Living the dream and car hire scams

 

   While we never considered a permanent move we have often considered the merits of owning a holiday home in a warmer climate but to date we still enjoy van life or our version of it but we have not ruled it out sometime in the future .It would probably be a good topic for one of my blogs to explore the merits of both to help us decide one way or the other. Our latest trip was to visit our good friends who were brave enough to pack up and move to Spain permanently last October. 

  Nine years ago on a campsite in Andorra De Ville while planing to spectate at a stage of La Vuelta the Spanish cycling tour I mistakenly pulled onto the wrong pitch. This sparked a conversation with a very reserved Dutch man who I now know to be called Tom and his bubbly partner Con who had booked the very pitch we were standing on.We hit it off right away after a bit of banter it was agreed that we would stay where we were and they would find another pitch but I would by way of compensation buy them a drink in the camping bar. I went for a cycle in the mountains on my way back Tom and Con were sitting in the campsite bar so I took the opportunity to fulfil my promise and buy them a drink, well needless to say as the drinks flowed the aforementioned reserved Dutch man became less reserved and became a very straight talking Dutch man who was and still is knowledgeable about many things and was a huge cycling fan I liked them even more with a few drinks on board. That is the story of how we came to meet Tom and Con we now included them amongst our dearest friends. 

Over the past nine years we made arrangements to meet Tom and Con for at least a few days during our long trip each year, enjoying  many adventures around Europe with Con proving to be a super guide finding the best camping also the best vantage points for viewing the professional cycling races we like to attend . Last year our Dutch friends announced that their motorhome adventure had come to end and they would be selling their recently ungraded motorhome to fund the next chapter of their lives.... a permanent move to Spain. 

During last years "long trip" in August we joined Tom and Con on there house search, at this point the search was coming to the end game with the motorhome sold and the sale of there house being closed in the next few weeks the pressure was on to find a home or they would be homeless . Con had brought her skill as a tour guide to the property search and had spent hours researching the market so when we arrived the list had been whittled down to just two an offer was put forward on one of the property's which was expected at least now they would not be homeless, I found the hole process exhausting and I was only offering moral support.

Moving on with a lot of waiting and a small bit drama the deal was sealed and just before Christmas they moved into there new home, six months later it was time for Polly and myself to visit our good friends and see how they were getting on with there new life in the sun.

The plan was to fly to Alicante where our host would collect us and drive us the 100km to the town of Ontinyent where they now live, as normal we jumped on to the Ryanair website and booked our tickets in fairness to Ryanair they are always great value even if the website is a bit difficult to navigate as they try to sell you every extra under the sun. It was at this point the Ryanair Web page directed down a rabbit hole to car hire, the headline price seemed very competitive so we decided to look at the option of car hire but more on this later.

Between the bad weather at home and our curiosity as to what improvement they had made to the place we were really looking forward to getting away for a few days in the sun. The flight was uneventful we landed in Alicante made our way to the goldcar car hire desk to pick up a car, what should have been a straight forward pick up turned into well practised speech with the aim of extracting the most money from us they possibly could maybe it wasn't and I really did need all that extra insurance but it felt like a scam this guy was not taking no for an answer in the end for a head line price of €89 it actually cost us over €300 for a fiat panda with no aircon, lesson learned never buy anything from Ryanair website except flights!

When we did finally get on the road the sun was shining the toll free motorway was traffic free we soon put our experience at the car hire desk behind us we were enjoying the trip and were looking forward to seeing Tom and Con. In just over a hour we were at their gate it was really nice to see them again. They had done some great work around the house we soon settled in and were soon sitting outside having dinner discussing what they had done to the place and there plans for the future they really do seem happy with their move.

The 5 days flew past I managed to get out twice with Tom on the bike, once on the MTB and the second on the road bike its hard hilly country but with quiet roads and courteous drivers it is a nice place to ride. To finish off our trip we took our host out to town for a meal on the Friday night as we were in the real Spain nothing opened until 7pm and it was 8.30 before our table was ready but we were rewarded with a fantastic meal of local dishes which was super value .

Its was time to head for home we made the most of the late flight time and took time to visit the coast have some lunch and explore Alicante which has a lovely beach with lots of people enjoying the spring sunshine it really is a different lifestyle , we arrived in the airport in good time if anything a bit to early dropped off the car which was straight forward compared to the drama of picking it up and were back in a cold wet Dublin at the end of another adventure .

What we learned ... Don't buy anything from Ryanair except flights ! It takes big balls to sell up everything and move to a new country, while we get it I don't think it would be for us not full-time anyway plus we still enjoy the freedom the van gives us while acknowledging with the increase in motorhome/campervan ownership across the hole of Europe its getting harder to experience this "freedom". 

Our first big trip in the Van is not far away now it will good to get on the road so watch this space ,until next time happy camping and don't forget to wave