Hola from Espagne

Village on Northern Spain Coast Lekeitio

 It is a big country with a variety of regions, a population about 46 million, but with very high unemployment. We have a few items on our list to tick off as the only place in Spain we have seen is Barcelona. Different words to get our heads used to, muchos gracious, adios, sidra, cerveza (cider and beer)

The Spanish Basque area - our first stop was San Sebastian, traffic everywhere but we found the aire with no hiccups, it was good and cheap at about $5 a night. A cycle path was close by so Howard and Hilda were unloaded to travel this dedicated cycleway with its own traffic lights and rubber lane separators to protect us from cars. Not too far from the aire we beheld the vista of a golden horseshoe of sand with people enjoying the promenade along the seafront. We continued into town and near the harbour with bright little fishing boats we chose a tapas bar for lunch. The bar was filled with noise from the bar staff shouting orders to the kitchen staff, steel troughs in the kick space in front of the bar held the empty shells of mussels discarded by patrons.. turnover was fast and furious and someone was kept busy clearing away the debris. The menu was limited and lucky for us there were illustrations on the wall of the menu items . Mussels steamed with lemon plus breadcrumbed calamari with deep fried small green capsicum, accompanied by slices of baguette made an excellent tummy filler.

Bilbao, view from bridge over Guggenheim

We filled in the time until the shops opened at 4pm by cycling around the beaches and waterfront and taking coffee in the sun - a cafe solo for Stuart and a cafe con leche (milk) for me. I spent a whole hour shopping. I was let loose on the understanding I would return to the church with the fancy crenelations on the spires to meet Stuart.

“Yes, yes, yes”, I said and headed straight to the 4 storey Zara, on the way back I checked out a couple of shoe shops then set off to the landmark of church spires. However ..... these had disappeared behind other buildings and I was lost. Panic set in – I would never be allowed off shopping again. I looked for someone who I thought would speak English and struck lucky – I was pointed in the right direction just in time to meet my deadline.

The next day was exactly the same, we all bought something at Zara, Chausson was treated to a couple of table mats from Zara Home. San Sebastian is one of the the most lovely cities I have visited. It is small, only about 200,000 which probably makes it more attractive. Elegant buildings in the town centre, a sweeping golden beach plus a surf beach. There are fashionably stylish people enjoying the promenades and parks, just sitting watching the world go by was a real pleasure.

We headed westward along the Atlantic coast, stopping at a campsite in Zumaia to re-charge the batteries (Chausson’s). The beach looked spectacular but it was blocked off due to filming of Game of Thrones. The next coastal stop was Lekeitio, a town described as a mini San-Sebastian, I will concede it had similar physical properties – harbour, two beaches .... but where were the elegant buildings/shops/clientele? The accommodation was free however and entirely satisfactory. There are cars everywhere as we make our way through small towns along the coast – more cars than people it seems, so that scotches any idea of parking Chausson and having a look-see.

Bilbao was next on the itinerary, and to get there we had to travel through Guernica, stopping to replenish stores at Lidl. A lot of people don’t like Lidl but I am a fan and always feel better returning to the truck with bags of goodies. The stores are small, easy to get around and don’t offer too many alternatives so my head doesn’t spin with all the options. Best of all they are well priced, I bought a replacement bottle of gin for about $6.50, not actually Bombay Sapphire but I am not very discerning.

The most interesting thing about Guernica was that Franco wanted it bombed and called on Hitler to help. It is believed that Guernica not only blocked Franco’s path to Bilbao but also had a strong symbolic value to the Basques (who were opposed to Franco and had their own autonomous government). Hitler obliged willingly and planes flew over conducting saturation bombing on 29 April 1937. Present day Guernica is a modern town that was built hastily to replace the ruins.

Picasso was moved to create a painting titled Guernica – the original hangs in Madrid while a copy is in the entrance hall at UN Headquarters.

The aire in Bilboa was high above the city with a fantastic view. We could just make out the Guggenheim. At night it looked even better and we kept the windscreen blinds open so we could enjoy the view. We took the bus into town and walked along the riverside and visited the exhibitions in the Guggenheim – not really my taste but I did like the massive steel sculptures. After the visit I was feeling under the weather with a cold and told Stuart I would make my own way back on the bus.

Spanish parking, and the #58 bus couldn’t get through. The bus driver was unconcerned and after some tooting he switched off the engine and got his lunch out. The other passengers disappeared and I was dying to get back and just lie down and hadn’t a clue how to get there. After my panic attack I figured another #58 bus would surely come along, and after quite a while one did.

The last night we spent in Bilbao there was a large bush fire on the opposite side of the valley, it spread as an ever increasing ring and it seemed to take a long time for the fire dept to get it under control.

On the road in the Picos Europa (mountain area)

Leaving the Basque area behind, I set the satnav to take us to an aire at Cabarceno. It was just beautiful with a small lake surrounded by trees already changed into their autumn colours. Not a total surprise, as I had read about it, was the very short walk to look at what was behind the aire. A herd of 13 elephants were scattered over a large grassy area in a disused quarry. Stuart saw the matriarch trumpet “meeting at the waterhole in five” and the rest of the herd came running.

Cable cars were spread across the park and we glided over elephants, hippos, baboons, zebras, antelopes, big cats, lots of brown native bears .... the park was beautifully set out, the animals had lovely large natural surroundings, there were 14km of roads for the paying public to drive on. I have never seen such a wonderful place for captive animals to spend their time. The bears had a huge area, some ponds to lie in and natural caves to hide in, the babies were enjoying play-fights and they were undisturbed by us gliding overhead in the safety of a cable car. We saw less than half the species the park kept.

View from campsite

The weather forecast was good which is important for a trip to the mountains, we are off to see the Picos de Europa, one of Lonely Planets ‘must see in Spain’. Winding very slowly through deep gorges we saw a few Mastif-type dogs with thick coats and large spiked collars watching their flocks. They all looked bored and probably dreaming about the luxury of chasing sticks and balls. One didn’t seem to care that one of his charges was sleeping on the road, “it is only a goat” he said, “the sheep are more valuable”. The spiked collars are H&S equipment against wolf attacks.

The Picos are dramatic spiny grey rocky mountains that look a little like the Dolomites in Italy. We are really lucky that the weather is warm (shorts out again) and the trees are ‘Arrowtown in autumn’ but on a bigger scale. We spent a night camped outside a monastery that houses the holy relic of a chunk of Christ’s cross and features the nailhole that passed through Christ’s left hand. It was actually a massive bus park, no one was at the monastery the morning we tried to look in, only someone selling lottery tickets (a back up option?). It must be the most unpopular aire we have stayed at, great view though.

At nearby pretty Potes there was a milk vending machine in the middle of the town. As I walked up to it an electronic voice instructed me IN ENGLISH how to use it. Spooky – it was like weighing tomatoes at a flash supermarket, the scales only showed red vegetables to choose from, did the scales colour-detect and the vending machine face-detect?

Moving along as we do we are leaving the mountains, last night we came down a torturous route from a fabulous spot to a small aire (4 places). The 4 places were full so we slunk to the other side of the carpark area to join about 50 Spanish motorhomes with the same idea as us.