Bennies in Basque!

Thursday 18th Sept
 
We arrived late into Bilbao airport after a quick Easyjet flight from Stansted. We picked up our rental car (another Fiat Panda!) and drove 20 mins from the airport to find our cottage. The cottage was a awesome little wooden cabin on the cliffs overlooking a beach. Aritz, the guy whose family owns the place was really nice and showed us must see places on the map. We showered and then hit the sack to recharge our batteries for the week ahead.

Friday 19th Sept
 
We had a great night's sleep even with roosters crowing and donkeys hee-hawing next door! We got up about 10am and then about 30 mins later, we had some breakfast delivered to our front gate - Spanish omelette, melon and ham and muffins- amazing, all courtesy of Aritz's mum who we found out was a chef in a local tapas restaurant.

We went for a two minute wander down to our local beach. The cliffs had stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean and it was so nice to be by the sea again. We walked down to the beach and saw it was completely full of completely nude people... somehow we had booked a cabin above a nudist beach - opps!
 
By now it was time to do some expoloring of the Basque Country. So we hopped in the car and aimed for San Juan de Gaztelugatxe which was built by knights Templar in the 10th century; it had awesome views of the Bay of Biscay. We walked the whole thing in our jandals and got some funny looks as it was a bit of a hike but it was sweet for a couple of kiwis. We then wandered up it the car in the 30 degree heat and headed to Bakio for a picnic lunch on the sandy beach. We tested the water and it was a bit chilly! Dam Atlantic Ocean.
 

After a pleasant day out we took a scenic route home via Armintza and Plentzia and found a supermarket for dinner. Once home we sunbathed a bit more and relaxed over a cold beer before Lou cooked up dinner and we ate outside in the setting sun. By the time we finished dinner it was almost sunset so we walked up one of the cliffs behind our cottage to watch the sun set and it was amazing... So peaceful. We finished the night with bollo de mantequilla (basically a cream bun again courtesy of Aritz's mum).

Highlight: We really got lucky with our cottage, and the location, all total peaceful and chilled out.
Lowlight: Hamish bet Lou she could lie in a hammock having never seen his wife in one. Turns out this was for good reason! Lou found it challenging to get in and out of the hammock and as Hamish predicted, Lou flipped over and fell out to Hamish's ammusement. Lou did bruise her shoulder and elbow so he couldn't laugh too hard. 
Interesting fact: The hermitage is accessed by a narrow path, crossing the solid stone bridge, and going up 237 steps (other sources cite the number as 229 or 231). According to legend, after the slightly strenuous climb to the top of the crag one should ring the bell three times and make a wish.

Saturday 20th Sept

After a good night's rest we got up and decided to walk to the neighbouring beach Arriatera via the cliff top path offering spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean and beautiful sunrise.

The walk itself was very pleasant and helped burn off some of the calories from the day before. We then got ready to head to Bilbao for the day after a breakfast of left overs only for our host to deliver another plastic bag fill of amazing treats our fridge was looking rather full by now!!

We drove into the city centre of Bilbao and parked our sweet ride the black Fiat Panda! We then did a self-guided tour of Bilbao using our handy tourist map. We walked to plaza Moyua before making our way to park Casilda Iturrizar where we stumbled across a kids fair. We walked through the park and onto the Sacred Heart monument (just a big statue of the man himself).

We then made our way across to the main river through Bilbao - Ria de Bilbao. We strolled along the river bank soaking up the beautiful scenery. The day was warming up and it was about 30 degrees - very pleasant. Our riverside stroll took us to the Guggenheim museum which is an impressive modern building that looks like massive waves of stainless steel. We decided there was too much to see and such a nice day so we skipped the museum and only took the standard tourist shot outside with the massive dog aka El Puppy!
 

Right beside the museum we found the Red Bull cliff diving competition which we watched for a bit, it was packed though and no one cranked the millennium pin to Hamish's disappointment. We found our way across one of the many bridges and up to a Funicular de Artxanda which takes you up to one of the highest hills looming down on Bilbao. It only took a few minutes and we had a well-earned rest at the top soaking in the views.
 

Next stop was old town. Unfortunately between the funicular ride down and walk to the old town it had clouded over. The first crack of thunder and bolt of lightning quickly followed and we forced to take shelter while it poured down tropical style for a good 20 mins. We eventually risked it and ran to the big market - la Ribera but it was shut!!! - Gutted:(
We then crossed the river back to new town and by this stage we were hungry, like critically hungry...Lou had found this place called Cafe Iruna which served pintxos all day. It had a great atmosphere and luckily the bar tender spoke some English! We had some nice red wine and about 8 pintxos... All different flavours and all delicious. Lou even ordered some of the local cider which they traditionally pour from 2 feet above the glass... Harder than it looks! The cider was not sweet like we are used to so we will probably give that a miss in the future.
 

We continued in the pintxos crawl to a bar that was covered in bull fighting memorabilia and we ate a bit more before calling it a day.
 

We had a great day in Bilbao but were getting tired so we found our way back to our park to drive home. The streets were crawling with Athletico supporters, from guys to granny's and babies....everyone supported the local team! We stopped off to pick up a few more beers and finished the afternoon on the sun lounger before watching the sun go down again from our little spot and having more tapas for tea....so Spanish...so good!

Highlight: Bilbao was pleasantly a really nice city, and the weather and food was superb Lowlight: The afternoon rain storm and leaving umbrellas in the car.....fail.
Interesting fact: The Guggenheim museum is one of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been hailed as a "signal moment in the architectural culture", because it represents "one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all completely united about something." It does look pretty cool.

Sunday 21st Sept

Today we decided to hit up San Sebastián, about an hour's drive north of our little cottage. We were getting into a routine by now. We got up around 9am and did our beach walk again but this time in the other direction. We had another breakfast of treats (although Lou was sick of the cream buns by now).
We packed up the car with our supplies for the day and followed the toll road for an hour or so. We arrived in San Sebastian and it was stunning, helped by the fact that it was a gloriously sunny day and about 30 degrees. The main beach in the city was packed with all shapes and sizes, some wearing clothes some not! 

Eager to go exploring, we parked up in an underground park right by the beach and started our exploring with a walk up Monte Urgell which is on the eastern side if the beach. We decided on the harder but quicker straight uphill climb in the heat but the views from the top were worth it. There was a big statue of God at the top overlooking the city. On the way down we went out to the point where the bay opened up into the ocean, it was very much like Wellington but a lot warmer.
 

We then wandered in to the old town for some food and respite from the heat. The old town was a maze of cobbled streets with loads of pintxos bars; we found a wee one by the main church and sampled more delicious treats along with sangria! We hit another pintxos bar and with full bellies headed back to the car to get our beach stuff. We found a spot and relaxed in the sun for a couple of hours, although the water was pretty chilly. 

About 7pm we were still on the beach, so warm with the sun out. We did a quick change in the car park and went to find a cold beer and dinner...every second shop was a bar so this wasn't hard. We were pretty hungry by this stage even with the amazing gelato we had shared before beach time.

It soon became clear that dinner time wasn't until about 9pm in Sans Sebastian.... And because we had to drive all the way home we made the call to have dinner in a touristy pintxos bar which served food all day, called La Cepa. Hamish couldn't just have nibbles for dinner! We had yum fried calamari, and Hamish had boar in gravy and Lou had hake.
Then we did the long drive home and ate more pastries that Aritz's mum had left us.... Chocolate palmiers which were so sickly sweet while we watched Mission Impossible 3 dubbed in Spanish...living the dream.

Highlight: The beach was awesome, and the food…. and the sunshine. Definitely recommend San Sebastian.
Lowlight: Dinner places opening so late. 
Interesting Fact: San Sebastian developed into a fully-fledged seaside resort in the late 1800's, while some industry was developed in the district of Antiguo and outskirts of the city. Following the outbreak of World War I, San Sebastián became an attracting focus for renowned international figures of culture and politics e.g. Mata Hari, Leon Trotsky, Maurice Ravel, and Romanones.

Monday 22nd Sept

We awoke to the sound of torrential rain at about 7am, which continued till about 10am (even the rooster wasn't crowing!) Given the weather, we had a bit of a lazy start to the day and didn't exercise but had a big breakfast - this time with chocolate croissants and more Spanish omelette. We decided we are close to France so it would be rude not to make the 2 hour drive to Biarritz in Southern France. It was that or Pamplona and Hamish wants to run with the bulls when we go to Pamplona so Biarritz it was!

The drive was relatively uneventful and despite taking our passports with us we crossed the border with ease - one minute we were in Spain, the next we were in France. After a short drive from the border we arrived in Biarritz and it was stunning; everything a rich seaside town should look like in Europe. There were huge old mansions on every street and the main hotel - Hotel du Palais was Napoleons old digs.

We parked up by the casino and walked down the main beach to the lighthouse which was built in the 1830s. We had a wander round and then headed down to the main city centre to get some lunch. We found a well-priced set menu and had a good feed of salad, fish and lentils and steak and chips followed by a coffee. We walked off our big lunch by walking around the bay which was all higgledy piggedly with stone arches linking up to wee islands and little bays for boats to dock up. It was very charming. Unfortunately the sun didn't break through the clouds but it was warm enough.

 

Along with all the other tourists we walked out to see the sculpture on Le Rocher De La Vierage which was the Virgin Mary on a big rock which was cool and then carried on round the bay to la Cote des Basques where we found our dream home (although slightly out of our budget and not even for sale). If we only went to the casino and won some money! It was about 5.30pm by this time so we walked back to the car and headed for home for a leftovers dinner and a final sleep in our little house.

Highlight: Day trips to different countries…..Europe in a nutshell
Lowlight: The weather was not our friend today.
Interesting Fact: Biarritz became more renowned in 1854 when Empress Eugenie (the wife of Napoleon III) built a palace on the beach (now the Hôtel du Palais). European royalty, including British monarchs Queen Victoria and King Edward VII and the Spanish king Alfonso XIII, were frequent visitors.