Now that we've both caught up on some sleep we felt that a gentle walk and bike ride in our new surroundings was in order. The marina is literally next door to Santander airport which provides some entertainment as 'Ryan Air' land and take off several times a day. Strangely you would expect it to be noisy however it's not.

We couldn't help but notice from the map that the shops are miles away so we decided to jump on our bikes. There's a cycle path and pedestrian walk that follows the perimeter of the airport and as it transpires walkers are allowed both ways but if you're on a bike (as we were) it's one-way only. By the time we left the marina, visited a few shops and returned back to the boat we had covered approx 8.5km. This is the first time since leaving the UK where we've felt that bikes are a must.

Bruce was in his element when he spotted a 'Ferreteria' (ironmonger) so of course a visit was in order. It was also our first experience of trying out some Spanish 'solo estoy mirando' which translates as 'I'm just looking'. As we left the shop we got ourselves really confused and naturally said 'au revoir' and 'merci' instead of 'adios' and 'gracia'. It's far too easy to default to French. God only knows what the staff thought!

Next stop was a brief visit to the local supermercado 'Eroski' to check out the prices of fruit, veg, meat and fish which appear to be much cheaper than in France (much to the purser's relief!).

Whilst meandering around we came across racks of cured hams all varying in price based on region and number of months hung. They were huge... wonder if we can get one onboard!!