Towards Santander

As well as the oldies we did see a nice wedding assembling outside the town hall. The bride was brought there on the handlebars of a bike by a friend. Great music was played on a super four plank glockenspiel and another guy announced her arrival with a blow on a horn.

The weather then decided to close in and we had fun dodging thunderstorms, using a rain radar app that covers Iberia and the lightning page that I frequently examine at blitzortung.org

So Saturday night was a little damp and that perhaps deterred a few revellers but it was surprising how many Spanish came to stay in their motorhomes, campers and even sleeping in their cars at the ‘aire’.

It was a great Friday / Saturday nights and on Sunday we continued the slow drive towards Santander. Yet more coffee and tapas beckoned after a steep walk down to the harbour at Elantxobe.

Later we stopped at a totally local bar/restaurant to eat the Sunday version of menu del dia which is, I think, the same as the weekday version but a little more expensive. That seems fair enough. Anyway we mixed it well with the locals and Google text translate was very handy once again.

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Potes and environs

Potes is a bustling town that’s clearly ‘in the mountains’ but isn’t quite a mountain town. Well that was what we thought until we went for a walk. More on that later. First we got to know the site ( Camping La Viorna ) and the neighbours. After the squeeze of the first night near the pool, we were upgraded to a pitch at the end of the lowest terrace which had a superb view of the eastern massive of the Picos. So although this was still a squeeze pitch, somehow we felt good about it. The ‘squeeze’ happened later in the day. ☺️ Happily our immediate neighbours were quiet Dutchland people who like to eat their tea early and retire in good time. They always enjoy taking to us Brits, rather than those Germans and soon I was engaged because I was asked a question. “Why do you have a UK flag on your number plate, rather than a Welsh Scottish or English flag?”. Tricky! I explained that England isn’t a country like Wales or Scotland. They have their own parliaments and make rules for them...

Escaping the weather

We stayed in Potes for four nights and during that time the weather was very hot, with the last two days maxima in the mid 30s. Bizarrely, last Friday night was one of the hottest, as at bedtime it was 27C and even in the middle of the night it was 25C. The forecast though, was ominous for the Picos (and worse for the UK) and so we made the best of the day by zooming up the valley to Fuente De. Here with perfect planning, we had booked the cable car for 10:30 and were whisked up in one cable catenary swoop, from 1,100m to 1,800m. It was sunny with wide views and we walked up a barren valley until we reached a steep scree-crossing path, where we turned around. Any further and it would have needed full kit and sleeping bags, as we were heading for a refugio . We got our fill of that high mountain and were back down in time to escape the mountains before the weather broke. The committee had decided that a city break to Leon was next and we had an overnight opportunity somewhere along ...

First views of the Picos

Santillana del Mar comes as a surprise to those of us that haven’t done the prep and read about this place. Fancy having planning controls going back to the 16C. when you have such amazing stone buildings. This town is a tourist town certainly but it’s thoroughly deserved. Beautiful sturdy Cotswold stone coloured buildings are everywhere. The stone quoins, lintols and supports are impressive but there’s plenty of substantial hefty cross sections of wood too. We wander the streets, looking at the wares aimed at us tourists but encounter cascades of water from the roof tiles. It’s raining and there are no gutters! The bar is welcoming and we cleverly order dos cañas de cerveza having learnt this glass size from a bartender in Tenerife. We are rewarded with a plate of crisps too and settle on the bar stools, wondering whether to eat here. Unfortunately we discuss this for too long and the tables fill and we are left on the bar stools until we decide to wander again. Inside...

Peelies travels

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