Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in a car park on the edge of the Basque town of Beasain. Exact location: 43.04656, -2.21213.
Weather: Some cloud, but quite a bit of sun. A couple of very brief showers. 8 degrees first thing in Zamora (forecast high of 13), 22 degrees on arrival in Beasain.
We were early bird tourists today. With a drive ahead of us, we left Bertie not long after 0830 to go and have a look around Zamora. Unsurprisingly, it was quiet at that time of day. And cold! Just 8 degrees said the display outside a pharmacy, and with both of us wearing gloves and with our jackets zipped up to our chins, we had no reason to doubt its accuracy.
The cathedral was the first point of interest we came upon
The castle was next
Sculpture in the castle park
View along the river from behind the palace
Mick imitates art
One of the squares
Zamora is a large walled town, and on our quick look around it struck us as a place worthy of a revisit to explore at greater length. As it was today, we walked by the main points of interest, then stopped in the square for coffee and second breakfast.
Mick placed the order: two coffees, one tostada con tomate, one croissant con mermelada. The order was correctly repeated back to him. Then they brought two tostadas con tomate and a plate of ham... I took this snap whilst Mick was waiting for what he really ordered (at which point they took the ham away too).
Whilst waiting for our order, I did a bit more research on Google Maps. Last night I'd looked at various options as to where we could go today (today's entry on the itinerary being 'somewhere between Zamora and Tolosa'). One place was ruled out as I couldn't find a good walking route for tomorrow morning. Two others had good routes nearby, but were slow detours up mountains from the motorway - in one case 35km = 1hr detour). This morning it had occurred to me that we could have a big day of driving today, all the way to Tolosa, and maybe there was a good route we could do from there. It didn't take me long to find three suitable routes, all starting near the Aire at Tolosa, and to establish that Google was reporting a 4hr20 journey time, which we translated to mean 6hrs at Bertie speed and with a stop for lunch.
Our estimate was accurate, except that we didn't quite end up in Tolosa.
Mick must have had a boring day of driving, but with it being motorway almost all the way, my day went much faster, having decided to see whether I could sit at Bertie's dining room table (perfectly legally; they're travelling seats and I was strapped in) and work on the laptop whilst Mick drove. Yes, was the answer (although trying to plot a route on the map was difficult, with the mouse skittering around on anything but the smoothest of roads). The downside was that I missed much of the scenery.
I went back to the cab to join Mick twice, and both times we were driving through fantastic, hilly scenery. The second time was when the laptop ran out of power, and I couldn't see a way of charging it without risking the inverter falling on my head. Great rocky hills and interesting rock formations were all around us, and the houses suddenly looked very Basque in style.
The end of the day was well within sight when Google Maps reported that there was an accident up ahead. I had a look and there was a half-hour delay reported immediately before Tolosa. A quick look on Park4Night and I saw this Aire, just 9km ahead of us, before we were going to hit the back of the traffic queue, and it was such a small detour that I thought we may as well have a look. We've stayed at the Aire in Tolosa before and whilst there are reasons why we're going back there, it's not attractive, nor in a nice location, so it was unlikely this one would be worse.
We arrived to find quite a few other motorhomes, but none of them is in one of the Aire spaces, which have a 72hr limit. Rather they're all in car parking spaces, they all have their blinds closed and they're all Spanish - which is to say they're owned by people who live nearby and are being stored here. As car parks go, it doesn't seem a bad one.
Having sat still for so much of the day, our first priority on arrival was a stroll, which took us almost to the town centre (we think), and past various information signs. It looks a smart place in lovely surroundings, and based on our perusal of an estate agent's window, it's a desirable place to live.
Historic buildings, the other side of the river that runs through the town
Information signs in four languages...
...Basque language takes priority. Bears no resemblance to any other language I'm familiar with..
Sculpture of the day - best viewed when the sun is out
Matterhorn?!
Weather: Some cloud, but quite a bit of sun. A couple of very brief showers. 8 degrees first thing in Zamora (forecast high of 13), 22 degrees on arrival in Beasain.
We were early bird tourists today. With a drive ahead of us, we left Bertie not long after 0830 to go and have a look around Zamora. Unsurprisingly, it was quiet at that time of day. And cold! Just 8 degrees said the display outside a pharmacy, and with both of us wearing gloves and with our jackets zipped up to our chins, we had no reason to doubt its accuracy.
Zamora is a large walled town, and on our quick look around it struck us as a place worthy of a revisit to explore at greater length. As it was today, we walked by the main points of interest, then stopped in the square for coffee and second breakfast.
Whilst waiting for our order, I did a bit more research on Google Maps. Last night I'd looked at various options as to where we could go today (today's entry on the itinerary being 'somewhere between Zamora and Tolosa'). One place was ruled out as I couldn't find a good walking route for tomorrow morning. Two others had good routes nearby, but were slow detours up mountains from the motorway - in one case 35km = 1hr detour). This morning it had occurred to me that we could have a big day of driving today, all the way to Tolosa, and maybe there was a good route we could do from there. It didn't take me long to find three suitable routes, all starting near the Aire at Tolosa, and to establish that Google was reporting a 4hr20 journey time, which we translated to mean 6hrs at Bertie speed and with a stop for lunch.
Our estimate was accurate, except that we didn't quite end up in Tolosa.
Mick must have had a boring day of driving, but with it being motorway almost all the way, my day went much faster, having decided to see whether I could sit at Bertie's dining room table (perfectly legally; they're travelling seats and I was strapped in) and work on the laptop whilst Mick drove. Yes, was the answer (although trying to plot a route on the map was difficult, with the mouse skittering around on anything but the smoothest of roads). The downside was that I missed much of the scenery.
I went back to the cab to join Mick twice, and both times we were driving through fantastic, hilly scenery. The second time was when the laptop ran out of power, and I couldn't see a way of charging it without risking the inverter falling on my head. Great rocky hills and interesting rock formations were all around us, and the houses suddenly looked very Basque in style.
The end of the day was well within sight when Google Maps reported that there was an accident up ahead. I had a look and there was a half-hour delay reported immediately before Tolosa. A quick look on Park4Night and I saw this Aire, just 9km ahead of us, before we were going to hit the back of the traffic queue, and it was such a small detour that I thought we may as well have a look. We've stayed at the Aire in Tolosa before and whilst there are reasons why we're going back there, it's not attractive, nor in a nice location, so it was unlikely this one would be worse.
We arrived to find quite a few other motorhomes, but none of them is in one of the Aire spaces, which have a 72hr limit. Rather they're all in car parking spaces, they all have their blinds closed and they're all Spanish - which is to say they're owned by people who live nearby and are being stored here. As car parks go, it doesn't seem a bad one.
Having sat still for so much of the day, our first priority on arrival was a stroll, which took us almost to the town centre (we think), and past various information signs. It looks a smart place in lovely surroundings, and based on our perusal of an estate agent's window, it's a desirable place to live.
I see you have now driven north from the Via de la Plata towns, but you might be back one day! I've just been re-reading my blog entries from those places and remembered my inspiration: Tony Kevin's "Walking the Camino", written in 2007. This is a very thought-provoking book, which gos far beyond the travelogue, discussing how the world is using up its resources too quickly. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price, he says. I wonder what he thinks of the expensive AUKUS deal.
ReplyDeleteI've many times said that I could happily spend every summer in Germany, and every winter in Spain, so (barring disaster!) I'm sure we will be back. Zamora and Hervás will both be on the 'visit' list.
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