Vueling – Travels with my Wife

Our homeward journey is multi stage. Our coach returns us to Bilbao Airport. We traverse what I believe to be Rioja country and we do see some vines but not on the scale I was anticipating.

At the airport where we have the usual wait for the Vueling aeroplane to return us to London Gatwick. They disembark by row numbers – five at a time. I am not sure it makes things better as people are still not ready to move once their rows are called.

Then a transfer bus to the long term parking where the car awaits at the far end of a car park and the rain is pouring down from the sky in vast quantities. We rarely resort to remote parking – justified as it came as part of the package to stay at the hotel on the outward journey which brings back memories of the excellent meal at Sorrel unmatched during our sojourn abroad.

Northern Spain – potentially damper than would have been ideal. The Paradors I felt were a little lacking from the expectations we had of them, although we saw some others along the way. The rooms are inevitably standardised I suppose but the service levels I had anticipated to be higher than we experienced – are they suffering the same recruitment difficulties as the UK or as it feels is it deliberate to manage with as few as possible.

Some of the scenery was magnificent. Away from the towns on the Camino Way it felt that the English were far from welcome (Oviedo I am looking at you), however another day it might be another story. We have now seen places we might not have seen, I would like to come back and visit some of the Rioja wineries and Bilbao. There is also an interesting looking narrow gauge rail network – but I suspect the frequency and speed of trains might be on the low side!

Castro Urdiales church 7.9.25

Our outward journey commenced yesterday in reality as we decided (in the light of an incredibly early flight) to dine at Sorrel in Dorking and then stay in a hotel adjacent to the airport overnight. We still manage to reach check in very early. Once again Vueling want the passenger to label their own bags – a practice I hate as if it goes wrong who is responsible.

Go wrong it does. I am summoned at the gate to the desk and asked to confirm that the bag is Jackie’s as they cannot scan the barcode. Why is it all so difficult plus hours of waiting around doing nothing useful.

It is a relatively short flight down to Bilbao and we are on time throughout. It does not take long to emerge with cases (it has arrived despite the unreadable bar code). We appear to lose one traveller but depart – the tour guide will be with us later as there is a later flight coming in from Manchester.

Castro Urdiales 7.9.25

With such an early flight we know the rooms will not be ready and so the tour operator has arranged for our coach to take us to Castro Urdiales. We are dropped and wander down to the sea front. It is a smart town and there are a large number of cafés along the front – but given the time it is too early for lunch. Eating times in Spain always provide a slight problem which our body clocks find more difficult than the one hour time difference. Lunch type food tends not to be available before about 13:30 and in the evenings dinner before 20:00 is just not possible and usually later.

I walk up the hill to get a closer look at the church and castle, plus some photos from a different angle.

Apparently Castro Urdiales is a favoured destination generated by the power of AI – at least according to the BBC.

We return to the coach and are taken to the Parador de Limpias which has a modern block for the rooms attached to the older building. However the rooms are comfortable and better sized than in Iceland! We have a group meeting before dinner which tells us a little about the week ahead. The slight surprise is that the tour will be unguided in the individual towns and cities – which is a contrast to most of the tours we book.

Tag: Vueling

Spanish Paradors 14.9.25

Spanish Paradors 7.9.25