So the trip for me really started from the Mies De Villa B&B in Soma; less than 30 mins from the Santander terminal on the other side of the bay.
You know that sinking feeling when your carefully laid plans have been trashed by some unforeseen event? It was like that, this morning - Thursday Sept 1st. I noticed that my small pouch in which I keep my maps, was missing. I imagined my having to return to the restaurant in Somo and having to wait until at least midday until anyone arrived....However, I had had a premature senior moment and all was well.
At 7:30am, and in accordance with my planned schedule, I set off from the comfortable and highly recommended Mies De Villa with bats still flying around and dawn yet to fully break.
The journey today was simple; Santander to my base B&B near Tarbes (near Lourdes) on the French side of the Pyrenees. My route was to take the Autopista (motorway) to Pamplona and from there head east south east to Jaca where I would take the N330 into France.
Well, the Autopista between Santander and Bilbao is stunning! Yes, it’s a motorway but it has wonderful bends as the road snakes through hills and low lying mountains with panoramic vistas opening up at frequent intervals.
To my great disappointment, the Spanish seem to have followed the French in their imposition of absurd speed limits which not only try to impose an upper limit on speed but seek to do so at such frequent intervals that drivers appears to totally ignore them and just drive at, what I considered to be safe speeds. An example of this madness was a stretch of motorway with two wide lanes - flat and straight for a number of miles - with a 62 mph (100 km) limit. So everyone ignores it and runs at around 75-85 mph; just like UK.
Despite my meticulous route planning - and its transposition to the SatNav - I made an error in Pamplona and I had to stop and manually target Jaca. Apart from that one small blip, the routing and directions had been perfect for which I had been grateful since arrival in Spain; as I had enough to think about, let alone worry about navigation!
The road started to get really interesting from Jaca onwards where I turned north and headed towards the Sompart pass and France. 
Beautiful scenery, great roads and surface and light traffic. The weather was fine; almost too fine as it was pushing 28C which started to become a little too warm for comfort. However, I celebrated my arrival into France by stopping for a sandwich and a coca cola!
My route to my B&B - Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours - took me through Lourdes where I witnessed coach-loads of pilgrims visiting the holy sites. (I won’t get into a discussion here over my views of this glorification of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ).
I arrived at Vielle-Adour at around 3:30pm and was welcomed by Bellinda Battersby who, of course, was expecting me.
The screen shot below is the route from today's ride
Now, there are B&Bs and there are B&Bs. Phil and Bellinda have something special here and I make this observation after having spent just 15 hrs here so far. 
It may be a cliché but it feels like one if staying with friends. The house is open and one helps oneself to drinks for all sorts including wine and beer; as much as you wish; and all included in the single nightly rate. My room is comfortable and I have a view directly south towards some of the peaks of the Pyrenees.
Staying here as well are two other couples and Phil’s son Ed. We are all keen motorcyclists (for why else would we be here ?!) and the route for tomorrow has already been planned. As is usual in any group, there are a variety of rising styles and preferences, so I am likely to pair up with Phil’s son on his Honda VFR who likes to ride at a fun pace also. We shall see.
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