Trains and boats and planes

 

I’m currently travelling in Northern Spain and my first stop was a costal town called Llanes. And as you can see there were boats and trains (well a station).

It’s 172 km west of Bilbao and that’s 4 hours if you take the scenic route rather than the motorway. I stayed at Hotel Sablon which is next to a beautiful crescent beach and that first night my room overlooked said beach. 

I stayed two nights and while in the same hotel; had two different rooms. The first had a much trailed “sea view” the second was initially not considered an option as it was not near the same standard as the first one. I said it would be fine but the receptionist insisted that I see it first. It was lovely, no sea view but otherwise a good alternative.  To be fair the heating didn’t work so it was cool (it’s in the mid teens temperature wise at night, so not that cool) and there was no plug in the bathroom sink, but neither make it uninhabitable!!!

Llanes was my first experience of ordering dinner in a language of which I speak about four words, so to get a Prosciuto pizza delivered to my table as ordered was no mean feat. The second evening I cheated and ordered Lasagne, which is almost the same in Spanish, so was a far easier task. I did however master ordering red wine (vino tinto) so 2/2 for evening meals! 

One of the main attractions to Llanes, besides the beach and views was a coastal walk, Paseo De San Andre which takes you up above the town and along a coastal path above cliffs and out west of the town. The photo shows one such view. 

All in all I liked my first stop of my Spanish adventure, a good start. 

You’re Rock and Roll

 Earlier this week I was on a ferry to northern Spain and kept seeing three passengers who just looked like they were in a rock band. After two or three sightings my travelling companion (Rosie) and I found ourselves on a table next to them in the dining area so I engaged the in conversation with the blistering opening line of “are you musicians?”.

To my surprise they said “yes, we’re a rock band called Stop Stop”. Spanish by birth they’re now based in Wolverhampton and they were travelling home to play a few dates. They likened themselves to sounding like AC/DC and having listened to a couple of their songs that’s a pretty accurate description!  

A trio, the bass player sings, the guy with the “big” hair plays drums and the guitar player has the obligatory long hair! Nice guys and very friendly although videos show their stage show is loud and aggressive!