Zumaia rocks

Though Logroño is regional capital of the Rioja region it is situated close to the border with the Basque country, in fact some of the best Rioja wines actually hale from Euskadi. 

It's a spectacular drive from here to the northern coast, following the Ebro at first, then across the mountains, skirting the Basque capital, Vitoria Gasties, then over a couple passes. Immediately the hills are deep green coloured and the mix of chalet style houses and light industry in the valleys more reminiscent of Switzerland than Spain.

Briefly the drive takes you into a little sliver of Navarre. We reckon that out of  mainland Spain's sixteen regions we have passed through all but four of them - everywhere except Catalonia, Asturias, Gallicia, and Communidad de Madrid. Next time!

It's no surprise that San Sebastian and Biarritz across the French border developed in the late 19th century as winter resorts. Though our visits here in recent years have always been in wintertime we have always been blessed by mild sunny weather. Today was no exception.

Following 2018s 'wing-mirror-gate', we decided to avoid the campsite at San Sebastian and headed instead to Camping Bungalow Zumaia. It's only half an hour by train to the gastronomic delights of San Sebastian, however with our tunnel crossing now less than a week hence we opted to stay for  only one night and press on to France tomorrow.

We arrived around oneish, The receptionist recognised Gill from our stay here a couple of years ago (it's the curly hair!). She's very chatty, a big enthusiast about the local food culture and 'green' Spain in general. After lunch we walked through the industrial estate next to the site, then down the riverside footpath, past the docks and harbour and into town. 

Zumaia had no outstanding monuments or architectural highlights, nevertheless it is a pleasing place to be in. Most of the small ports along the north coast specialise in fishing, Zumaia's specialism was octopus though the place also seems to have been a centre for small scale shipbuilding and repair and engineering. There is still one shipyard working. As we walked towards the town centre the crash of a sledge hammer hitting a big chunk of metal rang across the water. Metal bashing - it's a happy sound, people working in local jobs not dependent on tourism or retail. 

There has been some industrial decline since the Franco era when naval engineering was a major employer, including a plant producing marine diesel engines. These docks have been filled in and are now occupied by apartment blocks, bland but not unpleasant.

However, Zumaia's fame is geological rather than historical. The rock formations are world famous. Wikipedia describes them as follows - 

The town has two beaches (Itzurun and Santiago), which are of interest to geologists because they are situated among the longest set of continuous rock strata in the world. Known locally as the "flysch" they date from the mid-cretaceous period to the present, a time period of over 100 million years. The K-T boundary is present at the Itzurun beach, and fossils can be found, notably of ammonites. The strata stretches along a distance of about 8 km, between the towns/beaches of Deba and Getaria, with Zumaia lying in the middle.

It is a must see sight. Last time we were here it was low tide so more of the famous strata was visible. Nevertheless, with big Atlantic rollers crashing over the rock shelf, it was an impressive display. 

We sat down and simply wave watched for quarter of an hour. 

Later in the afternoon, back at the van, there was a knock on the door. The guy from a British hire van asked if we could help with his GPL issue. It transpired the couple from New Zealand had hired the motorhome in the UK but nobody had thought to explain the complexity of gas bottle connectors in Europe. They had used up all the gas in the two Calor bottles provided. I gave them two spare pigtails we had with us which could be easily converted to connecting a European fitting. Since we have refillable bottles we had no use for them. I reckoned that his best plan was to cross the border into France where buying a gas bottle is straightforward. In Spain it is difficult to buy a Cespa bottle without a Spanish address, though apparently there is a lively black market in second hand ones. I hope it all worked out for them.

A week today we will be back in England. We have no plans to visit anywhere in particular in France. There comes a point where getting home becomes the priority, especially as the warm sunny spell we have enjoyed continues as far as Bordeaux, further north it looks gloomy and cold. - not a great prospect