Start of a long Planned adventure and bucket list item

Asked for coffee and this is what we got

They met us at the plane at the foot of the steps, took us by car to and through immigration. No line. No fingerprints just looked up Passport no Security just let us walk through fed us good stuff and then walked us over to Avis to make sure we were able to rent our car properly. Fabulous service.

Madrid to Bilbao Road Trip:

A scenic, manageable road trip from Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) to Bilbao via Soria, avoiding stressful mountain switchbacks by utilizing modern highways (A-2, A-15, N-111, and AP-68).

Well… Not really, quite a few switchbacks, but manageable

Route Schedule & Driving Breakdown

• Leg 1: MAD Airport ➔ Medinaceli (1h 30m | A-2 Highway) • Annotation: Easy, flat cruise out of the airport through the open plains of Castile.

Up at almost 4000 feet. Old medieval wall town. Road here did not have a single pothole the entire way.

• Leg 2: Medinaceli ➔ Soria (50m | A-15 Highway) • Annotation: Fast, straight stretch on a newly expanded modern highway.

The café that was recommended had no food and run out. Walk up the street and found a place at least had some sweets and a Cortado. Way across the street from the big hospital

• Leg 3: Soria ➔ Bilbao (1h 40m | N-111 & AP-68 Highway) • Annotation: Beautiful drive cutting through the pine forests of the Sierra de Cameros and the green Basque mountains before descending smoothly into Bilbao.

Key Stops & Pit Stops

• Medinaceli (Leg 1 Stop — ~45 mins): • What to see: Ancient stone village perched on a hill. Walk to the 2,000-year-old Roman Arch for panoramic valley views. Great for a quick stretch and coffee in the quiet plaza.
• Soria (Leg 2 Stop — 1.5 to 2 hours): • What to see: The unique open-air medieval cloister at San Juan de Duero and the beautiful river walk to the Ermita de San Saturio (baroque chapel built into a cave face). • Food: Stop in the Plaza Mayor for Torreznos de Soria (famous local thick-cut crispy pork belly). • Tip: Park near the river by the San Juan de Duero cloister to avoid tight medieval city streets.

We clearly found the wrong place when we try to avoid the downtown medieval area with car I found the place recommended but poor choice. picture with the Cortado was OK.

Skiped the following stop as it was getting late but did go through the tunnel the long tunnel the impressive tunnel planning started in 1948 and finished in 2008 

• Venta de Piqueras (Leg 3 Pit Stop — KM 273 on N-111): • Annotation: The perfect halfway pit stop between Soria and the highway to Bilbao. A historic stone coaching inn right in the forest with clean restrooms, a great tree-shaded outdoor terrace, and excellent pincho de tortilla (potato omelet) or croquetas.

Puerto de Piqueras. Tiene una longitud de 2444 metros y evita doce kilómetros de curvas. Basically this tunnel saves 12 km of climbing around it

Impossible to take pictures while we’re driving at 80 miles an hour. Once again the road from Madrid all the way to Bilbao over 400 km to -250 miles maybe one pothole and maybe one or two minutes lost to Construction

The artist hotel – Bilbao. Right across the street from the museum.

With an over generous American style tip, it was less than a typical breakfast at groundswell in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and far less than the creamery in Palo Alto.