Benny & Bessy's Travels from 2021 and Samson & Suzi's European Travels 2016-2020...... (as named by Jack Spencer)

Travel stories of a caravan duo, plus a 5th Wheel and Isuzu truck in Europe

Category: Spain (Page 16 of 16)

San Sebastian, Monte Igueldo & Camino de Santiago

8 October 2017 / / 0 Comments

The neighbouring town of Donastia San Sebastian is the popular starting point of one of the Pilgrimage routes to Santiago. Traditionally the routes started at the pilgrim’s home and ended at Cape Finnesterre, Spain’s most westerly point. However this route is called the Camino de Santiago and follows the coast from San Sebastian along the Bay of Biscay until it reaches Santiago. Pilgrims who follow this and any other recognised route and can prove they have walked, cycled or travelled more than 200km are awarded a certificate (called a compostela) on arrival at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago. The pilgrim is asked to state whether their motivation for traveling the Camino was “religious”, “religious and other”, or “other”. In 2016, the number of pilgrims arriving in Santiago was recorded as 277,915!

San Sebastian is also home to a weird but wonderful ancient amusement park called Monte Igueldo, which began in 1911 as a social club that had been built on the top of a mount overlooking the town and it’s wonderful horseshoe shaped beach. It became an amusement park in the mid 1950’s, the original social club is now a hotel and the once derelict watch tower has been rebuilt to offer a 360 degree viewpoint over the surrounding coastline, bay and town.

The amusements were closed when we visited, they seemed to be run down and had a spooky air of desertion. The Tower, however, was something special. The inner staircase led up to the very top and the walls were full of old photographs from all eras showing bathers in the 1920’s, lifeguards in the 1930s, changes in the hillside houses over the years and several pictures of the three palaces dotted through the main affluent part of the town.

There is also a funicular railway from the Mount to the beach, again it was not running when we visited, but it is supposed to be the 3rd oldest funicular in Spain after being inaugurated in 1912. The beach is called La Concha and on low tide people can access the small island at it’s mouth.

We visited Miramar Palace, overlooking La Concha Bay, and had to admire the exterior only as the Palace is now a language and music school. The mansion was built in 1887, created to house the Spanish Royal Family when they decided to start spending their summers in San Sebastián. It was built in the ‘Queen Anne English cottage’ style under the direction of the British architect Seldon Wornum, who also designed several mansions in Biarritz and Saint Jean de Luz nearby. It is built in brick and sandstone with timberwork and the landscaped gardens are open to the public.

View of La Concha Bay from the top of the Tower

The wooden roller coaster around a water boat ride.

Miramar Palace.

The enigmatic Miramar Palace.

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Pamplona Bull Run

7 October 2017 / / 0 Comments

We felt we could not spend time in Northern Spain without visiting the world famous city of Pamplona where they hold the San Fermin Feria del Toro (Bull Fair) – a week’s festival in July which starts each day with the Running of the Bulls through the city to the Bull Ring, and ends each day with a massive fireworks display and beef steaks on offer in every restaurant.

The bulls are brought from the surrounding locales to pens just outside the city, on their allocated day, and at 8am the bulls are freed to run the gauntlet through the town, up cobbled streets, through narrow side roads, up the central street Calle Estafeta (a small narrow shop filled street) and into the Bull Ring whilst having several thousand local idiotic men running in front of them. For the men to arrive the 500metres into the Bull Ring without injury is an achievement, their emotions and adrenaline pushing them to run faster and jump higher than ever to get out of harm’s way. The bulls, on arrival at the arena, are penned, calmed down, fed and watered, and some are selected to participate in the bullfights later in the day and evening, either in the traditional way with Matadors and their capes or with Matadors on horseback (Rejoneos). The history of the arena itself was explained, it was built in 1922 by monies donated by the locals in a sort of “buy a brick” lottery with an expansion to include a third tier increasing seat numbers to 19,700, it’s the oldest solid concrete building in Pamplona. The proceeds of the fights and tourist visits go towards supporting 580 senior residents in the Casa de Misericordia of Pamplona nearby.

The city is a lovely mix of modern, old, new and tidy buildings, yet parts of the old town are beautifully ornate and traditional.

Here are some pictures of the main square:

Here are pictures of the actual route from the beginning to the end of the Bull Run.

The “holding pens” are where the white barrier is. The bulls then run up hill towards the central square.

They come to the top of this lane and keep going uphill.

This is the final straight, across the lights to the main arena, all in about one and a half minutes.

The Town Hall in the City (below); we spent quite a bit of time sitting in a cafe outside, watching the world go by. The Bulls would run right past here and they certainly would not stop to admire the artistry on the buildings frontage!

 

The main street (above) is fairly narrow and full of overhanging balconies and would create a loud, noisy atmosphere. The arena itself was hot, dry and very big and so quiet……! Well it was on the day we visited 🙂

Bull??? Oh hell, let’s get out of here…..

Yes, bully to you too!

The journey home was an hour’s drive through the most amazing mountains and scenery, as we left Pamplona we were met by the greying coastal clouds again but this gave rise to some lovely cloud and sky formations. We were also so high that we were up in the clouds several times.

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We have landed in “Austrian” Zarautz!

7 October 2017 / / 0 Comments

We landed in Bilbao to brilliant warm sunshine after a wet rocky night, thankfully the mornings ferry journey turned out to be much smoother. We were one of the first to be off loaded and headed out of the port to open mouthed stares from all the travellers waiting to load onto the ferry for their return back to the UK. Within an hour we were driving up the very steep hill towards our camp site Gran Camping Zarautz to be greeted by the official landing party – Mum and Dad!!!

Waiting to unload!

My first reaction during that hour’s journey from the port of Bilbao to Zarautz was “Oh no, we have arrived in the wrong country…..” All the properties here are built in aa Austrian/Swiss chalet style, and the rolling green wooded valleys simply add to that image. I was expecting the locals to be wearing leiderhosen and speak French and yodelling!! No such luck. We had landed in Basque country where they don’t speak Spanish, they speak Basque!! This is a different dialect altogether so practising Spanish was instantly dismissed and I attempt to speak Spanglish now.

Picked up the new summer car on the A frame, all ready to go! Not really!!

Just before landing.

Dad helping David to celebrate our arrival with a special Bourbon bought for David’s 50th birthday by his mother.

Our first night at the local bar. We were having “just a small one” before dinner.

Chalets, chalets and more chalets!!!

We have spent our first week here settling in, finding our feet and trying to get the hang of the language. We are on a site that is perched right on the top of a very large hill, with it’s own access down to the beautiful long sandy beach. Downside is that it’s a very long way down (I’m told at least 400 steps) and an even longer way back up, we had to get a taxi back from the town the first time we did the walk!! The taxi driver spoke either Basque or French so I managed to chat a bit in Franglish!

The views from our pitch are lovely, overlooking the pathway down to the beach that all the surfers take. Sometimes they are fully dressed in their tight wet suits, such a cute view 🙂

Spectacular Zarautz beach and bay on a sunny day as seen from our site.

However, we have had quite a bit of drizzly rain this past week, curtailing the cliff hikes a little. We have walked the promenade several times after lazily driving the car down the hill, and been to the local farmer’s market where they spotted us “TOURISTS” miles away and decided to charge us €1.50 for 2 potatoes and an onion. David paid for it before realising how expensive it was, and no, it didn’t taste any better than a supermarket potato! The food here is cheaper than in the UK, certainly much tastier and fresher, but also veg and fruit are so much bigger! Check out the salad onions in the local market (pic below).

You are joking?? We are walking all the way down there?? No way!! Wine, you said, well ok then….

OK, half way down and it’s not too bad a walk. I am a little hot and sweaty……

Nearly there,,,,and my knees are like jelly. Now the 0.5km across the covered walkway, then the 2km along the prom! All for a glass of vino tinto.

Mum and Dad took the easy way down, by car!

The prom and bay on a grey day.

The local town square. I’m a sucker for beautiful buildings.

The local rip off market.

Mum and Dad headed off to Portugal after a few days to see friends so we have been exploring the local area on our own. Pictures of our days out to Pamplona and San Sebastion, as well as a visit to the Guggenheim Museum will be added separately.’,

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

7 October 2017 / / 0 Comments

One rainy day we took a drive to the world famous Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, not only to admire the amazing structure that houses the Museum but to also understand a little about what constitutes “modern art” these days. The nearest car park with spaces was a good mile away so we were able to admire the old ornate Gothic buildings in the town and squares en route.

The building, now in it’s 20th year, was built to suggest fluidity, reminscent of fish scales, making it reflective and see through and this is certainly achieved by the titanium, glass and metal that surround it. The views from any of its 3 floors are so different.

We were engrossed in the ground floor display of massive metal eliptical and spiral structures that are bent and bowed to give the effect of space and dizzying motion, yet it is only the person that is moving, not the structure. Another mind bending display was a neon wall with vertical written flashing writing which when viewed from the 2nd floor almost made you want to jump over the balcony and fall into the flow of the words.

We can tick off the bucket list seeing a real life Andy Warhol painting, the Museum houses the 10 metre long “150 faces of Marilyn Munroe” and we were mesmerised by the 3D films and photos by Bill Viola, but the rest of the displays we really didn’t “get”. How can you call an empty metal box with a hole cut into the top and side “Art”? It was ingeniously entitled “Box with a Hole”, very clever!!! Another artist called Georg Baselitz painted massive (15foot high) pictures of dismembered, fractured soldiers (the works are entitled “Heroes”) but they were all displaying large inappropriate male appendages and I really can’t imagine soliders went to war with their zips flying low!

However, it was a fascinating day out, and we both agree that we are not really fans of “modern art”. Some pictures below of our day out.

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Food Glorious Food

7 October 2017 / / 0 Comments

As you probably know, David and I are great fans of decent food, so rather than bore you to tears with stories about the food we come across during our travels, we simply plan to add photos in this section, with a short description.

Hope you enjoy this section and don’t salivate too much 🙂

More recent additions will be added to the top of this page, from January 2018.

Sardines and deep fried jamon (ham) in Asturias. Served along with bread and a green salad, this was David’s lunch. Mine was chorizo boiled in sidra (cider) which was awful!!

Breakfast Spanish style; potato tortilla plain, with cheese filling, with ham and cheese; with ham, cheese and onion! Shelf below was shredded fish on toast; empanadas (pastries) with tuna, or tuna and tomato.

Proper piri piri chicken, hot!

Sea bass in Lisbon.

Chicken wrapped in proscuito, ribboned veg, sweet potato crisps and mustard mayo.

A delicious dish, amazingly simple but so tasty!! Sliced tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and wine vinegar, topped with mixed herbs, grated garlic and sea salt. Served with fresh bread.

A wonderful selection of Iberian meat cuts and cheese, from the right is chorizo, lomo, salchichon, morcilla, butifarra, Manchego cheese and finally Iberico Jamon. (Translated to: chorizo, smoked pork loin, sausage, black pudding, white sausage, cheese, and ham!)

Tapas selection consisting of Manchego and walnuts; potaot squares with garlic, olive oil and coriander; pork loin with almonds.

Local dish of vegetables, chick peas and eggs, topped with Jamon.

Our New Years eve dinner!

If you think you are going to share this mixed grill, think again girl!

A beef tournedos with potato noisettes and grapes with a red wine sauce.

Roast tomato flan hidden underneath a salad of lettuce, coriander, artichokes, carrot, pea shoots, various flowers, and sunflower seeds as well as red and green tomatoes!

A devine cream of white bean soup with truffle oil; cornbread finger spread with goats cheese, topped with popcorn, smoked duck breast slices and minute sweet peppers.

Pintxos for mid morning snack, lunch and afternoon tea. Patatas bravos con mayo, chorizo roll, battered fish and burger and bacon slider. Vino Txakoli (sparkling white) for the lady of course.

Tapas in Valencia. (top row) Battered prawns; mini black sausages; Pork fillet topped with duck egg; breaded chicken and avocado (bottom row) Cream cheese topped with crispy bacon and cherry tomato; goats cheese with a sardine; cream cheese with walnuts;

Tapas (top row) egg mayo on aubergine; egg mayo and bacon;

(bottom row) goast cheese topped with spinach; some sort of popular worm like fish; roquito peppers and mozarella’,

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