We made it in three hops to our home in Portugal. See a pic at the very end of our street! The next pic is a shot in Spain of the plane, no rain :-)

After getting the hitch wiring sorted out we did about 200km on Sunday evening, then about 800km from Tilburg, NL to Tours in France on Monday (With a stop at stop at the Le Mans circuit! See separate post.) and 1500km on Tuesday in a bid to get home.

The car performed flawlessly but I realized on the first evening that my headlights were way out of adjustment and on the last day a fog light bulb broke. Nothing major really, I adjusted the headlights in my parking spot this morning. Finding the right bulbs for my fogs will be a bit harder as I like them in color 5 or 6k.

After crossing Turnhout in Belgium, we hit Antwerp and Kortrijk where traffic was dense but fast. Getting around Lille in France there was also heavy but moving traffic. Not bad for traveling in peak vacation travel time.

We drove through the Somme department to pass Amiens (to avoid traffic around Paris) and stumbled on the WWI me memorials near the town of Albert, quite interesting! Then on to Rouen (where a police car followed us for a mile but apparently decided not to ask about our MD plates) and on to Le Mans, then spent the night in Tours.

I did not know that western France is as gorgeous as it is! Maybe it was the time of year but the rolling hills with freshly harvested fields is incredible. Also the toll roads are smooth as glass and the glorious weather helped make it a great drive.

The drive from Tour to San Sebastian, on to Valladolid and Salamanca was uneventful apart from a bit of traffic around Bordeaux and also at the border area in the Pyrenees, where many roads converge. Nevertheless, the last 400km to get from Salamanca to the destination was not as much fun as it became a race against the clock at that point. I plan to take a trip around Spain in the next 6 months as there seems to be a lot of great vistas. (See pic.)

So after a total of abut 27 hours on the road we arrived with about 2500km added on the odometer.

The drive was fun and interesting as we crossed lots places I had never been before! And I have a bunch of new places to target for road trips in the future :-)

Attached Images

  

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2003 4.4i black ext./black int./black headliner (kid's runabout)
2014 535d X-drive, M package, silver/black interior

Sold but not forgotten:
2009 E70 35d, black ext./black int./black headliner (sold 2021)
2006 4.8iS Le Mans blue/cream int./black headliner, SOLD in 2012 sadly...

Other hardware:
2015 Cayenne S (wife's new DD and definitely wroooommmmm)
2016 Tundra 1794 edition crew cab, luxo hauler
2005 Tundra crew cab, weekend hauler. Sold after 150k very happy miles.