My morning started with the ship playing very gentle wake up music over the public address system at around five. It was enough to wake me but not quite enough to get me out of bed and into the shower. It took a while, but I realized I should get up and dressed if I wanted breakfast before we disembarked. I had a cup of coffee and some cereal to get my body and brain started. Diane, joined me half way through, she initially wasn’t going to have any breakfast. After that, we checked the cabin to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind. Then, we wandered down to deck three to get the van.
The van now has a name by the way. It, or I suppose I should say she, is now known as “Bianca”, because she is white and Italian. White was not my first choice of colour. Diane would not have chosen it either. But, it seemed to be the only colour available, so we went with it.
We spent our first two nights at Camping Playa Arenillas. It is on a beach near the small town of Islares. Islares is halfway between Santander and Bilbao.
Around the campsite.
We had a self misguided (Google assisted) tour of the area looking for a supermarket. There probably were several in Santander, but we decided to head to the campsite first. From there we went on a tour. We found some things in a small village shop. Then, we ended up in Castro Urdiales. It is the nearest town of any size. It is an attractive fishing port.
Columbus sailed on something like this.Why she has only the one arm I don’t know
After we got back, we went for a walk down to the beach. We met an Irish lady. On her advice, Diane decided that a swim would be a good idea before we left. We debated eating at the campsite restaurant, but decided to cook in the van.
Apart from a small shower on the way along the coast, the rain in Spain stayed mainly on the plain. It is quite hilly around here.
Above the campsite we can see these rather strange structures, any ideas as to what they are? 🤔 Ideas welcome in the comments.
I haven’t written much on here for well over a year. AFC Wimbledon haven’t exactly inspired me to write. I haven’t been to as many away games this past season compared to earlier seasons.
We have a new Campervan though. The Big Green Bus has gone to a new owner. I hope they have as much fun with it as we did. We have replaced it with an even bigger bus, yet to be named. We had a couple of trips out to familiarise ourselves with it. This but is the big one. Three weeks in Spain and France.
I am writing this on board the MV Galicia, heading for Santander, in Northern Spain.
We drove down to Portsmouth to get the ferry last night and sailed about 21:30. We encountered a hold up at the check in gate. We got stuck behind a car that had two dogs and the wrong paperwork. Despite these issues, everything went smoothly. Our cabin is small but perfectly adequate for two nights. The bunks are comfortable and the toilet works.
Going on board
Leaving Portsmouth – The Spinnaker Tower On the ferry
We had supper in the lounge, tapas and a glass of wine, then went to bed about eleven. We woke up somewhere off the Brittany coast. Breakfast was good, nothing spectacular but perfectly fine.
This was probably the first time I had been at sea for more than a short inter-island hop since I left the Merchant Navy. We also did something that I never did during my MN years. We sailed between Ushant and the mainland. We always went round the outside. But I assume that the Master is a Breton and knows what he is doing.
The whole journey was been a pleasant experience. Diane decided to upgrade us to a Commodore class cabin, which helped. It was only £35 more than a standard cabin. It gave us significantly more space. We also had access to the Commodore lounge. This lounge is quieter than the public lounges and has complimentary tea, coffee, and cakes. At lunch time and pre-dinner wine and tapas are available, also complimentary. Well worth the extra cost in my opinion, if you are planning an overnight trip on Brittany Ferries
Biscay Sunset
Clouds over Biscay
After a very enjoyable dinner we wandered up on deck to watch the sun go down. Also to give the whales and dolphins one last chance to show up. Diane had been religiously looking for a whale or a dolphin all day.
Biscay Sunset
It was then time for bed, as we had an early start on Wednesday morning. The ship docked at 7:00, so that meant up about 05:30 if we wanted breakfast before disembarking.
Because the new season is almost upon us, I thought I had better get this report of last seasons final game finished and posted
Campervan Adventures v2.1
I have, had two main subjects for my blogs recently. Wimbledon Away Days and Campervan Adventures. We are combining the two in this post.
I bought myself a campervan about a month ago (early April). Our final game of the season was against Bradford. It was a 17:30 kick-off, so that meant getting a train back after the game would be tricky. Getting the supporters coach would have meant arriving back at Kingsmeadow about one in the morning. So I decided to take the van and make an adventure of it.
We had given the van a try out last weekend after the win against Wycombe Wanderers. I took it down to Brighton for the night and it all went well, but this would be it’s first proper trip.
The plan as originally formulated was to have the van packed on Thursday night and leave my house about 9:30 so that I could get across to New Malden by 10:00 to pick up Diane (who would also have everything packed and ready) and be on the road north by 10:30.
Round about 11:30 I left Wallington
Diane was a bit more organised than me. We left her place about 12:30.
The journey north was uneventful. The Big Green Bus (BGB)* proved to be very comfortable and easy to drive. The traffic was fairly heavy with people trying to get away early for the bank Holiday. but apart from that no problems
We arrived at our campsite, The Esholt Sports and Leisure Club about half past six and found a suitable pitch. It’s an unusual site, in that it is run by the local cricket club and the showers and toilets are the changing rooms. It works though and it is reasonably cheap.
I don’t know how many Emmerdale fans read my blog, but Esholt was the village originally used as Emmerdale. We had a drink in this pub, which should be familiar to anyone who follows the show.
It is a friendly pub that serves good beer. There is obviously some Emmerdale memerobilia scattered around, but not that much that it feels like a theme pub.
We were up reasonably early on Saturday, because, althought the match wasn’t due to kick off until 17:30, we thought that we would like a look round Bradford before hand.
We found a reasonable pub for lunch, nothing special, but the food was edible and the beer was drinkable, then had a wander round the city centre. Because Bradford was a comparitavly wealthy place in the c19th it has a lot of impressive civic buildings, banks, churches and the like. It must be admitted that a lot of the banks are now pubs and a lot of the churches are discount furniture shops, but they still look impressive from the outside.
We decided to have a look round the Science and Media Museum. Entrance is free and it is worth an hour of your time. After which it was time to head off to the match.
The Match
Thanks to our win against Wycombe the week before, we were out of the relegation zone for the first time in 2019. Barring an unusual, but not impossible set of results a draw against Bradford would be enough to ensure safety. A win would have guarenteed that we were safe and even if we lost, provided the other results went our way we could still be safe.
So onto the game. Well it was probably the least entertaining game of football I watched all season. I suppose that Wally Downes had done his homework and decided that Bradford didn’t pose all that much of a threat (which they didn’t) and that we could settle for a draw and possibly get a goal on the break. I was a bit dissapointed, not least because this was Diane’s first experience of AFC Wimbledon and I didn’t want it to be her last. We got the draw that we needed and stayed a League One team thanks to a better goal difference compared to Plymouth. Squeeky bum time, not helped by the fourth official failing to display the board for added minutes, so we had no idea of how much injury time had to be played. The referee finally blew his whistle after what felt like about five hours of added time, jubilation and pitch invasions ensued.
The “highlights”.
Pitch invasion
We watched the celebrations for a while (but didn’t join in on the pitch). After about ten minutes or maybe quarter of an hour we decided to walk back down to the station to get the train back to Shipley. We had already decided to have a curry at a restaurant we had seen earlier in the day. The Shimla Spice does an excellent curry and some of the biggest naan breads in captivity, but does not serve alcohol so we had to celebrate “The Great Escape” with Diet Coke and water.
Sunday
Saltaire
We decided to visit Saltaire. Back in the mid c19th Titus Salt built a woollen mill by the banks of the River Aire. He was a philanthropist and also built a model village to house his workforce. The mill like many woollen mills in West Yorkshire is now redundant. It has been restored (or at least parts of it have) and it now has several interesting, high end, shopping outlets and a gallery dedicated to the works of David Hockney
1853 Gallery
The works on display were created on his iPad then printed onto large (A0?) sheets. I had seen them before at the Tate Modern Exhibition in 2017, thought they were wonderful then and still think they are wonderful.
As well as the mill and the village, Titus Salt also built what must be the flashest Congregational Church in the world. It is not up there with the likes of St Peter’s or St John’s in Valetta but for a Congregationalist Church, which are usually quite plain and functional it is out there.
The Church Outside
The church inside
Ilkley Moor
After we had spent the afternoon in Saltaire we decided that because we were only about five miles from Ilkley that a visit to Ilkley Moor (ba t’at) was more or less compulsory.
Ba t’at
With hats – it was quite cold
Ilkley from the moor
Cow and calf rocks
Cow and calf rocks
It was quite spectacular up at the Cow and Calf Rocks, if a bit on the cool side.
Monday
Monday and it was time to head home. We had a good weekend. The Wombles were safe as League One club for at least one more season. We had liked what we had seen of West Yorkshire (including Bradford.)
Hardwick Hall
We didn’t want to just blast our way backdown the M1 so we looked for somewhere that we could stop, have a bite to eat and a look round. Hardwick Hall fitted the bill. And because we are National Trust members didn’t cost us anything.
It was built by Bess of Hardwick,a remarkable woman, who became one of the weathiest and powerful people in Elizabeathen England.
Bedroom
Elizabeathen filing cabinet.
Bedroom
Hardwick Hall
After that we did blast back down the M1 .
*My other vehicle a Diahatsu Charade is known as the LLC, or Little Lilac Car because it is little and lilac coloured. So the obvious name for the Camper was the Big Green Bus, because it is big (compared to the LLC) and green.
A Scotsman in Suburbia 