Today was a bit of a rest day. It snowed last night in the mountains we came through yesterday.

Today we spent a lot of time exploring between and during the rain squalls. At times the sun was shining and at other times it was raining or hailing.

Our room was on the top floor in the picture below. It was a nice place to take a bit of a rest and watch the weather change.

For dinner we went out to have pintxos again. There are so many places that are full in spite of the winter weather. We went to 3 places tonight. We started with the place we really enjoyed last night and had the grilled goat cheese again.

The weather for our entire trip has been grayer, wetter and colder than is normal for this time of year on the Iberian peninsula. It hasn’t stopped us from having a great time but still….

Thursday we headed north to Donastia/San Sebastián. Although it was cold and cloudy for most of the day it was a beautiful drive. We needed to do Duke’s review of the rental car (the fifth of the trip) because we would be returning it in Donastia/San Sebastián. Here is a link if you would like to watch Duke’s Review of the SEAT Ibiza.

We went over Lizarraga pass and stopped at this viewpoint.

In Donastia/San Sebastián we checked into our hotel, then drove to the shopping center where we dropped off the car. We had a coffee while we waited for the rain outside to stop.

Then we walked back to the hotel.

When we went out to find pintxos (tapas) for dinner the wind between the buildings along the waterfront was like we were in a wind tunnel.

We enjoyed our beer and pintxos.

On the map today looked like it would be a relatively short drive with not much to see. But it turned out to be a beautiful drive. We saw everything from cave dwellings to dinosaurs! We made six stops on the 68 mile drive.

1. We had barely left Soria when we saw a sign for Numancia archaeological site. Numancia was a Celtiberian hillfort town. Just as we pulled up a school bus of kids pulled up. We took a few pictures but it was cold and windy so we decided not to go in.

2. We headed north and went over a pass The temperature dropped to about 38 Fahrenheit and we were in the clouds. I took a picture of the view.

3. A bit further down the road we saw a sign “Fuentesalvo”. We stopped and discovered dinosaur footprints!

4. Next we came around a corner and spotted this dinosaur on a hill across the valley! Duke said he was friendly.

5. In the village of Yanquas we stopped to look at this wonderful bridge, apparently built in the Middle Ages.

6. Last but certainly not least we started seeing caves in the cliffs along the road. When we saw a Cuevas (caves) sign we stopped and hiked up to investigate. They weren’t open but it was a fun walk.

In Calahorra we checked into the Parador and had our welcome drinks. We raised our glasses and made a toast to Paradors. Calahorra is the last Parador we will stay in on his trip. It is the 81st Parador we have stayed in over the last 6 years. On this trip we have stayed in 17.

Breakfast was earlier than usual this morning. Roger and Gayle wanted to leave for the airport with plenty of time to catch their 11:15 flight. We saw them off then went back to our room to pack. We are headed towards France on the last phase of our trip. At 11 o’clock Duke and I took a cab to the bus station. We took a long distance bus to the town of Soria. Soria is about 140 miles northeast of Madrid.

In Soria our plan was to pick up a rental car. We knew we would have to wait until 4pm when everything including the rental car office would reopen after lunch. So we found a bar and had coffee and Spanish tortilla while we waited. We also walked a bit and saw the local bull ring.

We finally got the car just as it started to rain heavily. We drove to the Parador where we are staying and took naps then enjoyed our welcome drinks. Now that we no longer have travel companions there will probably be no more card playing!

We decided to have dinner at the Parador. Duke had Bacalao and I had Merluza. We always avoid Bacalao because that is the name for salted cod. We’ve tried salted cod many times and you just can’t make it good! But recently we found out that you can also get fresh Bacalao. Duke’s was very good.

Merluza is the fish called hake. The Merluza was served with baby eels and shrimp. It was excellent.

For desert we had what the menu billed as orange desert. It was an orange sponge cake with orange ice cream and sauce. It was perfect to share.