Red, red wine

Thursday 2 April to Tuesday 7 April

From Morella it is a 243 mile drive through an ever-changing landscape to Haro, in the Rioja region, where we stayed at Camping de Haro. We had expected sites to be busy over Easter so had pre-booked three nights here. Unfortunately our planning had not gone much further than that, so we were unable to visit one of the Bodegas for a wine tasting, which required advance reservation. Instead we got some information from the tourist office on cycle routes in the area and selected a suitable one for us, a circular route passing through various small towns by the river, and mostly flat. It was part of the cycle network, GR99. However, finding the start of the route eluded us, having tried every road out of Haro without seeing any cycle-route signposts. So in desperation, we set off on the quietest of the roads, signposted to San Felices, to see what we would find there. After several strenuous hill climbs followed by exhilarating free-wheeling down the other side, and having passed numerous vineyards, we came to our destination, which comprised a lonely railway station with piles of stones beside it awaiting transport. Not even somewhere for a refreshment!

Haro and the church of San Tomas in the distance

From Camping de Haro the old town is only 15 minutes walk away. It is a compact area and the church of San Tomas with its “wedding-cake” tower is visible for miles around. We wandered into the cathedral, quite plain on the outside, blending in with other urban buildings, but predictably ornate inside. The sides of some of the buildings are painted with wine-related pictures.

There are storks in residence in the town and we spotted two nests on the top of buildings, one of which was occupied by its owner (when we didn't have a telephoto lens for the camera with us, of course).

On Sunday we moved closer to Santander, and were impressed by the series of tunnels and viaducts around Bilbao. We stayed at Camping Altamira in Santillana del Mar, which was a final afternoon of relaxation. At this point we were beginning to struggle to know what day it was and we did a final check of the date on our phones and on the ferry ticket to make sure we were catching the ferry tomorrow, Monday!

The sun shone and we were able to sit at the stern of the boat out of the wind watching Santander gradually disappear from view.

Once out into the Bay of Biscay the sea was quite choppy, but not nearly as bad as a few days ago, when we had read on the website that a ferry had been delayed due to bad weather. Overnight the sea state improved to “slight” and the rest of the journey was much more comfortable. It was lovely to arrive back in the UK in warm sunshine and after docking punctually, we had a good journey home to find the daffodils in flower. Welcome home!