28. Oct, 2021

THURSDAY 28-10-21

All things considered that was a fairly peaceful night. I think we spent most of it on our own the Picnic Area.

We were up in good time and scrubbed up, though we skipped a shower to save the water. Before leaving, yet another bush was fed and watered.

We were only about eighty miles from our destination of Castro Urdiales and the journey was quite straightforward though we did encounter an awful lot of  HGV's as we got nearer Bilbao. The nastiest surprise of all was in having to pay thirty-three Euros toll fees. I do hope that one day our hopeless politicians can find a way of charging EU members for using our lousy overcrowded roadworks-ridden motorways as payback.

We arrived in town intending to park at the Bullring but there were no vacant spaces, so it was on to  the car park next to the cemetery (GPS: N43.392801 W3.226322). I'd spotted a decent parking space which we moved in to after lunch.

So a bit about Castro Urdiales:

Castro Urdiales is a modern town, built around a picturesque harbour. Above the port, on a high promontory, stands the pinkish Gothic Inglesia de Santa Maria, as big as a cathedral. Beside it the restored castle, said to have been built by the Knights Templar, has been converted in to a lighthouse.

Its chief industries are tourism, fishing, and the preservation of fish, especially sardines and anchovies, in oil. The Lolin and La Castreña anchovy canning factories serve as a reminder of the town's closeness to this industry and its proximity to the sea.

After lunch we went for a walk along the cliffs and on to the town's promenade. The weather was lovely, much nicer than we had expected for this time of the year. It's such a pity that we didn't get to enjoy weather like this when we first arrived here two months ago.

After checking out the beach area we turned around and made our way back to the start of our walk and then took a stroll along the cliff top in the opposite direction.

Back at 'base camp' we got the chairs out and enjoyed soaking up a bit of warm sunshine, the last we'll see until next summer back at home.

Across the road this afternoon there was a bit of activity as a small building next to the cemetery got set up to start Covid testing, and soon quite a few cars joined a queue for a swabbing. I guess they tested about fifty cars before it all ground to a halt as did the staff who spent the next few hours sunning themselves before going home.

This evening we were blessed with the boiler unexpectedly packing up again. We have the red flashing warning light, why I have no idea. Thank God we're going home. Incidentally after waiting a full twelve days I did receive a reply to my email to 'Truma Customer Support' or some such fancy title, telling me that I should contact a Truma agent in Spain to sort out my problem. Priceless, as was my subsequent reply to them.

Last night I filled in my Passenger Locator Form online and have saved it ready to send, and this evening we shall do The Chef's in draft form. This morning I received an email reply from Brittany Ferries informing me that we didn't need a hard copy of the form to have inspected on arrival at the port, which is not what their email said, but I really can't be arsed to do battle with these people. Just so long as we get on that ferry and get home I don't care.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a cloudy and possibly wet day, so we'll spend it walking in to town and around to the harbour area. In the meantime we now have to be careful about keeping the vehicle as warm as possible as we now have no heating, and the past couple of nights have dropped to about three degrees.

Just one more full day to go...............................

27. Oct, 2021

27. Oct, 2021

27. Oct, 2021

27. Oct, 2021