San Sebastian

You may be wondering who the grand old dame is. The quote in the Lonely Planet refers to San Sebastian a "grand old dame that looks good and it knows it". This aroused our interest and upon arrival we immediately agreed with beautiful coastline and beaches and a city filled with loads of charm and very expensive designer shops.

The city certainly turned on some great weather and we got the swimmers out for the first time and basked in the sunshine on the beach for a couple of days to thaw out and start the groundwork on our office tans.

We have enjoyed the local food with yummy tapas (which San Sebastian is renowned for) and baguettes. I particularly like our do it yourself baguettes where we buy the local produce and can enjoy them wherever we like. This seems to be the norm over here where packed lunch type baguettes are unwrapped from foil pretty much everywhere you go. It is always fun going in to the local market and trying to order slices of jamon (ham) and queso (cheese) when not a word of english is understood.

Before leaving Seville we took a day trip to Cordoba and visited the Mezquita which was a very nice old Muslim turned Catholic church. As far as churces go this was one of the more interesting we had seen given its moorish Islamic influence.

Having arrived in France via a quick bus from San Sebastian to Biarritz. Biarritz is regarded as the surfing capital of Europe but as the weather was pretty ordinary ie. blowing a fierce wind and overcast we decided to go to nearby Bayonne about fifteen minutes away.

In Bayonne yesterday we found a quaint little bar where everyone in the joint seemed to know each other and we were the only tourists there. Elise was luving the red wine and I the bier and we started to get a little pekkish so I tried to ask the owner where he recommends we go for dinner as we had a wander earlier in the day and no restaurant really grabbed us. As he did not speak any English I decided to use sign language motioning with my hand against my mouth and he nodded very quickly. I thought gee that is unusual and I wondered if he really understood what I was asking. He quickly brought us some peanuts so obviously he did not!!

It did not take us long to discover why the French cuisine is so highly regarded the world over. Last night we dined out on the most exquisite creperie restaurant accompanied with the best house red wine we have ever had. We are not sure if the wine tasted sooo good as we are quite close to the Bordeaux region or if it is just France but we didnt really care.

We pick up our car tomorrow and drive to Bordeaux for hopefully some more fantastic vino!!