It was 7am local time when we were 'peacefully' awoken by music blurting out into the room an hour before our scheduled arrival time into Santander. I'm convinced they only do it so they can advertise to you that breakfast is now being served on deck 8. They then ask you to leave the cabin 30 mins before you arrive but say you can't yet go to the car decks and to wait in the public areas. No thanks I'll stay right in my bed until the very last minute thank you very much! We were the first off the ship and almost too early, none of the supermarkets were open yet so we just head straight for the beach where we had planned to stay for the day. We arrived around 9am which was perfect as we got to have the whole place to ourselves for a little while.

The kids were crazy excited to get straight into the sea but first we needed to make ourselves a base and change into our swim wear. After a while the place started filling up and it was pretty obvious we were the only foreigners. Our pasty white kids in their UV swim vests whilst the local kids were running around naked 😂.

Due to the fact we'd not had a chance to buy any food I hadn't packed a picnic and it just went to show that the kids are just bored many times when they say they are hungry since they got all the way till 1pm before asking for anything, even then they were happy enough with just a bag of crisps and some juice before they were back to building sandcastles and splashing in the sea.

After 5hrs we packed up in search of a foreign supermarket, something I love to do when on holiday and find all the new and exciting foods to try. Liliya and Robert both fell asleep in the 25 minutes it took us to get there so that won't work out well later on 😭

Our planned campsite for the night is on the edge of Bilbao but the downside is you can't book and as we drive up just behind another van we see them get turned away and told its full. The benefit at least is we can just check our app for another place to stay and turns out there's a parking spot just 1km further up the mountain with just one van already there and a spot next to it for us.

Due to the fact we'd not had lunch I had let the kids buy some donuts and pastries in the supermarket so they weren't super hungry now and everyone was a bit too hot to want to cook so we decided to have another picnic of cheese and meats washed down with some 85p wine and lemon concoction. It's rather like sangria so I'm actually a fan despite not usually liking wine.

Just as we're finishing up another van turns up on the other side of us and it's the group that was turned away ahead of us from the other place. We get chatting to them and they ask if we think it's safe to stay overnight. Weirdly they are in a German registered van but they hired it in Bilbao and they are actually from The Netherlands. They have been travelling two weeks already around the area and tonight is their last night. They have to have the van fully cleaned before they can hand it back so they unload all their belongings then two of the four drive off to go find a car wash. Liliya and I have a little wander, we find a few goats with their jingly bells on the hill beneath us and she enjoys using her camera to take the most random of pictures.

After getting the kids to bed, despite the fact they were up several times after that, we sat outside with our drinks, offered a couple to the Dutch lads and had a nice chat. We had all heard that the storms were coming later that night and the skies were looking moody, with not much warning the heavens opened leaving these guys with all their stuff still waiting for their mates. We said they could store some stuff under our van and were going to invite them in to keep dry but they said they were going to find a bar or similar to wait for their friends. As it happened they weren't gone long before they turned back up then had to load all their wet bags back into the van. By this point we were inside when they knocked on the door to say they were driving off to get something to eat so did they mind if they stored their camp chairs in front of our van since they didn't want them going missing whilst away. Before they returned a car took their spot, we couldn't quite work out what they were doing but then they started unloading suitcases in the rain and turning the back seats into a make shift bed so who knows when they'll return and what their plan will be. In the meantime I've plastered on the after sun, no matter what I do I always miss a spot and this time stupidly I applied suncream with my shorts on which are longer than my swim shorts so I have quite the red glow coming from the backs of my thighs 🙄

So far no sign of the thunder the weather forecast mentioned but it's still raining very heavily. Let's hope it's cleared by the morning for our day in Bilbao.