The impression that I get …

Trev’s shared with you how our 1st attempt at the Biscay passage was cut short due to seasickness 🤢🤮🤢. We waited until the swell looked as though we’d have a few clear days and headed out. In order to help keep the sickness at bay I had a tablet the night before, so it was in my system, and then kept myself topped up with another full tablet about 14 hrs later. No ill effects, the fog and calm conditions continued throughout the morning. When it cleared towards the afternoon, it got a title bouncier .. all on the beam (side on) producing a very rolly ride.

Apart from what do we eat on a passage (Spanish chicken), we questioned how we’d entertain ourselves (scrabble, naps, reading, keeping watch, listening to podcasts and hallucinating interesting structures and boats made from flags (me both day and night). On an aside point you can get serious hallucinations from Kwell’s … quite interesting ones but still be fully in control .. who knew?🧐🤷🏼‍♀️😜

We arrived safely into Bilbao and anchored for the night. Waking up in another country & the opposite way round to how you went to bed is an interesting start to any birthday. We moved into a marina and put the boat to rights before setting off into Bilbao centre itself to have a look at the fiesta going on and scope out where the Guggenheim was.

What an assault on the senses!!! The metro was brilliantly easy, we started our tour at Casa Viejo on advice Lonely Planet guide book (thanks Mum & Dad for my voucher) and we’re hit by the sight of a dozen street bars and cafes set up. The noise and bustle were almost intimidating after spending 2 days on our own. A big thank you to everyone who sent cards, messaged me or called me … it was honestly really appreciated. Honourable mentions to Laura Alexander-Hardy for the singing of Happy Birthday in actual French 😍😍😍

We spent a day in Bilbao just at the Guggenheim- €32 and more than worth it, really interactive and I got to play on one of the exhibits … 3 floors of art and lots of exhibits and street art outside. A little video of Bilbao is here

The first impressions of Spain are that it’s very, very different to France, not just the language but the entire culture seems so much more chilled out. The prices for coffee and food are similar to those we had in France 10 years ago. Cafe/bar culture is much more evident than France, there are amazing butchers, deli & fish counters in virtually all of the supermarkets (not just the big ones). The quality of the food is phenomenal, this might just be coincidence but the meat has been superb.

Everyone has been super, super friendly here. There is some English spoken, but everyone wants to help you find the right Spanish words (and regional dialects) as you clumsily apologise for slowly murdering their language 🤭🤭

As we moved from Basque Country to Asturias the scenery changed and we saw golden beaches, surrounded by table topped cliffs, up to rolling hills, then behind them, mountains and even further behind them glimpses of the snowy pockets of the bare Picos des Europas … stunning, stunning scenery. The video and pictures we took do not do them justice at all. We’ve logged this as a place to come back to at some point.

Most of the Spanish ports we’ve called at seem a little industrial on the surface, but as you get behind them and into the towns, they are like a tardis … opening out into a maze of side streets, with culture & history everywhere. Not to mention having some great deals on olive wood jewellery and harem pants!!

‘Where next’? Is the question none of you are asking … We’ve committed to Lagos in Portugal for 6 months, from some time in October and will be coming back to the UK at Christmas for a few weeks, before helping Mum & Dad celebrate 50 years of marriage. That means we have 5 – 6 weeks to cover around 650 miles of coastline along the Atlantic before settling down for the winter and trying to learn Portuguese.

We’re both really looking forward to seeing everyone when we get back, it’s fair to say that we’ve both realised how much we rely and love our family and friends 💕💕

We’ll (hopefully) see as many of you as we can in 15 weeks or so

Huge love,

Sarah & Trev