Andy Coates Blog

So just as i was getting back into the swing of blogging at the start of this month I was offered some work away again which left little or no time for blogging due to the schedule! So keeping in the spirit of blogging, here is a rundown of the mammoth drive to Barcelona!

Newcastle:

I left Newcastle on Thursday morning and headed south to Portsmouth with a van full of gear, this was pretty un-eventful until I just passed Watford where my phone, which was also my Sat Nav needed charging. I pulled over the side of the rode and plugged my phone into the charger and the other end in to the cigarette power point only to find out that the socket in the van didn't work! This was the moment I realized how much I had begun to take may Sat nav for granted! Undeterred I reverted to the old fashioned way, followed the signs and eventually got to the ferry port! Being a stranger to Portsmouth ferry terminal i wasn't sure where to go but after about 30 minutes i had checked through customs etc and was in the line waiting to board the ferry, this was the rainy view from the van!

Home For the next 36 hours!

Eventually I was called to drive the van onto the ferry (Pride Of Bilbao) and finally found my cabin, I had every intention of taking a look around the boat but I must have been tired from all the driving that i just fell asleep after lying in the bed for a few minutes! The following day (After breakfast!) I was greeted with great weather once I ventured on deck which made a nice change from the not so sunny weather in England.

Calm as a duck pond!

Later on in the drivers lounge where all the freight drivers can relax I got talking to a few other drivers and after asking what was the best way to get to Barcelona from Bilbao on of them said i could follow him as he was going there. The guy i was due to follow was called David George and I owe a great deal of gratitude in him helping me across Spain. The following day I was up at 5.30 am and went down for breakfast, not-long after breakfast we got the call for drivers to go to their vehicles ready to disembark, coincidently when we got there Dave was parked directly behind me on the car deck! After a little waiting the boat docked and we drove off and got through customs with little hassle apart form a customs guy asking for a slip of paper which i wasn't given, eventually he just shrugged and waved me through! After leaving the port we were finally on our way climbing the hills outside of Bilbao ready to head across northern Spain. After about an hours driving we were heading toward the national highway with some pretty nice views around us! What i did find quite entertaining was every now and again there were MASSIVE cutout's of bulls mounted high up on the hills, heres a few i took pictures of!

Theres one!

Theres another!

AND another!!!!

After a couple of fuel and coffee stops we pulled in at a cafe near Zaragoza which was pretty much half way on our journey to Barcelona. All the food was traditional Spanish and when we came to get served Dave asked me if i liked tripe, not being one to shy away from something new i said I'm not sure but ill give it a go. So Dave ordered lunch and said he would tell me what was in it after I'd finished eating it! I wasn't quite sure what to think when the waiter brought the plate to our table as shown below in the pic!

Mmmmmmmmm ?!?!?!

I started eating and the flavor was quite nice but i couldn't get away with the texture, it was a bit too fatty and rubbery! Eventually i managed to eat about half and had to give up as the texture just didn't suit my pallet! Then came the reveal on what i had just been eating, get ready for it…… Tripe (Cows stomach which I knew about), pigs ears and pigs trotters!! It was an interesting meal which I'm glad i tried but wouldn't be ordering it again! I cant remember the name of the dish but apparently it is a traditional Spanish dish, if anyone reading this knows the name please let me know!

After lunch we st off dringing again, stopping along the way for a drink so as not to tire of the driving, the were quite a few fuel stations along the way, some which appeared to be miles from anywhere!!

Welcome to nowhere!

Finally, about 18.00 we arrived in Barcelona, Dave was going to the port and i was headed to the Hilton Diagonal which was pretty much in the center of Barcelona. I found the hotel straight away but ran into a problem with parking, it seemed to be that there were lots of underground car-parks but nowhere big enough to fit a large 3.5 ton van! Eventually after driving around for 2 hours I found a place to park the van and taxied back to the hotel. A word of advice to anyone driving to Barcelona in anything bigger than a car is organize parking before you get there! The following few days were spent setting up and operating the conference with my colleagues who had the pleasure of flying from Newcastle to Barcelona, heres a couple of pis of some of what we were actually setting up.

Main Stage

Secondary Stage

Once the conference was all over (3 days later) everything was packed down put back in the van and I repeated the exact same trip in reverse! It was a great experience driving across the Spain but next time I've already reserved my seat on the plane!