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

Lit et Mixe

After leaving the dune yesterday we drove to the Aire at Mimizan where we planned to fill our water tanks which were practically empty as the previous two stops had their water isolated due to ice. Unfortunately the layout of the Aire has changed and you now have to pay to go through a barrier to the tap! Ever resourceful, we parked close to the entrance and proceeded to fill up with our jerry can. A nice French chap staying in the Aire noticed our plight and offered his hosepipe. Unfortunately it wasn't long enough so we lengthened it by connecting to ours filled up to the brim.

We then continued on to the free Aire at Lit et Mixe which we discovered no longer existed. The warden of the local campsite suggested a carpark by the beach but on driving down there we discovered it had a no-motorhome-parking sign. In the end we decided to risk an overnight in this carpark as despite the sign there was a French motorhome already there - if you can't beat 'em join 'em!

We spent a lovely, undisturbed, night here listening to the waves crashing on the beach.


Early morning on the beach at Lit et Mixe

More silly sign's

Dune du Pilat

After a spending last night on the Aire at Le Mothe St Heray which we eventually found despite an inaccurate GPS position trying to park us in the village square, today we had an early start and drove to the Dune du Pilat which is the largest sand dune in europe.

Famous last words en-route to the dune: "don't worry there's a set of steps to the top"......... oops - we arrived to find the steps were piled up in the trees at the bottom!

Over 100m high - not an easy climb on slippery sand!

Em halfway up

We eventually made it to the top

It's difficult the show the scale of this sand dune - 3km long, 500m wide and over 100m tall

Mind the edge!

Poitier

Over the last three days we've driven south over 400 miles. On Tuesday we stopped in Le Thouet on one of the few campsites that seem to be open in France as we needed internet access for a business conference call. On Wednesday stayed on an Aire and today we're visiting Poitier which is in the Loire Valley roughly halfway down France.

The church of Notre Dame La Grande

Columns in the church decorated with colourful geometric patterns

A waterwheel on the river Clain in Poitier