16 March 2008: From Biarritz, we headed toward San Sebastian, Spain, which is about 20-30 minutes away. After well over an hour, we took a “scenic drive”, rather than the “autoroute” (highway), down the coast along the flat lands and pine trees of France into Spain, which starts to get more mountainous. It’s amazing how you can make such a short drive and really feel like you are in a different country. The architecture, as well as the language on the signs, changed with a blink of the eye! Now, it was Sean’s turn to read the signs and talk to people. He took Spanish and I took French classes.
It was less than eventful going over the border into Spain. We were warned of border crossings, especially Spanish ones, which consisted of car searches and guards with machine guns. But, we actually don’t even know when we crossed the border, just like when we got into Belgium. As a matter of fact, the only indication that we crossed a border was when we went into France, we drove by something off the side of the freeway. We couldn’t tell what the signs said either.
Anyway, we continued up the hills and though some tunnels. Knowing that San Sebastian is a beach town, yes, we were lost AGAIN! We had some good luck finding places in the northern part of France. But by now, we knew that it would have been nice to get the GPS in our vehicle working! I need to try again. After looping around the outskirts of San Sebastian at least 4-6 times, looking for the campground, we decided to go into town. We finally got our bearings straight by seeing the water. San Sebastian surrounds a bay with an island in the middle of the bay opening, and on both peninsulas are hills. Our campground was on top of one of those hills. This was one instance where seeing the land did us better than looking at the map.
St. Emilion might have made my heart skip a beat, but I actually physically grasped my heart this time, as I looked out from our camp sight to see the view of the Pyrenees Mountains. Seriously! (Unfortunately, we’re not on the ocean side of the mountain, but still.) It rained for short bits as we drove down and even thunder/lightning a couple times. (Boy, we’ve had good luck with the rain the past week or so! It’s only rained on our driving days, and not our “sightseeing” days. I hope I’m not jinxing myself again! ) But, the sky cleared when we arrived at the campground, and this wonderful rainbow appeared in the scenery, just to make it that much better!
The next day, I struggled to say “Gutten Morgen”(sp?)/”Good Morning” to the German fellow a couple sights over from our spot, as English is my native tongue, French is still translating through my head, and I’m trying to think in Spanish. Yes, I was confused. Gotta love Europe! The weather was clear with a bit of wind. We took the bus down the hill and strolled along the beautiful, bright blue ocean and sprawling sandy beach, then had a mid-day drink with some tapas, including some excellent calamari, just as the locals were doing. The waves were good and I almost wanted to get into the water, but didn’t have a board and didn’t see any rental shops, even though there were guys riding the waves on kayaks and one paddle boarder. Eating and drinking was the next best thing anyway.
Most of the shops were closed, but we needed at least a couple things to eat to get us by, since we never found that market near Biarritz. Luckily, the bakeries are still open on Sundays. When picking up a loaf of pan (baguette), still warm, we were blessed that one of the local women actually walked us over to a small mercado (micro 7-11 size store) for a bottle of vino tinto/Rioja wine, cheese and salami. So, along with the bread, that got us by. We’ve been eating, our share of cheese and sliced meat (ham or salami) sandwiches, made with bagette, with butter instead of mayonnaise. Definitely not our normal protocol back in California! With some wine for me and beer for Sean, it’s actually quite good. OK, our butter happens to be organic olive oil margarine, but still! The market we went to happened to be next to a Bio market that was closed, but guess what I saw when peering into the window….bottles of kombucha!!!!! Wow…it’s almost like a dream come true! I can’t wait to see if they’re open tomorrow, as we’ll try to stop by as we leave town toward Barcelona. Wish me luck!
It was less than eventful going over the border into Spain. We were warned of border crossings, especially Spanish ones, which consisted of car searches and guards with machine guns. But, we actually don’t even know when we crossed the border, just like when we got into Belgium. As a matter of fact, the only indication that we crossed a border was when we went into France, we drove by something off the side of the freeway. We couldn’t tell what the signs said either.
Anyway, we continued up the hills and though some tunnels. Knowing that San Sebastian is a beach town, yes, we were lost AGAIN! We had some good luck finding places in the northern part of France. But by now, we knew that it would have been nice to get the GPS in our vehicle working! I need to try again. After looping around the outskirts of San Sebastian at least 4-6 times, looking for the campground, we decided to go into town. We finally got our bearings straight by seeing the water. San Sebastian surrounds a bay with an island in the middle of the bay opening, and on both peninsulas are hills. Our campground was on top of one of those hills. This was one instance where seeing the land did us better than looking at the map.
St. Emilion might have made my heart skip a beat, but I actually physically grasped my heart this time, as I looked out from our camp sight to see the view of the Pyrenees Mountains. Seriously! (Unfortunately, we’re not on the ocean side of the mountain, but still.) It rained for short bits as we drove down and even thunder/lightning a couple times. (Boy, we’ve had good luck with the rain the past week or so! It’s only rained on our driving days, and not our “sightseeing” days. I hope I’m not jinxing myself again! ) But, the sky cleared when we arrived at the campground, and this wonderful rainbow appeared in the scenery, just to make it that much better!
The next day, I struggled to say “Gutten Morgen”(sp?)/”Good Morning” to the German fellow a couple sights over from our spot, as English is my native tongue, French is still translating through my head, and I’m trying to think in Spanish. Yes, I was confused. Gotta love Europe! The weather was clear with a bit of wind. We took the bus down the hill and strolled along the beautiful, bright blue ocean and sprawling sandy beach, then had a mid-day drink with some tapas, including some excellent calamari, just as the locals were doing. The waves were good and I almost wanted to get into the water, but didn’t have a board and didn’t see any rental shops, even though there were guys riding the waves on kayaks and one paddle boarder. Eating and drinking was the next best thing anyway.
Most of the shops were closed, but we needed at least a couple things to eat to get us by, since we never found that market near Biarritz. Luckily, the bakeries are still open on Sundays. When picking up a loaf of pan (baguette), still warm, we were blessed that one of the local women actually walked us over to a small mercado (micro 7-11 size store) for a bottle of vino tinto/Rioja wine, cheese and salami. So, along with the bread, that got us by. We’ve been eating, our share of cheese and sliced meat (ham or salami) sandwiches, made with bagette, with butter instead of mayonnaise. Definitely not our normal protocol back in California! With some wine for me and beer for Sean, it’s actually quite good. OK, our butter happens to be organic olive oil margarine, but still! The market we went to happened to be next to a Bio market that was closed, but guess what I saw when peering into the window….bottles of kombucha!!!!! Wow…it’s almost like a dream come true! I can’t wait to see if they’re open tomorrow, as we’ll try to stop by as we leave town toward Barcelona. Wish me luck!
1 comment:
the bread, cheese, salami and wine is exactly what we ate through new zealand and australia!! cheap and easy and delicious...maybe cause it's not what we eat at home. oh well. it's food for the belly and the spirit.
Post a Comment