day. We made a brief stop in Mont Saint Michel which was a slight detour but worth it all the same. We arrived in Stop No. 1 La Rochelle just as it was getting dark. Both Dill & I had been in La Rochelle years before but for the life of us couldn´t figger out where the campsite was located. After much searching, we found a spot which as luck would have it was closing for the season the following day. It was made clear to us that we had to be out by 12.00 noon the following day. We hit the town had dinner & went for a few drinks (as you do on a "Road Trip"). We befriended a few locals & visited a few bars & ended up in a nightclub ´til 5ish. We awoke the next day to a loud knocking on the Big Rig, it was the Bean an Ti trying to rouse us & get us off the site. We looked out to find we were the very last camper or caravan in situ & had to hightail it to the showers to get ourselves ready for the road.
Our Dill was worse for wear & kipped the first while. He made the discovery that sleeping in the back while the Big Rig moved was indeed comfortable & so we then took shifts I slept, he drove, he slept, I drove, the Dill conveniently sleeping for the stretches where we had to pay tolls. We had a long day´s driving & reached Perpignan just before dark, same problem again in finding a campsite. In the end, the main man in the campsite had to come to meet us & we parked up the Big Rig by 9 PM. Off to town again for pizza & the customary "Road Trip" few drinks.
Wednesday morning left us only 150 KM to Tossa & we set out at midday after some important shopping downtown Perpignan. We hit bad traffic at the Spanish bordr & then in Girona & the Big Rig crawled into Tossa at 3 PM. My parents & family had arrived earlier that day from Shannon and already were settling in with my brothers Onion & Paulo already exploring indoor spots. Mini Stag was to kick off at 9ish but 1st I had wedding stuff to do & met up with Fenando the hotel manager to check on the final arrangements. When all was in order, the Dill & I took a dip in the Mediterranean and then dolled ourselves up ready to hit the town..........only 2 days to go.
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