Basque country

We stopped overnight just west of San Sebastián, on a site that that has a surprisingly good pool. The first surprise was that it has water in it and the second is that it’s an infinity pool and in a great position.

That other swimmer was watching Dawn’s perfect strokes enviously, as she glided across the sparkling water.

Next to us was this wonderful Mercedes Benz Marco Polo roadsurfer camper, driven by a young couple from Switzerland. I have to admit that a load of stuff went through my head when I saw them in it. Those thoughts were something like,

#expensive  #how  #young_people  #swiss and #why_couldn’t_I

Then they explained that although they were driving the top of the range AMG version, it wasn’t theirs. They had picked up a deal from the hire company, to drive it from Zurich to Bilbao. They had five days in which to do it and were then flying home via Mallorca. Now I felt #less_inadequate

We toured a little further towards Bilbao and stopped at an interesting coastal town. The buildings here show the very different style to elsewhere, with the emphasis on many small window panes. 

In the harbour was a tidal swimming pool that was getting a lot of attention, although it might not look so from the pic and also a strange breakwater across the ‘face’ of the inlet. On further investigation we found that this is a wave energy capture/ electricity generator. There was no information showing numbers, so I no idea as to its effectiveness.

Then we arrived at Lekeitio for the weekend and were very lucky to find a place in the highly controlled ‘Autocaravans Parking’. The reason for wanting to stay in another place that is better suited to sealed up motorhomes and not a Landy with a canvas roof, was so that we could walk in and out of town easily. This was a great decision as it is only a 10 minute stroll into the port area.

We spent two nights here and felt as if we got to know the place a little. Even a barman nodded when we went in for a second or third time. I presume he remembered my attempt at Spanish. They are very very patient and really allow you to try.  Google translate is my constant prompt.

It even works with Basque which is just as well as it is nothing like Spanish. This is a flag but I’m still not sure of its message.

There’s great swimming from the beautiful town beach and the water was warm and so easy to get in. At the back of the beach is a thoughtful boardwalk with freshwater showers. These even have a low tap and footrest so you can properly sort yourself out.

I think that the barman remembered us as we got a taste for their tapas.

After a quiet night at the parking it got busy the next morning with the arrival of a large number of coaches out of which piled a very large number of the older person set, all wearing bright green neckerchiefs 

One guy seemed to think it was ok to relieve himself behind ‘next door’.

I’m aftraid that I got cross and shouted at him. We got our own back by racing ahead into town so that we were at the bars before them!

From what I could workout from the words on their neckerchiefs, this is a club of retirees from elsewhere who today, of all days, when it’s our day here, have also come to this place. Their main activity is to sit on a coach for too long, then pee in car parks, fill every table in every bar and then eat a meal in a huge tent on the harbour. Finally they go back to the car park and try to pee before getting on the coaches and making the place quiet again.

Unfortunately I had such an effect on the guy in the photo, that he saw me that evening when we were back at the car park and came and asked if he could pee next to us again. I said no and directed him to the non-camper-van area at the other side.