We had the long drive home today. First we went to Tesco in Andover for some shopping, and breakfast in the café. Shirley had the vegan breakfast with added bacon, Scott had bacon, egg and chilli jam on a Brioche bap plus a sausage bap, all was good.
We drove on north, with 2 brief stops at service stations.
Arrival time at home was 6pm, we'd driven a total of 2,390 miles on the trip.
Here are all 12 places we stayed overnight in Spain.
We had a good night's sleep in the cabin, and for breakfast had cereal that we'd brought with us. Oscar is having a relaxing time.
The sea conditions are calm, but we can't see anything for the fog.
Our main meal was lunch in the Taberna, we both had beef stew with potato cake and vegetables. It was pretty good, we've go no complaints about Brittany Ferries food.
We docked on time in Portsmouth at 8pm, and were one of the first off the ship. No problems with immigration and customs, and we were on the road by 8.30pm.
We'd decided to get a few miles under our belt, so we drove to Winchester 45 minutes north, and parked in a coach park that allows free overnight stays at the weekend.
Our ferry back to Portsmouth was due to leave at 1pm, so we left the aire after breakfast and drove to the port.
We had to queue for a while, but it all went smoothly and we were in our cabin on the ferry before 12, and we left on time at 1.
As we left we could see another Brittany Ferries ship, the Pont Avon, at the same port. We found out it's there for repairs.
After we cleared the berth, the pilot got taken off the ship from directly below where we were standing.
In the cabin we watched the Scotland rugby match on our television. The crossing was very smooth, no weather warnings this time.
We went to the Taberna cafe for dinner, we both had pork with Calvados cream and rice with vegetables.
Oscar was fine, he manages ok with just the outside exercise area to use.
We left the site and drove to Santander, using the toll road again. We went to the supermarket for shopping for the rest of the holiday, plus a few things we wanted to take home. We also filled up with diesel, though it was getting more expensive due to Trump's Iran war.
We parked in the free aire we'd used at the start of the holiday. The weather was a bit rainy at times, but we didn't get too wet.
We'd booked Oscar in to get his tapeworm treatment and passport stamped at a vet 15 minutes walk from the aire, Duncan's Clinic. It all went fine there, he took his pill easily and the vet gave him a free bag of treats.
We didn't really do much more today, for dinner we had paella we'd bought at the supermarket.
For breakfast we bought croissants and pains au chocolat from the site shop. It was a bit cloudy and slightly colder today.
We walked from the site again, this time heading east. It was also on the Camino de Santiago. First we went down into the next town, Orio.
The path then climbed upwards out of town. For quite a long way it was a very nice track through the forest.
Eventually the path ran out though, and for the rest of the distance to San Sebastian it was on a road, which wasn't so nice to walk on, even though it was quiet.
It was still pretty cloudy by the time we got to San Sebastian, so we didn't stay long after we'd had our lunch, and we caught a train back to Zarautz.
We got back to the van luckily before the rain started, it was quite heavy in the evening and overnight.
For dinner we had Spanish sausages, mash and beans.
We walked from the site today, west along the coast. First we went down the 439 steps to the beach, then along the Zarautz promenade.
The promenade extends beyond the town, and follows the road round to the next town, the fishing village of Getaria. We passed a small harbour as we left Zarautz.
We walked through Getaria to a hill on a peninsula with a lighthouse on it, and climbed to the top where we had our lunch.
We then walked through the village, which had some nice old streets.
We went in the church for a look, it had a strangely sloping floor up to the altar.
We walked on inland, towards the next town, Zumaia. The path is part of the Camino de Santiago.
The vineyards we passed here are different from others we've seen. the vines are trained to a canopy about 6 feet high.
We took a less direct, longer route to the end, and eventually came down into Zumaia which is a larger town.
We caught the train back to Zarautz, and had a drink in a bar on the seafront.
Then we went up the steps again back to the campsite. Later for dinner we made tartiflette (cheese, potatoes, onions and bacon).
We decide to visit Bilbao today. We drove using the AP8 toll motorway, as it took half the time compared to not using it (1 hour vs 2 hours). It was about 11 euros each way.
We'd researched parking before we went, and it looked like the bullring car park would be suitable. However when we got there we could see there was some kind of event on, and the attendant just shooed us away.
Plan B was to go out of the city and park at the top of the funicular train, then get that back down again. This plan worked, the parking was easy and free, though the funicular did cost us 13 euros.
Before we got on there was a good view over the city.
We walked along the river to have a look at the Guggenheim Museum. The outside is clad in titanium.
There are some iconic artworks, a spider made of metal and a puppy made of flowering plants.
We walked back along the river towards the old town.
We had a wander through the old town, and had pintxos, which is what the local version of tapas are called. They tend to be slices of baguette with various toppings. We had a fried pork belly one, and a Spanish tortilla one.
There is lots of amazing architecture around.
After walking around for a while we went to another pintxos bar, this time we had a mini burger, goats cheese with honey and nuts, ham croquettes and chicken. All was pretty good.
We made our way back to the funicular and returned up to the van.
After driving home we didn't really need any dinner, we only had some peanuts and olives.
The town looked quite good lit up at night.
