Despite our reluctance to actually go away this winter we're glad we did. Also changing our "modus operandi" to staying longer in fewer places suited us better and next time in Spain we may well book ahead as it is now becoming extremely popular and most places were at, or almost at, maximum capacity. A sign of the times perhaps.
It would have been nice if the fine weather in Spain had carried on over to Portugal, but in reality the weather deteriorated over the entire Iberian peninsular so we may well have been worse off staying or moving back to Spain. But the weather never stopped us from doing anything although we spent a lot more time just sitting rather than the continuous moving about as in previous years. The short interlude with our friends, June and Derek, also made a really nice change - although we don't have any problem talking to other people aquaintances were usually pretty short, maybe a day or two, and strangely we spent more time talking to other nationals than British!
Our lack of planning, that is, leaving everything until the last minute, showed up in various ways with forgetting guidebooks, having the wrong credit/debit cards and spending far too much on mobile phones which didn't turn out to as convenient as we'd hoped. Must do better!
Bertie performed very well, apart from the breakdown in Portugal which could have happened at any time. We consider ourselves very lucky in that the breakdown truck that RAC organised was from one of those garages that had proper mechanics and not just parts changers. Getting replacements for the broken parts would have been a nightmare but they just repaired the affected bits quite satisfactorily, saving us a lot of time. Not sure it was cheaper but it got done with minimum fuss. As always there are a few small running repairs to be sorted but we really must see about a respray of the cab area as the flaking paint is now getting quite unsightly. But for an 18 year old vehicle with 156242 miles on the clock he's not doing too badly!
So what's next? We're pretty sure we'll be going to Ireland again in May, especially as Jamie is due a rabies booster - we could have had it done maybe in Spain but often vets only want to do a 12 month treatment, as do the French, so back to Church Vets in Donegal for a 3 year jab. We've used up our 90 days in 180 in Schengen but are considering France or Germany later in the year. However we've got a lot to do at home first.