Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at Santillana del Mar (exact location: 43.38950, -4.10596)
Weather: Heavy showers amounting to a lot more wet than there has been dry.
We managed to get a run in between showers this morning. We didn't time our departure from the Aire quite so well and found ourselves using the service point in bouncing rain, resulting in us deciding we could manage without topping up the water tank.
Leaving Santander hadn't been our intention first thing this morning. With parking in our next destination limited to 24 hours, and with the weather so wet, it seemed sensible to just sit it out in Santander. It was only as I finished my run that it occurred to me that in all other places where we've added one night onto the 'max stay' the limit has been stated somewhat informally. Here it was an official road sign, with the threat of a tow truck for those breaching the restriction. It seemed highly unlikely that anyone would be monitoring the place closely at this time of year, given how empty it has been*, but it wasn't a risk we needed to take. With a stop for LPG and another for a few groceries, out of town we went.
The revised plan was that we were going to go to a brand new Aire that was vaguely on the way to Santillana, purely as somewhere to sit out the weather. It turned out not to be 'brand new' as much as 'still being put in place', and whilst we could have just parked up in the car park, it didn't appeal, so onwards to Santillana we came after all.
That didn't go entirely well either. I had been a little suspicious that the entry in the 'All the Aires' book has a photo of a sign at the entrance prohibiting parking of anything except passenger cars, but I thought there must be other signage somewhere indicated a separate area for motorhomes. There wasn't, and whilst it seemed unlikely that anyone would object to us being in an empty car park in November, we didn't want to go against proper legal road signage.
It looked for a moment like we were going to miss out on visiting this town, which comes highly recommended, but a furtle around Park4Night brought us to this car park instead, which is even closer to the town. Mick nipped out during a break in the rain to check out whether there were any prohibitive signs here and discovered them all to be covered over. Spotting the Tourist Office, he nipped in there and returned (in the rain) with news that, yes, we are allowed to stay here and that, at this time of year, it is free. Even better, no time limit was stated, so it seems that if we want to stay two nights, we can. As he also came back with a list of local walks, it's possible that we may do that.
I thought we would just be sitting around for the rest of the day, but mid-afternoon the rain stopped and the sky brightened enough to make me think it might be a decent break. We scuttled into waterproofs, grabbed the big brolly and took ourselves for a stroll around the town. It's medieval and largely unmodernised, like a number of towns we visited in France last year. In summer it is a magnet for tourists and thus it is full of restaurants and tat shops. On a cool rainy day in winter, it was almost empty. Here are a few snaps of the pebble-cobbled streets and historic buildings:
Our outing lasted just a minute or so too long, with the next sharp shower catching us just as we were on our way back to Bertie.
The streams hereabouts are all in spate (been a bit damp, you know...) and I should have taken a snap of the one that runs through a trough in the main street, which is currently overflowing with vigour, overpowering the nearby drain and flowing down a sidestreet, no doubt cutting off the scant trade that might have been interested in the cheesemonger that is advertised as being located down there.
Tomorrow is allegedly going to be better, weatherwise. Fingers crossed!
(*Last night the Aire in Santander must have been around half full, with a good multinational gathering including: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK.)
Weather: Heavy showers amounting to a lot more wet than there has been dry.
We managed to get a run in between showers this morning. We didn't time our departure from the Aire quite so well and found ourselves using the service point in bouncing rain, resulting in us deciding we could manage without topping up the water tank.
Leaving Santander hadn't been our intention first thing this morning. With parking in our next destination limited to 24 hours, and with the weather so wet, it seemed sensible to just sit it out in Santander. It was only as I finished my run that it occurred to me that in all other places where we've added one night onto the 'max stay' the limit has been stated somewhat informally. Here it was an official road sign, with the threat of a tow truck for those breaching the restriction. It seemed highly unlikely that anyone would be monitoring the place closely at this time of year, given how empty it has been*, but it wasn't a risk we needed to take. With a stop for LPG and another for a few groceries, out of town we went.
The revised plan was that we were going to go to a brand new Aire that was vaguely on the way to Santillana, purely as somewhere to sit out the weather. It turned out not to be 'brand new' as much as 'still being put in place', and whilst we could have just parked up in the car park, it didn't appeal, so onwards to Santillana we came after all.
That didn't go entirely well either. I had been a little suspicious that the entry in the 'All the Aires' book has a photo of a sign at the entrance prohibiting parking of anything except passenger cars, but I thought there must be other signage somewhere indicated a separate area for motorhomes. There wasn't, and whilst it seemed unlikely that anyone would object to us being in an empty car park in November, we didn't want to go against proper legal road signage.
It looked for a moment like we were going to miss out on visiting this town, which comes highly recommended, but a furtle around Park4Night brought us to this car park instead, which is even closer to the town. Mick nipped out during a break in the rain to check out whether there were any prohibitive signs here and discovered them all to be covered over. Spotting the Tourist Office, he nipped in there and returned (in the rain) with news that, yes, we are allowed to stay here and that, at this time of year, it is free. Even better, no time limit was stated, so it seems that if we want to stay two nights, we can. As he also came back with a list of local walks, it's possible that we may do that.
I thought we would just be sitting around for the rest of the day, but mid-afternoon the rain stopped and the sky brightened enough to make me think it might be a decent break. We scuttled into waterproofs, grabbed the big brolly and took ourselves for a stroll around the town. It's medieval and largely unmodernised, like a number of towns we visited in France last year. In summer it is a magnet for tourists and thus it is full of restaurants and tat shops. On a cool rainy day in winter, it was almost empty. Here are a few snaps of the pebble-cobbled streets and historic buildings:
Our outing lasted just a minute or so too long, with the next sharp shower catching us just as we were on our way back to Bertie.
The streams hereabouts are all in spate (been a bit damp, you know...) and I should have taken a snap of the one that runs through a trough in the main street, which is currently overflowing with vigour, overpowering the nearby drain and flowing down a sidestreet, no doubt cutting off the scant trade that might have been interested in the cheesemonger that is advertised as being located down there.
Tomorrow is allegedly going to be better, weatherwise. Fingers crossed!
(*Last night the Aire in Santander must have been around half full, with a good multinational gathering including: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK.)
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