On the Road Again!

Today we set off after about 5 hours sleep. A few fireworks doesn't usually affect us. We live near a live ammunition Army firing range. The sound of small arms fire interdispersed with larger caliber weapons is a daily occurrence.   But these Chinese made fireworks are LOUD!! First thing trying to get out of the aire. Turn left. The sign indicated a one-way street. Several vans left before us.... Left, then back right. When it was our turn we did the same, turning round and out the way we came in across a car-park no longer closed to traffic. It was used as firework central and had some food outlets for the firework operators... Next stop at the automatic petrol station. Diesel at €1.349 a litre. With an Eclat discount card it would have been €1.269. I filled to the brim. I have yet to work out the mpg. Then off we went on the N260 to Puigcerda and across into France and Bourg-Madame. ...

Rejoining the N260 for another day didn't seem too bad. Today the end destination was the Camping-Car Park aire at La Seu d'Urgell. When we arrived we should have turned around and gone elsewhere.  Not that the site was bad, but that next door was a huge pile of wood and pallets.  Yes, a bonfire  It turned out that there was some fiesta on. The fireworks started all over town at around 5pm and went on until after 2am.  Luckily we were on the far side of the aire but we could feel the heat once they lit the fire at around 1030pm.  It was done with a procession of drums and those reedy sardana pipes. The fireworks, in the main bangers, were very loud.  We eventually got to sleep around 2am.  It's taught us to research better!! ...

Today the trip is from Canfranc Estanción to Castejón de Sos. It's only around 90 miles. We backtracked to Jaca and took the opportunity to top up the diesel and for Claire to go into Carrefour.  Around this area they are still working on the autovias. At Sabiñánigo we switched onto the N260.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-260_road_(Spain) The road is superb, mostly, with one section that's very narrow. On top of that we encountered the grass cutting team.  A van each end of a column with two tractors doing the work. By Ainsa we could see a parking area right by the river. We pulled in. With the dash showing 41°C it was worth €2 for an hours parking for Reggie to have a paddle in river. Next stop Castejón. A missed turn off the roundabout led to a trip around the block before getting it right. Firstly we stopped in the shade of trees after the football gro...

Another day of extreme heat despite us being 1135m above sea level at Canfranc Estancion.  The weather was around 35°C most of the day. There's very little shade for us or for Reggie. So we have done nothing. Save sitting about. To keep Reggie cool we have wrapped him in a wet towel. When we were at the vet's on Friday they said that their part of Spain was supposed to be the coolest, weather wise! As I write it's: Earlier today I booked us in for another night here. As we have 24 hours from around 8pm Saturday I expected simply to book again from 8pm again. It wouldn't accept that, so I booked again, but from 7pm! Tonight we'll start to tidy away a lot of the gear to save rushing tomorrow. There will be a bit of grey waste to dump as we have used it quite a bit, showers etc. Tomorrow? We head south to Jaca, then  east again along the N260 all the way to France near Puigcerda an...

Saturday Morning broke a little too early for us. After the thud-thud of the music until 5am we hadn't slept well. Still, our next stop was planned to be along the N240 towards Jaca. With the heat already touching 25°C by 10.30am, we decided to get on the road. Frias can wait for another day.  First stop was at Tobera. We had oast it on the way in and now we were retracing our steps to the south along the BU-504. https://www.wikiburgos.es/wiki/Tobera A quick stop. The route us east and north east to Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pamplona. Bypassing both. As we had plenty of autovias to use we stopped near Gasteiz for a coffee. Claire then bought a couple of rolls for lunch. Then decided to carry on.  The TomTom seemed reluctant to amend the route. It's a failure of Plan dot tomtom dot com that deleting waypoints seems impossible.  Eventually the aire at Jaca was set a...

Well, what can I say about Day 7? Not a lot.  With Potes and the Picos de Europa being scorched under 36°C temperatures and then rinsed every evening in thunderstorms, we were pretty much doing nothing other than sit and read.  Day 8. Where to go? My original plan was to take a turn around the Picos and then eastwards calling into a few "sights" and "beau villages" that had aires. But with an ageing dog we were looking for somewhere cooler.   It looks as though El Niño from the Pacific is causing the weather we are getting. So we decided to cut a few places out and today head for Frias.   The village is called the smallest city in Spain.  There's a Camping-Car Park aire there and for €6 a night there's plenty of spaces and services but no EHU. Loos and showers as well.  On the way from Potes we found ourselves taking in a few passes and lots of winding ...