Well it's been a while but we finally get on the move again, this trip is really to get us back into it, so it's a route we've done before. The plan is to head to Plymouth and get the ferry to Santander in Spain and then hit the rails south to Seville and then into Portugal.

We start the day by being fed a hearty breakfast by Mrs. Gibbs at Moonbase Alpha...our taxi man Karl barps the horn outside, we say our farewells and are then dropped off at the railway station. There's a lot of people waiting as Wales are playing the Barbarians in the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.....and as usual piss poor Travel for Wales are in charge of getting the nation moving....so in true fashion a two carriage train pulls up and no one can get on as it's already rammed, so we wait 15 minutes until the next one shows up...this time it's a modern 4 carriage affair and we manage to get a seat.....but we know this going to get packed...by the time we hit Caerphilly no one else can get on and claustrophobia is served all the way to Cardiff Queen street station and we bail as Central Station will be a bunfight as all trains from Wales will be unloading the Thugby fans.

Central Bar is the first port of call, just off Queen Street....so it's a pint of Guiness for Grant and Abbots for me - we then get down to the gritty business of trying go get a decent kitty on the go by getting on the slotties and gamble like Bill Hwang. Grant's gambling skills had netted us a £90.00 kitty from the night before and so off we go...we get lucky and make another £70.00......we then slope off to The Head of Steam bar on Church Street...Cardiff is now getting very full.....it's 1.30 pm but luckily the majority of the punters now start heading to the stadium. We failed to make any wedge in there, so we now move on to The Great Western Hotel which is very close to the Railway station. We get lucky in here and Grant scores a Jackpot of another £100.00......so we know have a decent kitty for Plymouth....and we're probably going to neeed it. We then head to the station, get our tickets and wait to see what Great Western Railways will provide for the ride to Plymouth....sometime you get unlucky and get the crap commuter ones with chewing gum stuck to the seats....but we get lucky and have a newer, larger, cleaner train...we even manage to get a table seat.....and the train is not too full, that will change later on.....I manage to watch the Rugby on my Phone and we get confirmation of a 53,000 attendance in the stadium, I told you it was busy.

Just before we get to the graffiti ridden entrance at Bristol Temple Meads station, we are told to expect the train to get very full as the World Famous (?) Bridgewater evening carnival is on and the great unwashed will be heading in that direction.....so true to form more claustrophobia is dished out....once at Bridgewater everyone departs and the train gets quiet....it's quite a slog to get to Plymouth and get to reminesce about previous tedious rides we'd been on......but really this one wasnt so bad. We get into Plymouth at 6.30pm and decide to walk to the Leonard Hotel...which says a 15 minute walk on Grant's phone....we manage to do it in 5 minute and save the usual smash and grab fee of £10.00.... result.

We do the time honoured ritual of slinging our bags in the room and hotfooting it to the boozer....I must mention that we had a room upgrade...which was nice...then in the lift we notice we're surrounded by northern football fans.....I cant work out the accent and I get in trouble for this later on...I gather that whovever they are must be playing or have played against the Plymouth Saints...I cant be arsed to find out which team it is, such is my love of Football. So we head to the Barbican area and notice it's a bit lively down there....we head to The Dolphin....a proper boozer that sells Bass from the barrel...and is filled with loyal locals....it's always good in here......once again thanks to our Pal Bodie Morgan for putting us onto this pub all them years back.....Grant gets on the slottie and manages to blag another £25.00 for the kitty and we decide to spend some of it in a local posh Indian Restaurant that we'd previously frequented.....cue The Himalayan Spice....it's pretty busy but we get a seat upstairs..there's a sole diner sitting next to us we say hello.....but the conversation doesnt go much further...turns out he was an American fella....we only found out as he was leaving and we had a quick chat. The place was now packed out and then funnily enough, a couple more Americans were seated next to us....this must be the American corner...just so that the all the Indian staff know what they're dealing with...as mentioned, it was packed in there and service wasnt the quickest but was fine.......patience wasnt the greatest virtue of the American lady sitting besides us and within 2 minutes she was letting the Indian staff know who was boss......."We have our child to pick up shortly, so would you please hurry up!" she snapped at the manager....certainly madam he said and promptly let all the staff know that the American couple were a priority and must be kept waiting as long as possible. We were served pretty quicly after that for some reason...and so we got to eat our Onion Bahjis and Sheesh Kebab in front of the Americans...so Grant and myself were loudly saying how delicious the food was....as the aromas wafted across the American's table.....we had finished all our food and were sitting back in the glow of being full up...Our American friends still hadnt been served and Mrs. Lady was about to go ballistic.....Our Indian chums timed the delivery of their food perfectly as she was loudly announcing to everyone how she was walking out because of the service....The manager grovelled with a smile about how the restaurant was so busy and how their patience was much appreciated....so she had to shut her gob and sit back down.....anyways we paid our bill of £90.00 and sodded off back to The Dolphin......things had livened up in the last two hours and the local constabulary were keeping themselve fit running back and forth to incidents of random violence......so we watched one Barry getting lifted by the Old Bill......funny business doenst occur in The Dolphin by the way, just the other places that cater to idiots.....we decide to head back towards the Hotel and find an excellent dive pub with about 6 odd bods in there. Grant has a beer off the tap and I opt for a bottle of Hobgoblin which is served directly from the fridge that isnt plugged in and I have to ask for a glass to pour my warm beer into.....we didnt stay long.

Once more we headed back to The Dolphin but the Police action was hotting up and I said to Grant lets head back to the Hotel bar....you never know you may meet some interesting people. Our interesting people were actually Middlesborough footbal fans who took umbrage with me for calling them Geordies? How was I to know....anyways they were pretty good natured lads....and then we start talking to a nice chap who looks very familiar....it's actor Danny John-Jules from Red Dwarf & Death in Paradise fame amongst many other things.....Danny is great fun and we have a lot of similar interests...he's big into his Motorbikes.....so we talk much of Triumphs and Royal Enfields.....he's also into his Punk Rock and we have a good time talking about the good old days...and of course likes his travelling.....we had a hoot and finally hit the wooden hill at 1.45am....Danny was in Plymouth for a syfy convention....he reckons they are hilarious. We then get notice that our ferry has been delayed by 8 hours....tomorrow is going to be a long day.......it's day 1...and I already need a week to recover.