Blogs from Basque Country, Spain, Europe - page 54

Spent the day on the bus before arriving in San Sebastian. We (Mus and Sarah from Canberra and I) decided to head to the running of the bulls. There were no buses early enough in the morning or returning late at night so if you wanted to go the last bus from San Sebastian is at 9.15pm with the first bus back at 9.15am. We went for tapas first in the old town which is an institution in Spain. Because they dont eat dinner until 9pm these bars have hundreds of appetizers lined up which you snack on. It was awesome. For 6 euro I had a delicious meat skewer, octopus skewer, bread with prociutto, black rice adn sundried pepper and a prawny one. The entire population of Pamplona seemed to be out and abotu with ... read more

Our first Spanish experience was a combination mixed emotions. Our main reason for doing a quick trip to Spain was to book our train tickets from Valencia to Barcelona. After spending time on the net the easiest way to actually book the tickets was to drive down to San Sebastian, locate the train station and book the tickets in person. Job, Done, Tick! It was later in the afternoon so we thought we would head towards a place called Bilbao. The lonely planet describe this place as “Hip, frenzied and culturally dynamic. Considered one of the country’s premier cultural capitals……wedged into the hills of the Viscaya province and sliced in two by murky river waters. This a hole with attitude.” For the limited amount of time I spent there the only part statement I agree with ... read more

After leaving you in the Loire we’ve been on holidays, relaxing, sleeping, eating good food, swimming and sunning ourselves in France and northern Spain - hence the break in blog reports. Of course we’ve also managed to visit an array of different places ranging from a French prehistoric cave, Dali’s house in Port Lligat, his amazing theatre in Figures Barcelona with its amazing Sagrada Familia and the Guggenheim Museum in Balboa. More of that later as you can’t travel through Europe and not indulge in wondrous foods so we thought a little wander through some wonderful meals would be something you might enjoy! One memorable meal was enjoyed in our little stone cottage in the ancient village of Puy L’Eveque on the Lot River (in the southern Dordogne area or the northern midi-Pyrenees depending on your ... read more

Woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to take a stroll up the nearby Mont Urgul. Very natural, with awesome views of the bay and San Sebastian below. Also had a cool castle, Mota Castle from the 12th century, with the Status of the Holy Heart atop of it. We hiked back down the other side and around La Concha (Kontxa in Basque) beach, stopping at the Miramar Palace briefly, then around the Playa Ondaretta until we reached the foot of Mont Igueldo and the funicular. Manoli seemed to have no problem with the funicular, so we rode it up to the top for 2 Euros each, round trip (Can´t imagine very many folks getting one way tickets!). On top was a cute little amusement park, but apparently not much opened til evening. There was ... read more

SanSebastian: Checked out of the hostel and headed to the train station early. They only give you about 20 minutes notice as to which track your train leaves from, so you have to be ready to go and paying attention. The monitors on each track platform show which train for that track, when its due, and display the car order so you can be waiting somewhere near your car. Got onboard and away we went..sort of. The train takes 8 hours to go from Barcelona to San Sebastian, and I bet half of that is slowing to a crawl thru populated areas and stopping at 6 or 8 stations along the way. They do give you little earphones for music and to hear the movies they show now and then. The car in front of ours ... read more