T is for Travelling again

 Hello Ladies,

It's been a long time since I joined the T Party but Elizabeth was kind enough to invite me to join the Ten Year Anniversary so I thought I would try and catch up with you all, I hope you are all well and enjoying life.

We finally travelled to San Francisco in January, it's been two years since we last went over due to Lockdown and worrying about catching covid whilst traveling, we didn't intend to go until this Autumn but our eldest son in England invited us to join them for Christmas so I suggested we book flights while we were half way there!!

As usual we drove up to the North of Spain to Santander stopping enroute. We left home at 8am and drove for two hours to Albacete where we stopped for breakfast at the Restaurant of the five brothers, Beicon Bocadillo and coffee, always a welcome break.

This was the Nativity Scene in the Restaurant window, these are typical in  most towns in Spain.

The second half of the Nativity Scene

Our journey through Spain took us around Madrid and on to Lerma where we stayed the night within walking distance of the town, the Plaza Mayor is up through the cobbled streets and quite a climb but it is well worth the walk as it has bars and restaurants and the Palacio Ducal De Lerma, it is a Parador nowadays and quite expensive!!

The Puerta de la Cárcel leading to the Plaza Mayor.

Lovely cobbled Streets, we didn't realise we could drive up there but I think we needed the exercise after six hours of driving.

The Palacio  Ducal de Lerma from our hotel

 After a quick breakfast we started on the final leg of our journey, we couldn't belive our car was covered in ice!

As always we had the spot the bull competition, I lost as usual!

We are heading to Burgos and on to Santander. As you can see there's hardly any traffic, most of the journey is like this apart from near and around Madrid.

Only a couple of hours to go and the temperature was still only -1, something we never see at home.

Our hotel, Hotel Bahia on the seafront and opposite the Ferry terminal

Beautiful Hotel, right on the edge of the town.

The parking is below ground and has lift for the car, quite terrifying for me as I hate lifts!!

View of the Cathedral from our hotel room, floor to ceiling window, scared me to even walk past it.

A beautiful room, it even had a hallway!

The bathroom was really big and luxurious too

This was the Cathedral from the other side.

Having a coffee and croissant in the hotel cafe the next morning we could see the ferry had docked.

Our cabin was on deck 8, one of the small windows at the top, below are the restaurants and the shop.

My ticket to the T party, Onboard we had meals included, three course which we good but the same on every sailing, this was our afters, very tasty.

Apparently there was too much wastage so theyve stopped providing inclusive breakfast and evening meals but I'm not sure they've reduced the prices!

This is the ferry arriving in Portsmouth which is a naval port hence the Spinnaker Tower, it's the first time we've seen it lit up, it changes colour as you pass.

You can actually go up the tower to see the views.

We still had two hours drive to our sons but luckily we were off the boat in record time on on our way.

Sorry for the long post and if it's something I've shared before, I've kind of lost track after all this time.

Jan x