Advice please on Fuel availability in France, Spain and Portugal. Leaving 15th May 26

I popped over to Espana this morning and paid 1.59 lt for a tank full of their finest, compared to 1.79 here....The 200km round trip was worth it, even spotted the Guardia Civil in the valley below.....The only cars parked in full sun are the rozzers. :D
 
Ex-Call Centre Chimp said:
On the way back from watching The Clash at The De Montford Hall many years ago a bloke I know was sick in his mouth. He didn't want the embarrassment of actually vomiting it out so chewed it begore swallowing it back down.
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It’s very rock and roll, to die inhaling one’s own vomit….. though a better way to go than inhaling someone else’s, I guess.
 
Funnily enough, on another occasion a different friend had made himself very poorly through alcohol at a house party and had been put to bed by his girlfriend. Another girl who had the hots for him sensed this was her chance to make a move so slipped into bed alongside him and started snogging him. How she regretted it when he vomited into her mouth.
 
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I quite like to start my day on tours with a cup of cold sick.

It goes down like, well, ……


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I've spewed up once at sea during a "Thursday War" drill up in the pointy end of the ship in rough seas at speed during action stations as damage repair crew, once one person vomits and it starts swilling about it causes a bit of a chain reaction amongst everybody.

I liked being at sea in rough weather as the queue for dinner was non existent and most of the crew lay strapped into their bunks to prevent them falling out/getting hurt so nobody around to bother you, no stupid exercises or drills either just us sat in the control room looking after the engines and hanging onto the walls and the poor bridge crew being flung about upstairs.
 
Pukmeister said:
I've spewed up once at sea during a "Thursday War" drill up in the pointy end of the ship in rough seas at speed during action stations as damage repair crew, once one person vomits and it starts swilling about it causes a bit of a chain reaction amongst everybody.

I liked being at sea in rough weather as the queue for dinner was non existent and most of the crew lay strapped into their bunks to prevent them falling out/getting hurt so nobody around to bother you, no stupid exercises or drills either just us sat in the control room looking after the engines and hanging onto the walls and the poor bridge crew being flung about upstairs.
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We had a young stoker (Trains Potter) on the Amazon, who liked to chew raw bacon rind whilst on watch. It was surprising how many peoples stomachs would churn as he passed them in the flats, whilst carrying out his rounds with it dangling out of the side of his mouth 🤢
 
JohnnyBoxer said:
Back from 10-11 days in France/Germany & Belgium

Absolutely no problems with fuel in even the smallest village

Non problem
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Same for our group, fuel easily available everywhere we went.

The only issue I had was my Monzo card rejected at an automated pump in Reims city as it used the magnetic stripe rather than the chip and Monzo decided it was a possible fraud hotspot. I used my Barclaycard credit card instead at the pump without drama.
 
I suspect Monzo has increased their security thresholds by a (very) tiny bit.
I previously only used my Amex or Mastercard (in France) to pay for petrol, and almost everything else, but lately I've been using Monzo more when in Europe because of the better exchange rate, this includes all fuel generally. I guess you become penny pinching with age. :D

While obviously I never had an issue using the credit cards (reason why they are my main point of payment) in the last year I had Monzo triggering either a PIN request at the POS or triggering the authentication via the app even when using the physical card. I think the PIN is required every x transactions, but the app authentication is becoming a bit more common while traveling. It's a bit annoying as I keep the phone in my backpack usually.

Been with them for about 10 years.

It's ok once you know.
But before understanding this, I found myself a couple of times with the card transaction being denied.
 
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France took a while to catch-up with the whole chip’n’pin thing, let alone contactless. But now it’s in full swing. That said, they still like using cheques.

One of the great benefits of the late 20th and early 21st century is the ease of ‘money payments’ when it comes to travelling. No more bundles of cash or, as some will remember, travellers’ cheques. Some of us will also remember that the UK used to have limits on cash being taken out of the country and fuel coupons for use in Italy. I can remember being given sweets and sometimes stamps, instead of change in Italy, when anything and everything seemed to cost umpteen million lira.
 
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Wapping said:
One of the great benefits of the late 20th and early 21st century is the ease of ‘money payments’ when it comes to travelling. No more bundles of cash or, as some will remember, travellers’ cheques.
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I took the same 200 Euros in folding notes with me this year that I had brought home from the previous trip. No surprise that I’ve returned with, you guessed it, 200 Euros in folding notes again. It’s good to carry it as a fallback plan, but card payments are accepted everywhere it seems.
 
I'm in France/Italy quite regularly.
Haven't used cash for years now, bar a few remote locations/very small businesses.

Even Italians, that have been historically (and hilariously) against digital payments, finally switched over almost completely in the last few years.

I, too, have the same ~100 euros I keep taking on vacations across Europe. They do seem to like the trips and coming back home. :D
 
I'll be heading to Europe in the next few weeks and will be taking cash to pay for stuff as I go along, as I always do.
Whatever I bring back will then be taken to The Free State along with a top up amount. I've pre-booked some of my accommodation for that trip and a couple of the places have specifically asked for cash payments as they don't have card readers.

Why do I prefer cash?
A) It stops me overspending by dividing it into daily amounts. I'm also more aware of what I'm spending as I hand the cash over, rather than a simple pass over of the credit card.
B) I've read too many horror stories about people having their cards cloned when they've been away
C) I've had issues on more than one occasion in France with fuel pumps refusing to accept my card. Luckily for me there's always been an obliging French person happy to use their card and accept my cash to ensure I can continue my trip.

I was chatting to a chum the other day and said I might have to think about modernising and getting contactless cards, he laughed and told me contactless is now considered old hat abd that people are using their phones to pay for stuff not for me that though.
 
Cash certainly has its place, for small transactions, such as a coffee in a rural cafe. That said, a card machine saves many proprietors the inconvenience of banking money and, I assume, less ‘mistakes’ by staff when closing the till on shutting up shop.
 
Halifax clarity.

Used all over the world.

Not a single issue.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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