Back through northern Spain and France 🔙🇪🇸🇫🇷
I completely underestimated the Spanish north coast during our trip. I had only ever heard how beautiful the south coast was, but the north has so many beautiful places to offer as well! I was especially fascinated by the beaches, which could easily compete with the beautiful beaches of Portugal. But the north is primarily one thing: not as touristy!
The first stop on our tour was the Las Médulas mountain range, where we went on a nice little hiking tour. There was an old Roman gold mine here, which is why tunnels can be found everywhere, even if most of them were blown up at the time. From above, you have a wonderful view of the red rock formations and the surrounding area. Then we went straight on to Astorga, where we visited Gaudi's palace and the cathedral - except for these two buildings, the city is not particularly worth seeing. In the dark, we then drove the last 2 hours... and woke up the next day in a dreamlike spot! In the middle of a large meadow surrounded by mountains and a mountain stream! 😍
Since we still had plenty of work to do, we spent the day here in the sun and didn't leave until late afternoon towards Gijón, where we were surprised by the rain during the drive. But as soon as we arrived at our spot, it stopped raining and we could explore the city center.
We also saw many surfers on the beach who dared to go into the water despite the cold weather. The next morning we headed to the small medieval village of Santillana del Mar, which is really beautiful and well preserved. Here, in addition to many useless souvenirs and many sausage products, there is also super delicious ice cream! We then ended the day in a labyrinth, which we mastered in record time! 😁👍
In addition to beautiful beaches, we also had some of the most beautiful parking spots of our trip in northern Spain. Sometimes we stood completely alone directly at dreamlike beaches, like the ones in the pictures below.
We also really liked the city of Santander in the north, which we didn't expect to be so beautiful - and there is a free motorhome parking lot right in the city center including disposal and free water. ☺️👍 Santander also has a nice city center for shopping, well-maintained gardens and again dreamlike beaches - you can stay here longer! 🤠
From Santander, we continued to Bilbao - also a very beautiful and diverse city with lots to see! As in many other cities, the e-scooter was our preferred way of exploring the city - it's just much faster and super practical. It's a good thing I bought a scooter beforehand because it also saves you the eternal search for parking spaces in the narrow city centers. 😂👍 However, since there was no decent parking space in the city, we continued on after the city tour...
However, my personal highlight of northern Spain was the small town of Donostia-San Sebastián, where we spent two days and would have liked to stay longer. In addition to a beautiful beach and a very long promenade, there is above all one thing here: great bars and restaurants - hundreds of them! I have never seen so many tapas bars in one place - in the city center, you can eat something in almost every store. Even during the week, the atmosphere in the evenings was lively, and the streets were full of people. There is also a lot to explore here - it's worth a visit! ✌️
From there, we traveled to Germany in just a few days. Along the way, we visited the French cities of Bordeaux (highly recommended!), Bourges, and Metz. Then we crossed the border and visited Mainz (there are also so many beautiful places in Germany). After that, we drove on the highway for a few hours until we reached my family, where we will be staying for the next few days before embarking on a new adventure! 😎🙋♂️
PS: Thank you grandma for the delicious welcome! 😁❤️
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