Travel report on the
first two+ weeks in Spain
Two by two: we two spent two days in transit and two days in
Barcelona, then rented a car for a two-week tour of sailboats and marinas. The
Seat Leon station wagon served us very well: the back was just long enough to sleep
in so we saved a lot of money. The general routine was to eat yogurt and
granola for breakfast, drive, stop for tea, drive, make cheese or lox
sandwiches or eat leftovers for lunch, drive, stop for red wine and a late supper
(often pizza), and use the app Ioverlander to find a place to park and sleep.
Every few nights we booked into a real campground, or Airbnb or hotel for
amenities like showers, laundry, or a bed. We relied heavily on Google maps for
navigating, finding food, gas, groceries and marinas. My phone has a Spanish
SIM card with 5GB of data, 4G speed and lots of coverage, so it worked quite
well: much better than Mike’s T-mobile. It plugged into the car’s USB and
displayed on the navigation screen, and Siri with her totally American pronunciation
talked us through every turn. There was a bit of a learning curve on our parts,
plus Siri wasn’t always right, so we made plenty of mistakes, but we couldn’t
have done it without her.
Our first stop was Valencia to look at a boat. We didn’t like
the boat, but the marina was great.
Didn’t take time for touristing: hit the
road for Gibraltar where our next boat awaited us the next day. This second
boat had a good hull, but everything was in poor cosmetic condition and too
much work. Spent a spectacular afternoon hiking Gibraltar. Finished up at a
British pub. Slept next to the RVs in the marina parking lot.
Day three we poked around southwest Spain, checking out a marina,
navy base, and stopping for sherry in Jerez. It cost us: we ended up in streets
too small for our car and accidentally scraped the bumper on a wall while jockeying
a very tight corner. Drove to Sevilla to get a head start on Madrid.
Ioverlander led us to a great
little marina on the Guadelquiville river with
parking for RVs, including showers and a bar/restaurant. Sevilla boasts the
best language school in the country, as well as a large and prominent
university. The marina manager assured us they could handle a catamaran, should
we wish to moor there. It is 100km from the sea. All the stores were closed
(Sunday). The dinner at the bar/restaurant was bad, smokey and noisy.
Afterwards we drank wine with our fulltime-RVer neighbors from Sweden and Australia.
We walked around a bit in the morning, then drove through
town on grocery errands, and on to Madrid to go car shopping. Found a cheap
Passat TDI wagon that would be perfect, but the dealer said he couldn’t sell it
to us until Mike has his resident ID card. So we suspended car shopping and
went to a SEAT dealer to buy touch-up paint. He said because it is Semana
Santa, it would take several days to get it. Ioverlander took us to a
campground in north Madrid.
Day five we took the metro into Madrid to visit the Prado Art
Museum—which of course was
fabulous. Mid-afternoon we got through to the boat
broker in Frossay, France, and made an appointment, so we hoofed it back to our
car and drove north. At sunset, Ioverlander found us a free place to park
overnight. Had a small glass of red wine at the pizza parlor next door: the price
for two, 2.20 euros.
Driving north, all the highways were toll roads, and the expense
and frequent stops were irritating. It was nice to see Basque country again in
daylight: the green hill country with lots of human industry and agriculture. Took
a side trip to see the harbor at La Rochelle. Biggest marina and agglomeration
of sailboats Mike has ever seen! From
there we were on back roads with lots of roundabouts: even more annoying than toll
booths. Settled in to an Airbnb with a very sociable host Francoise, who speaks
very good English. Went to Pornic, a beautiful little harbor town nearby, for a
beautiful walk and a sumptuous French meal.
Slept soundly and woke up later than planned. The bed was
delicious, especially after a shower! Francoise had done ALL our laundry, hung
it up, and much to everyone’s surprise, it was all dry. Packed up and headed
down to the Port Sec, a dry marina, to see the boat. It had very good design
and space, but a few problems and cleanup required. It is definitely a
candidate. We still have two more boats to see, in Greece and the Canaries, but
waiting on responses for the owner/brokers to schedule a visit.
Since we have no more boat shopping for the time being, we
decided to explore the coast of north Spain. After shopping errands in Saint Nazarre,
we drove the toll roads straight to San Sebastian/ Donostia. The audiobook Enlightenment Now was our salvation on
the long drive on toll roads. Ioverlander found us a municipal parking lot that
serves caravans.
Good Friday. The Seat dealer was closed. The Orange store
was closed. We had tea and a pastry and drove on.
We poked along the coast road admiring the beautiful Basque
coastline, with steep green hills down to the rocky surf. We stopped in Orio, Zarautz, Guernica,
Mundaca, and Bermeo. We liked the beach in Zarautz and the industrial harbor
and tapas bar in Bermeo. Mundaca was more crowded and touristy. Ioverlander
told us to camp in the parking area of the old lighthouse 3km west of Bermeo. We
were not alone.
Hiked west along the coast before breakfast. Felt good to be
moving and climbing and it was a beautiful morning, but hunger drove us back
for our breakfast. Continued poking along the coast, checking out every harbor.
Laredo was best. Bought a shower at a
campground west of Santander, and drove on to Guijón where we camped in the parking
lot of a park, walking distance to restaurants on the waterfront.
Easter. Continued our drive along the coast. Camped--alone
this time--at a beautiful beach a few km short of Cape Finnesterre. Long
beachwalk at sunset.
Got out the camp stove and cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Packed
up for a day hike along the coast. Lovely sunny, windy day, but started to fog
in early afternoon around the time we turned around. Walked the road on the way
back to check out the villages. Drove west to Cape Finnesterre, then explored
the bays and harbors along the coast, ending up on the Vigo waterfront. Lots of
shipbuilding! Indulged in a hotel for the night. Dined at a hip bar with a
flamingly gay, cute waiter and a special on bocadillos. Cheap, with leftovers.
Loaded up for the long drive east. Stopped at two SEAT
dealers looking for the touchup paint, to no
avail. It is a holiday--Saint George
Day?--so the dealership in Zaragoza closed early. Rained most of the day. All
hail to Steven Pinker for keeping us sane! Left the highway to look for an open
restaurant. Ended up driving winding mountain roads for 20 minutes, into a
small town near Montblanc. It was the restaurant for a campground and only a
few guests were there. The cook made us shrimp and pasta soup. We drove on to
camp in the parking lot for a monastery.
Cool, sunny, windy morning. Walked around and checked out
the monastery (a tourist site), but everything was closed until 10am. Drove out
to the coast and checked out every marina. Vilanova and Port Ginesta just SW of
the Barcelona airport were best. Arrived at the SEAT dealer during lunch hour,
so explored the port and looked for a place to park overnight. Back to SEAT at
3pm. The parts guy was very charming and helpful and arranged to get us the
paint by 9am. We arranged to drop our big stuff off at the Airbnb in Rubí. Had
a bad dinner at a kebab restaurant. Had a hard time re-finding the SEAT dealer
and the place we planned to sleep, but got it resolved and Google maps took us
there.
Packed up. Got the paint and touched up the bumper scrape. Drove
to the Europcar office. All went smoothly, until I walked into plate glass door
and busted my lip. The good news was that Europcar will cover the traffic ticket
in France that Mike was notified of by email; we only pay a 40Euro admin fee.
Took the bus and train an hour out to Rubí to our Airbnb with Dolores. It is
the pits—single beds, lousy space/design/light, inconvenient locale, and while
the host is very nice, she is not our type-- but itwas the only inexpensive one
we could find this time of year that could take us for 4 nights. So here we are,
in the Barcelona burbs, earnestly looking for a 6-month lease someplace cheap (that
we will break when we get a boat) to fulfill Mike’s residency requirements.
Reflections on the road trip: We really liked having a car
to drive and sleep in. It was quite
comfortable and worked smoothly, we didn’t
have to shop or pay for lodging, pack, check out, unpack, and check in every
day, and gave us lots of flexibility in our itinerary. We saw a lot of territory
in a short amount of time with only the incremental cost of fuel. On the other
hand, we were bored and stultified on the less interesting stretches of highway
with the long hours with no exercise. A few times on smooth, straight highways
I was able to use my computer a bit, but mostly we survived listening to the
audiobook. Because my phone was used for navigation, I couldn’t much use it for
anything else. We hated the toll roads, the frequent roundabouts were
irritating, and the navigational errors were stressful. Mike insists on doing
all the driving; I have not completely made peace with my confined support role.
Driver Mike also is susceptible to road rage, and swears 100-times more than in
any other activity. I prefer hiker Mike and Captain Mike and every other Mike I
know. So we are ready to say bye-bye to the road trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment