Spain Day 5 - San Sebastián to Pamplona

Bright sunshine to wake to at last!

Off to Pamplona. Mostly motorway but we moved to the smaller road for the last 20 mins or so. Blue skies and snow capped mountains visible as we climbed. Stunning roadside mirador opportunity where we also got our first view of circling vultures and saw trees filled with nests of processionary moth caterpillars high in the pines. 



Finally got a chance to make a brief visit to a bigger supermarket and fill up the fridge and the fuel tank just before we reached the city. The aire here is very new, on the outskirts of town next to the fire station, but only a short walk away from the centre (with a glass lift to save the climb). Google wasn’t happy with the address but got us near enough to follow the signs. It’s the first time that we’ve seen lots of English vans, mostly returning from winters on the ‘costas’. It’s nice to chat about their recommendations and experiences. The aire seems to be somewhere that young people hang around and smoke weed which makes it feel a little unsafe but there are plenty of van dwellers about so we made an effort to secure the van well and headed off.

The town itself has much of what you’d expect, it’s easy to imagine the famous bull run tearing down the narrow streets, and there’s a regularly-reinforced connection to Hemingway that’s apparent everywhere. The view from the city walls is amazing and the immense cathedral has a real presence. We had a coffee in cafe Iruna… purportedly a favourite spot of the man himself and wandered the streets and gardens. Google was not our friend. The narrow streets made it hard to navigate with internet maps so we just wandered in the end. It was a real delight to have a day of sunshine, especially with mountain air … even if it’s apparent that without the sun nighttime could be very cold!






After a good look round it’s a wander through the gardens and back to the van for bread, cold meat and Rioja. Not a bad tea… could easily get used to this.

Miles so far: 196

Steps today: 12,231

Overnight - Autocaravannas de Pamplona, 10 Euro inc electricity 




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