Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia These are the three provinces on the north coast of Spain and we headed west from one to the next. The Cantabrian coastline is dotted with small villages, beautiful beaches and rocky headlands.The vegetation surprisingly consists of eucalypt trees.Vast mountainsides are covered with them; the roadsides are lined with them.In many places it looks just Australia - except for the towering mountains of the Picos de Europa to one...

Santillano del Mar We stayed our first night in Spain on the edge of this beautiful little medieval village.The streets are narrow and cobbled, and only local traffic is allowed in.The houses mainly date from the 15th Century with a few modern 18th century abodes dotted around. It was a pleasure to spend an easy day in warm sunshine (hooray) wandering around the laneways. We visited the Diocesan Museum, once an 18th century palace (so quite new really...

Arriving in Spain - Santander The Pont-Aven was our home for the 24 hour ferry trip across the Bay of Biscay to Santander in Spain. An inside cabin was cosy though the beds were abysmally uncomfortable. Despite the heavy swell, the trip was smooth. Heavy weather overnight, which we didn't really notice, slowed us down and we docked an hour late. An hour late meant that we arrived in the middle of Santander at peak hour. Not only did we have to contend wi...

In the UK again After six weeks back in Oz for David's graduation as an officer in the Army Reserve, it's back again to the northern hemisphere for some more travels in the van. We left an Australian winter for early autumn in the UK - there wasn't any discernible difference in the weather... In Leeds we collected the van and did some reprovisioning. In all the rush to pack at the very end, we discovered we had left quite a few things behind in Sydney .....

Dublin...again: Finally we were back in Dublin after our month-long road journey around Ireland. With a day to spare we headed by bus into the city to wander around and see some of the bits we missed on the first trip through. Mostly we wanted to see the Dublin Museum with its archaeological treasures which could put together for us much of what we had seen. The building is beautiful, an ornate Victorian era pile with a high decorated dome over the entrance hall...