Spain

And off we go…

After a great big tidy and goodbye hugs for the animals, we left in our trusty Juke for Portsmouth where thankfully the paper work was all good. We joined the Cap Finistere for Bilbao and after a few wrong turns eventually found our cabin. It was surprisingly nice and thanks for the champagne Kari ; it was a lovely surprise.

The next day, we set off early(ish) to drive to near Carcassonne, France , after a mild panic about not being able to print the correct paperwork. A printer being one of the things we didn’t pack! We filled it in on pages and hoped to have a hard copy available to do at the border crossing but this was not needed as you can see from the picture which shows the goats as the only border patrol.

On Friday, we arrived in Bilbao very early and headed to wander around the outside of the Guggenheim Museum and the old town which was much nicer than we thought it would be.

A puppy more famous than Willow!

Callum very impressed with the art!
We enjoyed a coffee and then set off for Pamplona. The streets were very pretty without the bulls!

Fairytale Olite


On Saturday, we went to the fairytale town of Olite that used to be the capital of Navarre. The town itself was beautiful but the restored palace was something out of a Disney movie. The towers were a bit windy though so there were quite a few “Marilyn” moments😂. Callum had a real Rapunzel situation going on without the hair! Another lovely meal at the ex-monastery we’re staying in.
We made an early start heading off for Jaca, a small town that is the capital of Aragon. The best app yet found us a public loo, followed by a coffee outside another cathedral that we didn’t get to go in! We had a picnic in the grounds of the citadel before a terrifying drive through the Pyrenees to Boltana, a small village we are staying in for the next 2 nights.After a beer for Callum, who says absorbed the stress from the passenger seat by osmosis, we went for our fourth walk on the Camino de Santiago. Then we had a hike up to the Boltana Castillo, where we were treated to some spectacular views.

A hike and a swim.

A last day in Spain and a day not in the car. We decided on a walk through the mountains today. We found a medium challenge walk and set off the wrong way.After a double back, we started uphill which was much easier than the down. We walked through forests on the way up , got attacked and dive bombed by butterflies at the top before descending at pace ( very gingerly). There were many cairns along the way which we added to. At the bottom, we found a lovely spot to sit and swim. We were surprised at how warm the water was after our memories of lake swimming in the Alps.