Spain, May/June 2018. Day 3

After and excellent and restful day on the boat, a very good dinner and one or two restoratives, we had a game of pass the pigs before retiring.  We slept well as we crossed The Bay of Biscay last night and have woken to a beautiful morning and flat calm conditions; not the fearsome Biscay big seas.  The only slight technical hitch is we are not sure if it's 7.00 or 8.00 am so it's time to head out and explore the possibility of breakfast.
Problem solved - it was 7.00 am but breakfast was being served any way.  Full fortified, it's now time to go and look for dolphins riding the bow wave.
Hurray success; first a single one and then half a dozen playing in the wake of the sip.  Magical.  And what a beautiful morning; clear blue skies and warm temperatures with a deep indigo sea with a creamy turquoise wake.  Coffee and Danish now.
During the afternoon we saw several more pods of dolphins and suddenly through the thickening haze suddenly appeared the peaks of mountains  their feet shrouded in mist.  Berthing and unloading seemed to happen quickly and we were soon on the motorway heading to our overnight stop at Santillana del Mar.  This is one of the beautiful villages of Spain and well worth its categorisation; the church and cloisters being superb.  We are interested in the town's proximity to the caves of Altimira and may stop here on the way home.  On our drive along the motorway we enjoyed the wonderful coastal views and good sightings of griffon vulture, red kite  buzzards and other unidentified raptors.  The black restarts feeding fledglings in the church cloisters were a delight. An excellent meal in a restaurant garden followed by a 10 year old Torres completed an excellent day.  Spanish measures are generous.

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Spain, May/June 2018. Day 1 and 2

A good day yesterday.  Our journey went well.  Cats delivered and final loading of the car saw us on our way at 10.30.  The first port of call was Go Outdoors in Lincoln for a spare air bed as we have very little trust in their lack of puncturability!!  We also invested in some new walking trainers for Heather.
However, it was as we were driving through Lincoln that we realied that we had left a large pan of tagine in the fridge instead of putting it in the freezer.  Not a problem though - we rang a fiend who has a house key and arranged for him to rescue it for his tea.
The remainder of the journey went well in temperatures reaching 25C although we ran into a storm just north of Southampton. We quickly found our Premier Inn by the harbour and met up with my brother and his wife.  Surprisingly I discovered that it was beer o'clock so Peter and I repaired to the hostelry next door to check it out for our evening meal.
This morning we were up early and will shortly be driving to the ferry terminal for boarding and sailing at 8.45.  I have to say I am looking forward to breakfast on board.
It was a quick journey to the ferry terminal and boarding went well.  The continental breakfast was excellent.  We have explored the ship and are now sailing past the Isle of Wight. We had good views of The Victory and our latest aircraft carrier as we left Portsmouth. Having seen a map of our route it looks as if we shall pass close to the Brittany coast. I look forward to it.
Unfortunately the WiFi signal is not up to uploading photos so I will try when we are in Spain if we get a strong enough WiFi.
A very pleasant and lazy day has been spent on the boat with an excellent evening meal looking out at the coast of Brittany.  After our meal we wandered out on deck to enjoy a beautiful sunset as we passed through the islands off the coast.  Time for a post prandial shifter now I think.

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Nearly ready for The Pickwell's Road Trip to Nortern Spain and The Picks de Europa

We are stating to get excited now.  During the last few weeks we have been incredibly busy as the preceding blog posts show.  However, our Monday departure time now draws close.  We have the camping stuff ( yes dear reader, camping in a tent! 🤔) down out of the loft and just need to sort maps and field guides.  Today it's collecting the euros and having the car washed and cleaned inside.  Royal wedding, what royal wedding!!

Occasion phone photos will be published.  The main ones will be added on our return.

Bluebells in Newton Wood

As usual Heather and I were not able to drag ourselves away and return home so we elected to drive the short distance to Great Broughton to see if we could find the bluebells in Newton Wood.  We were not to be disappointed.  We have never seen so many bluebells and the air was heady with their scent.  To top off the experience I was able to photograph them with Roseberry Topping in the background.

We continued on to Saltburn for a wander down the beck to look at the ramsons again and then to the beach for some photography.  

Next we had a lovely drive down the coast to Sandsend where we stopped at one of our favourite eateries: the Wits End Cafe for excellent crab sandwiches and cake.  Sadly the only thing left after this was the drive home.  A wonderful three days, though.
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