On leaving San Sebastián, we tried for probably our final Lidl in Spain, but parking just wasn’t an option, so we then headed off for our Spanish finale in Hondarribia. 

Back on our first ever motorhome night in Spain a few years ago we’d actually paid our €3.40, or thereabouts, to stay in the official aire. It wasn’t pretty and we were squeezed in as tight as you can imagine. All was fine until the Spanish family in our directly neighbouring motorhome arrived back later in the evening and their conversation was so loud it was like shouting, which I appreciate can be the norm in these parts. We quickly made an executive decision to “vamos” and we were out of there. 

We were recalling today that late night escape and how we ended up at the rather lovely border sea port town of Hondarribia. Arriving so late, and in the dark, it took us some time to work out the way into where all those other motorhomes were. After a few attempts we succeeded and slipped into the last available space. By this time all was quiet, apart from us arriving, and we awoke in the morning to the cacophony of Spanish motorhoming families. Family motorhoming is, I think, most definitely a uniquely Spanish thing, and we hope it doesn’t catch on as we love peaceful motorhoming, which is the norm in the other countries we’ve visited. 

So here we are again in Hondarribia. In true Satnav reverse logic, the correct route into the motorhome area of a few years ago was the one we were directed to today. Great, I thought, this Satnav has finally learnt its lesson. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and the dodgy Satnav route provided on our previous visit did in fact turn out to be the correct one today, as the road system had changed. 

It’s a Saturday, so we expected a big take up here of family motorhomes. There must be at least 100, but we’ve gone as far down the pier as possible and have tried to mitigate the risk of loud family disturbance, but let’s see how things pan out. At worst, we can always move, or put on the Gypsy Kings at an appropriately loud volume to drown out the locals. 

Our bikes enjoyed their second airing this trip as we cycled around the marina to the town proper, where we locked them up whilst we enjoyed a really interesting town visit. There’s a decent sized historical centre to explore that we’d never really appreciated previously. 

So we’re now on our chairs, marina-side and we’re enjoying cake (Sophie), nuts (Sophie and Michael), and a San Miguel beer (Michael). Who knows, we may even bring out our pasta supper to eat al fresco later. 

Progress so far: