Beryl in the Basque Country

[blogdroed]

Having spent two summer holidays travelling in Normandy and the Loire Valley, we decided to bite the bullet this summer and pay for the Portsmouth -> Bilbao ferry and take the van to the Basque Country.

The campsite we booked into for our first few nights turned out to be so convenient, we stayed there for the whole time!
The site, Camping Sopelana, is literally five minutes walk from a stunning beach and ten minutes walk from the Sopelana Metro station which takes you slap bang into the centre of Bilbao in 30 minutes.

Setting up camp:

Atxabiribil beach:

Pintxos (in the Basque Country it's pintxos not tapas) in Bilbao:

Kalimotxo (local drink which is red wine and coca cola - stunningly addictive!!) in Bilbao:

Match day in Bilbao (Europa League qualifier):

Sopelan is also ideally located to go exploring the coastline between Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastian. With the recommendations of everybody from the couple running the campsite shop to the ladies behind the cheese counter in the local deli we set out to explore the little fishing towns and villages along the coast as well as some well known and some lesser known tourist spots.

The only problem is that almost every road is a twisty, turny, mountainous road, many of which have some very, very, very scary hairpins wih no barriers and with a very, very, very long drop! Let's just say that concentration was very high at times on some of our road trips!!

Bermeo:

(Bermeo: more pintxos!!)

Pit stop at a roadside restaurant on the road back from Bermeo:

... will post some more pics in a minute!

 

[blogdroed]

A pit stop on a day out to Bakio:

New sticker:

Bakio in the background as we visit San Juan de Gaztelugatxe - the road from Sopelana followed the coastline in the background - up, down round and round!

That's where we're headed:

Reach the top and you get to ring the bell!

Make your way back down and then up to the pub ... and you get a beer!

This is where we were:

 

[Araon]

Very nice.... 8)

 

[Marriedblonde]

Very nice

 

[mike202]

Great pics and very interesting. Looks like a good holiday.
Love the stickers!

 

[StuF]

Stunning pics - awesome

 

[Doris]

lovely!

 

[gvee]

Looks awesome mate! Verrrry jealous :mrgreen:

Might be back up your way in a week or two; will you be about?

 

[aspro]

What is that bright light coming out of the sky?

 

[blogdroed]

Cheers all It was a fantastic holiday - the surf was excellent, the beers (and kalimotxos) were cold and the sun was hot 8)

Gvee I'll be around, just give me a bell!

 

[simo]

Nice- more pics needed - im being inspired :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[68_early_bay]

Nice 8)

 

[crede999]

wow what a trip looks awesome bus looks great too ,

how was the boat?

ive been toying with doing the boat so any info would be great

how many days were you out?

was it enough days?

fantastic trip bang it in camper and bus fella :msn4:

chris

 

[Ryanmck1984]

Wow. Great pics and an interesting read! I wan't to do something like this now! :lol:

 

[blogdroed]

Thanks everyone, I'll try and find some more pics later on - we had a bit of a nightmare with cameras out there - on day 2 my camera stopped working, on day 3 my son's camera stopped working and on day 5 my daughter's camera stopped working!! Thankfully Spain turned out to be well cheap so I bought a new camera on day 6!!!

Crede, the journey was easy. We sailed on a Sunday night which is a longer sailing, travelling Portsmouth to Bilbao via Roscoff (it's a once weekly thing to stop at Roscoff apparently). We left Portsmouth at 10pm on Sunday and got into Bilbao at 8am on Tuesday.

Breakfast in Roscoff:

We got our cabin keys as we checked into the port and so, once we were on board at around 10:30pm, we dumped our stuff and made our way to the restaurant for some grub. The food on board is surprisingly cheap considering the prices I've previously paid on Stenna's ferry service between Holyhead and Ireland, but on the way back we brought a coolbox and picnic basket full of stuff from the van into the cabin!

We certainly weren't bored - there are quizzes, bingo and kids' entertaiment if you want to take part and the novelty of being on a ship lasted well into the second sleep for the kids! My eldest was well into the dolphin and whale spotting lecture they gave and spent most of the journey on deck watching out for them!

The cabin we had was also reasonably sized - we opted for an inside cabin as it's cheaper and we didn't really care if we had a window or not!

We were originally going to be out there for three weeks, but because of the wife's work we had to change that a fortnight before we left so we were actually out there for 14 nights. Obviously I'd have loved to be out for longer, but 14 nights was great ... I wouldn't like to have spent that much money on the ferry and been out for less time to be honest.

On the way back we left Bilbao at 10am on Tuesday and got in to Portsmouth at 8am on Wednesday - the only problem was getting up at 6am to pack away the awning to make our way to the port ... with a minging hangover!!

Me suffering whilst waiting for the boat:

 

[Shorty]

8)

 

[valbarley]

Brilliant pics.

Would love to take the bus abroad, but being in the Midlands though is a 150 mile trek to the coast in any direction before we even get across

 

[blogdroed]

Brilliant pics.

Would love to take the bus abroad, but being in the Midlands though is a 150 mile trek to the coast in any direction before we even get across

Thanks 8)

We live on Anglesey! It's 334 miles to Portsmouth from my house We just took it easy - stayed in my wife's aunty's house in Llangollen on Saturday night and then took our time down on Sunday - stopping in Warwick Services for an hour or so to cook some lunch on the cooker in the van and watch some telly on the iPad!!

 

[Sausage]

Think this is what we are gonna do next summer. Lot easier than driving all the way down there. Great pics.

 

[sparkywig]

8)