Day 1 began with a 3:30 am rise at which point I nearly decided to give the whole thing up, it really is a ridiculous time to have to get up. We were flying easy jet, the one from the tv program Airline, and when we walked into the terminal it was like walking into a solid wall of people, the queues stretching farther than the actual queuing barriers. We joined the line for check in 20 mins after check in opened and arrived at the desk just as check in was closing.

After passing through customs at Madrid the fun really began when we picked up our rental car and I was nominated to drive first. Getting out of the airport proved reasonably easy because it was a one way system but still very odd to be driving from the opposite side of the car with gears on the wrong side of me too. I managed not to go across to the wrong side of the road but, like everyone says, found the roundabouts the most confusing. We made it with a few high adrenalin moments, perhaps the most ‘exciting’ being the very narrow winding streets in the centre of Cordoba, much like winding the car through the centre of Napier.

We eventually arrived, 8 hours later, Spain is very big! and unpacked and spent the evening relaxing ready for an exciting week