Saturday November 2^nd, 2024

Travelling by bus from Pamplona to Bilboa, we had to change buses in San Sebastian. The bus terminal there is total chaos, but in an organized way. Buses pull in and passengers get off. Within 15 minutes, a new load of passengers gets on and the bus takes off. As we travelled along the highway, I managed to get some work done and Meg looked out the window. 

Arriving in Bilboa, we walked the 10 minutes to our hotel and were happy with the room assignment. A large room with two large bay windows overlooking a park and the theater. Exploring on foot, we wandered along the river to the Guggenheim Museum and found “The Spider”. For those who are unaware, there are a number of huge spider statues throughout the world. Some are permanent and some are rotating. We’ve seen three of the permanent ones. Ottawa, Tokyo and now Bilboa. There is one in Doha, Qatar, that we somehow missed when we were there in January. I guess it’s a reason to go back. 

Needing a break from restaurants, crowds and noise, we ordered take-away for dinner and ate in our room. Having the window open with warm air flowing in was delightful. We listened to the music from the park and the general happiness of the warm night. It was certainly not gourmet, but it was just what we needed. 

Sunday November 3^rd, 2024

Bilboa was a hold out during the Civil war and some of the fighting took place on “the hill”. There is a funicular up the hill and we decided to get to it early. Going up at 8:30, we were the only people in our car. No one got in the way of our selfies! Once at the top, we saw Bilboa from above and watched the city come to life as the sun creeped over the mountains. 

After exploring the mountain top, we returned down and found a pastry shop for breakfast. Then we wandered the town and enjoyed the overall atmosphere.

Later in the day, towards sunset, we returned to the funicular and headed back up the mountain to see it during golden hour. It was neat to see the sun fade and all the lights come on. 

Monday November 4, 2024

We left Bilboa and headed to the famous San Sebastian. While the bus ride was only an hour, we enjoyed travelling along the coast line, seeing numerous villages. Once in San Sebastian, we settled into our apartment and headed out to explore. 

We were only a two-minute walk to the boardwalk and beach where we could see the Bay of Biscay, green trees covering the local hills and wonderful architecture. 

Tuesday November 5, 2024

Our first full day in San Sebastian and we had lucked out with the weather. The high was forecast at 24C, 7C above normal and not a cloud in the sky. We did a walking tour to learn what about the area and history. This was one of the best walking tours we have ever taken. 

Discussions about the Spanish Royal family, the history of the Basques, the Civil war were all intriguing. The Basques have a distinct identity. Not Spanish and not French. They are Basques -and proud of it. During the years of Franco, the culture was repressed and speaking the Basque language was an automatic execution. Things have improved since then. 

The Basques have always been excellent sailors. They also know their way around the kitchen, as is evidenced by the great restaurants and pinchos you find on every corner.

When our tour was over, we found some recommended pinchos, away from the tourist area. Then, I headed to the beach for a swim. The water was “refreshing”, but in a good way. It is pretty impressive to be swimming in the Atlantic Ocean on Nov 5^th in northern Spain. While the water was not as warm as I might have liked, I certainly was not the only one swimming. 

Wednesday November 6, 2024

We were up early today and after taking pictures of the high tide, headed out on a hike. Urgull 

Hill was the highest point and main fortification of San Sebastian back in the 1500’s. There are still cannons, and old walls on the mountain. Climbing up, we got amazing views of the harbour and two of the beaches. 

Later in the afternoon, we headed out on another pincho run. This time to a cider house. Basque cider is unique. It’s not carbonated, so they have developed a trick. The bartender took our glasses and held them about 6’ from a huge barrel of cider. Then he opened a small spigot and let the cider come flying out into the glass. Hitting the glass, the cider “foamed” up, giving it a hint of bubbles. The glasses are not filled very high, necessitating frequent visits to the bar where gossip is exchanged. It works for them. 

Thursday November 7, 2024

We ventured to Getaria today. It’s a small town, about an hour from San Sebastián. There are local buses that run on a regular schedule between all the cities in the Basque area. We tried to use our Bilbao transit card, but it would not work, despite the web page saying it would. 

When we arrived, we headed into the town and were impressed by the huge church. Then we explored the town, which didn’t really have much to it. Deciding to get a better view, we hiked up the local hill where we saw great views. In the distance we could see some of San Sebastian’s buildings as well as the Atlantic Ocean. 

Returning down the hill, we stopped for a pastry on the main street and watched life go by. The locals certainly have their routines. Since we did not bring our swimsuits, we were not able to take advantage of the beach and we headed back to San Sebastián. 

Friday November 8, 2024

This was our last morning in San Sebastián and I headed out for an early morning walk to the palace and gardens. The city was just waking up and there were the customary lines at coffee and pastry shops. The promenade was busy with early morning walkers and joggers and I found the beach almost totally deserted. 

Walking along the beach, I made my way to the gardens. As it was November, there were not really any flowers, mostly grassy lawns with bare earth patches where flowers likely are in season. There were a number of signs about the palace, the Royal Family et al. The building is now a city asset and used for the film festival in September, as well as other official events.

On to France!

We made our way to the local train station and then took a commuter train from San Sebastián to Hendaye France. It was a 35-minute train ride and once we arrived, we found the French train station, only 200 metres away. Our Henday – Bordeaux train was showing on time, departing in one-hour. We found a park bench and had our picnic lunch in the noon time sun.  

Our thoughts on Spain, this time…

Several people had told us not to judge Spain based only on Barcelona – which we don’t particularly care for. (Much as Canada shouldn’t be judged based only on Toronto). We are so glad that we took their advice and explored a different area.  We would love to return to the Basque country, but there are also so many other areas of Spain to explore.  The bucket list only seems to grow!

Thanks for reading. We’ll post about France shortly.

If you have any comments, please feel free to use the form below or send us an email.

Cam and Meg

Monday October 21, 2024

Arriving in Madrid, we cleared immigration and retrieved our luggage. We had a taxi arranged to take us to our pension (hotel). Checking in after arriving, we were disappointed to find out how small the room was and even more disappointed to see the size of the bed. It was certainly not a double. False advertising on the web page….grrrrrr.

Leaving our bags in our room, we set out to explore and found neat things here and there. Spain is all about Tapas and Sangria. We wasted no time in finding a bar that served them. Although Madrid is touristy, the area we stayed in was not really a tourist area. There were a lot of locals and we ordered three dishes which turned out to be way too much (Spanish lesson #1 – “raciones” are not tapas size!). Of course there was wine to help it down. 

Wandering around the town, we marvelled at the night life and how it seemed to be a party. 

Tuesday October 22, 2024

Our pension (hotel) did not provide breakfast, so we headed out to find a local eatery. The coffee everywhere is excellent and the pastries were on par with France. We took a walking tour and learned a lot about the history and people of both Spain and Madrid. 

For lunch, we found a new snack, pinchos. These are similar to tapas, but smaller. A tray of eight delicious snacks, with vino tinto, seated outside in an open square, was a delightful lunch.

Wednesday October 23, 2024

Our tour guide from the previous day suggested the nearby city of Toledo as a place to visit for a day trip. There are coaches running as often as every 15 minutes depending on the time of day. You just buy a ticket and get in line. When there’s room, you get on.

The drive is about an hour and once in town, we took a taxi to the centro. It was about a 30-minute walk, but it was all uphill, so a taxi made sense to us. Once there, we found a “jamon” place. There were only about 75 of them to choose from. 

Jamon, of course, is ham in English. It is an art form here in Spain. The various jamon places will finely shave the jamon and put it on a very fresh baguette or bun. You can request cheese as well. Interestingly, I never saw any mustard offered. That’s fine for me as I have a minor intolerance to mustard, but I’m sure many folks would have wanted it. The jamon was wonderful and did not need any accompaniments, other than cheese. 

Touring Toledo

Another walking tour followed, where we learned about the history of Toledo. There were battles, attacks and history. Toledo became the capital at one time, only to lose that title a few years later to Madrid.

When the tour was over, we doubled back to the Jesuit church where we were able to climb up the bell tower. It was a long climb but we were rewarded with stunning views of the city and countryside. Knowing there would be a queue for the bus back to Madrid, we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner in a traditional restaurant. The owner was gracious and our three-course meal was accompanied with local Rioja wine. 

With our late lunch finished, we wandered the town and marveled at the similarities to Sienna Italy. In Sienna, tourists, mostly from Florence, flock to town for the day. Inside the city walls, it becomes almost too crowded. Toledo was not really different and the non-stop buses from Madrid validated that. We certainly enjoyed the town more once most day-trippers had fled. If we were to come back, we would likely spend a few nights in Toledo, and perhaps day-trip into Madrid.  

Interestingly, most of the tourists were Spanish. Our walking tour was the only one, of about 25, that was in English. The rest were in Spanish.

Retuning to Madrid, we wandered around the congested city and reaffirmed our preference for smaller, quainter cities.

Thursday October 24, 2024

Today was a lighter day, in preparation for our big evening Flamenco show. There are a number of places putting on Flamenco shows. Each claims to be the most authentic. We chose the one we went to on reviews and ratings.

We were given a choice of drink at the show. Being in Spain, Sangria seemed like a natural choice. We were then led downstairs to a three-row theater with about 50 chairs. As it was open seating, we sat in the front row. Our guide gave us a 15-minute lecture on the history of Flamenco, the migration of people and instruments. Then the show.

I did not know what to expect. In the end, I was blown away. I might describe it as a cross between figure skating and tap dancing. By the end of the show, the dancers were sweating from their hard work. Their feet moved so fast you could not keep track, and all in time. It was certainly a great show. We then found a nice restaurant and had a relaxing dinner. 

Friday October 25, 2024

Leaving Madrid, we took a four-hour bus ride to Logroño, our next Spanish stop. The buses in Spain are highly efficient and very cost friendly. I’m not sure why I picked Logroño as a place to visit, but I’m really glad I did. When we arrived at our apartment, we were blown away by the size, especially after Madrid. The building was close to 200 years old. There were exposed wooden beams and brickwork. We had a small balcony, which overlooked both the Cathedral and the main piazza. That night for dinner, we cooked in the apartment and ate on the balcony, watching the comings and goings and a bit of tomfoolery. 

Saturday October 26^th, 2024

We were not able to find an English walking tour in Logroño, so we improvised. Reading multiple blogs, we crafted a plan and then went to the Tourist Information (TI) centre for further ideas. The TI was most helpful and offered a number of places to visit.  The host highlighted the history of wine and suggested a number of wine related places to visit. 

We started with the history of wine in Logroño. How the city had so many wineries and did a booming trade in wine was fascinating. As you might expect, a lot of the wine was sold “out the back door” to locals. People have been lining their pockets forever. Exploring more, we saw parks, rivers and parts of the Camino trail. There are a number of hostels in town that cater to pilgrims who do the walk. We were fortunate to be able to walk a portion of the trail.

A Pincho walking tour

As evening came, we prepared for our pincho tour. Normally we try to do an organized tour, but in this case, the tours were all starting at €150 and going up from there – and usually in Spanish. We looked at what you got and decided we would do a “self-tour”. There were a number of suggestions and we simply followed our noses. For just over $60 CAD, we were able to have some amazing pinchos’ accompanied by various wines. This also included a stop at a wine bar where we were able to try a local wine along with some local queso (cheese). 

We could not have been happier with our evening. We looked like locals as we bellied up to the bar, pointed to our selection and then added “dos vino tinto”. The host would gather our items as I pulled out my credit card. I then tapped and we munched. The food was so good. Each place had a speciality as well as other choices. You don’t go to one place, but to a few bars. The locals, when they go out, toss money to one person. That is the “orderer” and that person goes and deals with the hostess. 

We did our tour on a Saturday night and it was PACKED. We knew it would be busy and we did start early. The picture of the street shows absolute chaos, but in a good way. 

Sunday October 27, 2024

After a long pincho night, we wanted to know more about the wine they were serving us. A tour of a winery made sense. Over the years, we have likely toured more than 30 wineries. When I saw there was a winery in the centre of Logroño, I was intrigued. Arizcuren Bodega & Viñedos is a small winery producing 25,000 bottles/year. However, they do it the “old way”. Grapes are brought down from the mountain and processed in the city. This is what they did 100’s of years ago and Arizcuren is trying to bring this back. 

A city wine tour – unique but so worth while.

Having been in some of France’s most exclusive wineries, Arizcuren really struck a chord with me. The winery consists of:

Four staff (not a type-o). 

True passion. 

100% commitment. 

From crushing grapes, to aging in oak casks, to hand corking each bottle. Yup, hand corking 25,000 bottles/year. In Canada, their wines are only sold in Ontario and Quebec. If you are able to sample them, I don’t think you would be disappointed. 

The tour provided generous samples. Due to the popularity, we could only get in for the 10:30 tour. As they say, you can’t drink all day if you don’t start early. Here is their website if you are ever in Logrono. https://www.arizcurenvinos.com/en/ Feeling the effects of the wine after our tour, we walked around and exploring some local parks and monuments.

Later in the evening, we saw a huge bonfire. It is the end of the harvest and a few weeks ago there was competition of floats. The best float is selected and it gets to be burned. I’m not sure what happens to the others. Before the fire, there are fireworks and then, under the supervision of firefighters, the float is torched. To me, it is a bit counter-intuitive to win and have your float burned, but who am I to question local customs?

Monday October 28, 2024

As it was our last day, we took it easy today and decided to visit some of the sites we enjoyed. In the evening, we did a modified pincho run, stopping at only two places, but we were richly rewarded.