Well what an end to 2025! It started off not so great with me trying to get to meet a guy I am interested in, but seems that he ended up being ill so it didn’t happen. I decided I would get the ferry from Dover to Calais then go across France and look at houses in midi-pyrenees so off I trotted.
Unfortunately I did not realise that there are stupid rules about boarding a ferry as a foot passenger in that you have to book in 2 hours in advance before you can depart (yes for the 45 minute journey). So having arrived at Calais the terminal was deserted even though the ferry had not come in, apparently because they have to take all the passengers to a different area to process them before they can get on the ferry! (yeah nuts!)
So I went back to John and Victorias in Milton Keynes and had a rethink… luckily the next day there was a plane from Luton to Bordeaux so off I went, this time everything went well and I arrived in a lovely Bordeaux staying in a nice hotel by the airport. The hotel was one of the B&B ones which is a brand I have come to really like, and as it was snowing outside when I arrived the poor lady at reception took pity on me and my broken French (it has improved significantly but still no where near fluent) and made me a lovely coffee to warm me up.
Bordeaux is a nice city with lovely architecture, I spent a few days taking photos and visiting places eating French cuisine, it was a nice a relaxed start to the holiday.
Following this I went across to Toulouse as I wanted to see the home of Airbus (aviation geek!). Toulouse is a bit different and has been significantly developed but was still a nice city and lovely to walk around, taking in a coffee in the city centre watching the world go by!
Then on to Perpignan! All by TGV! I have not really don’t much train travel across Europe but did some a few weeks earlier when I went from Stuttgart to Strasbourg to Nancy and Paris – a small work trip that I just extended into a micro holiday for fun! Was nice to see Nancy and I had not spent much time in Paris so was good to see it in more detail – where I actually realised I do like Paris, its many coffee shops and very relaxed culture.
Perpignan was amazing, by far my favourite city. They had spent a fortune on Christmas decorations where the entire river was lit up throughout the city. Many photos and many lovely walks around this lovely medieval place, steeped in history! I definitely will come back to Perpignan!
From here I took again the TGV over to Barcelona, this time making sure I stayed in a nice part of Barcelona away from the crowds so actually stayed in university accommodation near Avenue Diagonal.
I am not a fan of Barcelona and again this trip demonstrated why I don’t like it… too many people, not enough nice places to see and just a horrid city. Me and my ex had been here a few years earlier and had the same view then as I did now, so nothing has really changed.
From Barcelona I went through Madrid and onto Seville – one of my favourite cities in Spain. This time using the equivalent of TGV – Ouigo!
Seville was only a short stop as I was heading to Faro to meet with my boss from work for “beers” so this was a quick visit before catching the bus to Faro (there is no train until 2030 and I am not waiting that long for a train…).
In Seville in the train station I had my weekly catch up with Nick my Shrink… this was a different call to usual as he caught me off guard and probed a few areas that we have not touched on before… which saw me sat in a stairwell in the train station having to re-compose myself to carry on my journey. Was good we touched on these things but also timing probably was not the best!
Then into Faro, where I have spent a lot of time. This time in a nice hotel (last time was here I did not rate the hotel I had!). Wondering around the next morning seeing the Christmas decorations, and having coffee in the sun – not hot but warm… this was the break I needed!
The following day I picked up my Skoda 4×4 (basically a VW Tourang) and headed off to see my boss… arriving at his house at 1030 to an almost naked Irish man who had just got out of the shower and was already drinking beer! He has a lovely house with a pool in the back and a few extensions for friends and guests and an office come bar he has built next to the pool… you can clearly see this is his retirement plan! We arranged to have a bite and beer at his golf club that evening…. sensing this could be a “session” I opted to book a hotel directly opposite the restaurant in the golf complex – slightly expensive but definitely worth it for what was to follow…. well we had a starter and main each… then the rest was wine, gin and tonics, shots…. we spent over 600 euro between us… I can’t remember getting to the hotel over the road but do remember waking up in the bath covered in sick… Jesus this was a session where I am sure I did not do my liver any justice! The next day I managed to make it to the restaurant for breakfast where I sat down… looked at the breakfast and had to leave to be ill again! Driving out of the complex back to my apartment on the beach I was wondering whether I was actually sober enough to drive…. but was too late was already on the highway!
The rest of the time in Portugal was relaxed, in a lovely apartment with a kitchen, overlooking the beach, near the hypermarche…. very chilled and very needed! Until……
Well… my friend Jan has been trying to get me to meet Klaus in Munich for a while, and me and Klaus had chatted and get on well… then Klaus said “hey I have 4 days free between Christmas and New Year – why don’t you come to Munich”…. So having spent Christmas Day on my own chilling and relaxing and it now being Boxing Day and I am still chilling and relaxing I thought about this… and thought that this could be a good option…. so booked a flight to Stuttgart…. took the car the day after Boxing Day back to the airport and got on a flight to Stuttgart!
I picked up the exact same car at Stuttgart airport and proceeded to drive to Munich on the Autobahn… yeah this was fun I was doing about 160kmh 🙂
As I was driving the craziness of what I was doing began to hit me… I have literally just got on a plane and gone to Munich on a “hey lets have kinky fun” invite with someone I only vaguely know… nothing had been planned, we had not talked about what we would do etc etc… I stopped off at Aldi and picked up some drinks and food as I thought cannot arrive empty handed! I arrived at a pretty big house and was welcomes by Klaus and his partner who were lovely. We grabbed a bite to eat and had a chat about mainly IT things (seen as both of them work in IT).
Eventually we retired to the annex where the huge playroom and shower is located…. all I can say here is WOW! This playroom was very similar to my friend Jans in Berlin and clearly Klaus has spent a lot on this.
I was put into some rubber then into a straight jacket, gag and gas mask and hung from the ceiling… this is where is started…. it lasted 4 whole days… with some sleep in between and the odd bit of food at a restaurant and other friends coming to join in…. it was amazing. This was the best end to 2025 I could have imagined, with amazing new friends, new adventures, new experiences.