It's an early start for us, we're all up and running by 5.45 am, we sort our gear and have a quick clean up - Coffee and water drank etc and its time to hit the road. Grant is first out and is heading to the railway station to continue his Iberian Recce Mission. Stevo had hired the Hiandri car from Faro airport and that was where we were heading. The weather was again very pleasant, bright and sunny. It took about an hour to get there -the car was dropped off and we walked to the new terminal, which is very neat by the way - nice coffee shops and an Irish Boozer for those that fancy a pint at 7.30 am - there were a few punters there. I did spot a bunch that looke like a cross between the SAS and Gym Roiders and I hoped that they werent on my flight. I thought my Sleazyjet flight was leaving at 9.50 am but it turns out it was an hour later. Stevo was heading to Gatwick in that there London at 10 am, so we said our goodbyes, it was a great weekend and again thanks Stevo for the hospitality.

Ok, so it had been a pretty good trip - getting out of Blighty had been the most challenging part - delays and trying not to get stuck in Plymouth for the week with Barnacle Bill. The crossing through the Bay of Biscay had been okay despite reports of it being a bit frothy. On the whole we met very decent people and had good tales to tell. Santander had turned out to be a much better place that I had thought than the first time we'd been through. The Railways are good and at this time of the year are pretty cheap if you're thinking of trying this - only problem now though is that the ferries dont make the run after mid November due to the Bay being a bit dodgy for smaller tubs. Madrid has again proved too big to have explored properly but at least we did get to see the parks and some culture - maybe we'll spend some time here in the future and find out. Seville is magnificent still and I dont get bored of that place - you wont come across many Brits here and so is a bit of a hidden gem - massively cultural but enough little bars and cheap foodery places to have a good time. It was the first time for us to visit Portugal and I'm not really qualified to give a verdict - the first impressions across the border werent great though. Lagos was a good place to hang but I am thinking of sending the town Mayor an email to see if he can start a war against graffiti - Tazers should do the trick if they can catch the offenders. I'm happy to consult.

Thoughts now turn to home - The flight home on Sleazyjet was pretty civilised, no bad behaviour and the flight to Bristol was packed. The Driver did announce that it was very windy in Bristol and I wondered why he had said that as I've seen enough youtube videos of planes being blown off course on descent into Bristol Airport - it was pretty bumpy though as I thought it would be and you could hear people saying "Here we go again" - but thankfully we didnt pull up at last minute and have a few goes at landing which is common here. So bump down we did in 45 miles an hour winds.

I managed to get on the A1 Bus to Temple Meade Railway station straight away and got on to an immediate train back to Cardiff....the train cost £16.50 - that would get you a lot further in Spain. The drive through Bristol showed that the fight against graffiti has been lost .....it looked like a s***hole. Sunny weather in Bristol changed to howling rain once we reached the fertile grounds of not so sunny old Wales. I get the connecting train to Caerphilly straight away - but the C16 Bus to home has just gone and I have a two hour wait for the next one.

Now I have a couple of options here - I could behave myself and get home at 18 hundred hours as had been told to Mrs. Gibbs or I could attempt the old Welsh 14 Pint Frying Pan Challenge. Whats this ? I hear you say - it basically means finding the nearest pub, drink 14 pints of Abbots, show up pisssed at midnight and round off your holiday with the traditional warm Welsh welcome of having a cast Iron Frying Pan wrapped round your head. I leave my fate to you, the dear reader - so please let me know your thoughts. Meanwhile I'm just nipping into the pub.

Ciao.