THE FERRY TO SPAIN

I had the most amazing night's sleep in my cabin on Pont Avon, Brittany Ferry's enormous ferry that was taking Jaana and me from Plymouth to Santander. I woke up to find a cat in my cabin. I did not own a cat but somehow it was mine. The cat desparately wanted to get out so I quickly got up, opened the door and let it out. Then I woke up properly and found that there was no cat. It was just a dream.

I had become something of a ferry expert last year with my bike ride around the North Sea coast. I had caught 23 ferries in all and my favourite was Stena Line who not only gave me a free meal in their luxury restaurant but also let me off their ferry first at Harwich. My current ship looked good with its cinema, pool, restaurants and amiable French crew.

We met three other cyclists, two who were doing the same journey as us to Roscoff and a third who looked scarily fit. He was off to do a month in the Pyrannes.

I had packed only tee shirts and my suncream bought in Germany last year that was so strong I could not get a suntan. I imaged Spain to be 40C heat so my surprise was total when we arrived at Santander in a Scottish mist. Luckily I had also bought a jumper and waterproofs. Because Brittany Ferries did not let cyclists off first and the loo in the cabin did not work too well, I confided in Jaana that Stena Line is still my favourite. Scarily fit cyclist overheard me and said that Stena Line is favourite ferry as well.

After a brief pedal up and down, Santander's waterfront, Jaana and I jumped on another ferry to take us over the estuary to the start of our next cycling adventure