Basque Country
A tiring voyage from France to Spain - we left la Rochelle at 8pm and arrived in a place called Pasajes at 5am two days later, having hand steered all the way in two hour shifts. It’s hard to imagine the 30-odd day Atlantic crossing like that but people assure us that ‘you get used to it after a couple of days’.
If we thought we had landed in Spain, we were mistaken – everywhere the walls are daubed with graffiti in support of ETA and independence. Professional-looking signs proclaim that ‘You are not in France or Spain, you are in the Basque Country’ and so we made sure to fly the Basque flag along with our Spanish courtesy one in recognition.
The countryside is immediately different – very green and hilly compared to the low-lying beaches along the French coast. Little villages are wedged between the cliffs and built around fishing harbours and sandy beaches. Fish is on the menu everywhere, from posh restaurants to backstreet bars where they serve platefuls of bitesize nibbles called ‘pintxos’. We tried these one night and I found myself eating baby eels in roasted red peppers – actually very tasty.
We have stopped at several small places – Pasajes, San Sebastian (very pretty), Orio, and Getaria. Today we arrived in Bilbao and motored right up the river as far as we could go, the riverside is an amazing mix of shipyards, scrapheaps, pretty hills, fancy housing and abandoned buildings. The most amazing of all was the car and foot ferry that crosses the river suspended beneath a suspension bridge – see photo.
We have arrived in the middle of a whole week of fiesta and the city was accordingly pretty hectic. Whole streets were dedicated to children’s entertainment and music stages and market stalls took up several more. The streets of the old town were heaving, groups of drunken blokes milling about amidst tables of alfresco diners.
We are still getting used to the later Spanish timetable after strict French hours. We arrived at the Guggenheim museum too late to make a visit to worthwhile (20 minutes before closing) but the guy on the counter told us if we came back between 11pm and 2am we could tour the museum while listening to a jazz concert in the hallway!
If we thought we had landed in Spain, we were mistaken – everywhere the walls are daubed with graffiti in support of ETA and independence. Professional-looking signs proclaim that ‘You are not in France or Spain, you are in the Basque Country’ and so we made sure to fly the Basque flag along with our Spanish courtesy one in recognition.
The countryside is immediately different – very green and hilly compared to the low-lying beaches along the French coast. Little villages are wedged between the cliffs and built around fishing harbours and sandy beaches. Fish is on the menu everywhere, from posh restaurants to backstreet bars where they serve platefuls of bitesize nibbles called ‘pintxos’. We tried these one night and I found myself eating baby eels in roasted red peppers – actually very tasty.
We have stopped at several small places – Pasajes, San Sebastian (very pretty), Orio, and Getaria. Today we arrived in Bilbao and motored right up the river as far as we could go, the riverside is an amazing mix of shipyards, scrapheaps, pretty hills, fancy housing and abandoned buildings. The most amazing of all was the car and foot ferry that crosses the river suspended beneath a suspension bridge – see photo.
We have arrived in the middle of a whole week of fiesta and the city was accordingly pretty hectic. Whole streets were dedicated to children’s entertainment and music stages and market stalls took up several more. The streets of the old town were heaving, groups of drunken blokes milling about amidst tables of alfresco diners.
We are still getting used to the later Spanish timetable after strict French hours. We arrived at the Guggenheim museum too late to make a visit to worthwhile (20 minutes before closing) but the guy on the counter told us if we came back between 11pm and 2am we could tour the museum while listening to a jazz concert in the hallway!
posted by Katie at 8:13 AM
1 Comments:
Hi David and Hazel, haven't checked in for a while and it's nice to catch up on your travels, which sound like they are going very well!
Basque food is brilliant, some of the best in Spain and France. Have you tried the wine Txacoli de Getaria? Very light, zesty, sort of green appley, good with the fishy pintxos. Come to think of it, a little like Geoff's Pebblebed from Ebford!
Weather in Topsham has been brilliant - probably the best summer ever.
Lots of love from all,
Marc and Kim
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