Blogs from Basque Country, Spain, Europe - page 6

Day Three Roncevaux to Larrasoana 25 km When you first arrive at the Roncevaux monastery, there is a water fountain at the top of a long set of stairs leading to the registration desk. DO NOT drink that water. All hikers, including me, were filling up and drinking like crazy. Later in the afternoon I overheard someone say there is no drinking water in the building and you must go to the public fountain about 2 blocks away. Sure enough, I checked and there was a health warning posted in a crammed PSA bulletin board. Good one! Maybe post it next to the fountain??? Just a thought. Anyhoo - Today I'm off to Larrasoana and I can't decide if my stomach feels good or not... By now I've sort of joined a herd of walkers from ... read more

From Nice to San Sebastian, Bex and I were on the 'ole Flix Bus for 6 hours. We arrived at about 10.10pm. Google maps informed us we were but a mere 12 minutes walk from our hostel we were staying at. In good spirits and feeling excited about being in the heart of San Sebastian at night and seeing it all lit up, we started walking towards our accommodation. We should have known things would of course not be so simple. The warning bell started ringing when we walked down the final street towards our hostel. Drunk people were everywhere. It was a difficult road to navigate, made even more difficult when Google informed us that we had arrived, and we were unable to see anything remotely resembling a helpful sign. There were no indications that ... read more

As our AirB&B place didn't have any breakfast options this time round, we looked up somewhere on TripAdvisor called Café Santana, which was just next to our other stop of the morning, the tourism office. At least that's what TripAdvisor told us, we couldn't find it at all (I found it later in the day, about half a mile from where it was plotted on the map....and closed!). We seem to have developed a knack for picking inaccurate Google Maps and TripAdvisor listings! We found somewhere else nearby for breakfast and eventually, with help from the waiter, worked out the odd system for service. You sit down, a waiter takes your drink order, returns with your drinks and a receipt. If you want food, which comes in the form of finger food laid out on the ... read more

Today I explored San Sebastián. It has some museums and an aquarium, and of course a church dedicated to St. Sebastian, the Saint who is always depicted with arrows sticking out of him (see photo). But chiefly the town is noted for its fine crescent beach (see photo). I understand that in July and August the place is packed, but today there were plenty of spots to lie out and get a suntan. I didn't do that, of course, but there were a few determined souls who did. I have mentioned the Basques in my previous blogs, but truthfully I can not tell them from other Spaniards. Everyone I spoke with seemed to have Spanish as the default language, although signs all have both Spanish and Basque. (If the signs have a third language, it is ... read more

My first stop today was to the Parc Animalier des Pyrenees (see photo). This animal park has exhibits where the human visitors walk through and the animals live in areas that are as much like their normal habitat as possible. It is clear that people feed the creatures because, unlike most zoos I have visited, nearly all of the animals moved immediately toward me as I approached their compounds (see photo of me and birds). The park's most controversial exhibit is the brown bears (aka grizzly bear). The park has several young ones that I saw (see photo), but others have been purposely released into the wilds of the Pyrenees Mountains and have so far been able to maintain a tenuous hold on survival. Not everyone is happy about having large carnivores roaming the area once ... read more