Santander and then the harsh reality of Pompey

We were more than sad to leave the splendour of the Leon hotel. However, we had an appointment with a big Brittany Ferries ship to make and the plan was to spend the night beforehand close to the terminal in Santander. 

Driving towards the coast, we had, horror, some clouds but the snow capped mountains made up for that:

The hotel was on the seafront area of the town so we had a gentle trip to Santander and then a little urban traffic to get to the hotel Gran Victoria.  One coffee stop on the way and as it is mainly downhill and the traffic was kind, the car was rather economical:

2.5 tons of car, heavily laden with our gear and 2 bikes. We were pretty pleased with that. 

Our expectations of the hotel were not high but we were pleasantly surprised. Apart from the tight space in the underground car park, all was well and the set menu late lunch that we had was very good, copious quantities of food and it included a bottle of Cune Rioja  Not the usual cheaper stuff. You can see how close we were to the water:

An ideal place as the trip to the ferry check-in was only about 10 minutes the next morning. All went well, the ferry was on time and apart from a VERY annoying car tour lot who took over the lounge in the evening for a "prize giving" event with much squealing and yelling over each other, enjoyable.

Priority disembarkation was something we'd debated but decided to pay a little bit more for. We are so glad that we did. Third vehicle off the ferry after the usual Portsmouth delay as one of the ramps was not working properly. We were third thanks to a member of that annoying car touring trip lot who noisily started his sports car and roared off the ferry without being released by the ship's crew. How he didn't rip off  his car spoilers on the ramps at the speed he was travelling is a miracle. He went the wrong way once in the port area, roared through the customs check and seemed in rather a hurry to get somewhere, We hope he did it in one piece and with no more points on his licence.

We were still fast enough and did the short run up to the very ordinary but very cheap Premier Inn at Port Solent. For an overnight stay after a late evening ferry arrival, it was fine. Here is a borrowed pic from their website:

Yes, not quite the same architectural splendour as the Parador in Leon..... We knew we were back.

After some sleep, we walked to the nearby Costa for breakfast and had the reality shock of UK prices again. Also the realisation of what a scruffy messy country we are now - litter everywhere from the various take-away food places in the area, plenty of cigarette butts laying around and the blight of loads of broken glass too. Reality was harsh and continues to be so.

Cuidad Rodrigo and Leon

The route back to the ferry was planned as a bit of a treat. Two Parador hotels on the way to Santander, both of which were reported to have good food and be "different". The first, at Cuidad Rodrigo was certainly that, and in a good way too.

Driving there, the half-Dutch crew felt very at home when she spotted a bunch of windmills (or Molen for the Language nerds):

Not at all what you would expect heading through rural Portugal.  This one was a kind of experiment, built to lure tourists to stay in them. The area is a national park and pretty lovely anyway. Not sure it needed fake windmills to enhance it but each to their own as they say.

Back in Spain, Cuidad Rodrigo town is nothing that special, apart from the walled old town area up on the hill. The wall is still in place with tiny entrance arched gates, so narrow we had to fold in the door mirrors just in case. Then a twisty turning route to the hotel followed through almost deserted little alleyways. The hotel building is an old castle. You know it is old as it had a re-build in 1372. Luckily the Parador hotel conversion added some more mod-cons to that work:

We had a great corner room, looking over the river:

Some of the staff were a little bit stiff in their behaviour:

but the rest were ultra-friendly and helpful. The waitress at dinner time spoke less English than we do Spanish so Google translate was our friend. Glad we persevered though, it was excellent. Sadly our itinerary only allowed one night there. Again, somewhere we will happily return to.

We'd visited Leon before and liked the city. We particularly liked the look of the Parador hotel there and so we went big and treated ourselves to a couple of nights in the place. We were spoiled rotten, given an upgraded room at the front of the building, looking over the square and river:

The transformation of the interior was quite something too:

with oodles of space, lovely cloister areas to walk and sit in:

all wrapped up in this gorgeous exterior:

Yes, an impressive place to stay. We did some man-maths and rationalised the cost as very good value since car parking was free! 

In the city, things started badly. An excellent coffee shop that we'd visited on our last trip here was shut for a couple of days. Horror. So, after checking Mr Google we found another and were surprised to be offered some free Tapas to go with the two Cafe con Leche. In Leon it is customary to have some free food item given with a drink. Our favourite cafe had slices of home-made cake. This place had tapas. Oh, the coffee was really cheap too.

Luckily, on our second day, the top rated cafe was open again and we enjoyed their excellent coffee, free cake and were way happier than the miserable folks seen in this picture:

Not sure why they looked so gloomy - perhaps there was bad news on the phones that they were addicted to.  Or maybe they had just filled up their cars and were contemplating the Iran / USA / Israel war fuel prices. Whatever, we were way happier.

We'd been told to go and visit the cathedral and being obedient types, we did so:

Yet another impressive demonstration of the power and wealth the church had / has here:

The stained glass was very very old and very very beautiful indeed:

We felt suitably regal, returning to our rather lavish upgraded room for the evening and contemplated the next move, to Santander and the ferry home.

Lisbon and Cascais by train

Heading away from Lagos felt quite sad really. We'd enjoyed our time there and got into the local "groove" quite well, enjoying chatting to the many Americans that had moved in for 10 years and the local folks who tended to the many visitors. However, the wonderful 90 day Brexit limit forced us to head on, and prepare to get the ferry back.

On the way up towards Lisbon, we enjoyed seeing the storks who were busy nesting in the power transmission line pylons. This one only had a few, many were way busier:

We had booked a hotel to the west of Lisbon but on the train line into the city. We needed to cross the big toll bridge so we joined the queue to pay:

and then got promptly confused / lost in the many exits, despite the built in nav system and Google maps on the phone. We ended up going back across the bridge....  Luckily, the toll fee was small so we headed north again, carefully picked the exit and made it to the Hotel Solar Palmerios to find it was wonderfully quiet, despite being next to the main road.  The room was big if a bit tired, the staff and breakfast were excellent as was the parking. Happy to use it again. See their website link for more information.

In need of sustenance, we wandered into the nearby village, gawped at the the lovely tiled buildings:

and enjoyed great food in a newly opened restaurant. Just what was needed after the bridge escapades.

We'd purposefully booked a place close to the Cascais to Lisbon train line. Our first proper excursion was to Lisbon where we happily wandered around enjoying the views:

only to discover we were already running a "straight up" store in the city:

The local shop keepers had a great English sense of humour though:

and the city, bathed in sunlight, showed off all of the beautiful buildings and plazas to their best:

Yes, it is a beautiful place:

even if some of the sales advertising is seriously strange:

One of the iconic things about Lisbon are the trams. they have some old ones to trap the tourists:

and plenty of slightly newer ones that are the backbone of the service:

After a very happy day walking around Lisbon, we opted to head west the following day, to Cascais. We boarded the train and were amazed to find that Donald Trump (only looking a bit less orange) was sitting opposite us:

The expression gave him away although during the train trip he managed to stay awake. Cascais was lovely. Great weather, great place:

In the park, the little lake had one or two turtles that were fighting for space on the rocks to get out of the water:

They sometimes looked like a synchronised not-swimming team:

The local two legged wildlife was unimpressed:

but we found that we had yet another business enterprise here. Our cannabis empire was doing well:

The wander around the town and marina was great. Lovely buildings, lovely weather:

lovely place. We will come back sometime. Has to be done.

Lagos life

Sad as we were to leave the lovely Puerto Banus apartment, it had to be done. Our plan was to head to Portugal, with a stop on the way in  a rather lovely Hilton hotel. When we booked it, we expected a typical Doubletree standard  hotel, which is always fine. This was way better than expected, great rooms, lovely staff. If you are in the area have a look at hotel weblink and consider staying there. We wish we'd booked more than the one night.

The following day we headed over the border, after topping up with fuel that was getting ever more expensive - thank you Mr Trump. Spanish diesel was still cheaper then Portuguese though. We'd booked an apartment in Lagos for a week and were very much looking forward to exploring the area. We had visited briefly last year to meet up with another Nordhavn 47 owner who was overwintering in the marina there. As we had plenty of time to spare before the check-in, we made a little detour and stopped off at Vila Real de Santo Antonio, just over the border into Portugal.

Wandering around the town we were impressed / confused in equal measure by the sculptures dotted around the place:

This one was kind of advertising the shop behind:

We needed a coffee stop and when in Portugal, you have to go native:

The first of many to come we hoped. 

It was a good stop off, sunny as you can see and we walked around the main square and town area, soaking up the Sunday vibe from the locals and what seemed to be way too many UK visitors as well. There is one huge unappealing motorhome site (basically a gravel car park) that was full to the brim. Popular place to overwinter it seems.

Arriving at the apartment in Lagos was a pleasant surprise. Very comfortable place, excellent car park underneath it, well kitted out too. A short walk from the marina and town centre, comfortable and apart from a chilly kitchen, very cosy. We plan to use it again in future.

The bikes were busy once more, taking us to a lovely beach on the west side of the town:

with some beach art too:

On the way back we stumbled upon a rather special café come bistro kind of place. We cycled to it because it had an excellent on-line set of reviews and they were so right.  A nice outside seating area:

excellent brunch type food (the shakshuka eggs were outstanding), friendly service and good coffee too. Have a look at this Sunrays kitchen weblink to get an idea of what is on offer.  The crew looked suitably happy:

We forced ourselves to another visit later in the week under the mistaken belief that the cycle ride there and back would burn off any calories consumed. 

On Sunday in the town centre we bumped into one of those odd religious processions that seems to feature not only the clergy but local scout / guide equivalents, some strange effigies and any other local group that wants to be represented:

Carrying of the cross was well depicted:

and the town turned out en-masse as per this little video clip:

Bike trips to the east were along a mix of gravel tracks:

and rather nice pathways through the local golf course although avoiding the buggies driven by homicidal golfers was tricky:

By foot, the walk in to town was via the marina:

We liked the town centre and harbour area, spoiled only by the number of stalls advertising tourist boat trips and similar. Still lovely though:

In the spotlessly tidy town centre were a few odd statues once more:

and the regulation sports equipment shop majoring on Cristiano Ronaldo. They are ubiquitous. No idea what they will do when he retires. We happily walked, cycled, ate and drank our way around the area. Loved it and some of the people we chatted to as well. the area seemed to have become a haven for Americans who wanted to take advantage of 10 years in a low tax environment. If we could, we might be tempted too. Brexit prevents that. Great place to live.

"Scum in the sun" - we were allowed into Puerto Banus again

After the serious culture and massive history of Cordoba, we did a strange swap and headed to the money and lifestyle focussed Puerto Banus. We were so fortunate, being able to borrow an apartment there once again that is owned by very kind folks we know from Hythe marina.

Our motorway stop enroute was wildly expensive as you can see:

The total bill being slightly less than that for one flat white from Costa at an M4 service area. 

We happily arrived at the rather lovely apartment after a little discussion with the concierge as someone had used the parking space allocated to our friends. Explaining it to a guy who spoke marginally more English than we speak Spanish was fun, but he offered us another spot in the underground garage. That probably caused other knock on issues during our week there but we were happy.

Wine and nibbles on the balcony celebrated our arrival:

The area just smells of and flaunts money. We mentioned last year how the cars around the marina area were a proper mix of luxury limos and supercars, some with tasteless colour schemes too. Hence the title of this post - we felt like proper "Scum in the sun". For those of you who never watched the Rab C Nesbitt  TV series, we can only say that you've missed out. The first episodes were back in 1990 so getting old now like us, but having lived in Scotland for a while, we found them very amusing.  Scum in the sun - have a look at this video clip link. For non-native English speakers, good luck with the accent and special vocabulary. For the Captain's Bavarian friends - this probably sounds as strange to you as Bayerisch did to me.

Thanks to the orange gentleman's decision to attack Iran, crude oil prices went bananas overnight. We were amazed to see that Spanish fuel prices went up even faster than in the UK.  Overnight, from around 1.28 to 1.58 Euro for diesel, quite a % hike. Naturally the filling stations in Puerto Banus were a tad more expensive than in other areas. 

We'd taken our folding bikes with us and the waterfront paths were the ideal place to use them. They got plenty of use during our week there. We'd never braved Marbella before, thinking that it was a bit like the truly grim Benidorm. However, the owners of the apartment had told us that the old town was well worth a visit, so we did:

Quite a floral display, we did wonder how they watered the plants at the top of the wall.

The old town had a fair smattering of lovely old buildings and lanes, with some rather ornate entrance doors too:

The niche thing  was interesting too:

and here is the actual niche, high up on the building:

When not out on the bikes or walking, we were very happy to use one of the two terraces at the apartment and just enjoy the peace and quiet and the rather good garden view:

Heading to the west from Puerto Banus the bikes took us to the next town along where we sat outside a rather alternative coffee shop:

Roasted does great coffee, and charges well for it too. During the week we sat outside and enjoyed their wares. Sunday was a very different experience. The place was crammed with bright young things, who occupied themselves dancing, being half dressed and making lots of noisy chatter. It really was a "how can I show you that I am better than you / prettier than you / hotter than you" gathering. 

Luckily, being old and wrinkly we were just ignored. The clientele seemed not to be buying coffee, just filling the place up and preening themselves so how profitable the weekend opening is for Roasted is up for debate.

Our week in Puerto Banus was just great. We got some exercise, visited some new places and chilled. Perfect.