Day 08 – Lloret de Mar to GP and then Beziers

Today started off at the ridiculously early time of 5.30am, our intention being to be on the road by 6am.

And that we were..… although it wasn't the right road for very long.

All ideas of getting to the circuit before they opened went out the window, as we somehow missed our normal turn off out of Chavsville to join the motorway and ended up lost in a town called Matero.

This was a town so bleak, it made us long for our home town of the last few days again!

However, Mike coaxed the laptop into life on the battery (this being the battery that had lasted for 4 minutes the previous day before dying totally) for just long enough to guide us up and down scary little backstreets, dodging drunk people coming out of clubs, and out the other side without having our wheels stolen, and we were soon heading in the right direction.

Before long, we had found safety again…

..and were soon enjoying the first coffee of the day. A large one at that.

Despite the early hour, the place was far from empty, but we took the opportunity to walk around the entire perimeter of the circuit, and passed our huge TV screen.

For those of you interested in how these enormous screens work.. well so are we; however, this never before seen footage shows the back of it..

We were soon sat uncomfortably in our seats, and saw some familiar people..

First treat of the day was a Porche Super Cup race..

..followed by a GP2 race..

Before long, the big race was approaching, and the F1 drivers were being paraded around the track on the back of a flat-bed truck..

By now, it was nearly 2pm, and we, along with a few other people..

…waited excitedly for the lights to turn green..

And then suddenly, it was Go…Go… Go… !

A wonderful race ensued, unless of course you work for Red Bull (sorry Will!) (well, to be fair, unless you worked for Renault, things weren't that great for anyone) and before you could say "Alonso's won", 66 laps had passed, and we were making a dash for the exit in the hope of avoiding these people..

However, we expertly worked our way through them, whilst many of these passed over head..

only to find a few more of these…

Eventually we made it back to the sanctuary of our climate controlled vehicle, only to spend the next 2 hours sat in this…

Finally, we hit some main roads, passed one of these..

..and picked up a bit of speed. Only to see this..

..and slow down again..

By 8 o'clock however, we were seeing signs like this..

..and eh Voila, we were soon back in more familiar territory, sailing through border control unquestioned, and passing some wonderful sights on the way...

Up until this point, Mike had been forced to revert to manual systems..

..but now was the time for the computer to be bought back to life, just long enough to find us a wonderful Ibis near Beziers. At 50 euro's for the night, it was pretty good value, and the view from our bedroom window was more than acceptable in our tired state..

After a quick healthy meal in the restaurant (no hot food due to a technical difficulty – presumably oven failure), we were back in the room, drinking a well deserved Pression and deciding what we could bore you with on todays update!

Alas, no wiff-eee here, so its good old GPRS – hence the reduced size and number of pictures and general content. That and the fact we're knackered!
(Correction: Just checked, and there is a Wiff-eee signal coming from the hotel next door. Not only that, its anOrange one which we still have credit on from last week,, so we're laffin'… but you're still not getting any more pictures!.)

So without further ado, here is our days route…

And now its off to bed for us – and a lie-in is planned for the morning.

So until the next one, Au Revoir mon amis.

Garry and Mike