We woke to a rather grey day just as the ferry from England was docking. Grabbed a breakfast roll at the cafe and waited to board. We weren’t sure where to empty the chemical toilet but it appeared to be common practice to just use the regular toilets, so we followed suite,

The Civil Guardia thoroughly checked every outfit for migrant activity and we finally boarded Cap Finistere at 10:15am.

The campsite at Burgos was fine with us checking out later in the day so we took the opportunity to travel by bus into Burgos old town in order to visit the Cathedral of Burgos, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of Burgos is a Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, its official name being Santa Iglesia Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Santa María de Burgos. Its construction began in 1221, following French Gothic patterns. It went through major changes in the 15th and 16th centuries: the spires of the main facade, the Chapel of the Constable and dome of the transept, elements of the advanced Gothic which give the temple its unmistakable profile. The last works of importance (the Sacristy or the Chapel of Saint Thecla) were constructed in the 18th century, in which the Gothic portals of the main facade were also modified. The style of the cathedral is the Gothic, although it has several decorative Renaissance and Baroque elements as well. The construction and renovations were made with limestone extracted from the quarrys of the nearby town of Hontoria de la Cantera.

In the cathedral are preserved works of extraordinary artists, such as architects and sculptors of the Colonia family (Juan, Simón and Francisco), the architect Juan de Vallejo, sculptors Gil de Siloé, Felipe Bigarny, Rodrigo de la Haya, Martín de la Haya, Juan de Ancheta and Juan Pascual de Mena, the sculptor and architect Diego de Siloé, the fencer Cristóbal de Andino, the glazier Arnao de Flandes or painters Alonso de Sedano, Mateo Cerezo, Sebastiano del Piombo or Juan Ricci, among others.

A series of photographs from this stunning church.

We finally hit the road to the port of Bilbao around 2:00pm, arriving at 16:40, including a stop for lunch. The port is open for check-in from 4:00pm to 7:00pm and there were many outfits parked up for the night.

A cafe opens in the evenings for drinks and snacks.

 

A very pleasant start to the day with the sun shining but still a cold nip presides over Madrid.

The heated shower blocks were fully utilised before our 11:00am departure – heading Burgos.

A fairly un-eventful journey, arriving at Camping Fuentes Blancas near to Burgos around 15:30 which included a long stop for lunch at around the half way point. Snow was forecast and although we didn’t see any on the roads, there were manned snow ploughs at many of the service areas in preparation for adverse weather.

Camping Fuentes Blancas at Burgos looks a great stopover site. It’s very busy with travellers heading both North and South. The washroom facilities are ok (not heated which is a shame) but the main campsite looks a little neglected. The electrics are in dire need of replacement and the pitches could use some care and attention.

It is though a municipal site so maybe that explains it…

We should have time to visit the Cathedral at Burgos in the morning before our final night in Spain this spring.

 

We woke to a crisp morning at the somewhat bleak Camping Despenaperros – sun shining but still wickedly cold. Spoke to a chap from Blighty who didn’t appear to have too many concerns driving as far as Madrid. In fact he’d phoned a site close to the M-50 (Camping Madrid Arco Iris) the previous day and been told there were plenty of free places.

The weather forecast North of Madrid, near to our preferred stopover of Camping Riaza, still had severe weather warnings for snow and wind so we decided we would head for Camping Arco Iris.

The campsite itself though is somewhat of a revelation. It’s undergoing a lot of re-development and the pitches, which are of varying size, are nicely laid out and covered in gravel. Ours is a large plot with a fresh water tap and grey waste facilities.

Now, come at the “wrong” time of year and this place is likely to be overflowing but right now, it’s perfect. The toilet blocks are heated – essential – and everything is to a high specification, clean and nicely laid out.

We’ll definitely return to this site another year and spend a week or two near to Madrid. Public transport links from here to Madrid seem fine.

We sampled the Campsite Restaurant in the evening which was very good. The Tapas delivered to the table was a fantastic Potato Tortilla accompanied by something I can only describe as the Spanish version of Pork Scratchings.

We ate with Nigel and Joan (from Melksham, Wiltshire), the couple who at Despenaperros had recommended this site.

Main course was a shared “meat platter” which was also excellent. Moe of course sampled the Postres.

The journey of 165 miles was projected to take around 2.5 hours but in the end, despite no hold-ups, the journey time came out at 3.75 hours. The wind speed forecast and reported was 61 km/h (38 mph) with gusts in excess of 94 km/h (59 mph) and progress was very slow in places. Some sections of the motorway we were towing the wobbly box at just over 40 mph and by the time we reached Madrid, any wild ideas of progressing further had receded.

Note to oneself – don’t tow with wind speeds > 40mph or gusts > 60 mph.

 

Why? A very good question with no satisfactory answer.

The weather can only improve and there is some evidence that next week will be a little warmer in Spain. Rainfall for 2018 in some regions has been 250% when compared to normal years – I think it followed us!

A cool start to the day and we were on the road by 10:30, direction Santa Elena. A small town / village near Jaen (North of Granada and about 130 miles South of Madrid), bordering the Despenaperros area of natural beauty.

Weather warnings for wind were in place for parts of our journey and on several sections of the motorway, we reduced our speed to barely 40mph, the wind buffeting our wobbly box with menace.

Arriving at Camping Despenaperros just before 14:00, the village is living up to it’s name – the temperature with wind-chill is below zero and father Christmas could appear at any time. The campsite is functional but more than a little bleak and whilst some of the facilities are somewhat dated, it’s all clean and most pitches appear to have mains water and grey waste.

In need of a shower, and given the inclement weather, I made use of our on-board shower for the first time in the three years we have owned this caravan!

Whilst we were expecting only to camp here for the night, storm Hugo is arriving across the Bay of Biscay barrelling into Spain on Saturday morning with areas of significant snowfall and winds gusting at nearly 100 km/h. We have therefore decided to delay our departue (destination Camping Riaza) for a further 24 hours to allow the storm to pass through.