Daunting to say the least, was my thought about the drive. However with the trusty Tom Tom giving somewhat precise instructions (turn right in eight hundred yards) who knows how fast you've covered that distance when all concentration was on driving the car. The gear stick on the wrong side didn't seem to be a problem. I did find myself glancing to the left a lot and noticing the countryside. Eventually I worked out I was looking for the rear vision mirror, turns out that was on the wrong side as well. Mostly what I did was sweat, at one point I got Ruth to dial the aircon' down to try to dry out a bit. It worked, until we got to the Azpeitia turnoff.
The motorway was more easily driven, given that all I had worry about was staying in the lane and occasionally changing gear. I don't think I was ever truly relaxed about driving but the motorway was at least comfortable especially once we saw the signs saying we were traveling in the right direction.
Once we turned off to Azpeitia the road was two way, bloody narrow and lots of cars were driving on the wrong side. No air conditioning was going to cope with approaching round about's from the wrong side. Ruth a heart attack or two as I moved toward the ditch to avoid the maniacs on the wrong side of the road. Truly it was an exercise in concentration and keeping calm, some of which I managed.
The next day we returned the car to San Sebastian and had to do the whole thing again except this time instead of the motorway I chose the coast road. Fortunately we had a guide, who insisted on sitting in the back seat, to guide us to the drop off point, unfortunately he wasn't a driver so the idea of giving the necessary instructions a driver needs didn't come naturally to him.
We missed the drop off point, passed it while noticing it, one way street, cars up my bum and no where to pull over so round the block. Right across the bridge and missed it again. Round an even bigger block then into the car park. Wet shirt, dripping brow but oh oh oh the relief at turning the car off getting out and locking the door. We had a quick look at San Sebastian or Donostia as we Basque's call it.
We took the bus back to the hotel. I saw more in an hour sitting in the bus on the way back than I did for the whole of the rest of the trip.
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