18th May 2014

 18th May 2014

Up early this morning he left home at 8.15 called in Princess Drive Weigh bridge to check the axle weights before heading out through Stratford and Evesham to join the M5 at Tewkesbury had a steady drive down the M5 to Plymouth no real traffic problems except for the occasional roadworks where we were limited to 50 mph, arrived in Plymouth  at 1:15 had quite a long wait to board the ferry one of the first to arrive and the last to board! At  present  sailing into the Bay of Biscay  and the sea is flat calm and we seem to be making good progress. Our cabin not quite as good as a Commodore class but is adequate.  We might have a problem with getting a table in the restaurant apparently a number of 50+ parties have already booked which means that we're on a reserved list so we will wait-and-see. Had a couple of drinks in the bar  where there was a quiz taking place and we could've done with Ray to help answer some of  the  sport questions!

We went into the bar at 9 o'clock as arranged , we did have to wait about half an hour for a table, it was worth the wait and had a very nice meal Janet had had lamb and I had salmon with the obligatory bottle of wine we celebrated in style and afterwards  went down  to the bar for the evening’s entertainment , a rather mediocre magician/comic and an even more mediocre singer who was a supporting singer for Jane McDonald (says it all) . Stayed in the  bar until about 130 in the morning drinking and dancing , Met an ex-pat  who lives near Marbella for part of the year who invited  us out if we were in the area and would show us the local clubs.

Monday, 19 May 2014       We had a very good nights sleep on board the sea was really calm and the sound of the engine was quite soporific . We woke about 8 o'clock and went  for breakfast.  Had a little bit of a problem negotiating Santander to get out into the countryside, once we reset the satnav and changed the settings  we headed for a place called Parque de Carbarceno  which is a Zoo/Safari Park and has a motorhome Aire right next to a lake with variety of other motor homes already there. Weather is mixture of cloud and sunshine about 17 degrees. Walked into.the local village where only one small bar was open so no possibility of an evening meal but had a nice  cup of coffee in the sunshine and returned to the motorhome for the  evening 

Tuesday 20th May     We had  good nights sleep and awoke to find a somewhat overcast morning so decided not to visit the Safari Park as we had previously planned and Ken was frightened being attacked by  Lions ( apparently water buffalo can be quite aggressive if provoked), despite the assertions of the staff that it would be safe to ride round the park on a motorbike we were not convinced. As we left we did stop to take some photos of the elephants from a safe distance as they were in an area  close to the perimeter fence.

We picked up the A-67 Motorway heading south, filled up with fuel at Reinosa and  continued down to Palencia municipal aire on the south side of the city, which was well set up for Motorhomes and only 2 minutes walk into the centre. Spent the afternoon touring the sights, the highlight being the Cathedral. Found a nice Tapas bar of the Calle Mayor called Candilles

Wednesday 21st May

Rained very heavily overnight, kept us awake. The weather does not seem to be improving. It is now very windy with long bursts of rain, not ideal conditions for travel. We will sit down with the maps and guides to make some plans. We have made the odd foray into town during brief lulls in the weather. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Thursday 22nd May

Another night of wind and rain, but I think we will have to make a move today. Plan is to visit Segovia. As we arrived we followed a Spanish motorhome into the centre and as expected he knew of a parking area large enough for motorhomes. Unfortunately the car park was already full and we followed him into the coach parking area where we parked together on the edge of the area hoping to be out of the way. Fortunately we left our phone number with the Spanish driver whilst we went into Segovia. We had only been gone for 15 minutes or so when he phoned to say the police had arrived and asked us both to move! in the absence of anywhere else large enough for our vehicle we sadly left Segovia without seeing anything except from a distance!

Headed to Salamanca and stopped for a break at a service station on the A50 motorway which unexpectedly has fantastic facilities for motorhomes so we plan to park here overnight. As it also boasts wifi we are now able to post the blog so far!