Palma

The final stop for the summer in Spain. Another Spanish destination I've been desperately wanting to visit. It's been a good trip in terms of bucket list items. Palma, Majorca. We once again hired a car, learnt out lesson from last time and got a mini cooper, this time the challenge was trying to fit all our luggage in the car, at least we could manoeuvre through the streets and carparks.

Great destination, lots of restuarants, small beaches, we found a nice Australian Cafe, Surry Hills. Traveled to Calas des Moro, Salmona, Es Trenc, Sa Rapita, Valledemossa, Cape of de Formentor, Cala Figuera. 

Valencia

Final stop of the road trip. First and foremost, it's true about Valencia, there are oranges everywhere! Although we didn't come during fruiting season, you could see trees lining a lot of the roads. Also, the home of Paella!

Road trip: First stop

Started the day off fairly early, we had a busy first day scheduled. First stop Rioja Alta, the Basque wine region of Rioja. Pretty excited as I really like this wine, unfortunately we weren't able to do a tour, but we did stop by the gift store.

Next stop, lunch at a restaurant called Txispa, on these Prawns and Tear drop peas, amazing.

Finally arriving into San Sebastian around 8 pm, I really love these late sunsets.

Drive was easy, not a terribly exciting drive, but still nice to have the freedom to move about.

Road trip: Pamplona, Zaragoza, Teruel

 The road trip continues. Sorry photos are in reverse order, we leave San Sebastian and make our way down through Pamplona. The city feels entirely different to the last time I was here for the running of the bulls. Less intense, more picturesque. Zaragoza, a different feel, at least in the main square. Finally, the Mudejar styled town of Teruel. Unfortunately a lot of restaurants were closed on the Tuesday.

Bilbao

With international driver's license in hand, we picked up the car from Bilbao International Airport. There's two things that keep me on my toes: 1) driving on the other side of the road, and 2) this car is huge. After changing how you view round-abouts and incoming left hand turns, it's fairly straight forward. The car though, is big, great for luggage, not so great for small car parks. We have a small car park. 

In any case, back in Basque country! Looking forward to Pintxos and some exploration.