Saturday, 25 January 2025

Friday 24 January - Quinto

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in the village (small town?) of Quinto. Exact location: 41.425091, -0.499799
Weather: Sunny and warm (max 20 degrees)

We were away from Capbreton just a few minutes after 0830, and soon heading Spainwards. No need to take a painful around-the-houses route as we did on the way in - the road works are extensive, but only the townwards side of the road is closed. 

Toll roads saw us out of France (€10.10 total), into Spain (€3.06) and past Pamplona (€13.65 total). For the rest of the journey, at least as far as Zaragoza, we were on free motorways. (This detail may not be interesting to anyone else, but next time we find ourselves travelling this way, I will want these details and will revisit this post.)

Initially I'd set the SatNav for a supermarket in Pamplona, but that was only 1.5 hours into the journey, which seemed too soon to stop, so I reset it for the town of Tudela. There we achieved a big shop and Bertie was topped up at the bargain price of €1.35/litre.

We then had choices before us. We could continue our run for the coast, but with another 3.5 or so hours of driving, it would have been a long day. The second option was an Aire between Tudela and Zogoroza, but the third option was the one chosen: a stop at Decathlon in Zorogoza then onwards to this Aire in Quinto. 

There's an anotated map in the Aire showing the only advisable route in and out, so as to avoid the narrow streets of the old town. It'd be mighty handy if they also put some signs from the main road, as it's a bit late to impart the route information once you're already here! I knew not to enter the old town, but we did a bit of driving back and forth to find an acceptable way. 

It seems like a nice little Aire, in an elevated position with far-reaching views over the plain below and with the church right in front of us. That church also houses the (indeed, Spain's first ... they don't say if it's 'first and only') Mummy Museum. 

Being such a warm sunny afternoon, we took a wander around between arriving and tea time. Predictably, the place is absolutely dead (because places generally are at the times we find ourselves looking around), and seems to have more than its fair share of run down, dilapidated houses, many optimistically displaying for sale signs. Those are interspersed with some well presented houses. 

Those narrow streets don't catch the sun at this time of year, so it felt decidedly chilly down there, even though the display at the pharmacy told us it was still 17 degrees. Much warmer up by the church where the sun had heated the flagstones. 

View from Bertie's front bumper

View from the church

Town gates. Both have chapels above them. 

Bertie with one (French) neighbour

Conrad: hills you have walked through, as snapped early on in our drive this morning



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