Day 9. We’re almost at the end of our trip now, and heading to Santander over the next two days, to catch the ferry home. We’ve book a Parador in Santo Domingo de la Calzada as an end (almost) of trip treat. In case you’re not familiar with Paradores, they’re state owned and run hotels, usually in old castles, monasteries, nunneries, prisons and similar, that are refurbished to a high and suitable standard, and are spread throughout Spain. I’ve stayed in a few Paradores and they always feel special. But, we had to get there first…..
We left Broto around 9am and within a couple of hours, was away from the mountains and into the flatlands of Northern Spain, which was all a bit dull and tedious after a fair few days in the mountains. And it was hot, very hot, around 34/35. We stopped for lunch in Olite, next to a castle and in a restaurant with much needed AC. Watered and fed we heading on to the Parador, stopping for fuel about 30 miles short. Here one of the lads came wandering over and said, I’ve fecked up, I’ve put diesel in my bike. Borrocks! Cutting this lad a little slack here, it was his first European trip and this fuel station has a premium diesel option on a yellow pump. He made a mistake. Anyway, he never started the bike and never switched on the ignition, so no priming of the FP. Easy, tank off, drain it, flush it, on we go. But, we’re in 35 degree heat, exposed and all a bit tired. Nonetheless, we crack on with resolving the issue. Nope, it’s a huge job taking the tank off, so we scratch our heads, have a cold drink and wander over the nearby bike shop. Yep, bring it over, we’ll siphon it out. 90 minutes and €45 later, we’re up and running again and on our way. The mechanic would not, under any circumstances, take a drink/tip for helping us out. What a gent! And we got the chance to look over the new Stelvio while we waited. And……the slack ran out, the diesel mocking was pretty relentless.
Here’s a few from the day, mostly the Parador. First one is the castle in Olite.
