Advertisement
We woke early on Wednesday to find it was raining cats and dogs, the tent was seriously wet, having hummed and harred over a cupper we went for the stay in place option for the day. With Ian’s highly accurate weather app telling us that the rain would stop at 8pm (it actually stopped at 8.02pm!) we decided on a catch up on laundry and find a supermarket day.
Woolly say – I had a look outside the tent but couldn’t see any cats and dogs so I’m not sure what they are on about, there was an awful lot of rain though. Once showered we set off to find a supermarket, driving round the town of Zarautz was different, with stray people walking in front of Oliver and no sign of anything that looked like it was open we realised we had hit siesta time. Finally on our fourth trip round the streets we spied something that looked appropriate and pulled up, while Jo checked the other cars displaying parking tickets (this is done every time we stop) and decided we didn’t need one. Inside Eroski was very big, we causally cruised up and down the aisles,
strawberries at 1.99 Euros (approximately £1.60 GBP) went straight in the basket as did a few bottles! Ian and I wanted to buy one of the smoked and dried legs of pork on display, there were hundreds, but Jo vetoed this idea. Having filled our wheelie basket and added a few other things that we fancied trying, we headed back to camp and a relaxing night.
I seemed to be the only one awake this morning and had a shower, made the breakfast brew before trying to stir Ian and Woolly. Packed and off we paid our 36 Euros (approximately £29.00 GBP) for the two nights (the same for Motorhomes but add on 3 Euros for hook up) and set off for Frias.
Woolly says – We drove through heavily inhabited areas with huge apartment blocks and high bridges dominating our view – Jo thought that the person who built Spaghetti Junction (Birmingham area) must have moved to Spain after its completion – 150 KM later and we started to see some real scenery. Through the hills and mountains we drove with a chorus of Wow’s, Awesome, Amazing coming from all of us. Having
left the newer buildings way behind we were seeing much older buildings and ancient old churches as we passed through the towns and villages. Now this was the Spain we had been looking for. Spotting the town of Frias from 3KM away we had a quick stop at the 16
th century Bridge for snaps before driving higher and higher into the town. The castle fortification was perched on the side of the rock face and didn’t look all that safe, but since it’s been there since the 12
th century I guess it wasn’t going anywhere. After a steep walk up to the castle gates we first headed over to the pretty church, standing 1.904 metres above sea level we had an amazing view.
With black clouds gathering we made our way over to the castle, the lady in the information centre told us that the castle closed at 2pm, that gave us 15 minutes, paying our 1.50 Euro each (approximately £1.20 GBP) we charged over to the entrance, with cameras snapping and gripping onto Woolly we raced up the horribly steep steps to the tower.
Woolly says – the steeps were terrible, with Jo
clinging to the rails we went up higher and higher, it made me feel quite sick and I was very glad to reach the bottom again. With a minute to spare we arrived back at the entrance, the fastest time ever to visit a castle? Heading towards the car park the black clouds turned into heavy rain and we made it back into Oliver before we were completely drenched. Carrying on towards the town of Burgos, the temperature was steadily dropping, the rain stopped for a while but angry black clouds dominated the sky and we could see snow on the mountains, did I want to spent the night in a tent, not on your nelly.
We found our chosen campsite for the night at Pancorbo, driving up the incredibly steep driveway – we would never have got Georgie up there – the place appeared closed and not very inviting, we turned around and set off to find other accommodation. With tempretuire dropping further and further we made the decision to abandon the tent and find a B and B for the night.
Woolly says – We found ourselves in the town of Tirgo
in the Rioja region, surrounded by vines again we settled in for a night in a REAL bed with a bathroom which doesn’t require us to put coats and boots on to reach, bliss.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0465s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb