“Mi querida España”

My dearest Spain, how much I miss her when I am not there.

As soon as we crossed the Spanish-French border in Irun, I took a deep breath and I looked around; the landscapes, the people, the bars, the restaurants, the shops. I smiled with fondness. Yes, I am in Spain, I am at home.

I get overly excited when I am in Spain. “I don’t know what to do with you when you are so hyper, it seems like you become another person”, Gary says. I am not aware of this change therefore, I can’t avoid it, and I am not sure if I really want to.

We drove to Hondarribia in San Sebastian where we would spend three days doing a cliff walk and kayaking, we were looking forward to taking the boats out again, this time in Spain.

We quite liked Dora’s reflection in this Spanish car. She also seems happy to be in Spain looking at to her big happy smile.

The aire in Hondarribia was at the beach car park. I was so looking forward to seeing a Spanish aire. We arrived at 20.00. The aire was packed with motorhomes from all different countries, it felt like we were still in France. I wonder if motorhomes are equally popular in the rest of Spain.

Dora again. I am sure she feels at home. We know her previous owner also spent a lot of time here.

It was such beautiful weather, it felt like proper summer in October. So, as soon as we parked Dora, we headed off to the nearest bar to have a glass of wine and enjoy the evening. The bar was packed with locals, as you would expect in a Spanish bar. The country may be in crisis, but bars don’t seem to go bankrupt.

We will spend about a month in Spain, the longest since I left back in 1998. With the absence of work commitments, we will spend as much as time as we can in our beloved second home, Guisando, get to know a bit more of the country and visit family and friends who live far away from my hometown, Talavera de la Reina. Some of these friends, I have not seen for twenty five years, no doubt that meeting them will be very emotional.

This is the itinerary we will follow during the next month.

We will drive to the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and the Sierra Nevada and attempt to climb the highest peaks of each range of mountains.

We cannot miss La Rioja to taste good wine. It would be unfair to Spain after getting into the French wine tasting.

Half way through our travels in Spain, we will drive to the Algarve in Portugal to do some trekking, followed by crossing the Gibraltar channel to go to Morocco, a country we have visited a couple of times and we are very fond of.

We will also stop in Zaragoza, Valladolid, Madrid, Toledo and Valencia to see relatives and close friends. From Valencia, we will gradually drive northwards along the Mediterranean coast to the our next country Italy.

Surely we will have exciting times in Spain.

First stop, Hondarribia. I hope you can join us.