Santillana to Zamora

The ferry finally docked about four hours late in Santander, which meant a late arrival into our hotel that was about forty kilometres away. This was just unavoidable and instead of a good meal in the Parador we had pizza on board the ship. Needs must! A late bottle of Asturian cider definitely helped us relax, it is so uniquely dry. However I did not sleep well; it must be better to have the gentle, lively, motion of the ship to assist.

The morning of my birthday dawned in disappointing fashion raining and cold.

Our spirits were not dampened and by the time we had climbed through the Pico’s de Europa the sun was out and we were able to lower the roof of the car. The drive to Zamora was completely uneventful, at times it seemed as though we had the motorway to ourselves. It was a good job we had sat-nav as finding the Parador that we are staying in required navigating the narrow roads of the old city. Once in the days before sat nav it took us over an hour to reach a hotel in a Portuguese town from the time that we first saw it.

The hotel is a typical Parador in a historic building, with all the rooms fronting onto a lovely interior courtyard. It is all heavy Spanish style furnishing and drapes. We took a little walk to the Plaza Mayor for a snack.

I then meandered through the old town, which is beautiful and peaceful.

 I will post more photos tomorrow. I then joined Marion on the hotel terrace for a beer and relax. Of course it is my birthday today and I had many lovely cards and some really good presents. This picture is of me wearing an appropriate one that reflects the walk of Hadrian’s Wall that we did last week.

Out to celebrate in a few minutes. As the restaurant is only a two minutes walk from the hotel it good be a long night. Apologies in advance for a late post tomorrow.