Across Spain in a day (Thursday 25th July 2013)

Before I start today's blog, I have put some pictures up for the previous few days.

This morning we packed up quickly, ducked down to the local coffee shop again for breakfast (this time it was breakfast, not lunch) and headed out of Barcelona just before 10am. We had the best part of 600kms to travel to make it to San Sebastian. Last night we booked a Pension in a suburb of Donostia-San Sebastian about 5kms inland. This was done through www.booking.com. No probs. All researched, booked and confirmed in about 20 minutes. It's good to set off knowing exactly where we're going to finish up at the end of a very long drive.

The day was once again hot, in the low to mid 30's. We took the A2 passing by the major cities of Lleidla, Zaragoza and Pamplona and through the autonomous communities (sort of like States based on ethnic and language concentrations) of Catalonia, Aragon, Navarra and Basque Country. It's a very good motorway all the way. Top speed in Spain is 120kph. The countryside is dry, arid and rocky with very little natural vegetation other than scrubby, saltbush-like shrubs. One feels hot just looking at it. Many of the hills look almost dead flat on top, smooth evenly descending slopes. If you can imagine what 5 metres of soil looks like when the local nurseryman drops it on your driveway and then scrapes of the top as his tail-gate closes, then that's pretty close. All this makes it perfect for erecting wind turbines and this part of Spain has them in their thousands. That is no exaggeration! They are everywhere.

The main form of agriculture is corn. It uses up every bit of arable land. Today it was being watered which is something I have never seen.

We turned off the motorway into a little village called Gallur for lunch. What an experience that was! We found a little restaurant tucked away in a corner. I asked the proprietor for a menu and that's where the English stopped. It just so happens that “menu” is “menu” in Spanish so the English never actually started. The proprietor's son waited on and after 10 minutes of no progress in understanding what we might like the enterprising lad went to his computer and using Google translated and printed off the day's menu in English. 10/10 for initiative! Anyway, we soon understood that we were to order an entree, a main meal and a dessert even though we only wanted an quick bite. The meals soon arrived and were very generous in proportion. We felt we had better eat it all. It was all genuine Aragon fare and all very tasty. I called for the bill which came to the sum of only 32 euros including cokes and coffees. We left very full and happy.

An hour or two later we arrived near Pamplona. The landscape had changed dramatically and all of a sudden we were amongst towering, green mountains. It was a spectacular 60km drive through long tunnels, across high bridges and winding up through high valleys. As we approached the coast we started a steep descent over about 10kms, all done with the comfort and convenience of a high-speed motorway, arriving at our destination at about 6pm. We found our Pension after a diversion due to a local fete got GPS-girl all confused again.

The Pension is very clean and comfortable. On the advice of the owner we took the bus into San Sebastian – 20 minute ride for 1.60 euros. San Sebastian is a lovely town with twide, tree-lined typical of what we had seen so far. The main boulevard was alive with tourists, retailers and buskers. It was very exciting. We strolled down to the port for a sea breeze which was very welcome, then found a square for a drink and watch kids playing soccer in amongst all the people walking and dining in the cool evening air. It was now about 8:30pm and 23 degrees.

The last bus back to the Pension left at 10:00pm so we caught that one home. We were entertained while waiting for the bus by a young girl practicing violin on the apartment's balcony. For a late supper we dropped into the local fete, which was in the streets a couple of hundred metres from our accommodation. We enjoyed some fete food and waffles for dessert and headed home, exhausted.