Sadly we checked out of our lovely hotel this morning. I had a final chat with Andrea who turned out to be from Venezuela and not Spain at all. We had already taken our big bags to the car yesterday so just had rucksacks and a few other bags for the ferry to take to the car. My main worry was getting the three parking tickets to work in the machine but in the event they worked perfectly and we were able to leave immediately.
Colin had the final drive in Spain and not one I particularly wanted as we had to drive back through Bilbao but then onto Santander as the timing of the return ferries meant it was Santander we’d be leaving through. The traffic increased dramatically near Bilbao as did the complexity of the navigation. We had hoped to fill up with cheap petrol but sadly despite many petrol stations in every other location we have driven through, there were none on the main roads we were driving. Todays photo shows why we’ll miss driving in Spain - a totally clear road with stunning views of the Picos de Europa to send us off.
We arrived at Santander with over two hours before boarding. It was nice to be back and it a much nicer place than Bilbao. If we ever get the ferry to Spain in the future, I’ll try and get Santander instead of Bilbao.
The customs police asked us how much money we were carrying but not whether we had a massive illegal knife from Toledo in the boot and we ‘forgot’ to mention it! We boarded far more quickly than we had on our way out from Portsmouth and after the challenge of turning off the car alarm, we made out way to our cabin for our 27 hour journey back to the UK.
The ferry - Galicia - is almost identical to the Salamanca but unfortunately the crossing was nowhere as calm and we are already on the tablets!
