We are now in Gretna Green on the road to Tain to visit Helen’s Mum & Dad for a week. The journey home, stopping in Santander, was good although we got less sleep on the ferry than on the outward crossing. The highway from Salamanca was excellent, mainly on dual carriageway passing through farmland and the Picos mountains. We found a pleasant campsite close to Santander called “Camping Virgen del Mar” that was close to a hermitage of the same name on a small island just off the coast accessible by a footbridge. There was only three units on the campsite which was well situated, and with lots of sunshine we managed to cycle to the city using backroads and then alongside the sandy beaches on a cycleway to the port and city for lunch.
All is well at home with daffodils in bloom and the garden looking very spring-like; I’ve even had to mow the lawn. We did loose some plants in the greenhouse because of the cold weather whilst we were away but fushias and many geraniums survived, even the “Floral Cascade” cuttings I took just before leaving.
We had 10 players for the U3A Mah Jong session on Monday afternoon which proved pretty testing because of the speed which we play and I managed to forget some of the special hands that Helen and I had been practising. Now we have some more “hands” to remember, including one that looks impossible called “misery”…I think it might be a miserable business trying to collect it and I won’t be trying that one for a while!!
The photos are of the Santander beaches, the hermitage at Virgen del Mar and some statues in Santander alongside the quay and cycle path.