Fields of Gold (and red, lots of red)

Weather: a great drying day, shame I didn’t do the washing!

Bilbao:

Need to read the map better.  The campsite was on the BAY of BISCAY, not known for calm weather although even the campsite owner was despairing that it hadn’t stopped raining since January.  First night felt quite snug after David reminded me that a lot of people camped alongside us would be catching the ferry the next day but we didn’t have to.  I enjoyed being safe in our little tin can after that, being buffeted about by wind and rain but with the option to stand on solid ground.

Because the weather was bad for all of Northern Spain we had decided to visit the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao to pass the time (not a particularly admirable reason).  So we donned wet weather gear and stood at the bus stop for the trip on 3 buses into town.  And we stood at the side of that road for 25 sodden minutes before deciding to swap culture for sun and rushing back to check out of the campsite before 12.   A quick internet weather check and we were off.  So no report from the Guggenheim I’m afraid, but we will try again on the way back.

Castrojeriz

Joined the hordes of pilgrims or “peregrinos” in a little town on the Santiago way.  There are coachloads of them, or walking train carriage fulls in school terms.  It’s a strange place to stay as most people here are just staying 1 night but it’s actually quite a nice little town.  The only bad moment has been attempting to eat the cod-like fish we bought at the fishmongers.  Yeuch! Ended up having ham salad instead.  And the 20 mins we spent at the butchers was a bit of an eye opener.  Sheep’s head anyone?

So avoiding the lame and limping pilgrims we did a couple of bike rides yesterday amongst the fields of barley and vast swathes of poppies.  David really enjoyed it but I’m afraid I have not been converted to mountain biking especially when the sign points straight down through a field with no discernable track!  All to the constant soundtrack of David whistling "To be a pilgrim".

We climbed up to the castle on the first afternoon only to find it was boarded up!