Spain and Portugal: November 18-23, 2006

From Carcassone, we drove to Burgos of Castilla y Leon in the center of Spain. After 13 consecutive days of couch surfing, we decided to take a break for a night, so found a cheap pension in the center of Burgos. Right around the corner of our pension was a fun autumn harvest festival. Free wine, roasted chestnuts, traditional music, dancing and a little rain. We found a cool tasty tapas bar. The food was too good that we forgot about our digital video camera. Didn't realise we'd left it there til the next morning. After a few hours of knocking on their door we were lucky to find our camera still there.

Chestnuts being roasted at the Autumn harvest festival we stumbled upon on our arrival in Spain

We continued onto Ourense in north western Spain. Hisane, our good friend in Japan, had heard of a successful Japanese style hotspring that had been set up in Ourense. It was inspiring to see how successful routenburos (Japanese outdoor baths) can be even outside of Japan.

The hotspring was close to the Spainese Portuguese border, so we popped across to Portugal and couchsurfed in a cute little ancient town called Valencia. Near by was a large national park, where we spent the day driving and hiking around.

Along our hike in the national park in northern Portugal


The old town we stayed in was on the ancient but still practiced pilgrimage root

Gossip on the streets


This arch way and the maze of one-way streets certainly kept it interesting each time we drove in and out of the town we were staying at

After Valencia it was time to turn around and head back. Back all the way to Scotland. We made it past Leon in central Spain. We stayed at a Casa Rural, the Spainish equivalent of a B&B. But rather than just a room, we had a whole 3 storey house to ourselves. With the early nightfall, lack of signs and our limited Spainish, it was a nightmare trying to navigate the small country roads. After an hour or so searching and knocking on the door of the wrong house, we had to phone and ask our hosts to come and meet us at a local bar. After settling in we made our way to another local bar for a feast of Spainish tortillas, olives, meats and too much wine.

Outside the whole house we rented in rural Spain. A nightmare to find, but a real luxury

Zoe nesting in our home of 1 night

The next day we drove along the picturesque northern coast of Spain and stayed at a pension in Bilbao.

Art Museum in Bilbao