The Aussie Nomads Motorhome Adventures: NORTHERN SPAIN

Santiago de Compostela

From Portugal we travelled north west into Spain to visit Santiago de Compostela. During our years in France we travelled over several routes which led to Santiago coming from south Germany through the Vosge mountains, from the north east of France through the towns to the south and from Holland through Utrecht. It was nice to finally see where the paths finished.

On the way there we passed many walkers and cyclers of many nationalities. Once in Northern Spain the route wanders in and out of small villages then onto the main road which is marked so motorists are aware of the walkers.

Once the town is reached the way is marked by the scallop shell which is seen on the many paths through Europe that lead to Santiago .

We walked around and were amazed at the huge number of walkers and cyclists of all ages.

The Square was crowded with people arriving all the time. This guy was exhausted and so was his dog.

This is where they come.

Most of the people coming here have a shell on them somewhere.

There are rules for doing a pilgrimage to Santiago, the walkers must walk for the last 100 kilometres and cyclists the last 200 kilometres. Ten groups out of the 12 we spoke to had walked or cycled all the way taking several months to do thousands of kilometres.

We met this couple at the caravan park, they had cycled from north Holland. She said her first stop today was to buy some new clothes as she had been wearing the same two outfits for three months.

From Santiago de Compostella we went further North.

A Coruna

In the year 61 BC Julias Caesar reached A Coruna. The Tower of Hercules was built in the 1^st century to guide boats sailing towards the British Isles. It is the only lighthouse of Antiquity that is in operation tody. The original lighthouse had a ramp around the outside so horses could take the wood up for the fire beacon. The light house today was built in 1788 around what remained of the Roman lighthouse. The memory of the outer ramp is in the form of an ascending diagonal band that forms a continuous line from top to bottom.

San Vincente de la Barquera
It was time to head east and our overnight stops were usually by the coast. One night we stopped at San Vincente de la Barquera with a group of surfers on top of a cliff. There were 10 vehicles and 8 nationalities; we had a good fun night.

To get to the beach one walked down a steep path to the water. Kevin went for a swim and I just walked down. It is much easier in Scarborough to have a surf.

It is always amazing to us from the flat side of Australia to see Ocean with extensive mountain ranges so close. This is the Pico which is very popular for hiking.

We met this young couple and stopped for a chat. They were walking to Santiago from Holland with their dog who had special panniers and carried the sleeping bag sheets. He carried 2 kilo and looked like he was enjoying the walk.

Tapia Casariego

Another town we stopped in was Tapia Casariego, a beautiful fishing village and also known for its surf.

We walked around the harbour to watch the fishermen bring in their catch and sort out their nets.

While walking back to our campsite a different way we came across this shop but it wasn’t open so we couldn’t find out the connection.

Then we came across this monument. I guess it was a surfing accident.

We had a chat to this man who came from South America as he walked through Tapia to Santiago.

Leaving here the road is passing over viaducts all the way.

This is Basque Country and the signs are in two languages which means the navigator must pay attention or the driver gets tetchy, ie “Why cant you understand the sign? . You know everything”.

As we passed through this town I thought these houses must cause problems if you came home a little under the weather. Uhmm!! which one in mine!!

The coast is still very rocky as we made our way to Bilbao. This campground has a fantastic view over the Atlantic.

BILBAO

We called into Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Gallery. Well actually, the building as Modern Art is not Kevin’s thing. What a fantastic building.

The sculptures in the forecourt were interesting.

I am not sure hat the girls are up to.

I think the floral cat had the most admirers. It was made from living plants with an automatic watering system tucked inside.

Now off to Pamplona our last city in Spain.

PAMPLONA

Pamplona is the capital of the ancient Province of Navarre. It is a beautiful walled upper town with a river surrounding the walls and the modern town stretching out into the distance. It is famous for the most famous of the running of the bulls through the streets of old towns during the San Fermin festival.

We saw this sign in another town in Northern Spain and guess this is another one of the towns.

We had a great time in Pamplona walking the route of the running with the bulls, called the Encierro, which was the route taken by the bulls from the coral outside in the lower town up to the Bullring where they will fight later in the day.

The route is all on cobble stone streets, around sharp corners with some roads having wooden railings to jump behind and others having no cover at all. A lot of shops are selling the white trousers and shirts with the red accessories, a sash or a bandanna, apparently a requirement for running. I bought the scarf just in case we decided to stay here longer. The whole run only takes about 2 minutes, maybe we could last that long.

We learnt that the uphill run is the most dangerous as the bulls have shorter front legs than the back and makes them more powerful running up the hill. Lucky I found this out as I would have decided to run uphill if I was going to run with the bulls.

The Encierro museum was fantastic with historical photos and videos. It also has a simulator so one can try running to a video and a taxidermied bull. My are they huge! Once you see the size of the bull and the videos it is a wonder anyone runs with the bulls.

After the bulls run through the streets they end up in the stadium where they wait unknowingly until they face the matador that afternoon to be dispatched with a sword in the neck after being weakened by several sharp knives in their hide, or if they are lucky maybe they will dispatch the Matador. Several years ago we went to the bullfights in Madrid and spent the whole afternoon watching the gruesome spectacle in the hope that the bull would win.

After wandering through the streets we tried the Tapas and wine in a couple of bars then made our way home quite late at night. I did have some great photos to put in here but somehow a gremlin or maybe it was the wine made them disappear from my camera.

I do have this photo of us in our runners costume but we decided not to dirty or bloody it by running.

The next day we had a lucky escape. Not from a bull but from extra zealous parking police. We were camped overnight in the wrong place. Thank goodness they woke us up at 7 am to tell us to move which we did promptly. Another motorhome wasn’t so lucky they ignored the warning and wheel clamps were put on that one.

Still in the mood to look around we heard there was to be a fiesta and march so back into town we went. It was the 500^th anniversary of Spain taking over the country of Navarre and had a great time watching the march. The police were in abundance but all seemed pretty peaceful.