Spain, Santander via Ávila and Valladolid and Santillana del mar

So here’s a picture of what I had for breakfast today, as promised

There’s the big wide world and all its big problems, and there’s this little bubble world of mine here which, to be honest, has had its share of problems this week

I’m in seedy downtown Santander and the van is in for repairs. A new butterfly, mariposa, which is all about the throttle intake. Remember that intermittent check engine problem I had a while back? It came back and no amount of tightening the gas tank cap would sort it

It’s taken me a week to get to this point, and I’ve been pretty nervous. Not because it’s the end of the world really, but because I’m way out of my comfort zone with this stuff, and don’t have the routines yet to deal with it. But I’m learning. In my discussions with myself, I’m trying to run it all under the heading ”resilience training”

So the light came on and then went off as I left Toledo headed for Ávila, a couple of hours drive so I figured it should be ok. (Ávila has an interesting story, saints, nuns, and inquisitors, so I’ll come back to that). It was Friday afternoon, so I googled up a workshop and was on their doorstep first thing saturday. Nope, too busy to even run a diagnostic check

So I settled in to wait for monday. The thing is though that Ávila is the coldest, highest city in spain. Spain is having a pretty bad patch of weather just now, so it was intermittently snowing and raining. Miserable. I decided to push my luck and drive to another cold, but slightly less cold, place called Valladolid. Which has some stories I’ve come across in my reading and was a couple of hours further along my route north

Made it fine, and I did a half-hearted tourist walk around the town, it’s not such a fun place. More snowflakes. Monday morning on the doorstep of the local fiat workshop and a lovely guy runs the diagnostic thingie for me and explains the butterfly problem. We chat about van life and freedom and being trapped in work life - all thanks to the two-way translation apps on our phones. He suggests I drive somewhere warmer and find a new workshop. Says the van will make it a bit further. I agree, about the warm part

So I head for a village up in the hills outside Santander, its an absolutely gorgeous area that I’ve had my eyes on for a while. The sun is shining, I get my chair out. And next morning start the workshop rounds in Santander

Santander is a shit city. Big port, economically struggling, just ugly. But it has a lot of workshops and by midday I’ve been to 5 of them. All involved double-parking, squeezy-squirmy corners, reversing, waiting for old men and delivery vans who’d double-parked in my way. And etc. But none could help. Don’t do fiat (despite google’s best advice), or don’t have time. But every single person was kind and helpful. Got a tip to an indie garage, friend of a friend of a fiat salesman, and drove there. Closed for lunch.

So I double-parked, made a cup pf tea, ate the rest of my dry baguette, and sure enough at 1500 they opened and were lovely. Yes they would help, yes they would do the diagnostics now and do the repairs as soon as they could. Halleluja

And so three hours later after a pretty dismal town walk, I picked up the van, parts ordered, and chugged back up my hill to the same camp. And spent the whole day sitting in the sun yesterday with a book!

Back to the workshop this morning bright and early and they’re ready and waiting for me, big smiles and really clean and professional place. In a few hours we’ll be back on track😊

Oh, and I learned a new life lesson. Parking on grass when its wet. So I got bogged at the campground, they were really good about it and came with big rubber plates to unbog me. I had parked nose down with no way to roll forward. Oops. Parked on asphalt last night haha

But, perspective. I saw a video from the sort of beachside van parks I’ve stayed at so many times. Many, many mobile homes stuck, stranded and flooded. The water is up at door level. Their stress levels must be up around their ears

Amazingly (silver linings), I picked the best-weather place in the country to sit out this weather mess.

And that’s the news from my bubble. The breakfast was great, as it always is😉