7 July – Drove to the “Carrefour”, the big supermarket chain in Spain and France, and did a huge shop up including an electric fan and a light to use outside. It was very hot last night. When we tried to drive back out of the supermarket car park we found that all the exits were height restricted. Eventually the ‘police’ (really security) were called and the entry road was blocked so than we could exit. It was hard to imagine we were the first camper van to have this problem!
Our planned stop for the night was at an “Aires” at Boiro just over the road from a nice beach. When we arrived all the spaces were taken but a kind Spaniard shifted his camper so we had some space. After a swim we watched the second half of the Spain/Germany semi final. When Spain scored the crowd went wild (could be a good name of a TV sports programme). The celebrations went well into the night. One bloke insisted using the Spanish flag as a cloak to “bull fight” passing cars. The final should be a hoot!

8 July - We woke to a huge electrical storm followed by torrential rain. It all cleared very quickly but the temperatures dropped and it has been cooler all day.
We had a lunch break at Santiago and walked around the old town including the Cathedral where many Spaniards walk to as a pilgrimage for mass. The queues were huge to get in, so Val and I decided to leave it for the faithful.
We drove up to the coast on the northwest corner of Spain to A Coruna. We found the “Aires” and rode our bikes back to the city along 7kms of great cycle way. The city (236,000) has a great water frontage with a tramcar connecting the several beaches.

9 July – A sea fog came in overnight but soon dispersed. We drove thru some nice country and ended up at Viveiro, a fishing town with some nice beaches and a great esplanade. We had a swim in the afternoon and rode our bikes over the river and around to the fishing port. On the way we discovered the old town. We will stay another night and explore this tomorrow. There seems to be a fiesta up in hills on as somebody is letting off exploding rockets.

10 July – After our usual Saturday clear up and camper checks we walked back over the old bridge to the old town square. A fascinating area as it was not “touristy” at all. After lunch we went back to the beach for a swim and sunbathe with lots of local families enjoying the beach. We rode along the esplanade and have now explored the whole town. We have done some research and have decided that we will miss the running of the bulls in Pamplona but will try and see a mountain stage of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees.

11 July – A good drive out of Viveiro following the coast east to Luarca. Our camp was at the top of the cliffs about 2 kms out of the town. We walked around the town which had a beautiful fishing harbour with lots of cafes. We walked a further 2kms to several beaches where we had a swim.
We watched the football world cup final with a mixture of Spanish and Dutch people at the camp restaurant and bar. A great atmosphere!

12 July – We drove the E70 motorway 150kms between Luarca and Llanes. What a road!! 4 lanes all the way. There are viaducts over every valley and tunnels thru every hill. The result is a sweeping smooth road that hardly goes up or down.
The camp that we are in is again on the cliff tops with an interesting town in one direction and a great beach in the other.
The town is set around a great harbour but the entrance to the harbour is blocked at the moment by a temporary dam and they are completely rebuilding the whole harbour. Not sure why however!! We walked down to yet another great beach for a swim.

13 July – We drove to Santander (186,000) in light rain. The country side is very green. This coast is called the Costa Verda. This is because of the vegetation rather than the colour of the sea.
We parked in a stadium car park, off loaded the bikes, and followed a cycleway passed a series of crowed beaches to the city centre. (4 kms). After a walk around the shops, mostly closed for siesta, we rode back to “Lefty”. We walked to the closest beach for a swim and a cool off.
We are in an “Aires” tonight about 30kms out of Santander in the country. A heavy drizzle has set in.

14 July – We drove to Bilbao (350,000) a huge city where the only claim to fame is a Guggenheim Museum. We drove thru some spaghetti junctions and did not even find the centre of the city before we bailed out to our overnight planned stop at an “Aires” at Bermeo. This is another fishing port but has no beach and is wherefore not a tourist town at all. We walked down to the town (20,000) for tapas and a wine for lunch. It was still cloudy and cool so we went back to “Lefty” for a siesta. We are parked beside a small park and kids playground. At about 6pm all the grandparents brought their grandchildren to the park. Eventually the parents arrived to pick them up. Typically, everyone lives in apartments therefore time in the park is very welcome. The whole town would fit into a corner of Hagley Park. We wandered down to the town square at about 8.45pm to find it packed with children, parents and grandparents. Children and toddlers played, parents and grandparents drank at the many cafes (wine or coffee) or just wandered up and down talking. All very sociable. Nobody went home until at least 9.30pm. A real eye opener!! We are in the heart of the Basque country. They say that there are physical differences between these people and the rest of Spain. The only differences we could see were that they were all incredibility short. Perhaps I am related to Basque people? The men also wear the largest berets I have ever seen.

15 July – We followed the windy coastal road to San Sebastian. This is a real posh town (181,000) with great buildings, parks and beaches which we cycled around. Our planned overnight was at a camp in Hondarriba but the camp was on a cliff so we headed across the border back into France where we found a nice camp. We had a cooling dip in the camp swimming pool.

16 July – Overcast lazy day. Val did a wash and we walked down to the local beaches and town. The sea beach is a real surfies beach with many surfers and surf schools. The sea did not look inviting with a lot of sea weed.

17 July - It rained in the night and drizzled on our drive up to Pamplona thru 11 tunnels! (the longest being 3kms) We found a park on the outskirts of the town and rode our bikes into the centre. The running of the bulls finished three days ago but all the barriers are still up so we were able to trace the route that the bulls run thru the old city to the bull ring. An interesting sign on a lamppost was that: “if you fall over, wait until the entire herd of bulls has passed before you get up!”
We found the camp and had another great bike ride along a track following a beautiful river. Our internet is playing up again but we will use the camps computer to upload this.