It all began so well.

Our local taxi was on time at 7:40am. We waited for our mini-bus in Central Cardiff for around 10 minutes, but instead of a mini-bus a large Mercedes limo arrived, on time, and we were chauffeured to Gordano Services (on the M5) arriving at exactly 9am.

Our feeder coach was a Luxuria which set off about 10 minutes later to Exeter for the interchange to our tour transport. This was never going to be difficult. Only 3 coaches were scheduled for the Plymouth-Santander ferry.

There was quite a bit of hanging around at Plymouth. That’s always the way at ferry ports with coaches, which have to arrive “early” as passport and border checks by UK officials are never quick. Not a problem. Decent weather and a coffee truck passed the time.

We’ve travelled on the Pont Aven before. It’s clean and tidy. The cabins are small but adequate and comfortable (enough). The sea was borderline calm, so overnight between 15:45 BST and 13:45 EST passed by easily,

Disembarkation in Santander was very straightforward. We were treated as foot passengers. A friendly and fairly efficient Spanish border agent stamped our passports. We exited into a large arrivals lounge. The coach was visible and ready just outside the main doors. Just 2 hours to our hotel, Parador de Cervera de Pisuerga, through lovely scenery in broken cloud and sun.

The hotel room was stunning. Large enough to host a party.

The only downside to the room were the floorboards. Lovely to look at but as creeky as creeky could be. All the rooms had the same problem and they could be heard at night in the rooms below. We were on the top floor 😀 .

Another issue was meal times. Spanish meal times. Dinner at 20:30. They were worth waiting for (except one main course later in the week) and were accompanied with generous servings of wine.

We were all done in by 22:30, so off to bed.