I'll comment on this thread, although I could on either of them. Firstly, both of them are brilliant and a great way to remind us all in the future of an amazing few weeks I'll never forget.

I think the threads say enough so I'm not going to repeat things, but I'll just add a few points of my own. The event was something that I'd been really excited for and looking forwards to for months beforehand. For me, things started a little earlier as I'd arrived down at Scott's on the Wednesday evening as I was heading off to the London Motorshow the day after. I think it was just being down there that it started to hit me and make me feel that the holiday was starting at that point. The motorshow itself was great, we got to see some amazing cars including of course the Focus RS. It's sometimes the little things about days like that that you remember though. And one of those things for me was how we ended up spending around an hour getting lost on the tube lol. Firstly I think we missed our stop, then I think we tried to take a shortcut on a different line back but got on the train for the wrong direction, and finally got to where we wanted and found we couldn't change to the DLR train to the motorshow as that station was closed. Round and round we went!

Friday of course was the big day. We needed to get my loud exhaust changed for the standard one, so that it wouldn't annoy everyone on the long journey. I hadn't changed it outside my house due to living on a busy street and it being dangerous to do there, so had planned on changing it on Scott's drive. Unfortunately we found that the nuts had seized in place, and no garages would fit us in for a few minutes to put it on a ramp. Not a good start but luckily Jimmy managed to help me out in France. By the time we set off around 11pm we should have all been tired, but I think we were just all so excited about the big adventure in front of us that it helped keep us all awake. I can remember feeling a bit groggy after we landed in France after being half asleep over the journey, but with standing around for a little while working out the lights adapters it soon woke everyone back up again. The journey itself through France was fine, even if the journey through Paris was completly mad, much worse than London! Going over the Millau Bridge was something in itself, and something I won't forget. It was when we were standing on the hill underneath afterwards, you just look up and think wow that we'd just been over it. The week in France was great, with being able to relax in the nice sunshine by and in the pool and everything, even if I did manage to get a little burned, though not as bad as some others. Although I did get a little stressed at times about the amount of things that seemed to be getting broken, we managed to replace them all so it was all good, and is funny in hindsight.

It did feel sad to be moving on at the end of that week. But once we got moving again I started to get excited again, even if a little daunted by the mammoth journey ahead. It was a shame that I didn't get to go on the back roads to Andorra through the Pyrenees, but the journey was still enjoyable. It also meant that we got to visit another country, and broke the trip up well. I think everyone was getting tired by the end of that evening, the main thing I can remember now is just how hot it was even late at night, and it was a relief when we finally arrived at the Villa. It was an amazing sight when we seen it. All of us thought the one in France was good, but when we seen the Spanish one, well just a different class. The pool was still hot, even that late at night, and the view over the coast was brilliant. Again we had a great week there, I think there's already been enough said by Scott about what we got up to for me to need to repeat things again, but suffice to say the time we had with the gorgeous weather we had, was something that none of us wanted to leave behind.

When we came to leave on the Saturday morning it was even sadder than the week before, but all good things have to come to an end sometime. The weather had seemed to turn on the last day, with some showers on the Friday afternoon, and when we set off on Saturday it did actually seem to feel a bit cooler, which seemed to sum things up in an odd way, as if someone was telling us that the holiday was coming to an end. Although we had a long drive again, it seemed to pass pretty quickly. Then on the Sunday we got excited again at going to Disneyland. I'd never been before, and it was an excellent way to end the holiday off. We spent 10 hours there, but could easily have been there twice as long with everything that we didn't get to see. We finally arrived back in the midlands about 5am on the Monday morning, and then just crashed out. Late on the Monday afternoon I then had the final leg of my journey back home to Cumbria.

It was an amazing experience and one I'll never forget. Similar to what Scott said, a lot of people kept telling me I was crazy for doing this, and saying it was a long way for me to go. But you'd never get the same thing by just hopping on a plane and going to these places, you'd miss out on so much. It was well worth it, and hopefully I'll get the chance to do something similar again in the future. 4237 miles I covered in 19 days, and enjoyed every one of them.

Chris