Bought a car!

My original plan was to buy a car in Barcelona for the drive down to Cartagena, where we'll be staying next. Turns out that a foreigner can't buy a car in Spain, unless they first have a "permanent address." Our landlord in Barcelona confirmed this with a car dealer he is friends with. I'm pretty sure he would have sold us a car if it were possible.

We looked at alternatives. First we thought about a lease car. Peugot has a fairly good leasing program, but it would have cost us a little over $6,000 US to lease a car for a year. That would have included full coverage insurance, and it would have been a new car, and if anything went wrong, we could have just called them and exchanged the car for a different one. We gave that some serious consideration, but my Dad's genes kicked in an we looked for a less expensive alternative.

The internet is wonderful. We were able to locate a car we had heard something about from Ronnie, a friend who had lived in England for some time. He recommended a Citreon Berlingo or a Peugot Partner. These are both kind of multi-purpose vehicles. They look like a shrunken minivan. They both have a 1.6 liter diesel engine that gets around 60 mpg. They also have very low emissions. Why don't they sell these in the States??? Anyway, I located a Peugot Partner that was left-hand drive for sale from a dealer in Chesham, England, which is outside of London. (Ronnie had recommended a different dealer, but that dealer had no left-hand drive cars and was much more pricey!)

I talked with the dealer on the phone, and everything seemed to be pretty straightforward. It was no problem to buy a car in London and drive it all over Europe. We would need to give them an address in England to send the title to, but they didn't care if we lived there or not. Since we had contracted to stay with a couple in London in August, we imposed upon them, and they willingly gave us an address that we could use for our purposes. These are such nice people! (They had done this for someone else in the past and were still getting notices and solicitations at their home, so they gave us the address of another rental they own.) The dealer recommended a bus line from the airport to a town near his dealership and said he would pick me up.

I got back on the internet and located a cheap ($59) flight from Barcelona to London. It was cheap in part because I didn't have any bags to check. They charge extra for everything. Barcelona has a shuttle that leaves from Plaza Catalunya (about 3 blocks from our apartment), and the round-trip was $11.50. So I walked to the Plaza and boarded the bus about 2.5 hours before my departure. The bus got us to the airport in about 30 minutes. The security process looks just like the one you would find in the US...take off your shoes, belt, pull out your laptop, put your wallet and phone in a plastic bin and watch it go through the x-ray machine. Normal. There was no line for the passport check, so that took place quickly. I had a small wait in the airport as I was early.

The only near snag was when the lady checking boarding passes told me I would have to pay $60 more because I had too much carry-on luggage. I had a very small backpack, a briefcase, and a CPAP machine in a carry case. I told her the CPAP was a medical device. In the US and France, medical devices were exempt from the baggage restrictions. Apparently not so here. She said if I could put the briefcase in the backpack, she would only count it as two. Since it wouldn't fit inside the backpack, I put the briefcase through the arm slings and tightened them down, and she allowed that I was now legal. Whew! Pretty hard to believe that checking a bag could cost as much as the orginal ticket..but that's how these budget airlines make their money.

Arrived in London, and went through customs. They require a form here. I also got questioned about my purpose and length of stay. This was the day of the most recent terrorist attacks in Belgium. Still only took about 5 minutes. Got on the bus and headed to Hemel-Hempstead, a journey of about 25 minutes. I called the dealer as soon as I boarded the bus to let him know I was on my way so he could send someone to meet me. The dealer wasn't there, but a Hungarian fellow said he would be in shortly and he would let his boss know. I started to worry, but about 40 minutes after arriving in Hemel-Hempstead, I was picked up and taken to the dealership.

I wish I had taken a picture of this car lot. It was a garage at the back of a very narrow residential community lot that had cars parked front to back so that the only way to get one out from the back row would be to move all the cars in front of it. I started to worry again. The owner was a man of Indian descent, but had right proper English diction, and was obviously 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant. London is full of immigrants from all over the world. The car I had wanted (Peugeot Partner) had some registration problems, and was not suitable for my purposes, so I settled on a Citreon Berlingo that was a little more expensive. I test drove it, and kicked the tires, and the only thing wrong was the tires, which were badly checked. He agreed to put new tires on the car. The process would take longer than originally planned, so they found a room for me in a local hotel.

The hotel was a converted country estate that was probably built in the 1800's. The staircase was grand, but the hallways would only accommodate one person at a time. Quirky. Dinner was served in the bar. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I had the steak and fries, then went back to my room to arrange for the insurance. That took almost two hours through the international desk of USAA, who I have had accounts with for years. The insurance would cost me $1300 a year, primarily because in England there is no limit on liability, and it's required by law. So basically, if they accept liability, they are writing a blank check for whatever it costs.

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One thing about hotels in Europe...they don't provide wash cloths. I'm not sure how people get clean here? I found the same in the hotel I got in France the next night...more on that in a bit.

The next morning, I got up an had breakfast, which was quite nice. Nothing unusual. Then I went back to my room and called the dealership. They didn't open until 10:00, which was a little annoying as I was anxious to get on the road. Finally, I got picked up by our Hungarian friend and taken to the dealership. The tires were not on the car yet. It took about three hours to get that done and get the paperwork finished, pay the taxes online ($160 Pounds for 1/2 year), make a reservation for the channel train, and finally I was off. I programmed the address for the channel train into Google Maps, and got turn by turn instructions all the way. There was a choice between taking a ferry from Portsmouth all the way to Santander, Spain, which was an overnight trip and came with a bedroom, for about $360 Pounds, or a ferry from Dover to Calais, France, which costs about $97 Pounds and takes about 4 hours--or there is the Chunnel train from Dover to Calais that costs $167 Pounds and takes about 30 minutes.

The ferry to Santander only runs twice a week, and was booked solid for the day I wanted to take it...nothing open until Friday. I opted for the Chunnel train. The booking was done online, including inputting all my passport information. When I arrived at the departure station, the process was very smooth. The camera/computer recognized my license number, I keyed in a security code, and was passed right through the British security. The French security stamped my passport, and had a look around my car. They swabbed the steering wheel, and looked under the chassis. They asked if it was my car, and a few other questions, and then I was in line to board the train. You drive right on. Once again, I was so impressed with the security, but also how things just go on. It wasn't out of order, and it was effeciently done. I was also impressed with how smooth the train was. If you couldn't see out through the portholes, you wouldn't have known we were moving. The 30 minutes or so of the train ride was over before I knew it. Here's a look at the inside of the train.

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When you get off the train, the exit road leads right to the freeway, so off I went. I had to stop to program the next leg of the journey into my trusty Google Maps. I am astounded at how easy it is to get where you want to go in a strange place because of this fantastic app. She is always polite and never berates me for making a wrong turn. I got all the way to Paris before I ran into any traffic problems. I understand the French do not like toll roads, so the traffic on the toll road was light. It is kind of expensive--the tolls all the way to Barcelona probably cost me around $200--but, in this case, I was interested in making it a fast and easy journey, and not in seeing the sights. Next time we'll ask Miss Google to take us on the scenic tour and avoid the toll roads. The roads are great...well maintained and smooth. The drivers were courteous. They drive on the right, except to pass, unlike drivers in Utah.

Fuel stops in Europe are much like those at home, most have snacks and hot food, bathrooms, etc. They also have rest stops along the way, with bathrooms, and a place to park and rest for awhile, or have a picnic. I called Chris once I was outside of the traffic in Paris, and asked her to make a reservation at a hotel near Orleans, which she was able to do. I programmed in the address and Miss Google took me right there. I got in about 10:30, and found the place was locked up tight. A nice man sitting outside was kind enough to tell me that the check in was done on the ATM-looking device just outside the front door. I put in my name and credit card, and the device spit out a credit card sized "key" and printed me a receipt, which gave me the room number. The "key" let me open the front door, and I found my room, which was very small.

I'm standing in the corner in this picture, and the room with the light is the bathroom, which contains a sink, toilet and shower in a space of about 3 square feet. Anyway, I was tired, and the bed was comfortable, and so I had a good night's sleep.

I awoke the next morning fairly early and got back on the road, and was in Barcelona by about 3:00 PM. I parked at the airport, because that has the cheapest long-term parking, and you don't need a car in the downtown area. That is a tip I will share and one I will use throughout our journey here. The streets in the larger cities in Europe are generally narrow and crammed with vehicles. The public transportation system is generally excellent, and it makes no sense to even own a car if you live in a city. The airports generally all have some long-term parking system that is relatively cheap when compared to parking inside the city, and the airports all have lovely transportation into the cities. So when we drive to a big city, we will likely park at the airports. But, since we will be living outside the big cities on most of our journey, we decided we needed a car.

Here are a couple of not great shots of the car, which is now sitting in the airport parking lot. Kat and Ellie named him Charlie (we name all our cars).