Continuing from my last post, the next day, as we drove out of San Sebastian, Spain, I noticed ice on the sides of the road… and before we knew it, we were driving through snow! Well, not literally (lucky for us the snow ploughs were already doing their thing) but we were soon left gasping in surprise and wonder at the snow-covered mountain-scape we were navigating.
It wasn’t long before we reached Pamplona, which proved to be a large modern city, leaving us puzzled as to where they hold the running-of-the-bulls; but with parking surprisingly difficult to find we didn’t stop to find out.
For our official break on our 6hour/600km journey from the Atlantic coast of Spain across to the Mediterranean coast, we visited the magnificent mediaeval Royal Palace of Olite (Palacio Real): truly magical. We wished we’d had more time to explore every corner of this beautiful castle, and every intriguing alleyway of its historic town. But we still had a long way to go yet, so some fresh bread from a cute little hole-in-the-wall bakery to make our picnic lunch (eaten in the warmth of the car!) and we were off again.
There was certainly no rain on the plains of Spain this day – and we thought we had left the snow well behind us, until we missed a crucial turnoff and ended up crossing the Maestrat mountain region where the outside temperature dropped to below zero again, in a landscape dusted with snow. We were surprised to pass Morella’s 18th century fortress atop the Rock of La Mola (which we had visited on a previous trip, sparking some reminiscing) followed by the hairy descent (where massive works are underway to eliminate some of those dangerous hairpin bends).
As darkness fell, we got totally bamboozled (and vowed to update our GPS maps at the first opportunity… or was it our settings?) as we nervously navigated our way through the narrowing roads of a nature park, before thankfully joining back up with a main road for the final stretch. It all turned out to be quite an adventure!
It was with great relief that we arrived El Cano apartments, Oropesa del Mar, before the scheduled reception closing time… only to find the office permanently closed, thanks to COVID.
A few anxious phone calls later, two security guards arrived and, despite my only Spanish being: no hablo español, and some computer glitch which left our names off their check-in list (perhaps the millennium bug hit 20 years late?), we were soon tucked up in our comfortable high-rise apartment, more than ready for a good night’s sleep.
A house in France 