The North Coast of Spain & across France

14 October (Tuesday):

This morning everything was completely fogged in.  We were on the road before 9:30 am with the windshield wipers going automatically because of the high density of water in the air.  We were in fog for most of the day, driving over the chain of mountains that sit across the north of 

Spain.  By 1:30 we were nearing our destination and left the main road for another back road that really went up over the mountains, taking us back south.  There is a great look-out (Mirador) on this little road and the fog had finally cleared when we got there.  We could see the beaches on the Atlantic on one side and the extremely rugged mountains we were in on the other.   We drove on south to our next (and final) Parador.  It is in an old Monastery that was started in 730 AD.  This place is a couple of kilometers from the nearest town.  There is a trail from the Parador along a river to the town, part of the Northern Pilgrimage Trail.  We walked into town and around the town then back again and managed to spend over two hours as we investigated the town thoroughly.  the main interest point is an old Roman Bridge that has been rebuilt many times but still looks like an old Roman bridge (see photo).

15 October (Wednesday):

The sky was mostly clear this morning, a good sign for us as today we were driving through the Pecos de Europa National Park to see the spectacular mountains.  They are a particularly rugged section of mountains by the northern coast of Spain.  We headed south from Cangas de Onis and were very quickly going a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour (mostly less) on the most curved road we can remember. We were winding our way up a canyon that kept on getting narrower and narrower.  At one point we though that if we stopped and got out of the car we could touch the rock on the other side of the canyon!  The walls were vertical.  How a small river managed to eat such a deep canyon through this rock amazed us.  In places the edge of the road was right at the edge of a steep drop off.  The road was narrow and meeting another vehicle was a dangerous event, especially when the other vehicle was a truck!  Luckily there was very little traffic.  After an hour or so (and 40 kilometers or less) we were through the canyon and driving got a little better.  We found it difficult to take photos as the places with the most amazing views were where there was no place to stop the car.  The pictures we did get give some idea of the ruggedness.  Today we drove about 200 kilometers,the last part on main roads, and took 6 hours!  We are staying the night in Santillana del Mar, an old  town near the coast.  Our pictures show several views of the houses in town, all of which are old and mostly well kept.

16 October (Thursday):

After checking out of our hotel, we drove just a couple of kilometers into the hills to the Caves of Altamira.  These are ancient caves that had prehistoric paintings on them, very similar to the Grotte de Lascaux that we visited in France a few years ago.  As with the French caves, they are closed to the public to preserve them but exact duplicates have been created to five visitors the feel of being in the actual caves.  The Bison drawings in Altamira are all on the ceiling (in France they are on the walls).  The cave was very large in area so there were many animal paintings as they filled the ceiling.  Most of the pictures were bison but a few were what looked like horses.  No humans, just like Lascaux.

From there we headed for the main highway on the north coast, the A8/E70.  The part we were on today was built several years ago and is now under going repair.  It was not a relaxing drive as the road doesn't have a single place where it is straight for 10 feet or more.  It is one continuous snake full of trucks and cars going at maximum speed (and faster) and changing lanes endlessly.  We were heading for Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum, the building more than what is in it.  We had partial maps of the town and thought we could get to the museum fairly easily.  Wrong.  I think we took too early an exit from the A8 and kept following signs that said Centro.  We have decided the town(s) we were headed for the Centro of were not Bilbao but suburbs.  We were almost ready to admit defeat and follow the next sign back to the A8 when I at last saw a sign to the Guggenheim Museum.. We were right in thinking the building was more interesting than the items on display.  The building is fascinating.  We have a few pictures from the outside - no cameras allowed inside.

From there we got back to the A8 without difficulty, then drove on for another 100 plus kilometers to the last town in Spain on the coast, right next to the French boarder.  We had investigated the area when we were here, staying in the house for a week.  We had acquired a map so knew where our hotel was.  The problem was getting to the parking area.  We tried and found ourselves driving around the old city wall back to where we started.  We parked near the hotel (illegally) and Hans went to find out how to park in the hotel lot.  He returned with a guide.  A girl got in the back seat and directed us to the parking lot, opening the gate as we arrived.  Settled in at lest we had to rest a bit to recover from what we consider to be our worst driving day ever!

17 October (Friday):

What a difference a day makes! - especially when the new day means driving on French Toll Roads instead of Spanish Roads.  We drove nearly 500 kilometers today, most of it on Toll Roads where the speed limit is 130 kilometers per hour.  Especially at the start where there was very little traffic, we really enjoyed the long almost straight stretches where there were a few long, gradual curves and almost no ups and downs.  We though we would have trouble getting around Toulouse but the signs were so good that we had no problem at all.  We are staying tonight in a suburb of a smallish town called Rodez.  We thought it was a small town but it turned out to be a fair size with a Cathedral as big, if not bigger, than any other we have seen!  Of course the famous Bell Tower was shrouded in scaffolding so we didn't get a picture of it but did get some view of the amazing carving on it.  We had a little difficulty getting to the hotel because of one way streets but it is a very nice place.

18 October (Saturday):

The morning was sunny but thee had been heavy dew over night.  I got out our roll of paper towels and started cleaning the car windows.  I was totally chocked to discover that, out of the sun, the dew was ICE!!!  We got off the Toll Roads today (mostly) and went back to our Spanish habit of back roads to see the Gorges du Tarn.  As you will see from the pictures the gorge was deep and the cliffs fascinating but it didn't come close to the Spanish gorge for narrowness.  The road was not as windy either, but it was very narrow in lots of places, especially where they made short tunnels - they were only wide enough for one car and often were on curves where you couldn't see if another vehicle was coming.  It was nice to get back onto good, fast roads.  We managed to get the right by=pass roads around both St. Etienne and Lyon (the biggest challenge) to the town of Bourg-en-Bresse where we had a room booked.  The whole day's trip took us eight hours.  After settling into the room we drove to town to see the sights.  The only thing worth seeing, a Monastery, was already closed for the day.  We found the best restaurants in our guide book and decided which one we would eat in but had an hour until it opened so we walked all around the centre of town which is the main shopping centre, then went back to the restaurant and had an excellent meal.

19 October (Sunday):

No ice on the car this morning.  We were fogged in.  We started off to Strasburg.  The map we have is quite old and we know there are many new Motorways that it doesn't show.  we really didn't know the best way to go so I started up the GPS again, first time in about three weeks.  I figured that since Strasburg is almost at the German border the GPS would have enough information to get us to our hotel and it did.  It was wonderful.  The fog cleared on the way.  We wanted to stay three days here but could only book tonight when I was doing the booking back in August.  We expected we would find another hotel when we were here.  It turns out the European Parliament is opening tomorrow for a three day session so there is not a space for us anywhere.  We explored a fair bit of the city this afternoon and will finish off tomorrow morning then leave for a town a bit north of here that we want to visit.  There should be room for us there.

We walked into town for dinner in one of the oldest and nicest buildings, right in the heart of town.  I should say we almost ran to the restaurant as it was so cold we walked as fast as possible to warm up.  We really warmed up over dinner and had a much more leisurely walk back to the hotel.

20 October (Monday):

This morning we walked around the interesting areas of the old part of Strasburg.  We spent an hour and a half, taking some pictures of the old houses. (See Kodak Photo Gallery.)  We checked out of our hotel, drove to a nice restaurant for lunch as our main meal then drove out of town.  We had decided the town Hans wants to visit (Haguenau) is too close to Strasburg and would be full too.  We drove to Saverne instead, a town to the west of Strasburg and a bit further away.  We arrived there and found we were still too close.  All the hotels were full. Back on the read, heading north to a town named Sarreguemines, in "France but right at the German border, near Saarbrucken.  We found a room in one of the two hotels in our guide book so are happy to have a warm room and a bed. 

21 October (Tuesday):

We followed the road signs to Haguenau, the town in France Hans wanted to visit.  We were told by Christian Wirth, at the beginning of our trip, that we must go there as one of the Tourist Attractions is the Zuckmantel House.  It is the oldest building in the town.  Zickmantel is the result of misspelling by a person recording the birth of one of Hans' ancestors.  The original was Zuckmantel (with a couple of dots over the u), so this house was built by some relative from the past.  We reached the town with no trouble.  We also found the house easily as it is a main feature on the map of the town.  Hans was all keen to take a picture of the building as it is a very nice old structure.  We arrived at the house to find it shrouded and under repair.  No photo.  He did take a picture of the street showing the houses on the street, including the Zuckmantel House, but the house is the fourth from the right in the picture and you really can't see anything more than the scaffolding.

We drove north to follow the Wine Way (Vineyards and vineries) in Germany.  We followed signs again and reached the German/French border with no problems.  Then, in Germany, we got totally lost as suddenly there were almost no signs.  The only signs were for the freeway so we eventually gave up and got on the freeway and bypassed all the vineyards and came straight to Worms.  Hans had planned on staying hee our last night as it is less than a one hour drive to the Frankfurt airport.  When we couldn't stay in Strasburg we decided to stay two nights in Worms.  Se here we are, settled in Worms where there are plenty of interesting things to see and visit.   We walked around quite a bit this afternoon, including having a look at the Cathedral here.  It was started about 600 AD.  Worms was the centre of government from about that time, through Charlemagne's time, right until about 1640.  It is also the place where Martin Luther was found guilty of heresy and was exiled.  Our hotel is a very modern building right in the centre of the old town.  We are close to everything we want to see so will have a sight-seeing day tomorrow.  It rained lightly off and on through the afternoon.  We hope it is no worse tomorrow!

22 October (Wednesday):

It was raining when we woke this morning.  It wasn't heavy but consistent.  Hans wasn't feeling well - he was having another of his occasional dizzy spells.  I decided I had to get connected to the internet so went to the Tourist information centre and found out where an internet Cafe was, went and checked their price and facility, then came back to the Hotel to tell Hans and get my computer.  I spent an hour getting a few things up to date then came back to the hotel.  The rain had stopped, with occasional light sprinkles.  I called the elevator and when the door opened there was hans just about to come and find me.  He was feeling much better.  After dropping off the computer we went for a walk around the edge of the city, following the ring road and the old wall.  We were heading for a restaurant on the shore of the Rhine River for lunch.  Construction work at the Bridge and Tower (see photos), right next to the restaurant, gave us a little trouble finding a way to get there, but we did and enjoyed our lunch.  On the return walk we saw several pieces of the old wall that was originally built by the Romans and then maintained and rebuilt several times over the next 1500 + years, up to 1689 when the city was destroyed during the 30 year War.  We went to a Museum in the Saint Andrew's Chapter House.  The museum is dedicated to the history of the city of Worms.  It is very well done and has a lot of interesting items on display.  The rain held off the rest of the day while we took a few pictures.  The day was so grey that the photos are very grey too.  We finished our trip to Europe with dinner in an Italian restaurant.

23 October (Thursday):

We were up early and on the road, under the guidance of the GPS system, by 8:30.  This was much earlier than necessary.  We were soon glad we were early because the construction work that gave us trouble finding the restaurant yesterday was on the road the GPS had us take.  The traffic was heavy and very slow.  It took us nearly half an hour to get out of town.  The rest of the drive was uneventful, as was the flight home.   We are glad to be back but did have a wonderful time on the trip.