18th July 2017

Jul 182017
 

Our final day at the Monte Holiday site. It was the usual bright sunny day and as we needed a few supplies we headed off to the local Carrefour Express which was near junction 67 on the A1 according to the map provided by the campsite. We headed south along the A1 from junction 69 came to junction 68 passed it and then the next sign was junction 66 so needless to say we took it and we headed into Lozoyuela and found the Carrefour.

After buying our provisions we had a coffee in a local bar and then spotted the ubiquitous Chinese shop. We popped in there and bought a fly swat as there were quite a few around the campsite and some of which came inside. We headed back to the campsite and for lunch we took advantage of the campsite buffet menu del dia which was very good and reasonably priced.

We spent the afternoon reading and started to pack up for our trip to our final campsite of this holiday tomorrow. The wifi was so bad I could not get this article posted until today.

17th July 2017

Jul 172017
 

The day started a bit grey and Ingrid and the washing got an early cold shower when the grass irrigation sprinklers turned on. It soon brightened up to a clear blue sky. We decided to explore a couple of the local villages and to visit a lake shown on the local map. We drove down a narrow campo road to reach the lake and then partially circumnavigated it until we found a parking area. We walked down to the lake shore and took some photos; the panoramic view was incredible and there were mountains on the far side of the lake.

Embalse de Pinilla

We continued along the M-604 and explored the village of Rascafria but it was just a normal working village with nothing much of interest except for the rough cobbled road surface right through the centre that encouraged vehicles to travel slowly. We left there and returned along the M-604 to Lozoya which was a much prettier village where we found a nice bar that did enormous boccadillos for lunch. Ingrid couldn’t finish hers as it was so big. We stopped off at the petrol station on our way back to the campsite and filled up.

Once back at the campsite we settled in the cool air-conditioned interior of the caravan for a bit. I then went for a swim in the large campsite pool, not too cold and it was a refreshing first swim of the holiday. The settled down with a beer before dinner. A long power cut meant that this was initially typed in Word before being copied here.

16th July 2017

Jul 162017
 

A bright, hot sunny day. Lots of other residents started leaving from 10am onwards and soon our end of the campsite was like a ghost town. I took the chance to go up to reception and ask to move as there were lots of plots free and to move closer to the wash rooms and the reception area to get a chance of WI-FI reception. The women in reception were really helpful and moved us and did a deal on the price of the new pitch as it was larger than the one we had before.

We packed everything away roughly in the car and the caravan and an hour later we were all set up on our new plot which is larger and has better views. It is much closer to the wash rooms but the wifi coverage is intermittent but better than no coverage.

I went and sat in the picnic area just below the restaurant in the shade of some trees and managed to watch the Grand Prix from lap 7 to the end so I missed the start and the safety car unfortunately. Ingrid did some more washing and managed to finish a book that Sue had given her and she has started on another.

Chicken on the BBQ for dinner tonight and tomorrow we will explore the area. A British motorhome arrived this afternoon and parked opposite us but they are only here for the night as they are catching the ferry from Santander tomorrow.

15th July 2017

Jul 152017
 

We were up early and found the car and caravan covered in dew as it was cold overnight. We packed up and then following advice from neighbours who had been on site for 7 weeks I drove the caravan out of the pitch along the gravel road and down the hump to the main road using the mover rather than it hitched to the caravan. Even doing it this way I had less than 2 inches of ground clearance and the front end of the caravan came up at one stage. I parked the caravan on the hill and reversed the car onto it and we drove out of Caravanning Oyambe at 9.15am.

We followed the re-programmed sat nav and joined the A8 motorway without issue. We continued towards Santander and then turned off onto the A67 south in the direction of Valladolid. This section of the route had lots of viaduct bridges and tunnels. We then turned off onto the A231 towards Burgos. Google maps had suggested turning off the A67 much early and going to Burgos on the A74, that route would probably have been shorter but we decided to trust the Garmin. However, the last 30kms or so of the A67 were decidedly uncomfortable with the road surface heavily rippled and caused us to slow down. Maybe we should have followed the Google maps route.

We stopped for coffee and to refuel on the A231 for about half an hour, just after we left the coffee stop we saw a flock of 20-30 birds of prey hovering over one spot alongside the motorway. There were also large fields of sunflowers along this section of the route along with an incredible gold painted bridge followed by a silver painted on. We followed the ring road around Burgos and joined the E5/A1 heading south towards Madrid. This section of the A1 was very undulating with some very steep climbs, at one stage we were down to 60kph as the climb was that steep. Looking later we had reached over 1500 meters. We stopped at a motorway service area for lunch for about 30 minutes or so and noticed the increase in temperature it was now 28 degrees having left Oyambe at 16 degrees.

After lunch, we re-joined the E5/A1 and continued south and turned off onto the M604 towards the campsite. Following the signs and the sat nav we turned off onto a campo road that was poorly maintained and crept up the hill towards the campsite arriving at 3.15pm and 33 degrees. We checked in after the receptionist eventually found us in their reservation system and it looks like we had the last grass pitch, which are the large ones, available. I think that we are the only Brits on the site, all the other occupants seem to be Spanish. The site itself is on the borders of a national park and is some 1100 meters above sea level.. The receptionist said that they were full but the site would quieten down tomorrow evening when the weekend visitors returned home. We may look to move pitches as we are so far from reception there is no Wi-Fi coverage here.

We are a long walk from the only toilet block that is quite small so hopefully we won’t need to queue. We went for a pre-dinner drink on the terrace outside the restaurant and admired the views and the cooling spray from the mister all around the terrace area, it certainly needed it. We reserved a table for dinner and both had an excellent meal but it wasn’t as cheap as we are used to but as it was so good we didn’t mind.

14th July 2017

Jul 142017
 

Turned the laptop on this morning and initially all was well but as it warmed up a couple of problems developed every time I pressed the space bar an = sign and a space appeared and every time I pressed the delete key it deleted and also increased the volume. Looks like if cleaning when I get home and take it apart doesn’t work then it will be a new keyboard.

We headed into San Vicente to pop into the Chinese shop for a new external keyboard and a couple of other bits. We then followed the signs for Mercadona supermarket but they suddenly disappeared and we could not find it. We drove west out of San Vicente towards Oviedo and then took a road to the north to one of the villages and had a picturesque drive back along the coast to San Vicente.

We then headed to Comillas to find a restaurant for lunch. We eventually found a car park with some space in Comillas and then we found the reason for the full car parks, it was market day. AS it was late by this time the market was starting to close down so we didn’t bother to do any shopping. We found an excellent restaurant in one of the squares that had a €14 menu del dia. We got tapas ‘on the house’ as an appetiser and then our first course arrived, it was huge, we were full by the time we had finished. Luckily, unlike a lot of restaurants, they were not in a rush to bring our main course and when it turned up it was equally large. We took our time eating it but still couldn’t clear the plates much to the waiters concern. We couldn’t fit in any postres and so we just had coffee.

We had a slow walk back to the car to walk off the excess food. We drove to the supermarket and bought a few provisions so we don’t have to worry over the weekend. We then drove back to the campsite. Unfortunately, the bluetooth Mac compatible keyboard that I bought would not connect to my laptop so it was back in the car to San Vicente and I changed it for a wired one that I am now using.

Back to the campsite and it is now time to pay and then start packing up ready to leave first thing in the morning.

13th July 2017

Jul 132017
 

As it was a dry grey day yet again Mrs Wishy Washy decided that she would do some more washing and that we would have a lazy day reading and taking it easy.

This we did and I finished yet another book unfortunately in the afternoon two glasses of white wine made friends with my Mac laptop. I turned it off quickly and shook the wine out and allowed it to dry with kitchen towel soaking up the excess. Hopefully there will be no lasting damage and this is also the reason for the late posting of this entry.

More in tomorrows blog.

12th July 2017

Jul 122017
 

Another grey day at 20 degrees. On recommendation from our neighbours at the campsite we decided to visit the artisan village of Barcena Major about 45km away up in the mountains. We drove through Comillas and then under the A8 motorway and made our way inland through picturesque scenery up a winding valley with sheep cows and horses in the fields. We passed through several small villages all with traffic lights and 50kph speed limits.

When we arrived in Barcena Major we found that you could not drive into the village but there was a very large free public car park a short distance from the village. We walked into the village and explored the sandstone cobbled streets, it reminded us of a prettier Albarracin. Some of the houses were very old and typical of the area with space downstairs for the animals and living accommodation upstairs. The walls were made from thick wooden vertical and horizontal beams with sandstone filling the gaps between the vertical beams.

There was a stream running through the edge of the village. We stopped and spoke to an elderly Spanish man who was making walking sticks, he explained, in Spanish, how he bent the handle around some pegs and a heated metal former when the wood was green and once it had dried the curve was maintained.

We found an excellent restaurant for lunch and had a great menu del dia for €15 a head. After coffee we walked back through the village to the car and the temperature dropped and it rained as we drove down the valley but the rain stopped the closer we got to the coast and it was just grey. We certainly had the best of the weather inland.

11th July 2017

Jul 112017
 

A nice bright day today and so a good day to chill. Mrs Mop did some washing and so I rigged up a washing line. We discussed our sat nav issues with a couple of other people and found that they had similar issues on occasion. Ingrid then spoke to someone else who recommended a different make of sat nav and so we took a look online to check them out and they certainly look better than the Garmin Camper 760. Ingrid then had a brainwave ‘what about increasing the size of our car and caravan in the sat nav settings?’. I gave it a try and input yesterdays route and it showed the route we actually took rather than the one it wanted us to take, so it may be a brilliant idea, we will see when we leave here.

We have several new neighbours as there have been lots of comings and goings.

We have decided on our last two stops on our way back home and have booked those today. Two more ACSI sites so hope they are better than the one in San Sebastian.

10th July 2017

Jul 102017
 

Another grey day on the northern coast of Spain :(. As my power supply on my Mac laptop had failed I had to get a new one. I rang the Apple franchise in Santander and they had one in stock. So we left the campsite at 10am heading for Santander following the sat nav, unfortunately it still seems to like little one track roads so we ignored its directions for the first part of the journey and made our way onto the A8 motorway our own way. It made another little hiccup near the ferry terminal in Santander and led us to the entrance to the terminal where we had been before. Then it took us back on route right into the centre of Santander to the junction where the shop was located. The challenge now was to find somewhere to park. All the blue boxes were taken and we drove around some little side streets and then out onto the main coast road near the cathedral where we found an underground car park.

After parking we crossed the road and had an expensive coffee con leche (€1.80 each!) and then used Google maps on my phone to take us to the shop. They had the power supply waiting for me with my name on it. The price wasn’t great though, €89, but it is a genuine Apple one. Ingrid did some shopping and picked up another hand towel for the caravan in Zara Home and as they had a sale on she saved €1.

We made our way back to the car and then out of Santander and stopped at a petrol station near the port and filled up at 94.6c a litre which was even cheaper than before. We headed for Cartes to the caravan shop to pick up a 12v adapter and took the chance to look around a couple of motorhomes. We then went back to the large Carrefour hypermarket in Torrelavega and had a boccadillo for lunch and then did some food shopping. As we left it started to rain quite heavily but it stopped again soon after we joined the motorway. Off at junction 258 and again the sat nav led us through a small village instead of sticking to the main road but we were back at the campsite by 3.15pm.

Coffee and afternoon tea with some small fresh Danish pastries from Carrefour and then some reading finished the day off nicely. Eating at the campsite restaurant again today as it was so good on Saturday.

9th July 2017

Jul 092017
 

The morning was grey and overcast and so we decided to do some bits around the caravan. It was looking a bit grubby after the trip yesterday with the rain and the muck on the motorway. It looks a bit cleaner that when we arrived.

We decided to explore the area and have some lunch out. After exploring the area between the campsite and San Vicente de la Barquera on the way down the coast we found that the sat nav had certainly taken us a long way round. We drove over the bridge and into the town and parked in an underground car park. We had a walk around the town that was very busy with restaurants and some shops were open. We bought some nice pastries in a patisserie and a few bits in a Chinese shop and then found a restaurant and had a nice reasonably priced lunch. We then drove a much quicker way back to the campsite and that is certainly the route we should have used yesterday.

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