I'm so focused on trying to get this blog up to date, and keep it that way that I'm getting better and better at taking notes while I'm on the road, thus making my entries much quicker upon my return. Here's the round up from the Easter Roadie:
I'm trying to make some notes-from-the-road while we dot around north central Spain and the Cantabrian Coast. Here we go:
Monday 18th April - Wed 20 April: Zaragoza
The forecast for the entire week has been awful. Awful in Pau and awful across the majority of Spain and France. So, we've not really been able to indulge our usual fancy of just "following the sun". Essentially, we're on the road and seeing new places in the rain rather than staying in Pau and trying to find things to do in the rain.
Zaragoza is a straight shot south from Pau. It's a dramatic drive over the Pyrénées and it made us realise how close we'd been to Spain when we took William sledging up there in early 2020. Anyway, after a lunch stop in Artouste (where William was feeling a bit car sick - first time for everything) we arrived into downtown Zaragoza in the late afternoon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and very quickly we felt like we were in holiday mode. After a wander around to get our bearings, and a couple of sangrias in the late afternon sun, we grabbed food in a wee supermercado and headed home for a steak and gnocchi dinner.
We had booked two nights at the Apartmentos el Pilar and the location was absolutely perfect: in the heart of the old town with views to the Basilica. It was bijoux at best but with our own kitchen space, it suited us just fine.
On Tuesday, we were all set to hit the Zaragoza tourist train. As forecast, the weather totally packed in so it was full deployment of waterproofs and umbrellas while we did our best to avoid the showers. In the morning, after Iain had been for a run, we went for a walk along the river. William had his scooter and it just made it so much easier and quicker to get around. As we wondered around, and grabbed some stuff to make lunch back at the apartment, we randomly bumped into Jenny Sousk, a mum from APP playgroup. Mental! It turned out to be a fortuitous meeting as they'd just come from the Fire & Fire Brigade museum and were very positive about it so we made it our first visit in the afternoon. William loved it. Particularly as they had some fire vehicles that you could get into: a fire engine, and a Landrover Defender. After that we headed to Aljaferia - a fortified palace from the 11th century but it was only opening at 4pm and the queue was huge, so we sacked it off in favour of the Roman underground city. We managed to see both the theatre and the forum before heading home for a rest.
At night, we went for dinner at La Suala de Grille, a fully GF tapas and bar food joint. Tbh, it was a bit of a disappointing evening. William was tired so was in a foul mood which was always going to make things difficult, but the food options didn't really suit him either which compounded things. We both had the "house" burger but as the staple house burger, it was a bit left field as it was smothered in feta. The potato croquets saved the meal, meaning it would get a generous 3/5 but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to others. We pushed William home on his scooter, got him into bed and I got on the internet to find us somewhere to go next.
Wednesday 20 April - Friday 22 April: Vitoria-Gasteiz
Once we'd checked out of the apartment, we had a final wander around the town then grabbed lunch at Mi Habitacion Favorite, the cafe that is attached to the hotel/apartments. It was really good. Gluten free options listed on the menu and lovely, simple food that didn't cost the earth.
So, back to Vitoria-Gasteiz. This unknown wee city is actually the official capital of the Basque Country. It's very old, very quaint and very churchy, and we really liked it. It was just a pity that it was so cold and grey and wet while we were there so that we didn't really get the chance to fully embrace it. We stayed at the Libere Apartments, just outside the old town. The apartment itself was awesome: modern, clean and kitted out well, but their service just let them down with parking issues, William's bed not being made up and no linen or towels for him, them providing dirty linen which we requested a set for him, and everything having to be requested via a Bot on an App as they didn't operate a physical reception. Niggly. As. Hell.
Anyway, on the first evening, we did a quick wander of the old town, had a pint in the pub (where Iain got some strange looks from the locals), bought dinner at the supermercado and went home. Pasta carbonara and an early bed is exactly what William needed after the shambles of the previous night.
We had a slow start on Wednesday but finally got ourselves sorted and went for lunch in the main square. After that it was a good wander through the tiny streets of the old town and up to the town's most famous building: the Santa Maria Cathedral. As we wandered, I was saying to Iain, "This is like something from The Pillars of the Earth". Turns out, the cathedral is exactly where Ken Follet got his inspiration for World Without End and they even have a statue of him outside!
Understandably, William had had enough of wandering around ancient buildings in the cold so we went home and chilled out for the rest of the arvo, managing some games and some English lesson in the apartment. Iain made fajitas for dinner - just what we all needed and it was a quiet (but late for the adults) night at home before we hit the road again in the morning.
Friday 22nd April - Monday 25 April: Suances
Wherever we travel, we're always drawn back to the water and this is exactly where we ended up by the end of the week. We'd toyed with visiting Santander but the Lonely Planet wasn't exactly gushing about it so we decided to take a punt on some of the smaller beach towns along the coast. Simply due to Claire Whitelock's maiden name being Laredo, that's where we stopped for lunch on Friday. It was a classic park up and empty the chilly bin onto the promenade type lunch but it was actually perfect. Laredo wasn't the prettiest of towns but it was just nice to feel the sea breeze on our faces again.
We made our way further west and finally arrived in Suances, and the Costa Esmarelda Apartments. Our apartment had the most amazing views over what turned out to be such a lovely wee Spanish beach town with a buzzing little port and a beautiful, sweeping, safe beach. We went our for dinner on the Friday night which proved to be a bit tricky as the Spanish restaurants don't open until 8.30pm! But we got a good paella so all was forgiven. Unfortunately the weather didn't let us really take advantage of the place on the Friday or the Saturday (Iain and William were literally getting blown down the beach on the Saturday afternoon) but things improved on the Sunday and we even managed a picnic at the lighthouse and a good exploration of the cliffs and surfer's beach.
On Monday morning, the sun was splitting the streets but it was time to get back in the car and start heading east.
Mundaka has been on my hit list for years. I even talked about trying to go there in 2019, here. So, with room available at the place I'd previously had my eye on, Apartamentos Mundaka, we made the trip, or should I say pilgrimage to this legendary surf spot. We picked a place on the map to stop for lunch and found ourselves in the previously unheard of, but very pretty, Castro-Urdiales. Yet another chilly bin lunch on the promenade and a wander in the sun. You coona whack it!
The whole time we'd been on the road, the weather had been really mixed but finally, the sun came out and stayed out. This, however, meant that we didn't get to see the barrel that's made Mundaka famous in the surfing circles. There's lots of evidence of it though: surf shops everywhere and old hippies floating around, searching for the magic wave. We were just happy to see the sun and put our feet in the water. Or in Iain and William's case, get right in! Our apartment was a bit dated but the view more than made up for it and we spent two glorious days eating and drinking on our balcony, playing on the beach and wandering through the tiny streets of the village. I was a bit surprised not to find more eating and drinking places, and especially the hip places that you might find in such a renowned surfy place but I suppose the fact that its not overrun with young trendy people just adds to its magic. Still gutted I couldn't get a big pot of mussels though. Some basic pinxtos was all we managed.
The Wednesday morning brought us back to the real world as the clouds were back and it was time to head home to Pau. But we had a couple of stop offs to make on the way:
1. The monastery at San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.
Its an absolutely incredible setting. No wonder is was used as a filming location for Game of Thrones. Chilly bin lunch first, of course!
2. The last Supermercado before crossing the border back into France.
A last opportunity to stock up on the many sin gluten items available. We were piling it high in the back seat! 
Right, it's been 10 days now! Get up the road and get the washing on!
Lorna.
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