Spain

 

Hola mis amigos. 

Llegué a España.

A few days ago, I had a Whatsapp message from my friend Kelly in Valencia. She said I ought to make haste to Spain in case the authorities changed the COVID restrictions for entering the country, which is exactly what happened with entering France some days back - woke up all ready to get the ferry to Calais and found out I now needed a certified COVID test (about 40 pounds). Worst case scenario would be that they close the Spanish borders, which happened last year.

So yesterday I spent most of the day driving, but let's wind things back a bit as quite a lot happened while I was still in France.

Way back in Abbeville, before I was aware of my van leaking fuel, I filled up on Diesel for the drive south. After Rouan, I made a stop in Angers to use the library and write a blog post. That's when I logged into my HSBC account and found a mystery debit of 111 pounds. This deduction was made at the same time I used my card to buy diesel for 41 pounds (it was an automated petrol pump with no human attendants). 

I finally got someone from HSBC on live chat. If you've never used this customer service, I can tell you it is abysmal. Truly disgraceful. It takes forever to get someone to talk to you, they take 3-10 minutes between each message they send and it's usually some cut and paste waffle along the lines of 'I'm sorry to hear you're not happy. Have you tried logging onto our website for more assistance?'

So Joey from HSBC told me he was unable to undo this payment and I have to take it up with Carrefour supermarket. I eventually found a French lady who kindly phoned Carrefour in Abbeville. She spoke to their finance manager who assured her this is a bank error and not Carrefour's error. 

To make matters worse, yesterday morning I had to use another of these automated pumps in a town called Mansle (the automated pumps are much more common than ones with human attendants). Today I see that in addition to my 46 pounds for fuel, there's another deduction, this time for 102 pounds. I'm currently trying to get an HSBC chat agent online, but so far all I'm getting is their standard "Sorry our wait times are longer than expected. You will be connected to an agent shortly."

The van has been running well since I get the fuel leak fixed and I'd had a good night's sleep in Mansle. So after some breakfast, I decided to spend the whole day driving. I passed through lots of picturesque scenery and there were plenty of times I thought I could stop and take some pictures, but I was determined to press ahead with the mission at hand. 

I did eventually stop at a place called Orthez. It was so lovely, I couldn't just drive right through it.

Check out these waterfalls.

A little further on, I came to this huge, impressive metal sculpture of a fisherman.

Just a little further, and I suddenly noticed the Pyrenees mountain range on the horizon. Spain was within my reach!

By the time I actually reached the mountains, it was dark. I must try to make the return journey by daylight as I bet it looks spectacular. The road winds through the mountains forever, and there was snow piled up at either side. It got very cold inside the van, but I didn't want to put the heating on for fear it would make me drowsy. I passed the occasional building and each time there was a foot or more of snow heaped up on the roof.

Eventually, I reached this exciting tunnel which was signposted to Spain.

The tunnel went on for ages. I didn't see any other cars the whole time I was driving through it. I expected to emerge to find some kind of row of passport control gates, and I had my COVID certification at the ready ...

... but nothing. No passport check, no COVID check. I just drove on through and into Spain. The other side of the tunnel was still very cold with mountains either side of the road, so I kept driving.

Finally, I reached the city of Huesca, which is where I am now. I'm in a library trying to deal with my HSBC issue with an agent called Lovely (really!) who is taking about 10 minutes to reply to each message I type. It's very frustrating. In fact, I think she's gone for lunch or something. Her last reply was over half an hour ago and that was just to say "Thank you for patiently waiting there, I apologise for the delay in responding to your enquiry as I've encountered a technical issue." I bet she says that to all the frustrated customers.

Anyway, I'm alive and well so I should be grateful for that. I'll report on Huesca next time.

Thanks for reading,

Brian