Day 35 - Whilst Southern Europe Burns

We got up at 8.30am to drizzle and a chilly 18 degrees temperature. After a quick mug of coffee, we walked down the steep wooded path to our local beach. It was just a pile of rocks tumbling into the sea.

We returned to camp and our car, then headed back towards San Juan De Gaztelugatxe, the monastery on an island connected by a walled pathway & featured in the TV series, Game of Thrones. En route we took the opportunity to stop at Lidl in Gerniko-Lumo, where we purchased 18 bottles of favourite €1.19 white wine, 12 bottles of red, 2 packs of pate, salami, Jaffa cakes & more world cheese.

We then stopped at the cafeteria of the Eroski supermarket next door for a coffee & a pintxo. Jackie had ham and fried courgette on bread, whilst I had Spanish omelette.

After refueling with 95 for the last time, we then continued to San Juan De Gaztelugatxe, which was chaotic. It seemed so many people had the same idea as us. Now we had to pay, what only a month ago was free, €3 for the car park, only to then discover that tours to the monastery were completely sold out. We were advised to check the website at 3pm, which was in 2.5 hours time. Utterly brilliant!

The ticket lady did however suggest we follow a path to get a good view of the monastery. We and many others walked the suggested path & took the opportunity to take a few photos. Jackie revealed she was more happy doing this than the actual tour. The sad thing was we could have taken this same path for the views on our previous visit.

It was nearly a 90 minute drive back to our campsite which was grey and damp. This was only after a little incident where our car was wheel spinning without any traction up the slippery steep car park & I had a car right up my arse. Luckily the car behind had the good sense to reverse back allowing me to do the same & get a good run up at the slippery slope.

We spent the afternoon hopping in and out of the tent as we had several short showers. Jackie also played zap tennis with the numerous flies and bugs that decided they wanted to shelter from the rain. She would have given Marketa Vondrousova (topical sporting reference) a good run for her money! I caught up with my Find Penguin blogs.

That evening we had more of the same pasta & salad & wine, whilst I scanned the v of the Bay of Biscay in front of us with my binoculars looking for marine life and vessels. This caused a young Swiss couple to stop and chat & we gave them the benefit of our recommendations & experiences in Northern Spain, as they were just starting out on their 3 week trip.

Song of the Day : Still Raining, Still Dreaming by Jimi Hendrix.Les mer