Day One
After a lazy day at sea on Monday we arrived at Bilboa at dawn on Tuesday.
After the usual wait on the vehicle deck for debarkation to start we got through border checks in only 5 minutes due to efficient Spanish staff and being near the front of the bike queue. 
I was leading this day’s ride, and after some satnav confusion got us to a layby a few miles out of port so we could get ourselves properly sorted for the ride ahead. It was now 9am.
The roads were damp and the sky had many clouds but we started off without extra waterproof layers. As we wound our way up and allong forested hills we were following behind varous random traffic, but that didn’t realy matter as the roads were damp, winding, and often narrow, so I wouldn’t want to be travelling any faster anyway.
After about an hour, and a fuel stop, the rain eventually came so we added our waterproof layers. For a short spell we were riding inside the clouds but fortunately, as we approached a planned photo stop, we got above most of them and had some sun. (Though not a view of a grand vista beyond.)
The low clouds seemed to be stuck on the side of the mountain that we’d come up. So as we decended the other side we found ourselfs on mostly dry roads and could have our first spell of fun ‘swoopy’ ringing down a twisty road.
The next mountain pass I had planned was closed for roadworks according to satnav, but I already had a plan B route, which also cut off a little distance which seemed like a good idea.
At the bottom of a this valley was our lunch stop at Vega de Pas. I had sausage, egg and chips Spanish style, i.e. chorizo in an omelette 
The next hour or so of riding was on major roads which was a nice break from the mentally demanding twisty stuff. Even though these were main roads they seemed remarkably devoid of traffic.
It’s just as well that we had this mental break because there followed over an hour of non-stop twistly roads where I bet bikes were vertical less than half the time. 
We didn’t have rain but there were plenty of clouds in the sky.
When we finally decended down onto the main road that would take us to our accomodation near Potes, we found that it was only half the road it use to be, as for multiple sections one lane had completely fallen away and was being rebuild from the foundations up!
Finally at 5pm we arrived at our home for the next three days.
Once luggage was unloaded we headed to local supermarket for breakfast supplies, then to a bar/restaurant for a desperately needed beer or two.
When we went in to order food at 7pm we we’re informed that they didn’t start taking orders until 8:30 (we sorta already knew the Spanish ate late). But we were too hungry and tired to wait so returned to supermarket for convenience food we could cook at home, and some cheap wine to go with it.
no need…
.
Did a Duolingo lesson and checked weather forceast for arrival at Bilbao: good in the morning. 
