Spain - Return
Malaga – Santander – The plan in the morning was to get at least north of Madrid that day, and see how we were doing for time. This would allow us time to get to Santander for the boat the next day. We made it to the outskirts of Madrid by lunchtime, and saw a sign for McDonalds, so off we went. After a random conversation with a Spanish woman who spoke no English, and us minimal Spanish, we got the right meals. Then it was back on the bike, and after getting lost in Madrid, we set the SatNav for Bilbao (Ibis again), and headed off. We found the hotel with no problems, and pulled up round the back to the car park which it shared with the Formula 1 hotel.
Staring out the window of this hotel, we saw the smiling faces of Kevin & Kathy and Tony (from Morocco) who had also randomly met up there about 15 minutes beforehand. Small world. After a quick drink with them, some food, and a good nights kip in the Formula 1 hotel (highly recommended), we headed off to Santander to get the boat back to the UK.
Santander – Plymouth – While we were waiting in the queue to get on the boat, we met a few interesting people, all with their own tales and reasons for being out of the UK on their bikes. This included a bloke on a GS Adventure, and after us both having a seat on it, we decided that’s the one for us, especially if we get to do our aim of touring as much as possible in various parts of the world (not round the world, yet). We also met up with someone who contributes daily to a national newspaper. You meet up with them all on the boat so it’s lovely to sit about and have a beer and a chat about your trips, and share stories of your travels with strangers.
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