Tues 10th Apr - Sea to Home via Portsmouth

It was a wind down on the boat day involving unusually moderate food consumption and a lot of sitting around. The journey back up to epsom was spent speeding up and slowing down strategically to avoid the rain (successfully) and we arrived back to find traces of snow or hail all over the garden and a torrent in the place of the normally bone dry stream bed. Which is all good as it means the weather had been a bit pants here too. Yay!
We agreed that spain was great and that a return visit is definitely on the cards, maybe flying in for a sneaky weekend of ham and rioja sometime soon :-)

Mon 9th Oviedo - Santander & the Sea via the Picos de Europa

We woke up at 7 ready for a prompt 8 am getaway to a) make the most of the sun and b) get to santander on time, but it was pitch dark and overcast. We had a brief further nest then got up and P discovered that he had now eaten so much ham that his wee smelt of it..mmm! We headed straight off to xxx via the autopista to make up some miles in the hope that we would be able to spend some time in the mountains before our scheduled departure at 3.15.
Happily the sun started to wear holes in the layer of gloom just as we reached the mountains and an hour later the sky was blue and it had turned into a beautiful day. We had a wonderful time skittering round the bendy mountain roads and through gorges, enjoying the investments made by the spanish government in their road surfaces and watching a new view unfold as we rounded each corner. Everywhere we looked were snow capped peaks, juicy grass and yellow flowers, colourful houses and cheerful big-eyed anchor cows.
Miraculously following our ghost town experiences of a few days ago the villages had come back to life and some were looking veritably perky. A few of them were offering all kinds of exciting and adventurous activities like kayaking and it seemed a shame to be going home so soon without trying at least some of them.
We arrived at santander in good time, filled up the bike in case of fuel strikes back home and boarded. Over a chilled (but compared to the last week very overpriced) white wine, we watched the ship push itself off the dock and a little spanish boat pilot sneak in via a route ladder and a little door to help us out of the harbour. We sat by the windows in the lounge for a while and started to see the odd dolphin. Then there were 3 or 4 different pods all cruising along right by the ship and jumping right out of the water. Maybe our next holiday needs to feature some dolphins.
We had the tasty and extravagant buffet dinner again, this time with a much improved main (lamb), and  lots of vegetables.

Sun 8th Apr - Santiago to Oviedo - Easter day

We woke up in our (deserted) shopping centre to a blue sunny sky as promised in the weather forecast HURRAY! Happy Easter! We had a quick breakfast to get us set up for the day and set off, looking forward to driving in sunshine.
We drove to Lugo on the motorway first to get us into the mountains, then moved onto little yellow and green stripy roads and things really started to perk up. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was beautiful, spring seemed to have sprung overnight and the spanish government had clearly prioritised the building of numerous excellent roads in the middle of nowhere. We went over mountain passes and along lush valleys, saw wind farms, burnt hillsides and whole mountainsides covered in giant purple-flowering heather. The soil was rich and brown (nothing like burgess hill) and big and small corners of land everywhere had been ploughed up ready for action.  There were already fruit trees covered in pink and white blossom, and a strange cabbage in sticks crop. Most old farmhouses had a kind of little barn on legs instead of part of the second storey, presumably to store grain, so they must grow that too (see pics)
As well as the weather being better, the availability of coffee was much improved even though out was Easter Sunday. We stopped in a couple of cafes, had drinks and of course snackettes. P was engaged in a friendly man conversation (Madrid? Barcelona? No? Moto GP? Pedrosa? Si si etc) and at another cafe lots of bikers eyed up each other's equipment.
We toyed with the idea of getting all the way into the picos ready for an early start, but we had been on the go for over 6 hours and had achy bottoms so decided to stop in Oviedo. We cruised round for a bit, then ended up staying in the quite posh 4* 'tryp' hotel for a bargain 60€. P drove down to floor -3 looking for the hotel's parking places, but it turned out that they owned then all, just that the hotel was pretty much deserted.
Oviedo is helpfully designed with a Wine Street and a Cider Street. We started with the wine which was near the hotel (and somehow familiar territory). We had yet more snacks, which brings the grand total of actual meals purchased in Spain to 1. In the interests of cultural research we moved on to Cider Street (the Asturia region is famous for its siderias) but didn't like it that much. The pouring style was impressive though - they pour from a great height into your glass without looking (see pic).
Then we had had enough and after a brief map reading crisis went back to the marie celeste for a good night's sleep, ready to make an early start on our last day.

Sat 7th Apr - Leon to Santiago

An unpromising weather forecast this morning led us to decide to head away from leon, either south to salamanca or across to santiago de compostella. We decided to go for Santiago because the journey would be more interesting (more green bendy bits on the map). To begin with it threatened to rain and we had our breakfast (2.50€ for coffee, a small juice and a choice of snackettes of which only the half sandwich with cheese/ham was available) in a hurry before setting off. (One of the other alternatives was pueda which I looked up and found meant flea...nice)
In fact in the end, although it wasn't nice all the time, it didn't rain OR snow on us and occasionally a beam our two of sun squeezed through to try to perk the whole business up. We stopped twice on the way, at pontferrara and orense, once for coffee and once for a chocolate caliente (hot choc) which they didn't have but did have colacao which turned out to be hot chocolate. According to P, chocolate caliente is actually melted chocolate. How can nobody have told me that til now?! Now waiting for another opportunity to try it.
Although the journey was pretty epic (we started wondering half way there how we were going to get back for the ferry) it was an interesting ride. Partly really good bendy twisty roads which were the first of the trip in the dry, and we passed through all kinds of areas. Lots of small towns and villages filled with a mixture of old crumbling buildings, old but still lived in homes with rickety wooden balconies and tiny doors, new builds in interesting colours, done very grand, and some very modern, angular ones. They were all clustered together, often with a tumble down abandoned old shack right between two others that still had people in. There was a lot of industry at some points along the way, especially hydro electric power stations where whole valleys had been flooded, and quite a few slate mines - or were they coal?...
We passed eerie moss-covered trees which we soon realised was caused by permanent low cloud, and dormant stumpy black vines clinging to the sides of the hills and all waiting to make this year's tasty wine but as we headed east it got more agricultural and also warmer. There was a constant reminder of the need for pig manure, blossom started coming out and there were some remarkable wisterias that looked like trees.
All along the way for the past 2 days we have been seeing the camino de santiago with the occasional waterproof clad pilgrim on it, on their way to santiago de compostela. Late in the afternoon we arrived there too - it's pretty big and industrial looking and not immediately obviously a holy kind of place (although with our unerring abilities we sniffed the religious bits out later). We had found a bargain hotel in the 'area central'. This turned out to be actually in a shopping centre and the view from our windows was an indoor shop scene. Weird. To get in the hotel ali did a lot of spanish and even understood the instructions for the car park.
We headed out in search of the old town, passing by a supermarket (we have hardly seen any of these, at least not any open ones) which was selling the largest ever apples. Ali ate one, the biggest intake of green this week. The old town was very old and twisty, full of tat shops (P got a bike sticker for the boxes with the nice santiago logo on it, a combination of a shell and the route plan of the pilgrimage), bars and pilgrims. We pottered about a bit, took pictures on the main square, located yet another pointy hat parade, this time depicting the dead jesus and involving the military and a superior if lead atmospheric band, then accepted our fate and went into the first bar of the evening to watch it pass by and have a wine (this time ribera del duero, not as nice as rioja) and a snackette. We went to a 1€ bar later where you could order a wide range of freshly made mini roll based snackettes for 1€ each...definitely a good model for the uk. As we headed home we passed back through the main square and enjoyed some guitar and singing music by a group of men wearing long capes with badges from all the places they had played. Then we ventured into the cathedral as the service was ending and listened to the fantastic organ playing while we looked at the staggeringly beautiful and ornate gold and silver altar. Amazing just how much time, effort and skill went into it. And a fitting end to a long pilgrimage (plus some restorative rioja and ham of course).

Fri 6th Apr - Leon

We woke to another day of rainy overcloudedness so dreary that we booked in to the suite for an extra night. Since (according to every single weather site online, the tv and locals) the whole of Spain is covered with a big squat raincloud, there didn't seem to be any point in getting soaked making a desperate escape to another (sunnier) part of the country. Apparently the weather will perk up on Sunday.
We spent the day getting wet trouser bottoms checking the town out. Most things (shops, museums) were shut for the holidays but there were a lot of people out and about. As far as we could tell they were just walking about without much purpose just for the sake of walking. Although a lot of them were still partying this morning at 7am, the bars were all heaving by late morning, as were the churches. We went into a popular tent on the square where there were crucifixion statues on their pedestals and carts ready to be carried or pulled through the streets. We visited the basilico to listen to the singing and a service was going on, but the members of the congregation kept getting up and coming and going during the service which was kind of weird. The same was going on in the praying area of the beautifully stained-glass-windowed cathedral (indicated in german as "nur für betten" lol). Religion is obviously a huge part of everyday life and culture but the approach to out today seemed a bit pick n mix.
Having been put off by some of the menus on offer in more standard establishments (see pic), we had an lunchtime snack of a kebab which contained the first veg we've had since the boat (how bad does THAT sound?!) and 3 hours before my self-imposed alcohol-free deadline had the first drink of the day. To be fair I thought I was getting lemonade. Every bar advertises that they "hay limonada", which seems an odd thing to bother promoting so I ordered one and it appears to be something like sangria. Weird. In the pic you can see the glass size - this is also what they serve beers up in which may explain how they can drink for such a long time.
After a little siesta in our vast suite (writing the blog for me, dozing for p), we ventured forth again to watch the good friday procession which pissed by right near the hotel. The crucifixion status we saw this morning were all taking part, being dragged or carried in an appropriate order to tell the sort of the events of good Friday. Many photos were taken (it looks a bit like we've been on a religious pilgrimage) and I purchased a fridge magnet of one of the pointy hatted characters.
Having frozen half to death we returned to our favourite bar from yesterday. The barman tried to get us to drink bierzo (local red wine) but we tried it and found it wanting and ordered rioja instead, which we enjoyed with our free salami and ham snackettes. We had a proper sit down meal for the first time, like tapas you get in england except they bring the dishes one by one. We had green beans (with ham of course), pulpo (octopus), croquettes (disappointing) and chorizo in white wine. Still not vast quantities of veg. At what point will we stop functioning on this diet? The spanish seem ok although as p pointed out they are very short.

Thurs 5th Apr - Picos de Europa to Leon

The day dawned depressingly overcast and chilly. We faffed around for ages before finally seizing the day after eating a pastry with gristly bits in and then having a restorative coffee in the hotel. We looked over the map and decided to head for leon where richard and paul had been on a previous trip, because it's relatively big so there should be things to do if we get rained out, and planned our route carefully to avoid any very high passes in the mountains that might be even colder.
The first pic is of me kitted out in my many many layers of thermals + long sleeved t shirt + hoody + fleece + bike jacket and trousers + waterproof jacket and trousers. I may look like the michelin man but wasn't planning to get caught out by bad weather, oh no not I. It started raining pretty much straight away and we got stuck in all the traffic leaving santander for the easter break too, but the rain stopped after a bit and although it was still only about 12C things weren't too unpleasant, plus on the bike we could sneak through the lanes of traffic.
We headed up into the picos de europa (mountain range to west of Santander) where there was some amazing scenery, even in the rain and low cloud. The road started climbing and it began to get colder as we went up into the mountains, and after a while cars appeared coming the other way with snow on the front and we started wondering whether some freak weather had come in and if we'd be able to get through on the bike. We were at about 600m so didn't think we had much higher to climb, and there wasn't any snow on the ground at all (although worryingly we did pass a snow plough). The road continued to climb, the temperature fell and fell and eventually we passed the snow line and some little balls of snow began to fall. We finally reached the pass at 1589m, by which time it was below freezing and there was snow covering everything apart from the road (see pic).
Although the road descended after that, the temperature got stuck at around 5C. We wanted to stop for a warming snack or a coffee, but all the villages we passed through were like ghost towns, with not a soul to be seen, and everything in darkness or shuttered up. Where was everyone?!
When we finally arrived in leon, we were cold and tired and booked in at pretty much the first hotel we came to, although it was a little bit out of our price bracket (the bike's accommodation was cheaper though). When we went up we found that we had somehow been given a suite for our double room price which suddenly made our seem much better value. I ran a hot bath and got straight in and after a period of tingling and itching was relieved to be able to feel my fingers and toes again.
The lady on reception almost laughed when we asked whether the town was going to be very quiet. Apparently no, it was going to be the biggest party of the year, lasting all night and getting very rowdy. And when we went out, clearly all the local populace had made its way to leon for a bit of semana santa madness. We began by squeezing ourselves into a succession of packed bars, drinking glasses of rioja and eating some of the tastiest ever hams and sausages (see pic). A lot of brown food as richard would say - and it's true, we haven't seen fruit or veg on offer since we left the boat.
At around 10 pm a leonese, late night version of yesterday's parade made its way through the 'wet quarter' (see 3 pics). More pointy hats, more music, more covered faces and effigies. The people in masks and hats look scary to me, but there are spanish kids in the processions and watching, and it clearly doesn't bother them at all.
In the last pic you can see how big a deal the semana santa is here - we were in a bar which was decorated in nothing but religious posters. All a bit surreal but very interesting and we rolled home contentedly to our suite.

Weds 4th Apr, Sea to Santander

Most of the day was at sea, and after a late and lazy start I did a little bit of Spanish, Paul bought some ear plugs and we pottered about unconstructively. The weather forecast for Spain was looking a bit depressing but as we arrived the cloud parted and a bit of sun peeked through encouragingly. We drove to our hotel (the nh hotel santander)...I started off in spanish but clearly wasn't worth replying to in anything other then english. Hey ho. The room is quite nice but the bike's accommodation in their subterranean garage is nearly as expensive and you have to get a new password every 30 mins to use their wifi (lobby only). Still the weather was looking ok so we went out to stretch our legs and came across preparations for some kind of religious activity so waited around and took photos. It turned out to be a surreal easter procession of people carrying effigies and playing shrill brass band tunes while wearing masks and pointy hats and looking creepily like members of the ku klux clan. They processed right though the town and after a while we left them for my first taste of el vivo de noche espagñol. That is probably not really spanish. In the first bar we had vinos and as paul predicted also got a snackette on a toothpick each (raciones em pinchitos). Once we had got into the swing of things we moved on to another bar in an undercover shopping/bar area where the raciones were more ambitious (and not free). Vino tinto gets you a rioja and vino blanco gets you a wine from rueda, and all of it is really cheap, only €1-2 euros a glass. We made the mistake of moving on again to a more modern looking bar which turned out to have rubbishy wines and bocaditos...we should have stayed put! Then time to nest and hope for good weather tomorrow, and think what on earth we will do if it's ready bad.

Tues 3rd Apr - Pont Aven

After cruising down to Emsworth for a quick cuppa with martin (a biking friend of paul's who is also a photographer) we boarded the luxury liner 'pont aven', settled ourselves in our little cabin nest and set about sampling the delights it had to offer, starting with a mojito (or 2) and ending with the lovely brittany ferries buffet dinner and an ill-advised quantity of wine. Beef was a bit disappointing but everything else excellent, and I even paid to send an international text to jo to make her and richard envious :-)