Europe 2018

I’m quite excited about the day, but for reasons other than the beauty of nature, which I have done nothing but rave about so far.  Santiago de Compostela is the final destination for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year walking the Camino de Santiago.  If we’re to believe wikipedia, over 300,000 last year, so that would be over 1000 people per day in the warmer months.  For more than 1000 years pilgrims have walked to the tomb of St James the Apostle, carrying a scallop shell and staff.   Why you might ask?  Well in short, in the 9th century a religious hermit Pelayo found the tomb of the apostle - James the Great.  Once the news was confirmed by the local archbishop, the Asturian king, and later the Pope, the impact was instant and indelible.  A flood of Christian Europeans began to head toward Compostela in search of salvation and it soon became the most important christian destination after Rome and Jerusalem.  Its popularity i...

We started the day probably a little earlier than our normal mid morning start, but by the time we went for walk through town and along the beach, we still didn’t get underway till almost midday.  The walk along the beach was a nice relaxing way to start they day and as usual fresh baguettes for brunch/lunch. By the time we did hit the road, the cloudy start to the day had all but cleared.  The windy narrow roads continued until we reached the outskirts of Bilbao, where we joined the motorway that skirted the city to the south.  I know you can’t tell a book by its cover, but driving past Bilbao it looked like a very industrial city and we had no regrets as we kept driving.  The motorway then loosely followed the coast again, and there again were great vistas of the northern Spain coast as we drove.  At one stage we passed the Parque de Picos de Europa and even though we had read some good things about the park and hiki...

It was a little hard to pack up and leave the creature comforts of the Orio Kanpina today.  Staying put for a few nights was a pleasure I think we’ll be ill able to afford for the rest of the trip if we want to cover the ground we were planning to.  We said our goodbyes to Bob and Nancy - who became a welcoming sight at the campground each day.  They suggested that we drive the coastal route west, as it is very picturesque, and (as we had already decided from reading about it) give Bibao a miss unless you really what to take the time to look at the Guggenheim museum.  The other tip they gave us was to go and see a church high on an islet, connected to the mainland by a manmade rock arched bridge/walkway.  So with suggestions in hand, we ever so delicately manoeuvred the camper van out of our campsite and then down the extremely narrow street and out of the campground. The coastal drive was really pretty and hugged the coast most of the way, makin...

Wow, what a day - again.  With a forecast of 31 degrees and gorgeous blue skies, I set off early for a little walk on my own while the girls got ready for the day ahead.  I walked up a path at the eastern end of Orio beach to do a little investigating, quietly hoping to get some good pics of Orio and the coast out over the Bay of Biscay.  I walk for a kilometre or so until I realised that I was not going to see any further east without a long walk, so I turned around and headed back. Upon my return to camp, the girls were ready to go so we set off for our planned walk over the hills to the next beachside town - Zarautz.  We had to first go back into Orio and the old town to access the only pedestrian foot bridge across the river.  On our way through we passed through the town square where they had a local market on.  Under the roof of the town square hanging an inverted rowing boat.  Orio - once famous f...