Santander

We wrote this city off on our list of places to visit in Spain, but we couldn’t avoid it seeing as it is somewhat midway to our next stop. We arrived in town pretty late and didn’t park until around 11pm., something Julie and I are commenting on a lot lately is our inability to avoid driving at night. Before we came on this trip we both agreed that there is no point to drive at night as we miss most of the landscape/towns and we should be resting for the next day too. However, ever since we left Regensburg for Dresden, we have managed to drive at night pretty much every other day or so. We think lately it’s mostly due to daylight savings time. Anyway, we ended up driving around Santander looking for a spot we could both agree on only to return to the first one we found. Julie doesn’t feel as comfortable free camping in Spain as she did in France or Germany, I believe it’s because we are doing it alone and the crime rate is slightly higher. We stayed the night without any issue. While entering a roundabout, Julie and I couldn’t help but laugh in seeing a man on horse galloping around the roundabout. Something we never thought we would see but were glad we did. We managed to get up early for a change so we could arrive in Santiago de Compostela before 7pm. This didn’t happen though; we ended up pulling over along the highway (think hwy 11) to sleep in the parking lot of a pension. We’ve heard rumors that Spain is warm in the winter time, so could someone tell us why we woke up with frost on our windows and frozen water in the sink?

Bilbao

The drive to Bilbao was longer than expected, about 3 and ½ hours. We found parking right outside the Guggenheim museum of modern art. Everyone’s heard about the Guggenheim museums, but something that Julie and I learnt about it was there are five in the world. We both didn’t think the Guggenheim was in Spain, but our guide book said it was, now we know why. Something else Julie and I learnt about museums of modern art, was that we only truly enjoy modern art if we can laugh at it. Needless to say, we were quite happy to be on our way after completing the 3 floor museum. We did learn some facts along the way though, the art on display was the last 300 years of American art, and somewhere along the way they had a timeline of American history. Violent and racist fits what we learnt quite well and the war of 1812 was apparently against GB, not Canada, which I guess isn't entirely wrong considering we are still under the monarchy. Our next stop is Santiago de Compostela, though we don’t think we can make it today, so we plan to stop in Santander.

San Sebastian

Our original intention was to visit the city of Bayonne, where they believe the bayonet was created but never confirmed. The city has two rivers and some other stuff to check out which is why we decided to make the 95 km drive to Spain’s San Sebastian. This is another beach side city, one section is believed to be the best place to windsurf/kitesurf/surf etc in Europe because it has never ending wind. The part of the city we visited was located smack dab in the middle of the new area and the old. This gave us a good grasp on how the differences for our first Spanish city. The Spanish government moves here during the summer months so the new area does have an expensive air about it. The old area looked like most old towns we have seen, but the roads have been kept up to date. We walked from one side of the city to the other following the coast. This was a very beautiful walk, but an extremely cold one. It was 9 degrees in the sun and 3 in the shade, that being said, when we arrived at the main beach area you could imagine our surprise to see people attempting a dip (about 4 tried and succeeded for a moment). I could imagine this city to be buzzing in the summer time and the beach just packed with people. The campsite we are staying at for the night (we need showers desperately) is located on top of Mount Igueldo. The view from our van is amazing and would be nicer if there weren’t trees blocking part of the view. On the other side of the mountain road is the ocean which is again a great view. Tomorrow we plan to head to Bilbao where the Guggenheim is located and then start our very long trek west. Julie and I are planning to do the majority of Spain and all of Portugal in the next few weeks in hopes of arriving in the Costa del Sol region in the south where we intend to spend about a month basking in the sun and doing odd excursions to places near by. We are also toying with the idea of a cruise to Egypt during this time, but with our funds almost depleted this might have to be skipped. So for anyone wanting to escape the cold and come and hang with us in the Costa del Sol, let us know and we can come meet you at the airport.

Biaritz

Driving to the town of Biaritz was simple enough, but the town itself seems to have not figured out how to effectively execute logical roads. After 100 turns and about 50 roundabouts, we made it to the parking lot, only to learn that we didn’t have electricity. There are only 4 electrical hook-ups per station and about 6 stations for 50 spots. Again, this wasn’t turning out to be a good decision. We drove to a “nearby” McDonald’s, I say nearby, because it was 6 km away and took us 30 mins to drive to it and there was barely any traffic being a Sunday, and found out that it did not provide free WiFi. Use of the bathrooms and a quick bite, we made our way back to the parking lot. We had a baguette with 4 types of cheeses and pate. This was accompanied with two bottles of wine we purchased the night before. Both are award winners, one being the best of the Bordeaux region, the other being the second best Chardonnay in the world. To our surprise, the Chardonnay was not nearly as pleasant as the one from Bordeaux. It didn’t stop us from drinking it though. Besides the bottle from Cahors, these were the most expensive bottles of wine to date; they were just over 2 euros each. We watched a Harry Potter movie as well and then talked before calling it a night. That is how we spent my birthday, not exactly how Julie or I intended it to be, or would have wanted. But without any money and it being a Sunday it was the best way we could spend it. The next morning I moved the van to a vacated spot to acquire electricity where we spent the day in the van resting and watching the other two Harry Potter movies we have managed to download. With Julie not feeling well for the past few days we didn’t really venture out much during our stay in Biaritz. We did manage to visit the town centre at dusk, which was cool because the trees along the boulevard had lights in them. We also watched some people surfing when we walked along the shore. Couldn’t imagine how cold the water must have been. We tried to acquire internet access for free but couldn’t manage. So we opted on a cyber café – 3 euros for 45 minutes. So we got caught up once again. Thanks to Gerald and Rachel as well as my mom and dad for the birthday “presents” and thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes as well.

Dune de Pyla (Pyla-sur-mer)

It was very dark when we arrived at the Dune de Pyla parking lot, our camping spot for the night. It was a nice place to stay, quiet, surrounded by trees and we managed to find a level spot after doing about 3 laps of the parking lot. We weren’t the only campers here either, which is always a good thing. Since we were only seeing the sand dune and then driving to Biaritz later we didn’t get started early. It was just before lunch when we followed the small crowds towards the dune. The walk to the dune is lined with tourist shops, most of which were closed for the season. I know the sound of “The largest sand dune in Europe” sounds about as exciting as getting the chance to watch paint dry and honestly that was our thoughts too. We decided to make a stop here because there were none on the way to Biaritz and Bayonne that peaked our interest. It was a break in the drive from the Bordeaux region as well. South from Bordeaux, the area is extremely flat along the coast which is also good for our van. The sand dune was around the height of the escarpment and is three kilometers long. They had plastic stairs running up the steep side of the dune, the same side as the parking lot. Once we made it to the top of the dune we realized why this was mentioned in one of our guide books. The steep side (west side) is completely surrounded by evergreen trees and the gentler side (east side) faces the Atlantic Ocean. The steep side is steep enough for sand boarding. The view was amazing from the top of the dune and we were extremely glad we stopped here. We walked down to the shore and here we made our mark before walking back up the sandy slope.

This took us forever and was extremely tiring. On a side note, the nights and days are becoming much warmer so our effort to get south is finally proving worth it. France’s highways are tolled, so we take the back roads, which at times, add about 2 extra hours of driving so we ended up stopping in Souston on our way to Bairitz. It was 5 euros, but that included electricity, a dump station and fresh water. I toyed with the notion of staying here on Sunday too, to avoid driving on my birthday, but with no internet and it costing us 5 euros, I decided that we should finish our drive to Biaritz, 60 km away. Upon leaving the parking lot, we were at the pay machine, a man walked up to the van and told us the van stinks. This is really starting to get to Julie, as she can’t imagine why anyone would feel the need to point this out, and especially why people would escalate things to an argument. So far my decision wasn’t a good one.

Bordeaux City

It was around mid afternoon when we decided to head to the city of Bordeaux. We luckily found parking 2km outside of the city centre and got the chance to see most of the city before even getting to the tourist office. We learnt that even in the Bordeaux region all the wine tours are finished for the season and if you wanted to visit a Chateau, you needed to book a private tour. Most Chateaus’ charge a visiting fee and expect a wine purchase. That being said, we didn’t stay too long in the city. With only 250,000 people living in the city it was surprising to see the streets jam-packed with people and cars. We figure that the tourists double the population. It was so busy. The newly made pedestrian area was nice to walk down, but it was too busy to window shop or even really see anything. Bordeaux is pretty much like any typical city you would visit, there wasn’t too much to see, so we spent about an hour before heading off towards Europe’s largest sand dune.

St Emilion

There were two places to park for camper vans, one free the other 32.50/night. Naturally we went to the free one only to learn that it was by permit only. Some farmers in France join a tourist thing; people pay an annual fee and are allowed to park on the farmers land. It’s a shame too, as it was at a vineyard. We had passed a pay parking spot along the way so we decided to check it out. We guess the auto-payment machine wasn’t working because it was off season, so we managed to park for free anyway, and we weren’t alone that night either.

We weren’t entirely sure if we wanted to see St Emilion because most of the vineyards are closed this time of year and no tours are running. However, our guide book mentioned that this town was the best to see in the entire Bordeaux region so just before noon we headed into town in search of the tourist office. The medieval streets and buildings were truly a wonderful site. The town was beautiful, charming and an extreme pleasure to visit. When we found the tourist office we joined up for a tour of one of the largest underground churches in Europe (the only way to view it) and wandered around for a bit before it started. Because of where the tourist office is located, we were able to get a great panoramic view of the city. The first place the lady took us too was where St. Emilion, the town founder, lived during the last 17 years of his life performing baptisms in a shallow well in the ground as well as the miracles he’s said to have done. It is said that if you make a wish and throw a coin in the water you must come back and thank St. Emilion if your wish comes true. There was also a low seat in the rock, where women sit and pray and are guaranteed to become pregnant within the year. She then took us to the catacombs and explained that there are over 80 hectares of catacombs underneath the region of St Emilion. It was then off to the church where she showed us some pretty morbid things. The first thing was an express way to rot, they used to believe that the faster you turned into ash the faster you got to heaven, they would submerse your body in water for a while and when they took you out the combination of air and water would accelerate the decomposition, they have a name in French for it but there is no word in the English language that exists. The word is “Pourriseoir”. The second was led coffins where they used to put the bodies of rich people that died of disease (so it wouldn’t spread) and apparently they still use these types of coffins to transport bodies in France till this day. Half the tour was done in French and Julie was translating for me, until the guide clued in about what Julie was doing, then the guide decided to explain everything in French and English for the rest of the tour. When the tour was over we decided to head into a wine store to see about shipping a case back home. At 130 euros to ship to Canada and having to pick the case up at the airport, we decided it is not worth it for us. Sorry, but it looks as though we’ll be the only ones to enjoy the wine this time around.