Peelies travels

It’s hard not to think about cost comparisons and to wonder how they can be so different across our two countries. On the face of it UK - Spain we are the same. It appears that we have the same standard of living. The cars people drive and the clothes they wear look the same here as at home. Yet prices are lower. The Camping Gaz 907 cylinder was barely €20 whereas in the UK they are now £40.  A bottle of lager, served in a glass at a bar, is €1.20, coffee served at café are <€2. We have been buying diesel at €1.69 although that is after a government discount of 25c.  How does this happen? Supply and demand? Labour rates? Other costs of doing business? Tax rates? I wonder what the net margins are.  Maybe if I’d studied Economics I would be better prepared and able to answer. We left the lovely riverside position with the Geese Man and drove towards Salamanca. Now the scenery becomes flat, arable and almost monotonous. Rapeseed is well in flower and what will be cornfiel...

The village with the garage that fixed the leak is only a few miles south of Santander in a deep valley. Once back on the road, we had a great drive into the hills to the south. As soon as possible we turned off the main road and meandered along a river valley and then turned steeply up, out of the trees and into proper hill country. In spite of a late Spring, the verges and leaves lower down are almost ‘out’ but up here the trees are bare. There are field barns everywhere with really heavy stone skates on them. It’s all ‘hill farming’ that looks small scale. When you stop, the air is full of the sound of bells. The animals are unseen though.  Some people wave but most stand and look. I think I would too. A mobile shop was open at a stop near a few houses and a group of oldies were chatting. We drove higher and then up a small road to get a view with our lunch. From here you can see snow to the north east. This isn’t the Pyrenees, just the mountains behind Santander/ Bilbao. A litt...

Someone called across from the other line as we were queuing to go through ‘passports’ on arrival at Santander. “Those blue and yellow ribbons are really effective up on your roof”. I had to think for a moment. What was she referring to? Then I realised she could see the ratchet straps holding the waste tank onto the rack. That reminded us that the war in Ukraine goes on and that all is not well in the world, even as we begin another trip.    Santander is one of those places where instead of driving through, one should stay and enjoy the place. It looks especially nice in the sun but we had a plan, of sorts and drove on! We arrived at a village previously discovered by the Head of Stopovers and drove to their new aire by the river. Here you can gain access through the barrier and connect to the electricity supply, as long as you can understand the plentiful instructions on the informacion board. The English ones didn’t present much of a problem and so we paid €7 to be able to ...

The first leg on our third tour of Spain would be home to Plymouth on 24th April for a 16:45 sailing on the 20 hour crossing to Santander. All went well save for a continued annoying leak of power steering oil from a previously replaced O ring. We made good time sitting at 65mph without the overdrive fitted, as it still needs to be rebuilt. The first stop was at Gloucester services which was developed by the Tebay people and so is completely different to all other services except Tebay. It’s like walking into an artisan market with crusty breads and pastries in front of the main doorway. We bought live yogurts for later. Just before reaching Plymouth we stopped for picnic lunch at a parking spot in a village school sports field. At the Brittany Ferries terminal we already felt ‘late’ even though we were early. It’s amazing to see the varied vehicles and people all ‘off to Spain’. There was a small group travelling in Aston Martin DBs, a new Defender (Pretender) towing a nice RIB on a t...