Porto to Santander 2

The last leg of our journey took us North East from Porto, through a national park, over the mountains and into Spain. Here we had been told about some remarkable thermal springs that flow into this pool and into the river. We had a lovely soak and again in the morning, when the steam was still rising. The water temperature was so hot that I had to get out, cool down and then get back in again! It is wonderful to see places like this that are unspoiled, if this was at home it would have broken glass around and some idiot would throw a bottle of bubble bath in it....like they do with the fountains in Plymouth...so very sad.


We went back to Vidiago campsite on the North coast of Spain. Followed the path to the caves, it was a bit spooky with only the two of us in there, in the dark. The purple colours and the stillness of the deep rock pools were impossible to capture on film...or pixels...or whatever it is these days!


Our last stop before the ferry was at the Cabarceno safari park. It is the largest wildlife park in Europe on the site of an old mine. Though we didn't visit this time, at €24 we are planning to spend a full day here next year. These photos were taken from the road through the village and it was nice to see that these animals had a very large space to roam around in.





Then on to Santander for the afternoon. This was an extremely hot day and we wandered around the shops that were shut until 16:30. Unfortunately we didn't find the beach, but now we know where it is then next time we will be able have an ice cream! We also stocked up at the Carefour....though we scraped under the 2.1m height barrier.....we found the high vehicle parking on the road around the corner on our way out.



Just some of the 20 bottles of port, several boxes of wine, vodka and a selection of beers....including a crate of Sagres......we are set up for a BBQ ..... When Summer arrives!