As I said before, geoff and I went to spain for a few days last week.
Two years ago we went to Santander and we loved it. We always wanted to go back.
This was an unexpected holiday with love from Laura.
Laura had booked three days in santander for herself and martin, her husband. She has just finished her treatment for breast cancer and thought a few days away will do her and martin good.
Unfortunately, martin, who is a director, could not get the days of work and although laura was devastated that he couldn't get the time off work she ran geoff and offered the holiday to us. Needless to say we said yes please.
So off we go.
We were to catch the ferry at 4.00pm on sunday at plymouth and we would arrive at santander monday morning at 11.30am.
I have been on a ferry before for a couple of hours to go france. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But when we got on the ferry something happened to me and I felt so ill. I did not feel sick but so dizzy, almost as if I was drunk. I hated it. The sea was so calm so I don't know why I was feeling the way I did but the first thing I did was check how many life boats there were.
There was many of them, but it still didn't make me feel any safer.
We took our luggage to our cabin and then went on deck to get some fresh air (and to have a ciggie).
After about an hour of watching the sea which was still so calm,we went into one of the many bars and had one glass of wine, that was enough. My head was even worse than before. Thinking about it logically, I suppose you could say I should not have one drink but at the time it seemed like a good idea. Geoff does not drink hardly any so he just had the two.
Later on we felt hungry and went into a cafe, and had a lovely ham salad. That was all I wanted as I wasn't particulary hungry but felt I should eat something.
Still my head was spinning.
We went back into the bar and had coffees this time and I did feel better.
The entertainment on the ferry was really good.
There was a couple of singers and then a magician came on. Well, I'm not a lover of magicians but I must admit this man was really good. On one of the acts he stood behind a see through curtain and his assistant (a young lady) went behind him and she pulled and pushed her way struggled 'through him'. It was very good and everyone clapped and cheered.
It took my mind off the way I was feeling I must admit.
The magician finished and suddenly we realizes how tired we were and went to the cabin.
The cabin:
One bed and another on top with a ladder.(bunk beds in other words)
Small toilet and shower but you had to be about 4ft nothing to get in it.
A very small table top with a little lamp on it.

Guess who had to get up the ladder and sleep on the top bunk bed???
Yes, thats right.

I am claustrophobic and that cabin did nothing to relive me of that.

Climbing up the bloody ladder I nearly fell off as the boat swayed a little, and I grabbed the sheets on top of the bed only to pull that away from the mattress.
I screamed and geoff pushed me up by my buttocks, he did it that hard I banged my head and wobbled for about a week.
I held on to the mattress even more.

Got into bed and slept on my side rather than my back as geoff said it will relive me of feeling dizzy.
It did not.
We kept the light on as I didn't want to drown in the dark.
I also kept my clothes on as I didn't want to drown in the nude.

Tossing and turning for most of the night eventually I dropped of to sleep. we both woke up about 5.30 am.
We got up and went out on deck for some fesh air (and to have a ciggie)

The cafe didn't open for breakfast until 7.30am so we got some drinks out of a machine which we had found after wandering around the ship for an hour.
Sitting down eating our breakfast geoff asked me if I was alright and did I feel better. Well, yes I did feel a little better and said so.
Good he said. You didn't hear the crashing and banging at 4.30.am this morning then? He asked.
I choked on my coffee and said no I hadn't.
He smiled and explained that for about an hour the bloody ferry had been rolling from side to side up and down and there was a lot of banging and crashing going on. Even geoff admitted he felt uneasy about it.

Many people were talking about it at breakfast because it had scared them although a lot of them sailed before.

I had slept through it all.

At 11.30am we left the ferry and I couldn't be better for it.


Next:
our 3 days in spain.