Day 12 - Distance 3,502 km - We're stuck in Tenerife!

As soon as we arrived on Tenerife, our surfer friend, who has been on Tenerife for a month, greeted us with bad news: There will be no ferry capacity back to the mainland before mid-May (!)! He and his wife have already had to postpone their planned departure for several weeks. We didn't expect that at all, but we don't think it's really bad either. After all, we are traveling for the first time in our lives without a schedule or obligations.

But back to the departure: After the departure had been postponed twice (due to the weather with snow and ice and a defect in the GPS tracker of our rolling home), we finally started on January 23rd. Our son Tim films us as we turn the corner of our house one last time for a long time. The first night was lonely on a lock in the middle of the Rhine between Germany and France. In France we then get caught up in the massive farmers' protests. All highways and strategic intersections and roundabouts are closed. Actually it wasn't that bad since we wanted to save ourselves the French toll anyway. But when all the traffic and especially the 40 t trucks make their way through the small towns and over the narrowest country roads... We experience incredible situations several times where we think that we can never go back or forward here again Two semi-trailers got wedged in a narrow through-town.

After two days of torment in France, we cross the Spanish border near Perpignan and spend the night in Mataro near Barcelona, right on the beach promenade. The next morning, of course, I have to jump into the Mediterranean immediately, Suzi is discreetly holding back. Driving in Spain is extremely pleasant. Well-kept streets, relatively little traffic and relaxed drivers. In our opinion, the Spaniards are a relatively relaxed people. After two more days we end up at our first destination, Cadiz, the oldest city in Western Europe. We spend two days here and are happy not to have to drive after around 3,500 km. Cadiz is a dream on the Atlantic. A beautiful old town, kilometers of dream beaches in the middle of the city and delicious food on every street corner. But we have to move on, the ferry from Huelva is booked on January 30th. Our ship is the "Marie Curie", around 190 m long, built in 2019 and one of the first LNG-powered larger ships ever. For cost reasons, we didn't book a cabin for the 34-hour crossing (sleeping in the car is forbidden), but rather a "VIP sofa bed". These can be put into a kind of sleeping position like seats in business class, they look incredibly comfortable, but they are not! I spend the night on my sleeping mat between the seats... The Atlantic presents itself from its mild side, a gentle swell rocks the ship gently back and forth. After a 34-hour crossing, we arrive at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 1:30 a.m. Then we quickly drove 15 minutes to the nearest beach promenade and woke up the next morning to beautiful summer weather with a view of the sea. We want to stay here on Tenerife for about 3 months (?? see above!!), sunbathing, chilling, swimming, windsurfing, surfing, biking, eating delicious food and hiking. Our first destination is El Medano, the surfers' paradise in the southeast of the island. Here we are, together with many other part-time and full-time dropouts, standing "wild" (i.e. standing freely, free of charge) on a rocky plateau with a sea view above the city. We like it, our son Leon says when he looks at the photos that it reminds him of the "Burning Man" festival in the Nevada desert. Here we also meet our surfer friend, who is happy to have some company. There is no real wind for windsurfing yet, but we have time (see above!!) and can acclimatize in peace. Today there were already great waves for boogie boarding. A question that always concerns campers, especially when they are in the wild, is where to get fresh water, dispose of wastewater and toilets, do laundry, etc. There is our SUPER gas station above the town of El Medano! In addition to refueling (1 liter of diesel € 1.25!) there is: a small supermarket, a restaurant, a car wash, water supply and disposal, a great laundromat, a motorhome parking space (for those who like to camp at a gas station ), etc. we are thrilled with this service!

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