Feet up in Santander

Easter Monday and we're lazing in bed in a hotel in Santander taking advantage of the free wi-fi. We're using the city to re-stock and recharge - a week of travelling has highlighted some absences in our kit which we will spend today trying to sort out. Some sort of travel blanket, for one. We've currently got nothing to sit on when camping/having lunch, etc, and the ground has been very cold and wet in some places. It's also bloody cold when you are sleeping in sleeping bags on it, so the travel rug could form a handy base layer for our tent floor.

The camping has been good so far - costs us about €12 a night and gives us a (sometimes) hot shower. So far we appear to be the only people stupid enough to be camping as it is a bit early in the season. We've been rained on a little bit, but not too badly, and it will only get warmer from now on anyways. The sites we have been staying at have been filled with the most outrageously elaborate caravans. They have annexes and little sheds with fully plumbed-in kitchens and all sorts - I've lived in shabbier flats than these little mansions on wheels. Ultimately though they are still caravans and therefore rubbish (although when seen through the mist of freezing rain from the door of a two man tent they can look strangely appealing).
Dinner in Santono on our first night camping. Notice complete absence of other tents because this is right on the beach front and it was ridiculously cold. Menu: starter - fresh bread, olives, cheese; main - noodles with olives, bread; dessert - mini oreos, coffee. There are some more Santono pictures on Flickr - just for a change we got lost when we arrived and couldn't find the tourist office, which the pic on Flickr will confirm is the size of a palace and which we had ridden past about five times. With a beach on one side and a small fishing port on the other, I found it a much nicer spot than Laredo. Quieter and with little of note to see but very attractive and welcoming nonetheless. The tourist office recommended we walk through this impressive tunnel bored through a mountain to see the ocean lookout at the other end - which turned out to be a really crap view of the ocean and far less impressive than the tunnel itself. I choose to believe it was formerly a smugglers' tunnel or something because the thought of all that effort expended for that view is a bit depressing. Maybe they should just promote the tunnel as the attraction.

From there it was on to Loredo (not to be confused with Laredo) via Somo. Prime cycling weather - the evil tanning effect begins already (not on Grrr, obviously, who is impervious to sun, deflecting it with suncream and his special white tan-repello skin) - there were hills but only one difficult climb (about 3km) and we broke the 50kph barrier coming down the other side (you have to keep the speed down a bit with the panniers unfortunately).

Bosch factory at Colindres on the road to Somo - see Dad, you could make it a business trip!

Lunch stop on the road to Somo.

Somo was a dump so we ended up staying in Loredo, which was a tiny village next door. We walked into the village to have a beer and watch the football. Locals seemed fascinated by our latest exciting game, Translate the menu!, where we sit there with the dictionary working out what the food is. We're getting better on the food front, although I still struggle with the notion that a 'vegetal' sandwich is quite likely to contain ham or turkey. In fact, everything is quite likely to contain ham in some form or another. I tried some rabas (squid) which is a local speciality which was delicious, and we're building a vocab of food words that should mean we don't starve. We prepare our own food when we're camping anyway, and the local fruit, veg, cheese, bread, olives, etc, are all really cheap and lovely.

Easter bunny failed to materialise, which was a bit disappointing. Lots of Easter going on in Spain but it seems to be focused more on the cross, nails, death and resurrection, vestments and marching aspects than the chocolate bits. Unfortunately.

Easter procession in Santander - note presence of vestments and religious symbols but disappointing absence of chocolate bunnies.

Grrr is currently watching Bob the Builder in Spanish so it is probably time to get up and get moving. We're taking the bikes out without panniers on today which will absolutely rock. They weigh a tonne fully packed and handle so much differently, so I'm really looking forward to riding a normal bike again. We'll stay here again tonight and treat ourselves to a nice dinner of fresh local seafood. I like Santander a lot more than Bilbao - seems more like a proper working city and we're planning to take a little boat ride around the bahia today (it only costs about €5). First of all - hi ho, hi ho, provisioning we go.