74. The long and winding road

Comillas - Spain

Today was always going to be a big drive however the application of technology and operator skill made the big drive huge. With the GPS programmed to avoid motorways and tolls we set off on our four and a half hour journey, marvelling at the beautiful autumn colours, loving the little towns and villages, the switchbacks in the road and the multiple climbs up to over five hundred metres. The MacDonalds in their Glamper half an hour behind us on whatever route they took.

Lunch stop

Audrey's snap out the window

At two thirty, two and half hours into the journey we pulled into a large industrial forecourt for a baguette lunch in the Giantavan.  Not really knowing where we were as we were happily following the green GPS line with the display set for altitude and direction, not ETA or km to go, we had a look at the map and discovered that Bidania-Goiatz (see above) was only a quarter of the way and at this rate we were facing a ten hour drive! 

Motorways and toll roads were the order of the day, dam the costs even though a brief foray, by mistake, onto a French toll road with the Giantavan for a few kilometres, a month ago, had cost us twenty eight euros. We cruised along beautiful motorway roads for a couple of hours, over beautiful viaducts and through lane, one way, tunnels with absolutely no traffic hassles. At the end of the motorway after backing out of the e-ticket line when our etoll device failed to beep and reinserting ourselves into a staffed booth lane we got nailed for two euro and eighty cents, almost a let down after intensive mental preparation and justification - almost.

Brian and family only beat us by twenty minutes in their Glamper for similar but different or possibly the same reasons. Didn't ask them why but understood it to be something to do with shop suckage. Our kids happily devoured the Glampervaner's pizza.