Click here for day 3: Valdoviño to Perlora.
Day 4 found us in the Asturias region, the rainy Asturias region as I have it on good authority that the Asturias just wouldn´t be the same without the rain. *sigh. Are you getting sick of hearing me complain about the rain? You must be, because I am too… but you need to know that we tried really hard to be positive about it. We were all “embrace the rain” “it´s still beautiful…” yada yada… We had our game faces on, I promise.
Our plan had been to follow the coast as much as possible as we crossed from west to east, but decided that since it was still so rainy that we´d just push through all the way to the Basque Country and hopefully have some good weather while we were there. We took a detour into the mountains near the Picos da Europa and found a tiny village just off the main tourist track but seemingly completely isolated in the mountains. I´m annoyed at myself for not making a note of where this town is, because now I have absolutely no idea… somewhere there in the mountains…? Next time I will be more organised…
We arrived in Bilbao just before sunset and after getting lost in the industrial area and then having the Google maps send us repeatedly to the red light district (Spanish hookers, anyone?) we eventually found a dog friendly hostel that wasn´t too dodgy and settled in for a night not in the tent, yay! We wandered the streets of the old town and ate pinxtos (the Basque country version of tapas, bigger… and better) and drank Kalimotxo, a mix (equal parts) of Coca cola and red wine… sounds horrible, but it´s surprisingly good, I couldn´t get enough. When in Rome…
Click HERE for Day 5: Bilbao to Mundaka
Kerry Murray 
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I’ve been told about the constant rain in Asturias. I’ll be there in two weeks’ time and I hope (fingers and toes crossed) that the rain will stay away! I may pack more books just in case we can’t go hiking 🙂
I have my fingers crossed for you too!
Fabulous photography yet again Kerry…….and yes you’re right Kalimotxo does sound horrible….and surely a waste of good Spanish wine!! Please tell me they don’t use Gran Reserva Rioja for this concoction??
I have no idea what wine they used, but I´m sure it wasn´t anything fancy. I really does taste good though, don´t bash it ´til you´ve tried it! 🙂
We are going to Andalusia at the end of September, I might see if they do it there and have a sample…..I’m really not convinced though.
They most definitely do NOT use Gran Reserva! The best Kalimotxo is made with the worst wine. 🙂
Spoken by the expert herself! I only tried it because you raved about it, and I´m really glad I did! 🙂
Waw wonderful road trip photographs….Kerry.
Oh I am loving this trip of yours!!! I once did something similar, but we drove at midnight from lisbon to Bilbao straight and then San Senastien and finally Biarritz which we absolutely loved! As for your trip, I also loved that small village you found, how precious is that? Was it easy for you guys to travel with Ze? I’m so curious about that!
It was really easy to travel with Zé! The Spanish are much more dog friendly than the Portuguese and every campsite we found was pet friendly, we also found loads of hostels and budget hotels that were dog friendly too, and we didn´t even have to pay extra for him. When we stayed in hostels I used booking.com to find them and then we just rocked up and asked if they had rooms free… they have an option on the site (booking.com) to search for pet friendly accommodation.
The only thing we needed to do before we left was get him a doggy passport from our vet, but it was easy and not too expensive, like €30 I think, or less… can´t remember. No-one ever asked us for it, but it´s better to have it anyway.
I’m in love with these photos of my beloved Bilbao!
great work!!!
Eesh to all of the rain! But as always – gorgeous photos!
Beautiful photos from Asturias and amzing pics of my hometown Bilbao (rainy as usual) Usually, we use cheap wine for the Kalimotxo mix but mixed with Coca-cola, it taste good 🙂
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[…] Bilbao, a port city in the north of Spain and a place we´d been to before (see previous blog posts HERE) and most of these images were taken for a piece I wrote about the city for Mr Hudson, see it […]