The fact that Spain has just received as much rain as poor old Noah suffered back it biblical times and that we have seen photos of deep snow just outside Madrid, has not put us off our forthcoming trip to the “sun”.

We set off from home today and are now firmly ensconced in our favourite aire in Canterbury (51.261366, 1.100028). Its still only £3.50 from midnight to midnight, with free use of Canterbury’s buses, so not surprisingly it is our favourite stopping point before crossing the channel to Euroland. The tunnel is just a 30 minute drive from here and because we have booked an 8.20 am crossing, Basil will be tucked up for bed nice and early, but not before we have our traditional visit to the adjacent pub.

Regular readers will have noticed we didn’t go away in Basil for a long tour this autumn. Instead we had a fascinating 6 weeks in India, travelling widely and finishing with 6 relaxing days in Goa. It was all brilliantly organised by TGS Tours in Jaipur, the owner of which is, I know, a reader of this blog. Thanks Nikhil.

Team Basil is leaving for our Spring trip earlier than usual because we have to be back for Sarah’s 60th birthday in early April. We therefore only have just over 8 weeks and so instead of spending a week or more meandering through the backroads of France, as we normally do, we have decided to shell out and belt down the paid motorways to get south as quickly as possible.

The general plan at the moment is to head to the south of Spain, firstly because it has the best winter weather in Europe and secondly because it one of the few parts of Europe Basil has not visited. We will probably also spend some time in southern Portugal.

Britain’s impending exit from the European Union has left most travellers bewildered as to what documents they need to travel in Europe during the transition period, which ends on December 31st this year. We have a green card for insurance and international driving licences, but we probably don’t need them. Our vet can’t tell us what the rules will be for dogs, so we have assumed they won’t change, at least this year. If we do find they need extra rabies testing we will have to get the treatment carried out in Spain.

Tomorrow promises to be a full on driving day and so you may have to wait until we reach Spain for our next post.