Our first stop in Spain was San Sebastian (Basque name – Donostia). With some prior knowledge of the town from a trip earlier this year  (Rupert) and knowledge of the Spanish language (Sylwia), we were onto a winner!

San Sebastian welcomed us with open arms but no parking spaces for our vehicle, sadly. After trawling the mean streets of this Basque town we were very much ready for pinxtos! Pinxtos are small finger-food tapas-style snacks, popular in the Basque country and served in bars whilst hanging out with friends and family. Good accompaniment to drinks and perfect for lining your stomach!

 

We were also lucky enough to bump into Ida and Peter who just got engaged! (we call ourselves the engagement fairies of course). Combine a newly engaged couple with some pinxtos = perfect night out 🙂 We even tried to find some dancing but as it was a Sunday night, San Sebastian wasn’t the best place to be.

Thoroughly well fed and watered (with fire water), nursing a bit of a hangover, we headed in the general direction of Bilbao.

Spain’s northern shore is gorgeous, the colour of the ocean is stunning, views breathtaking and big rocks sticking out of the ocean very picturesque/frightening . And no camping. No camping with any spaces for us three, anyway (Salsa, too, of course). It was nearing the sundown and with no fixed plans we tried out a few coastal paths and stumbled on the most perfect camping sauvage (wild camping) spot to date.

It was so peaceful and relaxing, most close to nature (sic!) we’ve been so far. Bilbao was beckoning but this place will forever occupy a bit of our wild souls.

 

 

We’ve taken a while to write this post as we couldn’t really think of many things we hadn’t known before and learnt about the country of  Liberté, égalité, fraternité but here it goes.

1. Hands down best pastry in the world
2. Coffee is not even comparable to what we drank on a daily basis in Italy (and took it for granted)
3. Dordogne valley is mini England. There are coach-loads of English people coming to cute little French towns and buying up the property
4. Very good travelling village/small town markets
5. Cheese and wine are on point (also, don’t wait a week until you have them unless you want to risk serious overindulgence)
6. Despite the terror threats and warnings, we actually didn’t see much gendarmerie on the streets. Not sure if that was intentional camouflage or not…
7. West coast of France is beautiful, crowded and only accessible by bike. Next time we visit we’ll bring a trolley for our kites and boards
8. There is an abundance of camping sites from very basic ones (area naturelle, camping a la ferme) to huge ones
9. Bordeaux is the best French city we’ve seen, with burgeoning art scene, good restaurants, lots of space, cute districts and great location (close to surf). We will be back
10. Bunting makes everything look cuter (including shabby towns)

Au revoir France, you’ve been good. Time to hit Spain!

Having heard a fair bit about Bordeaux (all of which was good), we were headed there for a city break. Bordeaux turned out to be a darling of the French cities. It rained on our first day so we hit the museums.

First was the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. Not a huge collection, yet well presented and carefully curated following a historical timeline with thoughtful explanations giving background to the paintings.

The next was Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez. Situated in a chateu in a lovely district of old houses made out of sandstone and twisty and turny streets. The building and surrounding gardens proved a great setting for two large exhibitions – one on Graffiti art from 1985 till 21^st Century and second one on Baccarat Crystals.

With the weather decidedly improving, Bordeaux was a lovely stopover, lots to do, good food, happy people, a lot of open space and the proximity to the ocean surf!

Speaking of which, we both had somewhere to be and something to do so we headed to the seaside. Seeing the ocean after a few land-locked months felt amazing. That, accompanied by beautiful weather, good waves and excellent burger (burger of the trip award) made up a lovely afternoon. Sadly, the coast was very busy and we started to experience the high-season burn…where everywhere is packed with families and the traffic is horrendous.

But we are on our way to find the abandoned beaches, sunny cliffs and space. And we are determined to find them!