Travel with Kevin and Ruth: It's finally working!

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

It's finally working!

Last month around this time I told you about the Tiekom SIM card that is a great deal for European travelers.

I had ordered one of these SIM cards while we were in Albania, and had it delivered to the dealership where Max was. But they misplaced the envelope, and so we couldn't pick it up when we arrived there. However a week later they found it, and mailed it to where we were staying in France.

Yes, that was the envelope that took more than a week to arrive from Germany! The one we were waiting for at my cousin's daughter's house.

There were two SIM cards in the envelope, both from Vodafone Spain. Our contact at Tiekom asked for a number off one of the cards, and said she would activate it. We did everything we were supposed to do, but it simply wouldn't work. Eventually, she put us through to support, and they asked a few questions and agreed we were doing everything right. It turned out that Vodafone had some kind of roaming block on the number, and support said it would be removed, but they didn't know how long it would take.

So frustrating. We waited one more day, but it still wouldn't work so they suggested we cancel that card and try the secondary one they sent. They activated it, and it worked right away! A bit frustrating, complicated by the fact that our dealer misplaced it. But now that it's working, it's fantastic!

So now we are all set for cellular internet data until we go to Morocco in early January. 300GB of data per month for €40 ($56 CAD, $41 USD). 300 GB might as well be unlimited. For us, it will be almost impossible to use 10GB per day. It won't work in Morocco, but when we get back into Spain in the spring, it should work continuously right from there through to Ireland, Scotland and England next summer.

So, on to our driving day...

First thing we had to do was to get through the village!

Then, we had to figure out the best way to get around or through the city of Montpellier. Montpellier itself isn't really that big, with a population around 300,000. But the surrounding area is built up as well, so it's actually quite congested in places.

I decided on a route south of the city that would avoid both tolls and morning congestion. A little longer, but definitely more scenic.

What are those birds?

Flamingoes!

Lots of flamingoes!

Scenery along the way.

We stopped just outside the town of Montagnac. There was a detour due to road works, but it said "no trucks". I know that we're pretty small, but I didn't want to get stuck in the center so we pulled over, had some lunch, and went for a walk to check out the detour and the town.