...and by Christ you should have seen us......So we head to the bar and seating area on deck 8....it's an impressive space.....it's about 10.30 pm by now...and thoughts are of what time does the bar shut? turns out we've only got an hour to go.....so it's stand by the bar and watch the goings on..The bar crew are French and sort of unfazed by the anxious Brits determined to drink as much as they possibly can in the time allotted....things are generally calm as we've only just left port.....the wind is picking up though and it could get interesting. Then up to the bar comes an Alpha Male from the tribe of our old mates, The Heavily Tattooed Bellowing Apes de Grande Bretagne....he's an excellent example of seething malice complete with Burberry hat.....he leans over and belches orders to the French barstaff........I look at the staff as they glance at one another with a look that translates as "Eengleesh Peeg Dog..." Mrs. Heavily Tattooed Bellowing Ape is screeching what crisps and booze she wants, she is positively glowing as you can see she has recently been emulsioned wtth Orange fake suntan paint.... I point them out to Grant and tell him to steer clear of this pair as they look capable of putting you in a coma at short notice.

Last orders are given and we stock up and grab a seat on the starboard side. We then start having a chat with a nice guy from Bristol.....who we shall call T.A. Peck for this story. T.A. turns out to be another World Traveller who has got his van with him and is heading to Portugal for a while then onto Morrocco and wherever else the wind will blow him. He's got all his surf gear with him and the van is kitted out with everything you need for life on the Road. T.A. has been everywhere and has also crewed yachts here there and everywhere aagain and has a lot of experience in South America....we have a good chat and check out the state of the sea, so head to the deck ...it's blowing a good one, T.A. reckons it's a good 45 knots.......so blustery that my glasses get blown off my head.....oh great.....T.A. says he'll give us a lift to our Hostal when we arrive in Santander tomorrow....so we say our goodnights, the seating area is now pretty quiet except for the sounds of drinking glasses shattering. The Bay of Biscay is frothing up and the waves are pitching the ship back and forth...so anything not tied down is flying or rolling avbout.

We sleep reasonably okay, there's some sort of spring going boing boing all night...but it's not bad...we get up pretty late around 10.30 am and head off for some food. It's Brittany Ferries after all so Baguettes are the order of the day. I then wonder if I'll be able to buy some new reading glasses....as I wont even be able to type the blog, such is the state of my eyesight. We actually Richard, find a shop that sells everything you normally dont want, but thankfully they do have a selection of Reading glasses...and I purchase a pair that normally retail for 99 pence but cost me £9.90 on board the Good ship Venus...it is what it is. We see T.A. and he says he didnt have a good nights kip as was roughing it on the seats so is off to find a quiet spot to get some catch up kip. It's quite Zen sitting and watching the sea go by - it's still rough but nothing too mental and we're quite happy to nod off in the sunlight as we go bob bob bobbing along.

The day drags by but the ship has made good time and we can see the lights of Santander...so we head below decks with T.A. to grab a lift with him in his van....the van is great and I do feel envious of T.A.s trip ahead of him. Takes a while but we eventually get moving and roll off the boat...passports in hand then onto the next bit of getting pulled in by Guardia Nationle for quick search of the van.....it's not a biggie and T.A. says it more of a show...as they tend to let a few vans go past unhindered and then stop one.....so all good and well....we then hit the ridiculously stupd road system outside Santander Port and if you werent seasick on board you'll likely be now as we go round and round in circles for what seems like 10 minutes. T.A. says he'll hang out with us tonight if he can find a parking space. we get delivered to Hostal b******os but T.A. says it looks like there's nowhere to park and that he's going to head south...as he has a little job to do and it may be better to do it at nightime. He's been given co-ordinates and has something pick up. Very Mysterious......so we shake hands and T.A. gets underway.....we've since spoken and he went unhindered by any Armed Response Units. If you're reading this T.A. it was great metting with you and all the best for the road trip ahead.

So it's about 10pm on a quiet Monday Night in Santander and I'm not really expecting it be party central....so we find a little bar that looks okay and we have a walk in the general direction.......There's only a few people in there and the two ladies running the bar are dressed as if for a new ice age....it's 11 degrees c. by the way. The locals dont pay any attention to us. I ask Grant to see if there's any other place around...and he says that's there's a rock club that stays open till midnight....this may be our best option, but I'm doubting there'll be any live bands on.......and so we head to this place and the entrance has got a good metal Band type feel to it.......when we get in, it's dark and there's two older ladies wearing metal band t shirts with their dogs on their laps...there's no live music and the only others in there are having Darts Night....it's an interesting little set up with a stage, PA, lights etc and looks like a good place to do a gig.....it's also pretty chaotic in there with chairs all over the place. The gaffe is run by Juan, who is a dead ringer for Keith Allen but sports a good mexican style droopy moustache... Juan is a good guy and Grant gets talking to him in Spanish...we have a few beers and then a few of the locals come up and we shake hands, they're all good guys, really down to earth. If I lived n Santander I'd make it a regular, we both liked the place. Juan even said we could do a gig there, after he asked if I played a guitar.....so Wen Molotov may have their first overseas gig sometime soon. The bar closes at midnight so we head back to Hostal b******os......we have a decent night's kip....it's good to be on Foreign Shores.....tomorrow we will be hittting thr rails for Madrid....again we've got some time to kill and so this time we will be able to have a decent wander round Santander and see what it's like.