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My travelling companions, Sandi Heath and Lynne Rose, and I finally found an internet cafe in Spain. And, guess who we found inside it clacking away? My lovely friends, Jim and Linda Lequesne. We last saw them a few days ago in Bilbao and then went our separate ways. I wonder what the odds are of finding friends at 8:30 p.m. without having made arrangements to do so? Higher than I think? Anyway, it was good to connect and share a story or two.
England for 22 hours was great. Lynne and I dashed to Wimbledon for a cup of tea with Tess, my mother in law who is ailing. We then headed to Jessie´s, the wonderful second cousin once removed to Tiana if I understand my geneology charts right. Dinner chez elle then off to Spain the next day.
We are not finding the Spaniards, well, how do I say this, a warm people. Maybe it is a Basque thing. I did fortunately give our first cab driver a good chuckle and couldn´t figure out why until I parsed my carefully composed sentence and realized I had said ¨You are a beautiful city¨. Hmmm... The next cab driver looked at my sharply and quite crossly and I couldn´t figure that one out until i thought perhaps what I thought I said, ¨You have a very interesting city, no?¨which is how we could say it in English and French but in Spanish the ¨no¨changes everthing so I probably told him he had a boring dull awful city. Any idiot would know that is not what I meant but he was not prepared to forgive me my transgressions. I tried to chat up a cheese seller by asking if a little girl was her daughter (she was not) but at least it got a reply and a small smile.
Day one was spent in Bilbao and the wonderful Guggenheim museum. The Guggenheim is what would result if all the clowns in Cirque du Soleil decided to be architects. It is beyond fantastic, even if the carefully crafted titanium panels are flying off with alarming regularity. The panels that cover much of the exterior took Frank Gehry and his team over a year to perfect - shape, size, bend. The whole thing is outstanding. Made to look like a boat, on the river side is a pool twelve inches deep designed to draw the shape of the river closer to the building. There is also what has to be a forty foot high dog made of growing flowers on the opposite side. Whimsical and a perfect companion. The art inside the building is appropriate not only to the building but to the region. Much of it challenged us to think which is the goal of good contemporary art. Well one of the goals, anyway.
In Bilbao, we had the whole crew. We five went out for a great dinner with a very simpatico waitress who took good care of us despite the linguistic divide. We drank a couple of bottles of wonderful Rioja for about $20 CAD a bottle. Makes you realize how we are heavily abused by Vancouver wine lists.
The next day, the three women wandered the town of Bilbao, did the old market with the pigs heads grinning foolishly at us from the safety of the butcher´s glass case. The smell of the fish section downstairs was sufficient for us to decide upstairs was the place to be. After a good wander, we carried on. We went up the funicular and I finally got to understand why people think one up my driveway would be a good idea. For less than a Euro, we made our way up to a wonderful vantage point of the city.
After picking up our rental car, we headed east to San Sebastian. Lovely town. The whole reason for our visit, and perhaps our trip, was to go the three-Michelin Starred Arzak Restaurant. I can´t even begin to describe the experience of the four hour dinner. The ¨menu¨ went on and on - four different amuse-bouches, lobster, lamb, six shared desserts, one chocolate plate - to catalogue it is to do it an injustice. The food was both science and art. We were all delighted with the whole experience (well, again, the staff could have been a little warmer but I digress...). It is a funny feeling realizing that I have now probably had what will be the most exceptional meal of my life.
Yesterday, Sunday, we took the car and headed for France. Being in France was like being able to breathe again after being under water. The signs made sense. The language was understandable. Heck, the people were even warmer. We visited Biarritz - probably good to do now and not in full tourist season. St. Jean de Luz was next as we made our way back toward Spain. There was an art show along the boardwalk with some decent art, and some art reminiscent of a bad Sunday in Stanley Park. It was great fun to contemplate the purchase of art and then, sanely, realizing that carting it along the Camino and framing it once home was folly.
I am going to stop here, missing out details of San Sebastian and our day today. But the muse is not on my shoulder, the Sangria from a couple of hours ago leaving a sugar low and dinner still an hour away, if at all. Until next time, hasta luego.
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Ian Victor
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Play It Again, Nancy
Great blogging, and generous of you again to share with those of us who travel vicariously with you. Pigs-heads (at least the animal kind) and three star restaurants are in short supply here. Love and hugs to you all from Cathy and me. By the way - the weekend wedding went great!