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Best laid plans and all that. After a busy week packing up the house we finally set off on our travels. A 10-week tour of Spain and Portugal returning through France. But first a few days in Cumbria to see family before catching the Plymouth-Santander Ferry. It should have then been simple a straightforward drive down the M6 and M5, a stop near Totnes in Devon then a short hop before embarking.
Just south of Birmingham I arranged, albeit late some breakdown and personal insurance. At the end of the conversation the very nice lady run through a checklist of thing we should have Ehic card, (tick) insurance (tick) driving licence (tick) Logbook (aaaagh) I checked we had it but in the rush to pack up it was still in the folder back in storage. Dilemma? keep going and hope we don’t get stopped? or….go back to Norfolk adding an additional 300 miles?. After hearing stories of vehicles not going anywhere at borders we took the diversion. Driving through the night we finally arrived at Plymouth at 3am. Then parked across three bays at Princess yachts car park thinking we’d be out of their way by 7am. Those enthusiastic Princess
workers were turning up at 6am!,so we headed for Plymouth Hoe quickly to have breakfast.
You can imagine a relief it was to finally get on the ferry, and settling in our cabin, with a great view of the ocean only a stones throw from the bar and entertainment-happy days.
Leaving harbour we were given a talk on whales and dolphins by Orca, the cetacean wildlife charity and what to watch out for on our journey south across the Bay of Biscay. We didn’t see many whales but we saw many dolphins.
We had a good crossing, the notorious Bay of Biscay behaved itself, the food and staff were great and we even treated ourselves to the Cinema to while away a couple of hours.
We arrived to a very soggy Santander, then aimed for Lidl to stock up on groceries before heading for our first campsite at Playa de Oyambra, with its fantastic beach and restaurant. It is amazing how lush and green this part of Spain is, maybe that’s why its called Costa Verde!
The campsite is great, with restaurant, swimming pool, laundry, mini gym and most things you need when travelling. The
toilets are particularly immaculate, probably owing to a lady seeming to be cleaning at all times of day, even 10 o clock in the evening.
I had really looked forward to a Paella on arriving in Spain. The restaurant was wonderfully situated right overlooking the beach, the beer and the wine was great. However, we were told we should have phoned ahead for the Paella. Not wishing to go basic hamburger. We thought we would be brave and aim for a local fish dish. I went for a local version of Surf and Turf prawns and mushrooms Alison went for… I’ll let the photo do the talking, but I’m surprised she actually ate it!
We will rest up here for a couple of nights of R&R, before heading up into the mountains of the Picos de Europa.
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Lorraine
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Wonderful!
So glad you’re finally off on your adventures once more! 10 weeks of fantastic memories in the making!! 😍