Ceri: This has been the least enjoyable day of the whole trip (except my sick days). I was heartened when Neil claimed it was the worst cycle ride of his life!! Mostly because we had to cycle along the hard shoulder of an extremely busy road, and this wasn’t even in error! The rain made it really slippery for Neil on his skinny tires and he told me there were sections where he was really scared. One skid and it could all be over. For me, it was just a ‘grin and bear it’ boring ride. Cold, wet, loud and unpleasant. 

The walkers kept mostly to paths through the woods then would emerge to cross our busy road in groups, clad in long ponchos with huge humpbacks or backpacks smothered in brightly coloured rainproof covers. Tour buses whizzed past us carrying their main luggage, alongside 

the thundering lorries. 

Half way along we spotted a loggers track, so followed it to find the perfect log for a picnic away from the noise. Peace! 

It was a short ride but still, seeing our lodgings was a relief. And the best part for me was to discover our room and a bath…. WITH A PLUG! Luxury! So that was me settled for the next hour. We’ve plenty of time to kill.

Most of my evenings have been spent finding accommodation for the next day or so. I read all the reviews! But now I’ve booked everything between here and home! There’s nothing to do except write this blog. 

Our journey from Santiago de Compostela to Santander proved to be a bigger problem than anticipated. The train was 12 hours, 2 long trips with a 4 hour wait in the middle. The buses won’t accept electric bikes and we found it incredibly difficult to find a car big enough to carry our bikes. On and on I researched. I can tell you the cubic capacity of most SUVs in Spain!! Finally I found a great big Volvo XC60 with a one way drop off which should do the trick. 

So now I’m twiddling my thumbs while Neil enjoys his bath.