Salamanca

After spending last night in an Aire in Leon we drove further south to the university city of Salamanca.

The university at Salamanca was the first to be built in Spain

The ornately decorated facade of the Patio de las Escuelas

We enjoyed wandering around the old part of the city, unfortunately it was very cold so we only spent an hour or so here.

Em joins the academics working with their charts

Southbound

After some deliberation, we've decided to revise our plans to circumnavigate Spain and Portugal in an anti-clockwise direction and head south to the warmer climes of the Med coast. We're finding the north of Spain too cold to explore properly and feel this is a shame because there are some really nice places so we'll go the other way round, returning to the north in Springtime.

We left the campsite in Luanco and headed south-east climbing up from the coast into the mountainous interior of Spain.

The temperature is dropping and its snowing!

A pause for breath (& pics of the snow)

At 1200m it was icy cold with 8" of snow - is this really Spain???

Caterpillar Snake

Em spotted this rare Caterpillar Snake.... or was it a game of "follow my leader"?!

Luanca

The pretty harbour at Luanca

Luanco

We spent all day today driving around looking for a campsite that's open this time of year so that we can park up whilst Steve goes to Sweden for a few days work. After looking at one that was open but quite expensive and another that was closed we finally found this nice one at Luanco.

Kiki parked amongst pine trees on the cliff edge campsite - miles and miles of stunning sea views again from our lounge. About 10m behind us there's a 100m sheer drop into the sea!

Llanes

It was too cold to spend last night in the Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa so we drove to a car park next to the beach in Llanes. Next morning we woke up to find that we'd been joined in the night by another motorhome!

Kiki and her nocturnal neighbour next to the beach at Llanes

The beach and rocky foreshore

Waiting for the fishermen to return

Say Cheese

Not really sure what this contraption's for - our thoughts were possibly cheese making or could it be sherry? ... moonshine anyone :-)

Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa

We are now driving through the Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa which doesn't seem to fit in with the stereotypical image of Spain. It's more reminicent of Switzerland with snow covered mountains and pretty alpine villages.

The mountains of the Picos de Europa were the first sight of Spain for returning sailors

The Alpine village of Potes

Icy cold snow melt - maybe we should save the dip for another day?

San Vicente de la Barquera

Today we decided to drive inland to visit the Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa. Enroute we drove through San Vicente de la Barquera which we thought looked like Teignmouth so we stopped for a closer look (oh, and lunch!)

Teignmouth at low tide..... or is it?

Comillas

Early morning in Comillas - Kiki and friends parked on the beach.

Low tide exposing the rocky foreshore

A monument to the founder of the town - it's supposed to be a ship!

Hole in the Wall

How about that for security - this ATM's behind a massive iron grill.... and it ripped me off by charging in Euro's instead of Sterling - a rubbish exchange rate and 2% commission - not impressed :-(

Santillana del Mar

Yesterday, after visiting Bilbao, we stopped for the night at a free Aire in Lierganes which is close to Santander.

Today we spent ages (and a small fortune) in a supermarket in Torrelavega sorting out a Spanish 3G dongle and then I had a business conference call which took up most of the remainder of the day. We were desparate for some fresh air so despite the fact that it was late afternoon we drove to Santillana del Mar and spent a pleasant half hour walking around before sunset. We then drove on to Comillas where we happend upon a beachside carpark where there were two English motorhomes. We parked up alongside and settled down for another night spent listening to the waves crashing on the beach.

Santillana del Mar is known as one of the prettiest villages in Spain

Well preserved houses with lovely wood and stonework

Narrow cobbled streets

Guggenheim, Bilbao

Today we are visiting the Guggenheim gallery in Bilbao. We left our overnight stop and drove into Bilbao following a GPS from our Camperstop book - the first place we found was miles away from the centre so we tried the second option which turned out to be right on the river and only about 1km from the museum - plus it was free which is more than can be said for the museum which was €11 each and no concessions for teachers :-(

The Guggenheim is plated in 60 tons of 3mm thick titanium - what an amazing building and the exhibitions are good too!

The ground floor has an amazing installation made up of large pieces of steel sheet forming a snake and several helixes which you can walk through.

The first floor has a weird photography/video exhibition which was actually quite funny.

The second floor has a well presented exhibition of paintings by 17 century northern european artists. The exhibition itself was divided into several sections and each section had a nice simple introduction and just a few pictures in a large, well lit space. The overall effect wasn't overwhelming like many galleries which made it far more interesting.

Hello Puppy - Jeff Koons's sculpture is covered in hundreds of Pansy's

Fountains and a funky foggy feature outside the gallery

San Sebastian

The harbour in San Sebastian

A big church

One of the squares in the old town that was formerly a bullring

This closeup shows the numbers on the boxes in the bullring are now used as flat numbers

Wind Combs

Today we drove the short distance from the campsite in France to an Aire in San Sebastian on our first day in Spain! After some searching for a parking place we eventually found the Aire tucked away in the University part of the town. It was however only about 15mins from the beaches and town and a bargain at €3.05 for 24hrs :-)

"Wind Combs" sculptures adorning the rocks

Blowholes - it was windy standing here!
Em tried this on one of the other blowholes and got a wet bum when the sea spray was blown through the hole :-)

The Atlantic swell tries to remove the "wind comb" from its rock

Crested Wood Waders

The campsite where we're staying is home to a very rare flock of Crested Wood Waders. As you can see the're very tame but try as she might Em couldn't get them to eat out of her hand.

Camping Larorouleta

Today we're staying on a campsite close to St Jean de Luz on the France/Spain border. We came here mainly to use their internet for a business conference call but the ACSI campsites book said that this site has a year-round heated, indoor swimming pool and we were also looking forward to nice dip. Unfortunately the pool is currently empty :-(

The boating/swimming lake at the campsite

Biarritz

This afternoon we drove the short distance to Biarritz, parked up in the Aire and went for a long walk along the beaches.

Big waves - this is known as the "Surfing Capital of Europe"

Ahhh.... lovely warm sunshine - this is why we came :-)

Bayonne

Last night, after exploring the lagoon, we played musical motorhomes, which involves driving from one carpark to another to find the best free parking where we wouldn't be alone and would be safe. It seemed like everyone had the same idea and kept moving around.... or perhaps they were trying to avoid us! Anyway as dusk approached we found a spot next to another motorhome right on the beach and spend a quiet night with the sound of the crashing waves in the background.

Today we are visiting Bayonne which is the capital of the Basque region. We drove the short distance from Vieux Boucau into the city looking around for a carpark big enough for Kiki and without a height restriction.

After a while we spotted a carpark on the opposite (left hand) side of the road which was entered by taking a turning to the right, making a shart 180 deg turn then crossing the road at a set of traffic lights. We waited for ages for the lights to change for us noticing several changes in all other directions. Finally, after juggling back forward to activate the road sensors we gave up and with nothing coming either way decided to cross anyway. We spotted what we thought was the entrance and drove into the carpark only to discover that we'd driven over the pavement and there were 1.8m barriers on the entrance and exit. We parked across two spaces and left Kiki to explore the city. The final traffic offence of the day came when we drove back over the pavement and 20m the wrong way up a one-way street to get back out of the carpark.

The cathedral of Notre Dame in Bayern

Narrow streets inside the medieval walled part of the city

Vieux Boucau

Today we're in the resort of Vieux Boucau which has a beautiful lagoon surrounded by a sandy beach and classy looking apartments.

Lookout behind you....!!

The lagoon from the sea