Basking in Basque

I want to start with how exciting it is for a passionate Game of thrones fan to accidentally visit a shooting location that was an integral part of Season 7 as Dragonstone. Everytime they showed this place on the show in 2017, I was beaming. I mean, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, they all walked on this same path that I did. 😍

Since we got up at about 3am, I slept right through the two hour flight from Heathrow to Bilbao, Spain. The weather in Bilbao was similar to Gibraltar and we cleared immigration quick enough. The car rental at Hertz desk took nearly an hour and we were entertained by other customers and their families. After seeing an Asian kid repeatedly pulling his mom's hair for entertainment and seeing another couple of kids running from one end of the room to another innumerable times, I was grateful for my life once again. We had booked Hyundai i10 but were given a sexy red Alfa Romeo Gulietta instead. That more than made up for the slow processing at the Hertz desk.

We drove from Bilbao airport straight to an attraction that Lakshman had shortlisted. My planning effort for this trip was minimal. It was nearly lunch time and the wraps I got from home were long gone. As we passed by a town called Bakio with some shops, we parked and walked back into town. The reason for those shops to be there became clear, it was a beach town. We walked along the promenade and realised that this was a topless beach, a first for us! After realising we couldn't communicate and ask for vegetarian food at a restaurant, we walked on to find a small take away shop on the promenade. I ended up having gelato for lunch. It was followed by fruits later in the afternoon though.

After people watching at Bakio beach, we drove on to Gaztelugatxe, an islet in Basque connected to mainland by a man made bridge that looks absolutely exotic because of how it was designed. And on that very evening I saw the trailer of Game of thrones season 7 and noticed that this place as one of the shooting locations!!

It was beautiful beyond words and quiet. There was a church on top of the islet and I rang the bell.

There were drinking water taps in a few places along the hike and we were very grateful for them as it was over 30°. During the uphill hike on our way back, it felt as hot as Chennai. I was reminded of the old dermicool ad with Shankar Mahadevan singing while the sun sucked energy from people through straws. My lack of a proper lunch probably amplified my tiredness. Finally we were back in the comforting air conditioning in the car and began our drive to Llanes, where we were to spend the night.

It was a over 250km away and Lakshman drove the distance in about 3hours. I had a nice nap in between but he drove on without a stop. We reached Hotel Sablon before 8pm. I'd chosen this hotel for its location and Maria who worked at the reception was kind enough to give us a beach facing room. She told us something after verifying our passports that thoroughly surprised and pleased us. We were the very first Indians to stay at this hotel ever!! She was warm and wonderful, she gave us a walking idea for the evening but understandably Lakshman was too tired. We walked into town to buy some road snacks for the rest of the trip and takeaway dinner from a burger place. The guy who took our order didn't speak English but understood us, so we got delicious burgers with vegetable patty. We ate in the room and slept soon after. It had been a long day!

The next morning, a pink sunrise on the beach woke me up at six but I slept​ on. It was nearly 8 when I was ready for the day and alone at the beach wearing my flip-flop. Other than the one guy sunbathing far away on the beach, I had the beach to myself. Even Lakshman wasn't there as he was getting ready. It was warm and sunny but the water was as cold as in England. Still I persevered, walking all alone on a Spanish beach, that's the stuff that dreams are made of. The hotel was perched on top of the beach and bird song added magic to the scene.

Reluctantly I went back to the room to pack and check out. Before we left, Maria gifted us a locally made cheese platter, we couldn't have been happier about the hospitality. We went to the restaurant attached to the hotel and chose to have the buffet breakfast. It was a sweet deal as it included toast, fried eggs, croissants, OJ, cakes, yogurt and coffee, all of which were delicious. I was hopeful that perhaps I would be able eat better on this trip than the earlier trip to Bavaria. With the help of my offline dictionary app, I said “breakfast bueno, optimo" with a thumbs up to the staff at the till, his delighted smile at my humble effort to speak Spanish was a such a reward!

After a satisfactory breakfast, we finally went on the walk suggested by Maria. It led to a viewpoint on top of the hill opposite to the hotel and continued along a coastal path with spectacular sea views and cute trees. There was a scuba diver exploring the coral reefs by the rocky coast and again melodious bird song.

We finally bid Llanes a solemn farewell and drove to Playa de Gulpuyuri. This was a short  hike to a rocky edge of the coast with beautiful views and thriving with birdlife and insects. We heard more bird song and the humming of cicadas. We spotted a variety of birds, butterflies, insects, lizards and even a few cute goats. I was shocked when we saw some far away mountain peaks covered in snow. For crying out loud, this was May in Spain and it was at least 35°!! How can we see a snow covered peak from this hot Spanish coast?! There was supposed to be a hidden beach with waves crashing inside a rocky room but access to that place was closed. That didn't disappoint us because in this hike we sighted the butterfly equivalent of a ladybug and another two butterflies performed a mating dance five inches from my face.

After another hurried escape from the heat into the air conditioned car, we drove on to Mirador del Fitu on top of a hill. It was a beautiful drive passing by sunny beaches and gorgeous mountains. It was 40° when we reached but the views were gorgeous and the breeze in the air kept us just short of getting baked. It was a true 360° view point with coast and snow capped mountain far away. The structure of the viewpoint itself was pretty cool.

We picked up the trail opposite to what must have been a war time watch tower. Though it was closed now, there was plenty of shelter from the sun due to the tall trees, some rocks shaped perfectly to sit on, splendid ​views to see and distant bells clanging away on horses’ necks adding music to the scene. The car felt like the inside of a pressure cooker when we finally left and I realised that this was the first vacation after we moved to UK where the destination was hotter than London. Wherever we'd travelled before, it was just as cool as or much colder than London. I was not keen to make a trend of such warm holidays, to be honest as I was getting seriously tan.

Since our next stop was in the mountains far away, we decided to go straight to the hotel next. It was too hot to be walking around anyway. We stopped at about 3pm at a hotel near the foothills of Picos de Europas, our destination for the next three days. Again the waiter didn't speak English but by this point I'd memorised Spanish names for ham (jamun), tuna (atune), chicken (pollos) so I knew what to avoid. We shared a four cheese (quesa) pizza and fries (patata fritters). Not the healthiest meal but pretty satisfying after our energy draining day. I could feel the old craving take over as I took the first sip of cold Coca-Cola. We were satisfied enough to skip dinner, in fact.

The drive took us through winding roads with a beautiful clean river flowing along. We stopped at a small village to buy cold medicine and I had a memorable conversation. The pharmacist spoke ònly in Spanish and I spoke only in English but with strong sign language I managed to explain that I needed tablet for cold that was not allergy related, for an adult and the person had no allergies to any medicine. She in turn asked me questions and instructed no more than one tablet in 8hrs. This was a welcome quality I'd noticed in Spain, they beamed if I said Ola or adios but didn't scorn if I spoke in English but tried to communicate however they could to convey the message. We managed to have a whole conversation and even completed a transaction successfully without using the same language!

We reached Hotel Toscana and during the check in was another memorable conversation. The gentleman could not say a word in English but we managed to convey that we had reservation. He in turn exclaimed that he'd welcomed guests from all over the world but we were the first Indian guests to stay at this hotel, a second for us on this trip. He explained which key was for the room door and which one for main door. He explained what the WiFi password was, where our room was and made us feel absolutely welcome, all the while speaking only in Spanish! We were amazed at how well we understood each other and I had an epiphanic moment that language need not be a barrier at all. The room was lovely with mountain views. We were​ tired enough and full enough after the pizza lunch that we rested in the room all evening skipping dinner by eating some of our snacks.

We had breakfast at Hotel Toscana which turned out to be a disappointing affair. They had just cakes and coffee, even the yogurt flavour was off. We started the day with minimal nutrition and went to the visitor's centre nearby. There we got a suggestion for a hike near Brez which we decided to do the next day.

We drove to a nearby village quickly ascended to the top of a hill where there was a wonderful view point, the green side of the mountains looked more like Switzerland than Spain, only the humidity gave it away.

This curved road totally fascinated us and we realised we had drove on this the previous day to get to the hotel.

Again with the snow capped peaks far away, how?!

We then drove a short distance away to another view point mainly to see Griffin vultures which we'd spotted from the road. The view of the valley was lovely too.

It was supposed to rain that day and right on schedule it started to drizzle at about noon. The wind started to howl and we took shelter at a small hilltop cafe for a while and then drove towards Treviso where there was another hiking trail. We checked whether there was any vegetarian food available in atleast five different restaurants enroute but none was available so we had some fruits and snacks. Before we could reach Treviso, we got distracted by a cable car station in Bulnes. We boarded the cable car and we were the only passengers going up to Bulnes. After a few minutes in the cable car tunnel, we reached Bulnes and started our hike. As we only had a couple of hours before closing time, we went on a brief hike passing through a village, a stream to a view point the gave us a perfect view of the signature peak of Picos de Europas. Since this peak was at an impressive height of over 8,500ft nestled amongst other hills, even though we drove uphill, came up in a cable car and hiked further up, we could only just glimpse this peak.

The faraway peak with the flat top was what comes up whenever one looks for Picos de Europas.

We came down the cable car and decided to drive back to Potes which was next to Ojedo where we were staying.  We got lured by a home made pizza sign but the only vegetarian option was a four cheese pizza which was nowhere as good as the one we had in La Ruta. After only a few bites, the cheese flavour as very overwhelming and I gave up on it. The service was friendly and nice though. We went back to the room and crashed for the night.

A lovely bridge over the stream in Potes.

The next morning we went back to Potes looking for breakfast and ate omlette at the hip Picos cafe. We were so starved for good food that the simple omlette delighted us.

Another thing about Spain was we did not have to pay parking charge anywhere. We parked several times in the heart of Potes and in so many attractions by then but there was no charge. Despite all the advantages of holidaying within UK, the hefty parking charges were always a sore spot even in the remotest places so this was a welcome change.

Energised we went to Brez which was a small village that looked and smelled like an Indian village. It was a beautiful two hour hike with views of a rocky peak, rolling hills covered in mist and surrounded by birdsong. The weather was pleasantly cool that nicely balanced our hiking sweat.

The hike route was well marked with the serial number of the hike in posts like the one below.

After the Brez hike, we drove to Fuente de which had another cable car station but with the top station at a much higher altitude.

It was very cold and windy on top but we went on a pretty long hike because of the amazing surroundings. It looked like Ladakh or Khaiber pass with almost desert like mountains without any vegetation and there were plenty of raptors flying around. After being pushed hither and thither by the wind for a while on our hike, I put my foot down and we came back to the top station after enjoying the magnificent views.

This was one of the best views capturing the desert on top of a mountain and it is almost impossible to discern the three hikers on this path that have been zoomed into in the next picture.

Even after seeing this up close, I had trouble believing that there were snow capped mountains in Spain in May when the temperature went up to 40 degrees! How is this possible?!

The steep fall from the view point metal extension was pretty scary!

We went back to Potes for an early dinner but all the restaurants started dinner service only at 8 and it was just after 6pm. After walking along the canals and resting my tired feet, we had milkshake at a small shop and went back to the room for more fruits and instant noodles in Lakshman's case. We'd walked 26,000 steps and were totally worn out. I was wondering if I may weigh a little less after this holiday than before, as I hardly ate and kept walking.

After a night's well earned sleep, we checked out of the hotel. We had omlette once again in Potes and left Picos de Europas behind. We went to a small town called San Vicente and a helpful lady at the visitor's centre guided us to a secluded and beautiful beach close by at Playa de Fuentes.

We drove on a coastal road and soon we stopped ​at another beach just by the road and had ice cream.

Next we went to a small town called Somo which was a bitter disappointment food wise. I'd seen videos of what a Spanish potato omelette would be like but what they served was disgusting and cold. I finished the last few morsels of fruit and snacks on our way to San Sebastian, our last stop in this trip. We drove to Mount Ilia in San Sebastian and quickly realised that this an attraction ​for locals and since we just came from mountains, it didn't appeal much to us. We checked in to Hotel Record and then drove to Mount Igueldo for a perfect view of the San Sebastian beaches and the small island with a statue reminiscent of Rio de Janero.

Then we parked our car near the beach and walked along side other tourists on the promenade.

After a while I was nearly faint with hunger as the only meal I had eaten that day was the omlette in Potes and so we walked to the old town looking for a burger king which would hopefully have a vegetarian burger but instead ended up having dinner at Bollywood cafe. After nearly a week of compromise when it came to food, I almost inhaled my dinner of nan and vegetable curry in just a few minutes. The Indian flavours and tasty vegetarian food was an unexpected joy in this carnivorous​ country. I was quite emotional when I thanked the host for the service! We went back to the hotel for the night.

Early next morning we went to Zurrilo beach around the corner from the hotel and I played in the water for a bit. We walked along the promenade and had coffee at the only cafe open at that time. After resting briefly at the hotel, we left to Bilbao to return the rental car and took a bus to Bilbao town but the connecting bus to Santander from Bilbao was booked full so we had a hire a cab on the spot to the Santander airport which cost twice of what it would have to return the rental car at a different airport to the one we collected it from. I considered this a valuable lesson, to not mess about when it comes to reaching an airport ever. The taxi driver who took us to the airport drove at a constant speed of 130km whereas the speed limit was 80km. Due to this maniacal speed, we reached the airport well ahead of time to catch a flight to London Stanstead. It had been an action packed trip though we only explored a very tiny part of Spain.

I have never been more homesick or more hungry on a holiday and infact I weighed over a kilo less at the end of this holiday than at the start. While waiting at Santander airport, I did some serious soul searching about becoming a meat eater as I wanted to travel the world but my vegetarian diet restricted me to manage on an empty stomach too many times. Then I got the brainwave that would change the way I booked holiday accommodation in the future when travelling outside UK - self catering!

Like everyone else, I always thought of beaches when I thought of Spain but the massive rocky mountains and green meadows were somewhat unexpected. What was delightful was the people who were helpful and friendly and so keen to communicate never mind the language barrier. And it is not possible to assign a price on visiting a Game of thrones location as exotic as Dragonstone! I will definitely return to Spain despite all my complaints, after learning some Spanish and packing some spices to cook in a self catering room and some sunscreen lotion in the future. It is most definitely not adios amigo! 😊