We are now fully recovered and enjoying all the delights of PP and its surroundings. Looking back on the journey, what would we have done differently?
Starting from the beginning: Although we found it quite easy getting out of the port at Santander (once the satnav had found the satellite!), going to Santander put approx 100 km onto our journey, getting the ship to Bilbao would have meant a shorter drive.
We stopped at a village called Liendo just outside of Larado, which was approx 3/4 hours drive out of Santander and although the countryside was stunning, it would have been better to drive a little further, we could have gone through Bilbao whilst it was still light (disembarked the ferry at 18:00). It was very easy to clock up the kilometres as the motorway was quiet and fast.
The drive between Larado and Barcelona was 6 hours, we added an hour to that due to a stop at the services for food and drink just outside Zaragoza, approx half way into our journey.
Note: Toll charges were more than we expected, 2 tolls, 27.50€ and 25€
We arrived in Barcelona approx 20:00, which was a nice time as it meant we wouldn't be hanging around for too long outside the Balearia terminal building, only half an hour in fact until they opened the main gates.into the secure compound, once there you can lock your car and go for a wander.
The Balearia ferry was fairly comfortable, we had booked the first class reclining seats (Neptuno) to upgrade to a cabin would have cost 150€
. There was plenty of room and the seats were almost fully reclining, however the air conditioning made it quite cold, blankets aren't automatically provided and we had to go and ask for blankets at the reception desk, I'm glad we took a small pillow with us though.
We settled down to sleep knowing that we weren't due to dock till 09:00. "Ding dong" - an anouncement was made to say we were arriving in port and would all car owners report to their vehicles on the car deck - I checked the time, it was only 06:00
We looked around and everybody was getting ready to leave, so half asleep and very disorientated we dutifully made our way to the car deck. We had been sitting in the car for about 10 minutes and realised that there was nobody else in their cars around us, 'funny' we thought, hubby went to the reception to ask if we were in Alcudia, the reply came back that we were actually in Menorca!! Our car was first on and because of this we were nosed up to the main doors, I dread to think if those doors had opened we would have driven off the ship and found ourselves on the wrong island
(when I told my daughter she said it sounded like something from 'Mad Dogs'
). There was no mention anywhere about this stop in Menorca, where actually, most people disembarked, not even on the announcement. So beware, if you do make the journey remember that the Alcudia ferry stops off at Menorca on the way. *We settled down for another two hour sail before reaching Alcudia.
Driving off the ship in Alcudia we had such a good feeling of achievement, we had made it and everything (almost!) went like clockwork.
We left home in the Peak district at 08:00, stopped once in Oxford for refreshments, arrived Portsmouth 14:00. Left Portsmouth 17:00 arrived Santander 18:00 Spanish time the next day (24 hr cruise). Overnight stop in Larado, then the drive (as above) to Barcelona.
Total kilometres from home to PP 1123 km
Would we do it again? You bet we would, it was a fantastic journey with differing scenery right across Spain and a mini cruise thrown in. Not the cheapest way of doing it but I reckon the easiest.
It was good to know so many of you were following our progress and thanks for all your help and kind wishes.
