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Published: October 4th 2009
Biarritz Bikes
Ambition: "When I grow up I want to be a Harley Davidson like my Daddy"A decent night's sleep....sort of. The truck traffic still woke me while it was still dark and I think that I've figured out what's going on. There's a Museum of the Sea on the headland opposite the hotel and they're excavating an enormous cavity there; presumably some sort of fish tank. It turned out to be another lazy day mainly because the weather was not very good, cloudy and humid. A quite heavy shower of rain occurred later in the morning which put the block on any plan to head down the coast and have a look at St Jean de Luz. We’d almost decided to have lunch at the restaurant adjoining the hotel but opted instead to go to the little bar restaurant overlooking the beach and have another of their super omelettes. Sure enough the omelettes were delicious, and so was the wine that the friendly waiter had recommended: a sweet white Gascony wine for Jane and a Languedoc red for me. After lunch we went for a walk along the southern esplanade, the Cotes des Basques, to see if the surfer dudes were out in the water. It turned out that the
Biarritz Last Night
Apres dinner a Le Corsaire Restaurant, Port des Pecheurs Biarritz tide was in and what little surf there was breaking right on the shore which on this beach consisted of a protective rock wall; and consequently there were no surfers. So we climbed the hill behind the beach to see if the Planete Chocolat Museum was open and worth looking at: yes and no respectively. We returned to town and browsed the shops: reminiscent of a wet day at a British seaside resort: just passing time until the next meal. And as the next meal was to be out last in France we decided to return to the Port des Pecheurs and have another seafood special. This time it was lightly fried merlu, which is a delicious white fish. Excellent choice as it was another memorable meal.
An easy stroll back to the hotel and so to bed.
The Chev had another rest day.
Blogday 17 Friday 2 October Biarritz to Bilbao
The scheduled departure time for the P&O ferry to Portsmouth was 12.30pm from Bilbao, with loading commencing at 10.45, and because the guy at our hotel had told us that delays on the Spanish autoroute were not unusual, we decided to give ourselves plenty of
time and leave Biarritz at 8am. So I set my alarm for 6.30am but didn’t need it as the garbage and/or construction trucks woke me up at 6.15. I suppose that I should be grateful but I certainly didn’t appreciate being woken up in that manner. We got the Chev loaded and headed off for the autoroute to Spain at 8.15. It was an easy drive to the border, and there were no border controls. We just paid the toll on the French side and that was it; we were in Spain. The autoroute on the Spanish side was good to begin with, then we got into the coastal mountain range and the road became very hilly and winding with quite a number of tunnels. There were frequent changes to the speed limit: 120kph, then 80, then 60, then back to 120 then down to 80 all within a kilometre or two. The weather was overcast so we couldn’t enjoy the mountain scenery either. Going past San Sebastian and Burgos and also entering Bilbao involved negotiating major roadworks, and as the road signs were not that clear either it was slightly stressful. We arrived safely at the ferry port at
10.15: a two hour drive but it not a particularly enjoyable experience; which it would have been in fine weather: less roadworks and better signage. Loading the ferry didn’t begin until nearly midday so we hung around in the assembly area for a long boring period. Finally we boarded and found our cabin easily enough: small but very well designed and quite comfortable. Then up on deck for a look over Bilbao and to see if we could spot the iconic Guggenheim Museum. We couldn’t; maybe it’s upriver from the port where we were. However, judging from what I could see of Bilbao from the autoroute the town doesn’t look very attractive, and I certainly wouldn’t be inclined to visit. It had been interesting going past San Sebastian earlier to see the contrast with France, The French towns and cities looked far more prosperous than the Spanish ones.
The P&O ferry, the Pride of Bilbao, is very large (37,000 tons) and comfortable and the passengers were overwhelmingly Brits with just a very few Spanish. So the on board catering and facilities (games machines and bingo sessions) catered for the Brits. I have to say that it was pretty depressing going
Bilbao
Transporter Bridge. Even bigger than the Newport Transporter Bridge for lunch and seeing the selection. Most of the Brits were ordering fish, chips and mushy peas. I was missing the delicious Biarritz omelettes already. Fortunately there were two cinemas onboard so there were some diversions. We went to see Angels & Demons, the follow up to the Da Vinci code; but it was very cold in the cinema and the film was utter crap too, so that wasn’t very good value. Later we had a surprisingly good dinner in one of the on board restaurants. Surprising in view of what we had seen earlier in the self service restaurant, as the food in both places comes from the same kitchen. After dinner we went to the entertainments area, the Starlight Lounge, at the rear of the ship to check on the entertainment. To begin with they had a couple of girls belting out popular songs; and because they were belting them out with such volume and lack of talent we only lasted 10 minutes before retiring to our cabin, and so to bed.
Jenks the Grumpy
Blogday 18 Saturday 3 October Homeward Bound
I wrote much of yesterday’s blog in an observation lounge right at the
Bilbao
Jane, Jenks, Transporter Bridge front of the ship along with the whale watching anoraks. Some people come on this trip as a “mini-cruise”, Portsmouth-Bilbao and back again in three days with 4 hours in Bilbao, just to watch for whales and dolphins. The ship even provides a wildlife officer who works for Marine Life a charity that runs the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme, and who gives talks about whales and dolphins and can tell the difference between various species of whales at two miles away by the way that they spout when they come up for air. At two miles distance I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an aircraft carrier and a fish finger.
I returned to the observation lounge this morning after getting up at 7.30 (8.30 France time). It was completely quiet and there was no sense of movement. It seemed as though the ship wasn’t moving and the sea was just flowing towards us, just like standing on a bridge watching the river flowing beneath. Uncanny.
Later we went along to a well attended talk by Clive Martin, the director, of Marine Life, who showed us photos of dolphins, whales, seabirds and migrating landbirds that he’s seen on
various trips aboard the Pride of Bilbao, including one amazing shot of the ship leaving Bilbao port in hurricane conditions with a wave breaking over the top of the bridge: 120 feet above the sea level. The weather got steadily worse as we approached the British coast (no surprise there) and we docked at Portsmouth just after 4.30 pm: after passing Mr and Mrs Jenkins Senior’s apartment in Gosport (my brother Richard and his wife Yvonne) and exchanging salutes with them. After a 40 minute wait on the car deck we rolled out of Portsmouth, a quick fuel stop and then north to Newbury and west to the homeland. The weather got steadily worse the closer we came to the Fatherland and by the time we got to Newport it was tipping down (no surprise there either). But it’s home. All was well at the ancestral home. Daughter Liane had kept everything clean and tidy and we didn’t need to go out and buy any supplies. Very convenient. Immediately resumed normal life with a light dinner, checked the TV and saw that Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King, was on and watched that. And then to bed.
Portsmouth
Not our ferry, but a beautiful sight Reflections:
Good time. We drove over 3,000 kms (2,000 miles) through some great scenery and saw some marvellous sites. We even had the good weather that we’d been looking for. None of the sites we visited was a disappointment and most were really marvellous. The Dordogne lived up to all the hype. France is blessed with wonderful medieval towns and villages, and they have taken care to preserve the best parts of them: Honfleur, Fegiac, Carcassonne and especially the little towns and villages in the Dordogne like Sarlat, Montignac and Najac. I can fully appreciate why the overwhelming majority of French people take their vacations in their own country: it’s got everything, and especially the weather. But I wouldn’t want to go there during the holiday season, July/August, because of the crowds and because it’s probably too hot then.
The real star of the holiday for me was, of course, the Big Bad Chev. Fast, comfortable and fabulous with the roof off in warm sunshine driving along the well surfaced country roads in the Dordogne; or long distance high speed cruising on the autoroutes.
I've included a map showing the entire journey, including ferries. You can zoom in
Portsmouth
Welcome home from Richard & Yvonne. Second up, second from left. He's in a blue shirt. on any section of the map for a more detailed view.
Regrets, two: one major and one minor one. Scratching the Chev being of course the major one. Not getting to see the Millau Viaduct being the minor one. Oh yes, one more: I should have taken a satnav as it would have greatly reduced the stress of driving around the bigger places like Carcassonne and Nimes with their one-way systems and misleading signs. Having seen wonderful sites from prehistory, from the Roman era and from the Middle Ages it would have been nice to round them off by visiting a 21st Century icon. Look it up on Google images and Wikipedia.
So that’s it. I hope that you enjoyed this blog. I had fun writing it.
Allez France! Vive le Chev!
Jenks le Traveller
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