Day of changes
Saturday, 1 February 2025
We left Bilbao in a light rain and went west, in and out of raininess.
We saw the ocean—quick peeks—at least a half-dozen times.
When we cut inland, we encountered clouds above and with us.
In Europe, we’ve found far more frequent tunnels than in the USofA. A tunnel we went through before we reached Bilbao was almost 3 km (1.82 mi)—I forgot to look it up until now.
The elevations eventually had snow…from a storm that came through about three days back. Luck is with us.
We took a wee side trip to see the source of the Ebro River, where there’s a lovely little park…and the river’s first dam.
This is a monument to the river. With a mallard.
Just a few miles from the source are the upper reaches of a major reservoir on the river.
Then, the topography became more rugged, and we drove a bit in dramatic gorges.
Even the side drainages are dramatic.
Oops, look what we climbed into.
Fortunately, the road was clear and the temps waaaay too high for there to be ice.
This is the only town we went through where the buildings had exposed beams. I suspect many of the buildings have beams—they’re just clad in mortar or whatever.
Finally, we descended and the landscape opened up, and the fields are greeeeeen!
Hotel window view….