{"id":3041,"date":"2017-10-07T20:29:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T19:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=3041"},"modified":"2021-06-17T22:15:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T21:15:57","slug":"we-have-landed-in-austrian-zarautz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=3041","title":{"rendered":"We have landed in “Austrian” Zarautz!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Waiting to unload!<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Picked up the new summer car on the A frame, all ready to go! Not really!!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Just before landing.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dad helping David to celebrate our arrival with a special Bourbon bought for David’s 50th birthday by his mother.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Our first night at the local bar. We were having “just a small one” before dinner.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chalets, chalets and more chalets!!! <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Spectacular Zarautz beach and bay on a sunny day as seen from our site.<\/p><\/div>\n

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 \u20ac1.50 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).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

You are joking?? We are walking all the way down there?? No way!! Wine, you said, well ok then….<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

OK, half way down and it’s not too bad a walk. I am a little hot and sweaty……<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mum and Dad took the easy way down, by car!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The prom and bay on a grey day.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The local town square. I’m a sucker for beautiful buildings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The local rip off market.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.’,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,5,125,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-general","category-spain","category-travel","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3042,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}