The one week countdown begins

This time next week I shall be waiting at the ferry port at Rosyth to board the Zeebrugge ferry, accompanied by my little dog and various other paraphernalia necessary for a spell of three months or so away from home. En route I shall be spending a weekend in the southern Netherlands in a small village in the South Limburg region with relatives by marriage, before setting off on the Monday.

My first night is scheduled to be in Beaune, in the Cote d'Or region of France; no doubt I shall consume some Burgundy wine and local food that evening. Yum Yum.

On the second evening, I shall be spending the night with a former colleague and his wife from the time when I worked in Paris - they retired, as many Parisians do, to the part of the country where they had spent most of their annual one-month vacations during much of their married life. The Vaucluse area is lovely and I shall be spending the night in Vaisons-la-Romaine, with its almost perfectly preserved Roman amphitheatre; Orange is the nearest sizeable town. I last visited them there fifteen or so years ago, so naturally I shall be taking a bottle of Macallan 18 year old whisky (his favourite) to atone for my absence!

On the third evening I shall finally arrive in Spain, where I will spend the night in Girona; apart from a holiday in Sitges (a well-known 'gay' holiday resort) and visits to nearby Barcelona during my time there, I don't know this part of Spain at all, so I am looking forward to seeing it, if only briefly.

My final night before I arrive at my destination will be on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, again an area of Spain I have not visited before, but which in years to come I intend to explore, during my planned extended stays in Spain.

If I can get my laptop wi-fi to operate (it works fine, it's me who is not very familiar with hooking-up wi-fi when away from home - sigh) I shall blog on my way down to Spain, but failing that will blog sporadically once I reach Mazarron in Murcia.

However, because my departure is now only a week away I shall not be blogging very much until then (nothing new there then - Ed.) - I have lots of things to do and final arrangements to make before I go. Oh, and did I forget to say it? Yes, I think I did!
A very Happy New Year to everyone!