I woke up feeling a little cold, Al insisted on buying new ultra thin duvets for everyone which seems to be great for everyone except me. This trip so far has a much slower pace than last year so we're in no rush to get up and explore. The campsite is also the closest place for motorhomes to park for access to the hot springs. We're on a pretty steep hill so I'm not looking forward to the trek back up with the kids but I have pre warned them. Reviews online of the hot springs aren't that easy to find but the few I had seen had talked about how busy they can get. We arrived around 10am and it was completely fine. Mainly older locals who look like they meet here for their daily catch up. It's clearly not a tourist attraction but there are some signs which in my basic Spanish I can work out tell people that there are 3 sections to the baths with slightly different temperatures.
That would explain why most people were all in the one pool but the bottom pool was more than hot enough for us, especially with the kids.
There was also an explanation of how it's good for the body to spend about 10 minutes in one of the pools then get into the river to cool down. Of course Al and Robert were all over this idea and sure enough after warming up and enjoying some relaxing the boys go for it. Robert who's usually pretty crazy when it comes to such things couldn't hack more than a foot to start with but he was not to be defeated and eventually fully submerged himself. I was then bullied into it but could barely get past the ankles, the pain was like sharp needles and I can't see why this would be considered good for ones health.
A few of the hard core locals were moving about from hot to cold on a regular basis with no change in expression on their faces. After a while Al was the same and offered to 'help' me in. Ha no chance! Eventually though I knew I would never hear the end of it if I didn't commit and get more than just my knees chilled. I went for it, it was blooming painful and that was me done. Liliya was probably the most sensible of us all and only went as far as her knees.
After a couple of hours we were all feeling pretty chilled out and headed back into the village to find some fresh bread for lunch. The village itself is tiny with hardly anyone to be seen, whether it's always this quiet or people are just having a siesta I'm not sure. Luckily though we found a tiny shop with some gorgeous looking fresh bread. The lovely lady serving us started chatting to us about the bread we'd picked up, we got two different types and she was trying to explain but sadly this wasn't anything I seemed to have covered in my duolingo lessons! We did manage to understand a few things however, she'd asked if we'd been to the hot springs and talked about having some sugar now so we didn't faint. She then handed us a leaflet with a list of all the parties happening over the next couple of weeks! I can't imagine there being enough people in this sleepy little village for one party let alone several. We thanked her but explained that we had come in our motorhome and were leaving later on. It does make me smile when despite clearly realising someone doesn't speak your language you just keep going anyway perhaps using more hand and facial gestures. I took a couple of pictures yesterday of the same word in four languages, I found it fascinating that some words can be so similar and some so different.
It was very interesting looking at the differences between Spanish and the Basque language known as Euskara. It is spoken in seven provinces in Spain and France with around 0.9 million out of 3 million in those regions being able to speak the language. Having done some reading about the language it has demonstrated an enormous capacity to absorb words and structures from other languages and without that it is said it would have disappeared centuries ago. It's also a genetically isolated language meaning its related to no other known language family. According to UNESCO, the Basque language is ranked as ‘vulnerable’ in some areas and ‘severely endangered’ in the Northern Basque region of France. Think I'll stick to Spanish on Duolingo!
The bread was indeed lovely but we only tried one type so we're not sure what the difference is between the two types yet.
I raided the cupboards for all the supplies we'd bought the other day including the melon Robert had really wanted. I noticed the shrink wrap packaging didn't look quite right so figured we'd better open it in case air had got in and started to allow the food to go off. Robert got straight in with a huge bite but his face wasn't convinced. He said it didn't taste right and I figured maybe it had gone off. I took a small bite myself and he was right, there was something strange about this melon. I decided I would Google translate the writing on the packaging just in case it wasn't what we thought it was and sure enough we had purchased chunks of pumpkin 🎃😂
Suffice to say that went straight in the bin and on our next shopping trip we'll be sure to check the 'melon' more closely.
Our next stop is to Zaragoza, we're taking the back roads today since yesterday we'd had to pay 20€ for a 90 minute drive, it did save us 40 minutes but we weren't expecting it to be that expensive and today's trip would have only saved 10 minutes on the toll road. I've not driven through Spain before, previous trips have either been on 18-30 boozy holidays, city breaks or ports on a cruise. The landscape is very different, some areas very mountainous with bright red rocks then the next completely flat with nothing for miles and miles.
It's 2 hrs driving and I think the kids were quite pleased to get out of the midday heat (currently 29c) and were happy to listen to the BFG audio book and do some drawing.
When we arrive at the moho parking spot it was extremely dull looking. A grey lot filled with other vans but the beauty is that the tram stop is right across the road for us to get into the town and it's only a 12 minute journey.
Our stop is right outside the tourist office so we go inside to get some information on what else we can do besides our planned trip tomorrow to the origami museum. The tourist office even let's you climb up to the top to get some great views of the town.
The weather is even hotter now registering 35c at 6pm.
We take a little wander around the basilica which is beautiful and Robert lights a candle for our yiayia who passed away three years ago today.
Liliya really wants to go to another art museum but sadly it's closed so instead we cheer her up by finding ice cream. I'm not sure we'll ever get her to branch away from chocolate, she won't even try what the rest of us have.
Our next stop is to a cute t-shirt shop with funky logos, Robert and I get matching sushi t-shirts, Liliya goes for a dancing unicorn and Al's says live fast eat trash (we're planning on wearing them tomorrow).
After that we take a little look around the market, it's a gorgeous old building especially in comparison to the Burger king for our next stop just as we're so thirsty and need air conditioning and a rest so we can find a local restaurant to eat at.
I had asked at the tourist office for a recommendation for paella but it turns out that's not served here so instead we find a review for a tapas bar described as quirky and where the locals go.
They certainly got both those right and we came just before the place filled up. They offered a selection of 12 randomly chosen tapas and given the menu was fully Spanish and we couldn't work everything out anyway we figured it would be our best option. To start with the kids weren't too sure but given we've still got lots left in the treat bag (today was the first time they've been good enough to get something) I promised them for everything they tried they'd earn a treat. Well I've never seen the kids be as adventurous, even I was a little dubious of a couple of things and to be fair even when they didn't like something they didn't freak out they just politely declined any more and moved onto something else.
By the time we left it was getting late but we walked past one shop that had Liliya written all over it, I've never seen so many pink, squishy, girlie things in a single place.
We bought her a new head rest to support her when she ends up falling asleep whilst travelling and Robert got to try a new flavoured drink. Getting the tram back was super easy although it was still a shock getting off and being hit by a wave of heat at 9.45pm.
I have a quick look at the weather for tomorrow, good job a lot of the day will be inside air conditioned museums!
