When we left Valencia we had a long but relatively easy drive 450km North to Olite. I say it was easy, but we were driving straight into a strong headwind, so even with Colin’s foot to the floor we were topping 50 mph. The first part of the journey we were climbing up onto the plateau of central inland Spain. We could see snow-capped hills in the distance and the wind was bitterly cold even in the sunshine. There were big groups of wind turbines, although bizarrely many of them were not operating.
The sky got progressively darker and it was raining by the time we reached Olite late afternoon. The motorhome parking area was just outside the town walls. We wrapped up and had a walk around the town – beautiful historic buildings dominated by the Palacio Real. Being the Spanish Christmas Day, it was very quiet, with just a few people maybe walking off lunch. We got ourselves cosied up in Lo11y with a bottle of red and Spag Bol.
In the morning we visited the Palacio – it was unfurnished inside but had great views of the town and surrounding countryside from the towers.
We weren’t entirely sure where we were going to stop the night but were heading further into the Rioja wine region. We had also noted there was a dinosaur route for part of it. The scenery was stunning – undulating roads, dramatic sky and clouds and red colourful rock faces. We also passed numerous cave dwellings on the route, some that had been inhabited until the 1960’s.
The Spanish towns all have a similar layout with either a castle or large church perched on a hill with the town built up around it. The other thing that’s always impressed us in Spain is the road signs reminding drivers to give cyclists a 1.5m clearance when overtalking them and showing that cyclists should ride two abreast. While these are the rules in the UK, our impression is that most drivers don’t know this, and we still experience a lot of beeps and angry fist shaking from drivers who have driven far too close to us and overtaken without a clear view of oncoming traffic.
We stopped at a town called Pinas de Arnedillo where we had read there were some thermal springs the public can use for free. They are free as they are outside and have no changing facilities, so I was a bit surprised when Colin, who is not renowned for his bravery and tolerance for the cold, (I keep telling him he is a faux Northerner which he can’t disagree with) said he was going for a bath. Although I thought it was a daft idea, I suffered a bout of FOMO, so got my cossie and towel ready, still not really expecting to use them. We had to park Lo11y in a motorhome parking area on the top of the hill of the town and had a 20 minute walk down to the river where we found the pools. There were around ten people already in them. There were 3 pools, the first being the hottest and the other two each a little cooler. There were a couple of benches, so we found ourselves stripping off into our bathers very quickly and slid into the first pool. It was lovely and warm, although Colin wandered if this was the hottest one and moved to the other two to find out. The answer was obvious looking at how quickly he returned. Our problem was now getting out of the hot pool into three degrees air (feeling colder with the windchill) and get dressed. It’s amazing how quickly you can do this when required. We warmed up with a steep walk back up to the parking area still marvelling that we’d done it, but glad that we had. The parking area was lovely with great views over the town, but we decided to carry on with our journey to track dinosaurs.
The road continued to be very scenic, and increasingly snowy. We passed a closed Dinosaur Theme Park, but shortly after that came across a huge green dinosaur statue sitting above the road. We stopped for a closer look and to get some photos before continuing a few more kilometres to Villar del Rio and finding another site at the side of the road where there were dinosaur footprints in the stone. Very bizarre.
The light was beginning to fade so we drove on through increasingly snowy landscapes to Logrono, the capital city of the Rioja region. We were a bit surprised at how large and built up the city is and found what we thought was the motorhome Aire on the edge of town next to a municipal sports complex. It was a huge parking area, but there were no other motorhomes there – just a lone caravan that didn’t look occupied. I was worried why there were no other motorhomes parked up there – what did they know that we didn’t? We decided to park up nearer the sports complex where there were a few cars parked up and further away from the main road. The cars gradually left and we were alone. As every wall around us was covered in graffiti, my next worry was we’d wake up and find Lo11y decorated in the morning. Colin admitted this thought had crossed his mind too. After dinner, we heard a car pull up – Colin had a peak and saw two guys in a souped-up car having a good look at Lo11y. They then went on to doing some noisy donuts around the car park (deliberately spinning the vehicle in a circle while letting the rear wheels spin freely without gaining traction), but thankfully they eventually left. As we climbed into bed with our books, we then heard another weird whirring noise. This time it was two guys sitting in the boot of a car playing with some remote-controlled cars. Why would you do this on a freezing cold Sunday at 11 o’clock at night? We’re not sure when they left, but we actually managed to get a good nights sleep in the end.
In the morning Colin happily reported that Lo11y hadn’t changed colour. As we pulled out of the parking area, we drove past another much nicer parking area next door full of motorhomes!
Not surprisingly we were keen to do some Rioja wine tasting, so decided to visit a couple of the main towns where bodegas are based and spend the night at the second so Colin could taste without driving. It was a short drive to the first town of Laguardia. It is a beautiful walled medieval town, with lots of bodegas on the outskirts. We parked up and had a walk around the town which we really liked. There were great views out over the surrounding landscape, and interesting sculpture and monuments dotted around the town. We ended up in an Irish café bar for coffee and Colin managed a second breakfast.
We continued on to Haro, which we expected to be equally as nice as Laguardia, having been described as ‘a charming historic town with winding lanes to get lost in’. This didn’t tally with our first impression when we drove through the town. It looked like a tired 70’s style town. There were a few nicer buildings in the old part of the town, but many looked derelict or in need of restoration. The free camping Aire was surrounded by blocks of flats. There was only one other Spanish motorhome there just about to leave and the guy confirmed the town is a let-down, but the wine tasting was not, so that convinced us to stay for the night.
We had a walk into the old town which further increased the impression of a town in decline. In the main square a large number of buildings had old for sale signs up, and there seemed very little sign of life. The tourist office was closed, so we headed down over the river to the area where all the bodegas were located and selected a couple to visit. We’d checked online that morning and all of them only offered tours in the morning, but most seemed to offer tastings. The first bodega we visited was Muga. It is a family-owned bodega that was set up in 1932 and the visitors area was in a lovely old (and thankfully warm) building. They confirmed there were no afternoon tours, so we sat at the bar and shared a flight of five of their wines – one white and four reds of increasing price and quality. They were all very nice wines, but our favourite one, a Gran Reserva, was €70 a bottle so we left empty handed. Based on our feedback of the wine we like, the lady serving us suggested we should visit a smaller winery up the road that only made very traditional and lighter riojas. The bodega of Vina Tondonia is a beautiful traditional set of buildings, but the visitor area attached to the front is a very futuristic metallic structure which although eye catching seemed at odds with their philosophy of wanting to be seen as a traditional wine maker. When we went in we were told that they did not do tastings by the glass and we would have to buy a bottle of whatever we wanted to try. When we said we’d been recommended to visit by the lady at the Muga bodega we were suddenly offered a glass to try from a bottle that had been opened from a tour that morning. It was pleasant wine, definitely lighter than some riojas, and although not totally wowed by it, we did feel a bit obliged to buy a bottle. At least it was less than half the price of the Muga Reserva.
The last bodega we called in at was CVNE (Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana). We recognised their Cune brand from UK supermarkets. It is another family-owned business running since 1879. Their wine tasting area wasn’t as inviting as the Muga set-up, and was pretty cold, but we braved it out to try four of their wines (a white and three reds), this time keeping an eye on the prices. The wines were nice, but again we didn’t buy any to take away.
We headed back to the town centre in search of somewhere to get a late lunch, conscious that those open at lunchtime may not open in the evening or not until too late for us. There wasn’t a great deal of choice, but we found a tapas bar still serving food and had a few hot dishes as we saw the staff all exiting very quickly – a subtle hint we needed to get a move on. We called in at the Mercadona supermarket in town (now renamed Maradona by Colin) to pick up a couple of bottles of rioja wine we’d enjoyed from there, but typically this branch didn’t stock it. We went back to Lo11y to hunker down in the warmth for the evening. Another English motorhome was now parked up with us, and a Spanish one pulled up later in the evening.
The next day we wanted to park up in striking distance of Santander for our ferry crossing back to Portsmouth. Colin had found a parking area next to a Natural Park (Parque de La Naturaleza de Cabarceno), just 25km from the ferry terminal. Colin relayed this to the English couple (Sue and Richard) who were parked up with us as they were catching the same ferry the following day. They had remembered us from the site at Mar Menor over Christmas.
After calling in at Muga to buy a couple of bottles of their wine we took a slower back road route for the 200km journey which turned out to be very scenic. There had been snowfall overnight on the higher ground and we could see the snow ploughs had been out, even on the minor quiet roads, and ensured the roads were clear. The villages and towns we passed through looked quite run down and closed up in this remote area. However, as we got slightly closer to Santander they seemed to revert to the more attractive buildings and cared for places we’ve been accustomed to in Spain.
We didn’t know what to expect of the place we were parking up for this evening, other than it looked a nice spot on a lake and photos posted by people on Park For The Night showed elephants. Sue and Richard were already there and had recced the area and were heading into the park. After checking out the parking area, we decided we should go into the reserve in the remaining few hours of daylight and while it was still dry and bright as rain was forecast for the next day. It wasn’t cheap to go in, but the price included a cable car ride. We were expecting it to be like Woburn safari park where we would drive through open enclosures, but it turned out to be a network of roads and parking areas where visitors could get out and view animals over fences or from platforms. The park covers 750 hectares of reclaimed land from former open pit mines and we have to say the karst scenery was stunning. The bit we felt less comfortable with was the park housed around 100 different species from five continents in what they describe as ‘semi-captive conditions’ with some large enclosures where more than one species co-exists e.g. elephants and antelopes. The wild cats (lions, cheetahs and tigers) and bears were obviously kept separately, and whilst they did have large well-maintained enclosures the animals were displaying the traits of boredom and pacing that captive animals have. We have read the park does exist for conservation purposes and provides educational facilities, but at the end of the day it is an outdoor zoo. We finished our visit on the cable car that took us up to the top of the park where there were views of the Santander coastline.
We parked up by the lake in a parking area outside the Reserve. It was a beautiful peaceful spot, and a few other vehicles joined us through the evening. We had saved a bottle of Douro Valley wine for our last night and Colin cooked one last fideua – his best yet.
It was a cold damp morning when we arose. We fed the ducks and geese the remainder of our bread and had a stroll around the village which was deserted and closed up. We decided to get parked up in the ferry terminal which is just a short stroll from the centre of Santander early. Boarding time was scheduled for 4.45, but there were already quite a few vehicles in the line by midday. It was a horrible mizzley day, but we got wrapped up and walked into the old centre of Santander.
There wasn’t much of particular interest to us, but it was a pleasant area, and we had a coffee and pinchos in their market hall. The rain continued and the wind seemed to have picked up, and the shipping forecast was suggesting a rough crossing was on the cards. We’d taken seasick tables as a precaution, and this time we’d not booked the club lounge cabins with unlimited food and drink.
We were boarded quickly and efficiently. The cabin was as spacious and comfortable as our outward trip. We had a wander around the ship and joined Sue & Richard in the bar for a coupe of drinks. They had been in Spain for a month, this being their first longer trip, and they had really enjoyed it. Colin and I ended up in the Tapas restaurant – the food wasn’t great but we didn’t want a full blown meal. So far the crossing had been relatively smooth and we had a good nights sleep.
It was still smooth in the morning, but freezing cold on deck, so we were wandering how we were going to pass the next twelve hours. It was a slow day, with short walks around the boat, taking it in turns to do bits on the computer and more chats with Sue & Richard. I even watched a Place in the Sun episode where the couple bought a house in Oliva. On a Facebook forum we’ve been using for travel info on Spain and Portugal, one of the few posts that made us chuckle was ‘Do you think Spanish people watch a programme about buying homes in the UK called ‘A Place in the P***ing Rain?’ Brittany Ferries put on a crepe making stand so a highlight was having a freshly made crepe in the afternoon. This was after having ridiculously priced fish and chips and burger and chips in the restaurant for lunch.
We arrived in Portsmouth bang on time and disembarked pretty quickly. Border Control were looking in all motorhomes inside and in the outside lockers. As we pulled out of the port we looked at the queues of motorhomes waiting to board the ferry back to Santander – it felt like it was only five minutes since we were parked up waiting to head to Bilbao two months ago. We reflected on what a terrific two months we have had in Spain and Portugal – seeing some wonderful sites, sampling great food and drink and meeting lovely people. We have covered over 3,000 in the two months and Lo11y has proved herself comfortable and practical to live in – we have a list of what we hope are largely tweaks to sort.
After parking back up in Pulborough for the night outside Colin’s mothers, then having breakfast with her and her partner and Colin’s sister and brother-in-law, we find ourselves back in Northampton. A big thank you to Martin who has kept an eye on the house and maintained our pond while we were away.
We now have about a month to plan our backpacking trip to the Philippines – aiming to set off mid-February. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our ditties and looking at the photos. As I’d mentioned this blog is very much a work-in-progress – we still need to populate the photo gallery sections and refine some of the sections. Any feedback or suggestions would be very much appreciated on the Gmail account or in person.
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