We left Penysarn, Anglesey on Tuesday, 6th September 2011 at 8.30am as planned. I drove about 360 miles south to Portsmouth with a couple or three stops along the way. We were about 40 miles from Portsmouth when we switched on the radio. It was a shock to hear that Britanny Ferries had cancelled their sailing to Cherbourg. No mention was made of the Santander sailing so I checked my mobile for messages and found one from Britanny Ferries to say we would be sailing at 6.15pm and not 5.00pm.
The Pont Aven sailed at the advised time and as we left port there was a noticeable movement but not too bad. Overnight the weather was not good but the ship didn't give us cause for concern. Waking in the night to feel your world moving in several directions is slightly unusual! About 5.15am the movement reuced and when we rose next day conditions became perfect. It was an excellent ship with good food and friendly crew. I recommend it.
At last we arrived at Santander and we drove into the town, using satnav to find our first hotel. Its name is Hotel Chateau de Roca and our room was much better than we expected with lots of room and a very large bed! The bathroom was spacious too and equipped to a high standard. We had a very restricted menu offered costing 16 euros. It was very good indeed and included a sweet and coffee as well as a bottle of wine. next day the breakfast was enjoyable too.
We pulled out of their car park and across the road to fill up with petrol and set off for the Madrid area. At the end of our drive we arrived at Travelodge in Las Rozas a few miles outside Madrid. Here we had booked b & b for 35 euros! Just round the corner we had a nice dinner and then turned in for a night's sleep before part two of our journey.
The next day saw us on Madrid's equivalent of the M25. It was called the M50 but it was not twice as bad as the M25. The satnav took us on a couple of toll roads and later in the day we drove across the Sierra Nevada on the windiest motorway imaginable. We took the existing pass through a beautiful gorge with lovely and magnificent rock formations. The auto gear box was not happy at all when we had long hills so we were glad to reach refreshment points when it seemed to recover a little.
The scenery in the north was very green and turned gold as we drove through the middle of the country. The Spanish plains do go forever and were a joy to see. There were other areas which were mountainous and then we started to see millions of gallons of olive oil growing.
Sadly, Pauline directed me down a wrong turn just 5 miles from Colmenar which is our nearest village and we ended up going back 3 miles along the motorway to take another turn for Colmenar. Once in the village we knew the route that led up incredibly steep streets and came out by the church to drive our final 7 kilometers to Finca Manolo in the hamlet of El Romo.
The house has a wonderful swimming pool and also a hot tub. This removed all our tiredness and we went to bed and slept until morning.
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