Sonntag, 25. Mai 2025
Dienstag, 29. April 2025
Montag, 21. April 2025
Donnerstag, 17. April 2025
Sonntag, 12. Januar 2025
Sonntag, 1. Dezember 2024
Montag, 28. Oktober 2024
Northern Spain - Road Trip
Road trip from home through France and then the Northern Coast of Spain
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Travel plan
12.10.2024 Dijon, France
First stop on our road trip to Northern Spain was the city Dijon in France, known for its mustard. We stayed at in Clemenceau, just a short walk to the Place de la Republique. Despite the rainy weather we took a walk to discover the UNESCO world heritage downtown area, with many medieval buildings. The owl points the way…
The orientation for the walk we found here: https://www.burgund-tourismus.com/routen-und-wanderwege/balade-dans-dijon
Most restaurants open at 7:30 pm and reservation is preferred. We just had a little snack and bought some sweets in one of the many patisseries. Many shops, little cafes and the atmosphere are inviting and make this a good option for one of our next weekend trips. Let's see - I am sure we will be back!
13.10.2024 Bordeaux, France
We arrived in Bordeaux late afternoon. After checking into the hotel, we took a walk over the bridge Pont de Pierre to the other side, with another 'Arc de triomphe' - similar to Dijon - (Porte de Bourgogne) and not far from the Place de la Bourse.
Walked a little around, Monument aux Girondines, where a little fair took place, up to Promenade de St Catherine and went to the Brasserie Bordelaise for dinner.
Food and atmosphere very good. Had the wine Bordeaux in all colors (white, rosé and red).
In general, city was very busy, many people, tourists etc.
After dinner, we went for ice cream in La Sofia and then Place de la Bourse at the river Garonne (miroir d’eau) and back to the hotel with a beer 1664.
14.10. Bordeaux - Donostia (San Sebastian), Spain
As Bordeaux is a little larger than Dijon, we felt we needed to take another walk around after breakfast.
Arrived in Donostia, we learned that the city is full due to 40k more people in town to shoot movies (2 different crews)…
Since it was Monday- many restaurants were closed. We went to a recommendation from the hotel, restaurant Gandarias.
There is a part of the taverna dedicated to Pinctxos and another part A la carte (with minimum order required of 2 entradas and 2 main)
Prices high, quality very good, taste Ok - the typical Pinctxos were better than the a la carte food.
15.10.2024 Donostia
- Breakfast at Carais Bakery (really good!)
- Beach- little noisy with dogs, construction work and singing human beings…
- Then Funicular to the viewpoint. One way 3.05€ p p- Monte Igueldo
16.10. Bardenas Reales
Came to Arguelas and saw griffon vultures circling the rocks at the supermarket which was a nice welcome. Before checking into the accommodation, we went directly to the tourist information but unfortunately, it was siesta time. We watched some cranes going to the south and then made our way to the round tour ourselves. We didn’t get far as a French film crew stopped us and used some time to film in the half desert. At the end of the road is a military area, so passed the first rocks and parked a little farther to take a walk and enjoy the landscape.
Just had to be aware of hundreds of centipedes - trying not to step onto them. Weather really nice, warm and sunny- what you’d expect from a half desert. But in the morning it was raining and it started again in the late evening. Lucky we could enjoy the views and the restaurant Mallen sitting outside.
The casa rural was simple and we had our coffee machine for the next morning, so all good.
17.10. Santander
Raining on this day, so started driving in the direction of Lograno, the principal of La Rioja, saw a museum just before is on the way - Museo Würth-so made a stop there. Free entrance but because of a reception of the company in the main area, only saw the special exhibition with art from Georg Baselitz. Ok, but not great. It was a good distraction from the rainy drive.
Arrived in Santander, we stayed at a hotel directly at the beach and took a stroll around before calling it a day.
18.10. Santander
On this day with relatively good and warm weather we went to the Peninsula Magdalena with a little zoo and great views, and afterwards we relaxed at the beach- even my hammock with the stand made it out of the car.
19.10. Santander
City center, shopping… and walk to the viewpoints up north.
20.10. Santander - Gijón
- Urros de Liencres / Beach Arnia
- Playa de Somocuevas
- Santillana Del Mar, nice little medieval town. Had lunch (seafood plate) at Plaza Mayor
- Comillos, beautiful city with several monestaries and castles, that can be seen from far away. There is also a house designed by Gaudi (7€ entrance), but we didn't want to lose more time and headed to the next viewpoint
- Mirador sablera Torimbia
Arrival in Gijon with best weather and really warm. In the Cimavilla, the old city center, with view on the harbor and sunset, many people were drinking and chatting. The typical drink is apple wine 'sidra' - similar to where we come from (in Hesse, Germany, we also drink apple wine) - but not everyone drank it - it is quite sour compared to cider in the UK and completely different to the sweet cidre in France. Though, they also offered a sidra dulce here. The typical Asturian bars where they offer sidra are called sidrerias and you can also find typical food, like white beans there.
21.10. Gijón
Morning: We had to go to the dentist. Frank lost part of his crown and needed a repair. Good we were in a large city! The dentist we went to had a customer cancel the appointment so we were lucky he could attend to Frank's problem immediately.
We walked to the beach after, but it was raining.. so we drank a nice smoothie at a bar (with gummy bears decoration), walked through a park where they had many birds- from chicken to parrots to emu birds. Then lunch at Dindurra Cafe (oldest cafe in Gijon from 1901) and shopping in the Calle Corrida.
Not sure why Santander is the preferred city of travel guides. The beach- yes- Santander is nicer. The flair and architecture? No, Gijón is far more interesting. Even if most of the buildings are large, everyone has something interesting to it.
22.10. Praya as Catedrais
Main destination for me on the day was the Praya as Catedrais, just after the border between Asturias and Galicia. As having read on the internet before that it’s essential to arrive at ebb, we didn’t want to be too early, so we stopped at a small fisher village and had a small breakfast in a cafe. The restaurants were mostly closed and there were roadworks going on, so not as romantic as having thought.
- Cudillero
- Mirador del Pico
From Cudillero it wasn’t far to another mirador with a nice view. Street was very narrow and people parked almost in the middle of the street, but we came through to the main viewpoint.
- Mirador Playa del Silencio o del Gavieiru
Then we went straight to the main destination without further viewpoints- but many more options were available…
- Playa as catedrais
23.10. Picos de Europa
From Gijon to Bilbao we took a detour to a mountain area, especially since weather was great.
- Mirador del Fitu - with some fog in the valley, the view was really nice.
- Mirador de la Reina - this viewpoint lies on the way to the lakes Covadonga where we had some traffic and the road was closed for a while (we waited a bit over an hour) before reopened again - but only for smaller vehicles. The road was really small and not secured on the sides, so you had to be very concentrated, especially when a bus came from the other side. I leave those situations to Frank, I am far too nervous driving like this.
- Lagos de Covadonga - at the end of the mountain road you find a two lakes and an amazing view.
In Bilbao, we had Pintxos in Cafe Iruna.
24.10. Gaztelugatxe and Arrietara Beach
- Breakfast at the Caramel Gozotegia - Cinnamon rolls were fantastic and coffee was good, but no yoghurt or healthy food.
- Gaztelugatxe - Where Game of Thrones used the location as Dragonstone (no castle but stairs are real)… 3€ parking fee but no entrance fee and lots of stairs (241) first going down, then up to the church. Sunny weather, great location and good workout.
- Arrietara Beach - using the last sunny and warm day to relax at the beach, wind-protected between rocks. Still many surfers in the water, horse riding, dogs- a lot to see if the book you are reading is a bit boring…
- Back to Bilbao and Pintxos in Sorginzulo at Plaza Nueva and Helado in Gelati Gelati.
25.10. Bilbao
The weather forecast was pretty exact and we booked the Guggenheim Museum at 11 am- as it was about to rain the whole morning. Although we had an online ticket we still had to wait in a long line for the wardrobe (also when picking up the stuff later). There were two temp exhibitions - they were OK, it's a matter of taste. The large long-term installations were impressive, specifically when seeing people seemed so small compared to them. From large glass tulips to upcycling art from Afrika to interactive video installations- a variety of art displayed at the Guggenheim.
After the museum ate some pintxos and went to the hotel for a bit to escape the busy city.
After a while went shopping, e.g. in the El Corte Ingles - since in our home town all the wholesalers have closed- this was a nostalgic experience.
In the evening went to Plaza Nueva around the corner of the hotel and ate once again some pintxos.
26.10. Bilbao, Spain - Tours, France
We started a bit late with our trip, so only arrived with the last sunlight in Tours, France.
