Santander - Day 2

245 Kilometers - 152 Miles

I can't believe I've only done 152 miles today.  Seems like three or four hundred.  It was nice and chilly when I got up this morning.  My day started out bad and didn't get much better.  I had downloaded today's planned itinerary into my GPS last night.  It accepted the file, no problem.  Imagine my surprise this morning when I fired it up and found that I had no maps for Spain in it!!

Before leaving the U.S. I gave your friends (must be yours, they're certainly not mine!) at Garmin a smooth $180 for their maps of Europe.  Before leaving I downloaded all the countries I expected to visit (I thought) into the device.   I suspected no problem, after all, the maps of France were there, and came up whenever I fired it up upon arrival.

So...now I"m traveling like I used to...with maps.  And I gotta tell you, it draws a big vacuum.  (For the scientifically challenged among you, that means it sucks!)  I'd grown accustomed to the technology.  On top of that, it rained this morning as I pulled out of Biarritz.  One of those bone-chilling drizzles that seems to find every little pin-hole you have and soak through it.  Since it was cold I put on my balaclava and that caused problems immediately; the difference in the heat of my skin and the ambient air fogged up my goggles so I could barely see.  Yet another fun time riding down slippery roads at 60-70 mph, unable to see a hundred feet in front of you.

I pulled off the road into San Sebastian after only a little while and tried to find dry glasses or goggles, rummaging through my bags managing to get every things soaked.  I finally found a pair of shooting glasses I've always liked and, with the balaclava gone, they stay fairly translucent.  In case I've failed to mention this to you, any bike rider who says rain doesn't bother them is either an idiot, or a liar.  Even a light drizzle in warm weather carrries an element of problem.

In any event, it didn't rain very long and shortly after re-entering the traffic on A-8 it slowed, then stopped.  I didn't get much warmer, but it was dryer.  Remembering my promise to stop and take the pictures I saw I pulled over a couple of time to snap some shots.  The terrain here is very much like that in the inter-mountain west of the U.S.  Reminds me much of Wyoming and Utah.  In fact, as my friend Claye pointed out about I-15 in Utah, even the interstate is pretty through there.  It's the same here.

The water is so blue and clear I'm sure you could see fish if you got close enough.

This was a nice little restaurant I stopped at to take some of these pictures.



It started raining again and I called it quits and pulled into a beach side town called Santander for the evening.