Now starting our proper holiday we drove  south arriving at the free aire at Lôches just beyond the Loire Valley in time to visit a dairy themed fair in the town centre with the usual French eclectic range of funfair, stalls and entertainment. After a noisy night with a thunderstorm too close for comfort we drove on more empty minor roads to Brantôme where the aire is located in a meadow by the river and old town. The next night stop was by the Canal du Midi at Caumont sur Garonne then across the flat forests of the Landes region, diverting to the pretty village of La Bastide d'Armagnac which we discovered had a pleasant free aire (but it was too early in the day for our night halt). On our final day in France we aimed for St Jean de Luz but as it was market day we couldn't find anywhere to park near the sea front so we headed for a small campsite on the coast just north at Erromardie.
                         
Crossing the Spanish border at Irun we managed to take the wrong turning off the motorway and ended up in the middle of San Sebastian at the lunchtime rush hour as we did last time we drove this way. Eventually we found a new road not on the satnav and headed south turning off at Beasain and climbed over the wooded hills to a park centre for a late lunch and then down to Etxarri and the ACSI listed campsite. We walked into the rather scruffy town with lots of graffiti and people hanging around so didn't feel it was a place to linger. At least the site had wifi so we managed to watch a clip of the Royal Wedding on Youtube in the evening. We planned our provisional route for the next few days and set off to Estella then on free motorway to Logrono and on good roads across the plains and hills to Soria. We avoided the narrow streets of the old town centre and drove through suburbs of blocks of flats to a campsite just south of the town where we were told exactly where to pitch despite there being only four tourist units in an empty field.  There were several storks nesting in cut off trees and pylons around the campsite and some small black and white birds which we decided were northern wheatears.


From there we decided to visit Spain's mini Grand Canyon del Río Lobos with a few viewpoints and then to the interesting old walled town of El Burgo de Osma. As it was a Sunday the locals were walking to the cathedral in their best clothes. We had a pleasant walk around the arcaded town square shops, some selling gifts and the local specialities. Continuing on our route the main road was good but there were no laybys for many miles and most turnoffs not signposted. Eventually we found a back road so parked up for lunch then joined a free motorway and drove to Segovia which was extremely busy with tourists, so we headed for the campsite on the edge of the city where we eventually found a pitch among the tightly placed trees. The next morning we drove into the city and as the main coach and motorhome parking place was full we found a free parking place in a layby on the cobbled street beneath the Alcazar. It's an interesting city with a massive cathedral and Roman aqueduct. The Alcazar was formerly a prison and is still a military establishment dominating the hilltop.
We left  Segovia on the main road to Avila, the highest city in Spain at 1130m but the approach through massive housing estates on the outskirts didn't look too inviting. However as so often in Spanish towns once we found our way to the centre we were able  to park near the old city walls with its 80 towers. We arrived just as a procession was finishing so looked at the giant figures and watched a folk dance display before continuing on to our planned destination of La Alberça, a preserved mountain village, now a Natonal Monument, set high in green clad hills. There is a free aire in the main carpark so we stayed two nights and walked around the narrow cobbled streets which were busy with tourists in the afternoon. There were several shops selling very expensive smoked hams which looked like they had been hanging there for many years. We also discovered a waymarked walk through the nearby woods to an old hermitage with views across the hills and modern sculptures dotted around the trail.
We returned to the large hillside town of Bejar with tall blocks of flats lining the main street, apparently a former centre of the textile industry, and across empty plains of grassland bypassing Plasencia and continued south to the Parque Naçional de Montfragüe, a large nature reserve. The area was mostly scrubland with many birds and wild flowers although we thought the visitor centre was rather poor. After stopping for lunch at a layby by the river, with traditional circular stone and thatch buildings, we discovered that the main attraction of cliffs with lots of eagles (and crowds of birdwatchers) was a couple of kilometres further on.