All the Brit drivers used to stop there.A meeting point for your mates coming East or West.
Simon was a grumpy chap with a beard.
But the potatoe soup with meat went down well in freezing weather.
At the far end of the service area by the fuel station ,was a restaurant owned by a Galician family.
Home made casseroles and stews.
Next to Victors is the big hotel that did a great drivers menu.
Waited on by uniformed staff.
Then the club for nocturnal entertainment.
By walking over the goat and sheep bridge,about 5kms away is a medieval village with cobbled streets.A time warp.
Was their last month tobes
Victors boarded up
Only the middle restaurant and the club open now
Even the end hotel closed now
It’s a shame, Victor’s used to be the place to go, have had many a night and weekend there and always used to bump into somebody I knew. I suppose it’s just the way the world has gone, most Spanish work is done by eastern Europeans nowadays and they just don’t frequent places like that.
It has all changed Harry.The EE drivers eat out of their kitchen on the side of the trailer.Some have fridges and cabinets.
Is a shame always someone to chat to
Euro now can go all week without speaking to another Brit now
I would say only places now guaranteed to see a fellow Brit now
Are. Meer lokeren Asten carisio and arluno Italy
Harry Monk:
It’s a shame, Victor’s used to be the place to go, have had many a night and weekend there and always used to bump into somebody I knew. I suppose it’s just the way the world has gone, most Spanish work is done by eastern Europeans nowadays and they just don’t frequent places like that.
With respect, I was in Spain couple of weeks ago for the first time and saw very few EE reg trucks.
Saaamon:
Harry Monk:
It’s a shame, Victor’s used to be the place to go, have had many a night and weekend there and always used to bump into somebody I knew. I suppose it’s just the way the world has gone, most Spanish work is done by eastern Europeans nowadays and they just don’t frequent places like that.With respect, I was in Spain couple of weeks ago for the first time and saw very few EE reg trucks.
A lot of Spanish registered motors are eastern crewed.
It is a fact the Spanish trucks are also driven by South American drivers.
I have spoken to drivers from Chile,Equador,Columbia,Peru and Argentina.
Portuguese hauliers use Brazilian drivers.
And Mozambique or Angolian drivers as the same languages.
And i presume some bilateral labour exchange visa work programme between the countries.
An English firm that ran tatty old blue trailers and beaten up units,were crewed by Brazilians.
Doing Uk to Portugal.
Jfi ltd.
Now now TC, Jose F.(jfi) was a good friend of mine,you can’t call his fleet tatty. I on the other hand am now doing Germany,but would much rather be back in Spain & Portugal… 
Good to hear from you Shady.That dreaded IP5 was a right pain of a road.
No sleep after loading groupage in Porto.Take it you are not on the medical unit then.
Seems a lifetime ago sat in the Parrot bar of Ricardo’s and his expensive telephone bill counter.
Shady,here is a blast from the past,do you remember Gina,the waitress on the Southampton/Cherbourg Stena line ferry.
Long black hair.
The two old Canadian men that were marshals in the freight check in at Cherbourg.
Fought in Normandy,met local girls and never went home.
Marie Noel at freight check in,big blue eyes,brunette.
She has her own kids clothing shop in town.
Peter Stainbridge aka Jellylegs.
The Animal Stuart Smith.
Harry Monk:
It’s a shame, Victor’s used to be the place to go, have had many a night and weekend there and always used to bump into somebody I knew. I suppose it’s just the way the world has gone, most Spanish work is done by eastern Europeans nowadays and they just don’t frequent places like that.
very true, if you got weekended that way mid 90’s, it was a very, very busy place over the weekend, lots of british, dutch, and french trucks there, with the spaniards and portugese aswell.
victors used to be good for a shower and a snack, or a sit down menu meal in the restaraunt for a decent price.
i used the hotel sometimes for a snack and a shower if victors was packed, and often nipped in the family restaraunt in the far corner for a meal. many good times back then. shame to see the state of it now, passed it last year, and didn’t stop, went upto junction 3 of the motorway, and went to the restaraunt there by the bp garages for the night.
similar story with the big place fred used to have in madrid, some good weekends there 
in fact, i remember a regular lad at freds, always there think him and another decent bloke, (whos name i forget) worked for a london based firm doing spain regular. i’m sure 1 of them was called stuart, “animal” loud, but lovely fella, all the staff knew him, he liked his food and a drink, and i’m sure i see him drink a bottle of tobasco 1 night 
sadly i here he died out there being involved in a big accident with a coach 1 night?
i still go to spain, if the tour i’m on is doing barcelona, madrid, or lisbon aswell. was there in march, and still plenty of decent places to stop, just odd that the old ones have gone. notice alot of familiar spanish trailers from the past still going, but often when you look closely at the tractor unit reg, its often bulgarian, romainian or similar.
Stuart was on Savils when he had his crash on the N1.
Stuart hit a broken down coach that was on a bend in Spain.
He was on the way to Morroco.
The police tried to stitch him up by releasing false facts to the media.
As they took too long to attend the broken down coach.
The coach driver and mechanic were stood at the back of the coach when the crash happened.
As said,he was a decent and kind man.People who did not know him,were intimidated by his size.
harry:
Stuart was on Savils when he had his crash on the N1.
savils, cheers that was it.
your right toby, the few times i met him at freds i thought he seemed a good bloke.
British International rented a parking yard that was called the gypsy park as it was owned by gypsies.
Without one word of complaint or moaning,Stuart turns up to help me re-build a tilt trailer on a hot day.
That was how he was,do anything to help out.
Tyre blow out,he would help.
The big hotel next to Victors,had a bathroom that for a few Pesetas,you could have a hot bath on a 45 minute break.If tramping for weeks away,you could drop off a bag of laundry for them to wash and iron.
Then collect it when passing by again.
There was another driver killed,he was in a taxi that got hit in the side door by a motorbike.Another decent lad.And a BI driver that had a boil on his bum lanced by an unsterile needle in Burgos.
He got up to Bp Cabbage Patch at Bordeaux and he died in his cab.He was not found for a few days.He was flown to the UK in a leaded coffin as he died from Septicaemia,at a cost of thousands.
The driver that got killed by a motorbike hitting the car was Ian Elkins brother it happened at zona Franca Barcelona , I believe he was in the agents car . Getting back to Stuart he used to say your worst nightmare would be him knocking your door Xmas morning lol , do you remember when him and haystacks both drove for baileys .
Toby ,I expect you remember when Gorgeous George dies in his cab overnight just short of Villa Formosa, there was a collection tin on the bar at Claude,s for his widow as George had forgotten to pay his NI stamp for several years.
That name rings a bell.Then there was the owner driver with a blue F12 Volvo that had a heart attack and crashed in to the barrier in Spain or Portugal.
He had a few trucks.John but the surname i am not sure.
Jonh Povey the scouser was a real character.
Grant,who liked the gambling machines and the Bacardi.
Do you know Bob Garnett and Paul Fogden ?