Month: September 2018

Well Ribadesella has turned out to a very nice place, and much better than our first impresiona as we drove through it yesterday. It is a relatively modern resort, perhaps first developing in the early 1900s, built on both sides of the mouth of the river Stella and stretching along the beach southwards.

Whilst there are plenty bars, cafes and restaurants to keep the tourist happy, the real draw to Ribadsella, in addition to easy access to the picos de Europa, is water sports with canoeing, rafting, surfing, canyoning and much more,  available in abundance. I think that this water sports culture gives the town a real laid back feel.

We  managed to avoid most of these things, but did manage a mini pub crawl for a few beers and porciones of tapas for supper. Although it was our preference, it was the only option as none of the restaurants open until 8 pm for dinner. We were home by 7pm! The bars were nice, the staff really friendly and tolerant of our attempts at Spanish, and the tapas, although limited in choice at that time, was better than going hungry.

Earlier in the day we headed up the nearest hill towards Covadonga, a village high up in the Picos de Europa, made famous by the Vuelta Espania. Unfortunately we had just turned onto the N634 and begun climbing when Christine started to have trouble with her gears. We managed to get the chain to stick on the third lowest gear and ploughed on  regardless. We were doing fine until we turned a corner to discover the road was closed. It turned out that there was now an actual rally, so the very cars which stopped us staying at the Aire in Llanes, was now preventing us cycle up to Covadonga.

Given the situation with Christine’s gears, in hindsite it was was probably a good thing, as instead we headed back down to the coast road and headed for La Isla, a small village, with a beautiful beach and a cafe. Cycling between the coast on the north and the Picos de Europa on the south side, it’s a stunning route and the road is delightfully quiet. The regular sight of people walking towards Santiago de Compostella, reminds you that you are still on the Pilgrims Route.

We had planned to stay in Cangas de Onis tonight but my attempts to fix Christine’s gears only made them at least twice as bad, so we decided to stay put and visit the local bike shop when it reopened on Monday morning. I did eventually manage to get them fixed, no idea what I did, so we decided to cycle to Cangas de Onis instead.

Cangas de Onis is a very pleasant town and is regarded as one of the gateways to the Picos de Europa. It’s a very pleasant road, following the Rio Salla as it winds between the Pico de Europa. We were expecting hills but in fact it was a very gentle gradient for the 17 miles to the town. We really weren’t expecting that! There are a number of things to hold your interest, but the Roman bridge is the most impressive.

Tonight we’re trying to work out where we’re going tomorrow now, since we’ve been to Cangas de Onis. At this point we’ve got no idea. Perhaps we’re just going to have to wing it!

Last night the Silver Machine was parked up in a free Aire on the edge of Santillana del Mar, a small medieval village often in Cántabra, often described by guidebooks as one of the most beautiful villages in Spain. The aire has no facilities, but it’s spacious, its in a good location with lovely views over green rolling hills.

Although the ferry left Portsmouth an hour late, it arrived in Bilbao bang on time at 12.45. It turned out to be a very good crossing, the weather was perfect, the sea was like a mill pond, dinner was ever excellent and time passed quickly. It helped of course that we bumped into Terry and Rena, a couple who we met at Camping Villasol, with their two friends on their way to Benidorm. We spent a nice evening with them and then again in the morning before the ferry docked. It was a nice surprise and we look forward to seeing them again in November.

The seventy four mile drive from the ferry to Santillana took 90 minutes along the toll free A8 and A67 motorways. As we climbed out of Bilbao, the sun was beating down and the temperature gauge hit 31 degrees. Despite the heat, it’s a nice drive, particularly on a beautiful day such as this, as the road winds it’s way along the coast with some great mountain, forrest and sea views.

It was still 28 degrees by the time the Silver Machine was parked up. As it doesn’t start to get dark here until after 8pm we decided to pospone a bike ride until evening and walk into the village instead.

Let’s get something out of the way first. For those that don’t know, Santillana del Mar is not near the sea, it is at least 4 miles away from the nearest beach. It’s really known for its medieval towers, renaissance palaces and the romanesque Santa Juliana (where the town takes it name) Collegiate Church but for us, with the sun beating down, there was nothing more pleasant than meandering through the narrow cobbled shaded streets, admiring ancient houses many with window boxes bursting with flowers.

We have been to Santillana before, and had a great holiday with Tom, Christine’s brother, and Margaret his wife, and one each children, Sarah and Charlotte, and it was pretty much as we remembered it. Before we left we visited the St Juliana church. Like the rest of the village, it is ancient. The church developed from a Benedictine Monastry, and the present shape started to evolve in the mid 12th century.

Although it was still hot we did manage a bike run in the the evening, 21 miles in total, to Comillas and back. It’s a nice road, over rolling hills, with little traffic. We didn’t explore Comillas, instead we stopped at a view point, looking down on the town and the beautiful sandy bay it is built around. It looks an interesting town, and one to explore another time.

The Silver Machine landed in Camping Los Sauses Playa, on the outskirts of Ribadesella, a pleasant site, all grass pitches with all the basic facilities, and good value at 17€ per night. It is about 3kms from the centre of the town and as we are here for 2 nights we will explore that tomorrow and just chill tonight.

We had a half idea that we would stop for a night at San Vicente, but the Aire looked busy and we missed the entrance anyway. We headed instead to an Aire at Llanes but, luckily it doesn’t happen a lot, the car park and the Aire within it was closed. It was being used to show Rally cars, and all sorts of equipment associated with rallying. We had a wander round Llanes anyway and although it is a nice town, we weren’t too concerned to be moving on.

We headed to Ribadesella and the campsite. There is actually an aire here too but it is also temporarily closed! All we’ve done so far is get to the local supermarket. There we discovered they produce cider locally. So that’s tonight sorted!

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome aboard another adventure in the amazing Silver Machine. We are currently sailing out of Portsmouth Harbour heading for Bilbao on the MV Cap Finistere, which at 669ft long it’s a fairly large ferry. It’s very busy and must be close to its operating capacity of 790 passengers and 712 cars spread across the 10 decks.

The Silver Machine is safely tucked up for the night on deck 5 amongst a sea of vehicles. Over the last few weeks it’s been serviced, habitation checked, washed, polished and loaded up and we’re all raring to go!

We arrive in Bilbao tomorrow at 12.45pm and as the forecast is favourable, initially the plan is to stay in the north of Spain, taking a couple of weeks to head towards Santiago de Compostella. After that we intend to head south through central Spain perhaps getting as far as Seville, Cordoba and Granada. It has to be said that whenever we have a plan we tend to change it so I guess, in reality anything can happen. The one thing that is definite however is that we are booked into Camping Villasol in Benidorm on the 10th of November for 31 nights! We need our fix…….other than insanity it’s our only defence!

We left Insch on Sunday early afternoon and with decent weather and no real hold ups had a good journey down to Portsmouth. Although we had booked Sunningdale, the campsite we always stay at before catching the ferry, we had no plans where we were going to stop heading South to get there. As it turned out we made it as far as the Camping and Caravan Club Site at Moffat on Sunday and then pushed on to Oxford on Monday. We’re nothing if not predictable, I guess.

We arrived late(ish) in Moffat, but still managed a couple of beers in the Old Bull. We got to Oxford by 2.30 on Monday, which gave us plenty of time for a lovely walk in the sunshine down the banks of the Thames, and a quick look at the shops before catching something to eat. As ever we ended up in the Eagle and Child (known locally as the Bird and Baby) and the Lamb and Flag, favourite haunts of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis as members of the Inklings, a society whose main purpose was to promote the writing of fantasy. Apparently draft excerpts of the Lord of the Rings were some of the first pieces to be debated! We highly recommend Oxford, it’s got some really great old pubs and generally good beer. Oh and there’s always a bit of a buzz about the place and the buildings quite nice too!

Anyway we’re off to see what there is to do in the ship. We have booked dinner for 7pm but it seems a long time until then. We’ll see you on the other side.