Saturday 4 April 2015

A standard start, i.e. not early. However again we’re in no rush so after saying goodbye to Alan and Karen we cleared up then got on the road, pausing in the village to photograph the unusual houses and shops in the main street. Some of the columns are wood and others stone.

Ampudia main street

Castle

 Our target today is San Sebastion, close to the French border, and will be mostly autovia or good main roads. With nothing to stop for now we let the satnav take us the fastest non-toll route, noticing quite an increase in traffic and more trucks than we've seen in a while. The weather started fine, although with a cold wind, but as we approached Burgos it clouded over and, after having needed the air-conditioning two days ago, we had to put the heating on!

Just south of Vittoria we spotted an Eroski supermarket, with fuel station, and as it was well into lunchtime we thought we’d stop off and get a baguette, have lunch and refuel. It turned out we had stopped here on the way south 2 years ago. As is now typical of us, our baguette “cost” us over €100, after picking up other “essentials” such as a tyre compressor, shopping trolley, loads of craft materials, fuel injector cleaner, Diet Coke and more stuff for the freezer!

The fuel price however was incredible – taking into account the current euro exchange rate it worked out at 77p a litre, nearly as cheap as Morocco!

So onward and the threatened rain started as we threaded our way through the mountains, not heavy but enough to clean the screen of dead flies etc. Our target was the main aire in San Sebastion but it being Easter weekend we were not hopeful and had a couple of alternatives in mind. But as luck would have it, though very busy there were a couple of spaces left so we squeezed in and settled down for our last night in Spain. With a drive today of 215 miles, it is the furthest we've travelled in a day since we were just south of here on our way down in January.