Day 76. Thursday 22 May.

Day started with a car check…yes, she started first press! D told Doris that we want the route to the Peugeot shop in Pamplona provided by the Peugeot breakdown team. We’ll see what she delivers. It had turned cold & damp overnight in the Azanza hills, so coats on.

Joan phoned to say she’d be on a later train out of Barcelona (think she had a big sleep-in). Perfect really, as this would give us more time to sort car stuff.

Doris took several strange turns and we came to an industrial precinct with ‘nothing to do with cars’. So, new research and off we went in an opposite direction. At the correct location, D ‘spoke’ to service attendant, using the translated story he’d typed up. As sort of expected, there was no way the car could be fitted into the workshop schedule! (In a similar situation with the Ranger, the workshop foreman came out, had a look, hitched up the computer, identified the problem and sent D on his way in about 20 minutes). D sought advice, which was to just keep driving…I guess with fingers and toes crossed. Not, in D’s opinion, a good look for Peugeot, although we are reassured by the breakdown team’s excellent response.

Joan phoned again…she’d be on a later train…some mix-up with stations in Barcelona but a very kind young man on staff had sorted out the problem, settled her in the lounge and made sure she got on to the right train. 

This meant an afternoon to explore Pamplona or rather, get some maps and tourist information ahead of meeting Joan.

First parking spot seemed to be a paid affair and as we stood like dumb tourists at the vending machine, a gentleman approached and told us where we could have a free 24 hour park. Google maps to the rescue and after ‘Gracias’ (several), it was back to our parked vehicle. The gentleman kind of walked with us and as we opened the doors, so did he open the back door preparing to get in !!! A moment of confusion (panic)…was this some sort of hijack? No, he was simply a friendly chap who was offering to guide us to the free park. A perfect Ove type! We thanked him and said Doris would get us there, notwithstanding her patchy record.

We got to the old town, re-fuelled ourselves with quiche, tortilla and coffees, found the tourist office closed (re-opened at 3 pm), got some advice, strolled for a while and returned to the car through a lovely park, serenaded by the harsh call of peacocks. Enough walking for the day even though we’re not on a Camino – and we took pity on some walkers who were, with 1800 km to go!

Spelling of names in this Basque region is intriguing: lots of Zs, some Xs and other combinations. No idea of some of the pronunciations. This tiled sign was on the pasteleria where we had lunch. Quite a few of the town signs are upside down, too often to be a coincidence we think. Perhaps some sort of statement? And many signs are in two languages: so it is Pamplona and Iruna.

Used the comfort of the warm car for T to get slightly ahead with today’s blog and then to Aldi (quite near the station) to gather food (aka restocking after running down at last stay) before Joan rolls in. D bought wine and deposited it in the car. On his return to the store he was obviously acting suspiciously because he was approached by the lady who’d been on the checkout. He typed into Google translate that he was looking for his wife, and she looked shocked. D checked: he’d misspelt wife (and doesn’t know what he had put in!) so corrected and  pointed to T who had appeared down the aisle and she was then satisfied he was not some kind of nutter. And she had the good grace not to direct him to the bins of ‘out of date stock’.

Got to the train station in good order …a train pulls in delivering heaps of people…but no, it’s not the 1841 from Barcelona…that one is running over an hour late! Presume Joan isn’t the cause.

And much amusement as a bridal party (perhaps it was a hen’s party?) gathered to catch a train.

Joan arrived, we got to Azanza, we had a glass of wine. Life’s good.

Dinner. Tapas: white anchovies, smoked chicken slices, pate, smoked salmon, jamon, olives, pickled onions, pickled cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, Brie, baguette, with a greens and red onion salad.

Este es un vehículo de alquiler.

Anoche, después de recorrer 360 kilómetros, no arrancó. El motor giraba dos o tres segundos y luego se paraba.

Las luces del panel de instrumentos permanecieron encendidas y el auto no se bloqueaba con la llave.

Contacté con el servicio de asistencia Peugeot, que empezó a organizar una grúa. Una hora después, lo intenté de nuevo y el coche arrancó.Grúa cancelada. Peugeot me dio su dirección y me recomendó que revisara el coche.