Hospedaje Magallanes Santander

... swift action resulted in them being relocated underneath the van, despite the protestations of Lymºs board, which proceeded to lash out and cause him bodily harm about the head. (A: ha ha ha !!) However, all is forgiven and we all lived to surf another day.

A very pretty (cobbled alleyways, olde worlde stylee, cows in a field with not only udders, but also tuneful bells which, when youºve got a dozen, made quite a din a la Mike Oldfield) little town, unlike the campsite which was essentially a sodden piece of grass, for which we were charged Euro 22, for the pleasure of a night's shut-eye.

Leaving San Sebastian behind we drove to Santander to spend the night. With nothing more then the car, no place to stay and no plan. As luck turns out we found a cheap Pension to stay at, and ate in their quaint little restaurant, treated to warm hospitality, good food, and free Grappa and Lemonchelo

... represented. The funniest food stall was the Australian one - their offering? Only hamburgers! Despite the prices looking more expensive than those at the medieval fair, I would've sampled some of the offerings here, had I still not been so stuffed from dinner.

The immigrant fair had more of a festival feel to it than the medieval fair, since there was live music and performances. I didn't stay long as I was getting tired, so wandered ...

... way back when I was going hard core with trying to learn Spanish, I did one Spanish course on CD that told the story of a Spanish family going on vacation. The whole dialogue was about taking a train to Santander, and talked about how beautiful the beach and ocean was. The name of the town stuck in my head and like with La Coruna, I told myself that I one day needed to visit this place. And exactly like with La Coruna, it far exceeded my expectations.

... not yet too hot, it was a perfect spot to relax and get some sustenance. Sitting there and enjoying the moment, I had one of those "I love Spain!" moments that happen so frequently for me here. Really, they're more of a "I love travel!" moment, but they seem to be extra special when experienced in Spain. The feeling is one of excitement and happiness, where I realize both how great it is to be here enjoying myself, and how incredibly lucky I am ...

... calm waters and sunshine and eating
breakfast watched as the hazy mountains of Northern Spain came slowly
into view.

From the deck, we watched Santander
come into view (Plymouth it isn't), long fingers of sand forming
miles of beautiful beach reflected the early morning sunlight, a
backdrop of green hills, themselves backed by craggy mountains.
Never having been here before and anticipating, correctly as it
turned out, that we may not ...

Finally arrived in Santander after getting three trains, two ferry boats and a bus. Thatoe my idea of travelling. As I'm travelling with a bike it saves me the hastle of dismantling it, reassembling it and checking for damage. The Pont de Aven docked almost exactly on time in the ferry port in the centre of Santander. With a bike you can skip to the front of the queue so I was soon back on dry land. I stopped by the ...

... The next day, we had a class excursion to Picos de Europa (very similar to Rocky Mountain National Park) and a few churches and monasteries. Monday morning I wasn´t feeling too swell and so I skipped class and slept. Then I spent basically the entire day inside doing homework, playing cards and chatting with Anne and sleeping. Tuesday, today, was nothing exciting. Class in the morning, class in the afternoon etc...This weekend, Erika and I are going to ...

Thank goodness - safe at last. All day travelling across the north coast of Spain saw me fly through San Sebastian and Bilboa on my search for reasonable summer-weekend accommodation - all the while sunglass-less in the bright sunshine, tragically hung-over from the debauchery of Pamplona and despairing at the thought of having to sleep rough again ...