Scottish Elises

Day 1 : Home => Bages

I always enjoy taking the A75 after Clermont-Fd, and it’s the only free highway in France (except the bridge at Millau).


Bages is a lovely village on the shore of the sea.





Day 2 : Bages => El Pont de Suert


First mountains of the Pyrénées


This year we bring 2 seats for picnics as we want on the road.


Now we are in Spain. In France, the roads are not so bad, but in Spain, they are in very good condition and smooth, is a great pleasure with the Lotus.



This year i have a new camera with numerical stabilization.
Exemple of Spanish road and countryside :

Watch on YouTube

"El Pont de Suert" is a small village surrounded by big mountains :


To be continued...

Love the Pyrenees, Julien. Looking forward to more updates

Day 3 : El Pont de Suert => Zaragosa => Calatayud


A other day with nice roads in south of the Pyrénées.

Watch on YouTube

To be continued…

Day 4 : Calatayud => Albacete


Few Km after Catalayud, we visits « Monasterio de Piedra » a lovely Monastery inside a beautiful park with waterfalls.




While everything around is very dry :


Another picnic on the side of a deserted road


After long boring straight lines...


...Finally the landscape has more relief






To be continued…

Day 5 : Albacete => Cueva Aventura

Watch on YouTube

A different contryside near Benamaurel :




Our B&B at « Cueva Aventura »


Inside the cave house it’s very nice :




To be continued…

That’s stunning.

campbell wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 27, 2025 6:32 pm

Love the Pyrenees, Julien. Looking forward to more updates

Have you ever been to the Pyrenees for a holiday ?, for skiing?

campbell wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 02, 2025 4:07 pm

That’s stunning.

And even the bathroom is carved out of the rock :

Been through Pyrenees on couple of drives, Julien.

1997 on a visit to Pau in my Vauxhall (Opel) Tigra . Drove over to Parque de Ordesa (I think).

1999 just along foothills travelling Bilbao-Barcelona.

2001 Bilbao-Jaca-Pont de Suert-Sort-La Seu d’Urgell-Andorra-Barcelona

Both in my former S1 Elise

Will return some day I hope.

May get some snowboarding in Andorra. If I’m not too old and creaky by then!

Day 6, 7 and 8: Cueva Aventura
A little rest after 5 days of driving.
We went to Baza to see the Cascamorra festival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascamorras

The next day, we visited the Gorafe Desert with a guide in a 4x4, as the Elise wasn't the ideal vehicle for this type of trip.
Unfortunately, the sky was rather cloudy.

Gorafe, the entrance to the desert:






The little cayon :


Nice road exiting Gorafe :

Watch on YouTube

The last day visiting Grenada and the amazing Alhambra.
Unfortunately, we cannot reach the ski station above Grenada, the mountain was in the clouds.

To be continued…

I’ve driven the summit road from ski centre south into Granada

But not in an Elise (which would be shaken to death by the craters!)

Day 9 : Cueva Aventura = > Cordoba



Road to Cordoba, we visited for 2 days.

Day 11 : Cordoba => Toledo


Nice road thru the park natural de la Sierra Andujar


Very nice Hotel near Toledo


Toledo is a nice town in the ‘middle age’ style






Spain is the land of pigs and ham


To be continued...

Toledo was also on our 2001 route, Julien. We were lucky enough to stay in the Parador overlooking the town. Stunning area.

Excited to see how you travel north now

How has the car been behaving?!

campbell wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:25 am

Toledo was also on our 2001 route, Julien. We were lucky enough to stay in the Parador overlooking the town. Stunning area.

Excited to see how you travel north now

How has the car been behaving?!

Great, it didn't use any oil or water on 6000 Km (3750 miles), and the elise is near 100K miles.
My only fear was a flat tire but we are still lucky.

Parador are still an amazing place, 2 years ago in Leila it was great, this year, in Albacete it was not so amazing (a modern Hotel)

campbell wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:25 am

Excited to see how you travel north now

More in a few days, as we're going to my son's graduation ceremony at the NCO school, as he's a career soldier.
He's now a junior sergeant and is assigned to the 7th BCA, in the mountain troops, near Grenoble

Day 12 : Toledo => Soria


I had planned to go around Madrid to avoid traffic and also because I saw that there were high mountains to the west and north of the capital.

Nice contryside from the room in Toledo with blue sky in the morning :


Near Guadarrama, we stop for a picnic and visit a very controversial site in Spain:
Valley of Cuelgamuros (Valley of the Fallen)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Fallen

After WW2, Franco's government wanted to reconcile the Spanish over the Civil War (1936-1939) and build a monument where the dead from both sides would be buried.

The site is located in the middle of a huge natural park, seen from the abbey (not my photo):


View from the Esplanade :


View of the monument and the entrance of the basilic :




The basilic was digged in the rock under the cross


Very nice mountain road between Guadarrama and Rascafria with summits over 2000m and ski station


To be continued...