The good times carried on and the grass got greener.

I slept in and only woke at 9.30am, it didn't matter, I still had a ham pastry and bananas from my previous day’s stop at Lidl and other snacks and drinks I'd got from the petrol station next to the hotel (in Madrid) so I packed my stuff, taking these snacks with me for a breakfast on the move later.

I programmed the address of the hotel I'd booked in Somo, the opposite side of the little bay to Santander (on the larger Bay of Biscay) into my SatNav, what a glorious piece of technology my 'Tomtom Rider 550' had proved itself to be.

A twisty route was chosen but with a 12 hour ride suggested by the SatNav I couldn't do that all the way. But start I could, and after an hour I stopped for fuel and sat and had my pastry and bananas for breakfast. The roads out of Madrid on this route through the mountains to the north west were just as good as those I'd done the day before on the journey into Madrid.

I carried on for another hour and a half savouring, on previous experience, the best roads Spain had to offer. At the next fuel stop I reprogrammed the SatNav for the fastest route, the terrain had flattened out by now and I needed a rest and to cover some miles without the high levels of concentration and energy the twisty roads demanded.

Back on main roads I made good progress towards the Bay of Biscay on what was now a long journey home. But the excitement and good times weren't over yet.

Even the main road got spectacular now, it was the N-623 from around San Martin de Ubierna heading north. A mountain pass road with the fastest sweeping bends I'd found yet. It was in some ways the best road I'd been on. I'd programmed in a town called Sedano to my Satnav, seeing in the map that from there if I switched back to twisty routes it would likely be great roads again to my hotel. So it led me off the N-623 onto the BU-514. This road was just amazing, hugging a mountain range, on the other side the peaks were hidden in the clouds.

I stopped in Sedano to clean my visor (with the damp soapy cloths I keep in plastic bags) and switch to the twisty route on my satnav. I stopped in a picturesque square with an ornamental drinking water dispenser. I decided to give the whole bike a clean as well, and took a photo of it looking all shiny; it's a hobby of mine.

And from there I don't know the route it took, I was just at one with the bike, taking in the feeling of the open road, pure joy, pure freedom.

The landscape had changed now, gone the parched brown grass and piney trees, replaced with lush green grass, ferns and trees with broad leaves. Cows grazed in fields on the sides of the steep slopes. The road descended into the valley bottoms and rose up again on the other side several times as I made my way towards Somo. Again, the Satnav had chosen a spectacular route.

I arrived safely to the Hotel Estrella del Alemar and the promise of secure parking held true with a basement garage spot for my bike, next to a BMW GS1200 on Spanish plates with huge aluminium top box and panniers. Where had they ridden from, I wondered?  Not from Leeds, and I'd made it here with a small rucksack and I'd wanted for NOTHING.

With my bike safely tucked away I didn't mind the 20 minute walk to the beach. The scenery was beautiful, looking over at the cloud cloaked mountains I'd ridden around and over on the journey here.

A stop at a supermarket for some lager was made. 

Sat on the beach with my bottles of San Miguel (Saint Michael) I enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Santander, listening to Oasis on my phone.

With the sun beneath the horizon and the moon and stars shining between the clouds where they could, I found a kebab takeaway just a minute’s walk from where I sat on a grassy sand dune looking out on the surf rolling onto the beach.

With this kebab, more bottles of lager and Oasis playing on my phone, sitting again on the same dune looking out to sea, I enjoyed the most pleasant evening I had done for as long as I could remember.