Welcome to Ireland, country number 59 for us!

It's hard to believe we've never been to Ireland. I was traveling with our son once, back in 2003 where we had a flight stopover in Dublin, but we never left the plane so of course it doesn't count. It's always been on our list though, and exploring it by motorhome seems to be the best way to do it!

When we left you in yesterday's post, it was morning on the ferry and we were about to sit down to breakfast...

Reporting to you direct from the ferry!

So, here we are out in the middle of the sea and able to communicate with you all. Amazing! And even more amazing is that we get an hour and a half of satellite internet included in our fare. The internet access is per device so each phone/laptop/tablet gets it's own hour and a half. Plus, it resets at midnight, so you get another hour and a half the next day... per device. And, we figured out that if we only connect with one laptop, you can hotspot off that laptop to the other one, essentially doubling your hour and a half!

The burning question on everyone's mind must be... did we have problems exiting Spain and the Schengen zone?

Next stop, Ireland!

We board the ferry in three hours for a scheduled 28 hour trip from Spain to Ireland. I think this will be the longest that I've ever been on a boat. The last longest time was when we took Sherman from La Paz to Mazatlan in Mexico. That ferry ride was 17 hours. 

Ruth has been on a cruise ship before, when she did a party cruise with her work from Tampa Bay to Cozumel back in the 1990's. But I've never been on a cruise.

It turns out we can fly direct from Paris to Ottawa!

Kind of a quiet day yesterday. We drove about 15 kms (8 miles) to the town of Mimetiz and parked in the dedicated motorhome area. Walked in to pick up some groceries. Had a nap. Played some cards and backgammon. Did a 5 km (3 mile) power walk after dinner.

And, checked out some onward travel.

Two sleeps to go!

The last month has gone by quickly for us! Although we've been enjoying Spain, we've been looking forward to Ireland. 

It's going to be kind of odd.. we haven't been in an English speaking country since we left England at the beginning of October. Seven months of having to check Google Translate if you want to ask a question! Not so much here in Spain because we can get by with the language, but you get my point.

We always seem to get sidetracked!

I don't think we told you that we've signed up for another house sit through Trusted Housesitters. This time, we'll be just north of Dublin on a 300 acre farm for five days looking after Juno the dog from June 2nd to the 7th.

We will be at a wedding west of Dublin near the end of May, so we'll be in the area anyhow. Looking forward to getting our doggie fix, and of course lots of walks in what looks to be a beautiful area.

The pretty little town of Lierganes

We got up at 7:00am and drove right away to try and avoid any traffic issues around Santander. And we were pretty successful, although it was still busy enough.

We weren't going far... only to the town of Lierganes about 35 kms (22 miles) away.

Beautiful spot, but not so great when the wind picks up!

Monday was a beautiful blue sky day, but the wind picked up as the day went on.

We went for a hike late morning heading west along the coast. Quite a few other people out enjoying the day as Monday was also a public holiday here.

Beautiful overnight spot with a view of the sea

It started out overcast, and we even felt a few drops of rain when we were out on our hike, but by afternoon it had turned into a beautiful day.

We're parked up on top of a cliff with a beautiful view of the sea, and are able to watch the ships coming in and out of Santander harbor. It's actually amazing that this quiet spot exists so close to the city.

April Expenses - pretty much on budget!

The month of April took us from Seville to the northern coast of Spain. It was actually a great month. And, we fully expected it to be a fairly inexpensive month. At the end of March, I mentioned that our planned budget for April was $1,380 CAD ($1,018 USD).

That's not very much money nowadays, and while we were ambitious with that goal, we came pretty close!

Max almost got hit! I had to lean on the horn...

Saturday was another dull overcast day. Supposed to be like that again today, but clearing on Monday. Many of you might be hearing on the news how hot it is in Spain, but that's really only south of Madrid. Here in the north, it's actually about normal, with today's high forecast to be 17C (63F).

And we're quite fine with that. And even though it was overcast, it didn't rain on us so we went out with Linda and Steven to do some more exploring of Santander.

Wandering around Santander, Spain

We walked into Santander with Linda and Steven yesterday. It's a bigger city than I thought it was, with a population of about 180,000. 

Interesting that Santander has no medieval central area, despite having a history dating back to the 12th century. That's because there was a massive fire in 1941 that totally destroyed the center of the city.

A nice hike, then into the city of Santander

We really liked the area around the Erbo River Valley, so we wanted to do one more hike before we left. But we still had some driving to do as well because we were meeting Steven and Linda in Santander later in the day.

We set off at 10:00am planning to do a 10 km (6 mile) return trip to a viewpoint. But we changed plans once we were at the top, and made it into a circular route that ended up being 13 kms (8 miles)!

What a cool little village!

Had a nice peaceful night by the castle just north of Burgos. Then we headed further north towards Santander along a route recommended by friends Glen and Steve who had done it within the last couple of years. 

There's a little village called Orbaneja del Castillo that is nestled on the side of a canyon formed by the Ebro River. What a cool little village!

A quick stop into Burgos for another photo match up

Some of you were curious as to what it was that brought my father to Europe. He did two trips, one in 1954, and one in 1957. I'll tell the story based on my memory of events, although I might get some figures wrong. I should probably ask my mother for clarification if she remembers, but here it goes...

His mother (my paternal grandmother) came from the northern part of Czech Republic, close to the German border. She arrived in Canada by herself sometime in the late 1920's, met my grandfather, and my father was the first born (in 1929) of six children. I think the fact that his mother was from Europe probably instigated some of his ambition to see that part of the world.