Wednesday morning, 26th May and we’re off to France to collect a mobility scooter, what for I hear you ask??? Wait and see!!! Our plan is to head to Pamplona for a couple of nights, nip across to France to collect and stop in a hotel with Christine’s nephew and family. Our plan was for a moderately early start, in fact we surprised ourselves; we were in the car and on our way by 0845, excellent. We will stop en route for a leisurely lunch somewhere and enjoy the freedom of leaving the Valencia’s region.
As we were passing “Sarah’s” Christine blurts out; “I’ve forgotten my purse!!!! Oh dear, so we turned round and went back, collected the purse, re-set the alarm system, re-locked the gates and off we went. Heading along the Torremendo to San Miguel road, I casually asked where the passports were, after all we were heading for another country………………….. “Oh, s—t, they’re at home” says Christine. Earlier I had jokingly said we should have some reminders attached to the front door so as we were leaving, we can look for the appropriate reminder to ensure we had what we needed. Board 1: travelling abroad. Board 2: going away for a weekend. Board 3: going shopping, etc etc., I think this is going to come to pass now!!!!!
So back home again, collect passports and of course went through the ritual of securing the house, and off we went again for the third time; 0930, three quarters of an hour later. Now our extended lunch will have to be a quick “Menu del Dia”.
Our journey was without incident other than driving the through a dollop of severe rain half way, about lunchtime, which we enjoyed at a roadside restaurant; quick and simple!
Arriving in Pamplona we said thank goodness for technology, the prospect of finding the right public car park nearest to our hotel would have been daunting without it. “Waze” took us straight into the central car park under the “Plaza del Castillo” where our hotel is situated in a Pedestrian precinct in the old town.
No problem booking in, but our room with balcony overlooks a small side square full of Restaurants and bars heaving with “punters”, tonight should be interesting!!!!!
An evening stroll enjoying a few drinky-poos with a selection of Tapas before retiring was the order of the day. We sat in the main square, the sun beaming down on us enjoying the ambiance and supping wine, what could be better.
Breakfast was interesting and a total contrast to our last hotel in Valencia. Here we sat down and “told” to touch “nothing”, the lady served us, but not that much choice and a prescribed amount! Needless to say at coffee time we enjoyed “churros” with the usual!!!
This morning had a chill in the air so it was long trousers with cardigan to start.
We were going to take a chance travelling to France but Christine read that we definitely needed a PCR test so we decided we should, on balance get one. We went to the local Pharmacy to make enquiries and what luck, the lady behind the counter was a good English speaker and gave us the address of the hospital where we could get one. Back to the hotel and the receptionist kindly telephoned the hospital and found out we could only book online, oops, our Spanish doesn’t quite run to that we said, so our friendly receptionist did it for us; what a wonderful woman. She got us two appointments, 1306hrs & 1312hrs, so we jumped into a taxi and headed to the hospital. After some “bureaucratic” and “Jobsworth” procedure we had our PCR tests. €190 later all was completed and it was still only 1317hrs, efficient or what!!! We were told we would get our results, by SMS within 24hours🤞🤞🤞
Taxi back to hotel, back into shorts as the sun was blazing and the temperature had risen followed by a mooch around the old town, visiting the Pamplona Cathedral and Town Hall en route before gravitating back to the main square, firstly for an aperitif followed by luncheon.
After far too much to eat and drink we headed back to our room to gather our strength for tonight.
Oh yes our “NEGATIVE” results arrived, 5-hours after the tests, is that good or what?????
We were still “stuffed” in the evening so stayed in our hotel room, I downloaded and we watched a good film. We followed this by some crib before settling in for the night, France tomorrow
