From Freudenstadt( Germany) to Lloret de Mar ( Spain )

 

On the 11th June at 7.45am Lipstick left Freudenstadt in early morning sunshine and proceeded through the mountains of the black forest which was a slow process due to trucks and the winding roads down towards the Rhine valley.

 

Once the mountains where left behind Lipstick went on the Autobahn down towards Switzerland and crossed into France at Mulhouse. The border crossings in Europe are really nice – no border officials in sight –no stopping just going through …………..

It is a real pleasure driving on these Autobahns and Lipstick just did this for the next 11 hours ( of course with a few pit stops to empty bladder and fill stomach )
On that note it is worthwhile mentioning that in Germany they are asking 50 Eurocents along the highways for the use of a toilet – in France it is for free! So some 7 Rand for a piss is really pissing a lot of people off.
The weather stayed all well along the road which led Lipstick through Mulhouse , Lyon , Montpellier and finally arriving at Lloret de Mar in Spain around 7pm that evening.
The roads were almost empty and the thought crossed Willy’s mind whether the current economic crisis in Spain has to do with this

Whilst there is an abundance of hotels in this tourist Mekka area the problem really is to find a hotel with safe parking. This took almost an hour as most hotels offer no parking at all – in which case you just park in the streets or undercover parking in the basements with a height limit of 2.1 meters.

As lipsticks roof carrier is packed with an additional storage box its total height however comes to 2.4 meters – being unsuitable for any basement parking .Finally however the problem was solved finding a hotel with a safe and lockable carport facility and Willy was able to proceed for dinner.

The next day (12thJune ) Lipstick was on the road again at 8.30am trying to get as close to Gibraltar as possible ( about 1200km ) . The drive went through harsh semi desert lookalike landscapes with little villages seen left and right of the E15 highway and passing through prominent towns like Valencia – Alicante ( see the bull underneath ) -Murcia- Granada –down to Malaga and finally arriving in Marbella where the search for a safe parking friendly hotel started again.
The next day (13th June) was a quick drive down to Algeciras in Gibraltar from where Lipstick will take the ferry on the 14th and land in Morocco. Meanwhile Andre is ready to fly from East London to Caracas via Dubai and is saying goodbye to Anne Louise>