A slow start

 Despite the stated hours of opening at our park-up, there was no-one to pay, and more importantly no-one to give us change for the showers. We fluffed about until the office opened then it was time for lunch so we didn't get going until about 1:30. The shower was worth waiting for though.

It wasn't long before we were driving through a thunderstorm and it got so bad we pulled off the road. We had a drink and a snooze while there was Sturm UND Drang, and Reggie got hammered by hailstones the size of gaming dice. We must have been in the heart of it for a while as the lightning and thunder were near simultaneous at times. We couldn't hide forever though, so on we went. Flashes of lightning in the distance can be quite cool.

The rain in Spain, and not on the plain.

We didn't really get far, but the rain stopped by dinner time.

Retreat to Corunna

 Having quite a few internet problems. Hopefully normal service will resume shortly. We've both been cut off from our providers: Jude as a fraud risk, and me something to do with data roaming.

Anyway, we left the British army as they had nearly exited the mountains. On Jan 10 1809 the left the mountains and the next day reached Corunna, only to find their transport shipping hadn't arrived yet. With the French still pressing they had to hold on, shades of Dunkirk.

The engineers blew this bridge before Corunna to slow the French

The view east from the British left flank on Monte Mero. The bridge at O Burgo is centre of shot.

The view from Elvina on the British right flank back to the old town of Corunna. (Believe it or not.) Somewhere around this point Moore was mortally wounded.

The battlefield has been heavily built over, and a motorway runs through it so it's not easy to navigate in a motorhome! The British held Soult off against the odds and on 18th Jan 1809 they sailed away, leaving Sir John's body behind.

We didn't go into old Corunna but continued to Santiago de Compostella. (Saint James of the field of stars.) We were wondering if we counted for a clam given we'd followed the Camina, but I guess we haven't really put in the leg work. (Pilgrims were fed on clams when they arrived, so a clam shell became the sign of one who completed the journey.) 

I have to say that the Cathedral was quite a building. In fact there were many signicant piles, which you might expect I suppose. There were fewer pilgrims than I expected, but I guess they trickle in at all times rather than in crowds.

We had a bit of fun getting back to Reggie as the bus driver forgot to roll his destination back when he got to town, so 4 Italians, 2 Spaniards and the two of us all took the bus to the end of the line in the wrong direction before coming back and carrying on the right way! Lucky we weren't in a hurry, such as trying to catch a plane since it was (or should have been) the airport bus.

Nice view from our park-up. 

Leon hearted

 Though a village in the middle of nowhere, Almanza has made the most of its assets, primarily its old fortified walls. They take obvious prise in their community, with clean and tidy streets. 

A typical Spanish scene: 9.30am Friday in the bar. Yes, that's morning.

Great view from the tower

Said tower

Fortified walls and one of the Alfonses I think.

Judi bought a Festival of Strawberries t-shirt as a small measure of support for the town since they had provided us with free electricity and wi-fi.

Then it was on to Leon, the regional capital of Castile. As expected it was a modern city with a medieval heart. We've driven past lots of industry in the north, but we've also seen lots of places that are no longer functional as those industries have come and gone.

Part of the old city

The Town Hall

Colourful buildings in a turn of the 20th C street. Lots of balconies for watching life below.

Leon's cathedral claims the most stained glass in the world. I believe them

Nice detail on this corner 

The old, but still current, hospital.

Leon is on the Camina de Campostella so there were lots of pilgrims, and the churches, hostels and eateries to serve them. I don't know how much your average walker spends, but there is a steady income stream for the city.

Not by coincidence, this next part of the Camina is also the route that Sir John Moore's British army took for its retreat to Corunna in 1808/09, so there were places of interest for the Peninsula War too. Mostly though it was a matter of appreciating the god awful territory they had to slog through after their retreat started on Christmas Day 1808. We had passed through Sahagun yesterday, and that is where Moore received the news that he was about to enter a French trap, with French armies north and south of him. He ordered a retreat and the only suitable road was the pilgim route through the mountains.

The retreat was through those mountains, and not on this lovely modern road.

We drove on a nice provincial motorway which went over most of the valleys and through some of the mountains, but it was clear how rough the terrain was. (I have no photos, as I was driving.) We stopped before Corunna (A Coruña on the signposts here). It took us several hours, so no comparison to the 12 days of hell it took the Brits back then

Missing things

 Today was as much about things missed as things seen.

It started well with a trip on a transporter bridge over the Nevion. Opened in 1893, it's one of the few still in operation. There was one over the Kiel canal that we saw on the Scandi trip but it was closed as a ship had run into the suspended pod. We've been to several cities where they used to be as well: Nantes, Brest, Rouen, and possibly Widnes.

We liked this engineering marvel so much we went over and back as foot passengers then took Reggie over on it too.

A statue for the bridge engineer and workers (and some nice old buildings from a similar period).

Not the best of weather for the long view

Our route was plotted to include a visit to some cave paintings. We followed the signs up the hill to find that you had to buy tickets at the office at the bottom of the hill. Cuevas de Castillo what sort of f..ked up system is that? What's the point of having signs at the top of the drive, not the start? I was pissed off. It's not easy getting Reggie up hills and to go down and back up again would have taken us into their siesta so we missed out.

Onwards then, to Formista to see a Romanesque church, and a canal flight.

We're out of the mountains for a while on the Cantabrian plain. There has to be a connection...

I was awed by how large these plains are - they seemed to go forever in every direction 

Here's a lovely (restored) Romanesque church

The church had to be fortified during the medieval period and looked like this when restoration began. But bigger of course.

The flight of locks was missing some important features

No locks since a long time.

The canal ends here, though it seems another stretch could be reopened rather easily

Formista itself was weird. I know it is the time of day we were there but it felt to me like a town in a western that's expecting a gunfight: there was noone to be seen but you knew they were there. Jude and I couldn't help but whistle the theme tune to 'The Man With No Name'.

By the time we left a few tourists had shown up, and some pilgrims. We will be following the Camino de Compostella autovia for a day or two more so will see plenty more of them.

Further through this big country to our stop. A little out of the way but with free power and internet how could we resist it. We spent the evening trying to get our door lock back in order. The air was blue...

Bilbao - not a hobbit

 We hopped a train to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim. Makes a change not to be driving. 

I found the build more interesting than the art. Much modern art is inaccessible to me, one display in particular being just squiggles.

I suppose that the Guggenheim is what all architecture students picture, which must make their work on Pak'n'Save buildings a little disheartening.

Every change of light would offer a different impression of the building, and the changes of sun angle during the day/year would do the same. A time.lapse from a single stand would be interesting.

In contrast, the Santanda-Bilbao railway station.

Salted fish. I tried in Portugal and it is an acquired taste that I'm not prepared to acquire.

Apartments across the Nevion

After we got back we realized that we are moving too slowly to see all the highlights we have planned so will be driving longer distances each day from now on. We should still be able to see a good variety of sights and have some leeway to stop in nicer places. It won't be the slow stooge of Brittany-Normandy, but more like our Scandi trip.