Picos de Europa 15th May We are staying in a fantastic location. The site is excellent, well laid out, very clean and tidy, quiet and calm. The town, which is an easy walk away, downhill, is quite popular with tourist buses, but has a range of shops and eateries which we may go and try later. The Menu de Dia is widespread and at a standard price of 10 Euro looks good value. We are to the south of the Picos so the early morning sun is good. Overnight it c...

Potes in the Picos de Europa 14th May Today we left the Basque country in some reasonable sunshine and moved to the west. The Picos are one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe and have a great attraction for walkers as well for those just wanting to see some spectacular scenery. The tourist travel books tell you that the north coast of Spain is the green coast. From the Pyreenes to Santander it is also very hilly. The road this morning was almost con...

Gorlitz and Camping Arrien 13th May 2014. Sometimes the reading of local tourist literature can be revealing and helpful. In the case of this part of Spain, namely the Basque country, or Pais Vaso or even Euskadi, we made an interesting wine discovery. According to OS Clarke's 1990 book on Spain and Portugal's Wine there is a wine called Chacoli de Getaria, spelt Txololina in Basque. Strangely in a later book on wine and grapes he makes no mention of it....

Plenzia nr Bilbao 12th May The Basque region has as one of its own iconic sites, Gernika. This demanded a visit even though there is little left to reveal the awfulness of the events of 26th April 1937. It seems that Franco had the town rebuilt within a few years, probably so that the event could be forgotten, cast into the past and so the people would to come to see it as a place of pilgrimage or remembrance. It is very difficult when one arrives in the...

Bilbao 10th May 2014 Sat on a bench with the warm Spanish sunshine concealed by shadows. A man plays Bach on an electrified violin and some people leave a sprinkling of cash in his case. We take our first bite of a Spanish ham sandwich. Not any old ham, but 'Viandas de Salamanca', a high quality hams full of old Spanish traditions. And they were good, with a subtle flavour derived from pigs who have eaten acorns and lived in the wild; some may even stored f...