Santiago DC to Salamanca was our last big drive on the trip and we will now spend our last week circling round Madrid, our final destination before a night in Barcelona and then heading for home. We are staying 3 days in Segovia and stopped off in Avilla on the way to take in one of Europe’s oldest and most complete walled cities.
The walls around Avilla were built in the 11th century and are still in perfect order – it must have been the only place in Europe with nothing worth ransacking. The drive into Avilla provided a perfect view of the ramparts and were a perfect Kodak opportunity before finding a park just on the outskirts of town and spending a couple of hours walking round the cobbled streets, terraces and ramparts.
We arrived in Segovia in time for another late lunch and found a suitable restaurant under the aqueduct. Getting to the hotel was a somewhat hair raising experience as we had to drive up into the centre of the old part of town, which like many of these ancient hill top European cities is accessed by extremely narrow cobbled streets. I didn’t take out a tape measure to confirm that I had to retract the wing mirrors, but it certainly felt necessary and was one less thing I had to worry about hitting on the stone walls of the ancient stone buildings I was weaving my way between. The hotel is 10m from the Plaza Mayor, so a perfect location.
The restaurants in Segovia have, for some reason, very formal service with all the waiters dressed in black tie, including the women. They are also meticulous at clearing tables and bringing the bill, but it seems to take about 20 minutes to get any attention from them when you sit down. This was a frustrating experience the first two times, but once you latch onto the protocol, it’s interesting watching the frustrated looks of the newbies who aren’t up with the play yet. Drinks are always served with nibbles of some kind – melon and ham, crostini with chicken and red peppers, or salami. Beer is bought in a large stemmed glass (girly according to Liane) and the wine is always poured from the bottle at your table if you are only having a glass.
Having been in central Spain for a few days now, our initial impression of food in the central part of Spain is that it is dearer and not as good quality as the food we had in the Northern Part of Spain. Pigs are the big thing here, and the meals tend to be heavy. I guess this is because of their long harsh winters, but it’s a bit much in the full-on heat of summer. We also see a lot of stews and omlettes on the menus, so we’re on a bit of a limited diet. There is Tapas at the bars, but it’s not eaten outside the way it is in Northern Spain.
As a result we have taken to eaten a number of entrees and anyway, when you are dining outside in an ancient characterful square with lots of other people, the vibrant atmosphere and the ambience more than make up for any deficiencies in the cuisine. Solution, pay a bit more, chose a bit more wisely.
What is the fascination that people have with wild small animals. We’re sitting in the square having a drink and the guy at the next table has pushed a bread roll to the edge of the table so that some sparrows can eat it. That’s right, sparrows – nature’s plain Jane. Consternation reigns supreme as people bring out cameras, point, look on in awe. Get over it people – they just want the food. When winter comes and the tourists leave (i.e. you) they will all die because they don’t know how to find their own food. It doesn’t matter whether it’s pidgeons, squirrels, sparrows or what signs are put out saying don’t feed the animals, there’s always some clown who thinks he’s Doctor Doolittle that will pull a crowd with his ridiculous antics.
Segovia – Cathedral – brilliant, Alcatraz – looks good, but haven’t been there, narrow streets – been there and it’s special. I will get Anne to video it next time we drive in and put in up on the blog – it really is a squeeze and some local putting on pressure from behind does nothing to reduce the anxiety levels of the driver.
But the real highlight is the aqueduct. Built in the 1st Century AD, it is a marvel of engineering. Two layers of arches, solid block only, absolutely no mortar holding it together – it’s a real contrast of complexity and simplicity – complexity in the design and construction that was done not long after the birth of Jesus and simplicity in it’s aesthetic beauty. I’m not good with heights (have I mentioned that already) and just standing underneath it looking up makes me feel queasy. I’ve taken some photos which I’ve put on the blog and although the design is fantastic, I’m not sure that the as-built should have been given sign-off. There’s one particular bit where the final block that goes in the middle to support the arch is not one block (best practice), two blocks (acceptable), but three blocks, which I’m not happy about. To make matters worse, the final block is not the perfect fit of every other final block, but rounded and ill fitting. Anne sites historical precedence (it’s been here for 2,000 years) as the reason it should pass, but I’m not sure. Standing underneath it looking up, I felt particularly uneasy. Let’s put that on the Wellington fault and see how it stands up.
Anyway, we’re here, it’s here and we’re having a great time. We’ve got some good sight seeing coming up over the next few days, both out in the country side and around Segovia, so we’re looking forward to some busy days ahead.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Week 4 – Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd July – Salamanca
Drive, Drive…Drive, Drive…. About 4 and a half hours from Santiago DC to Salamanca along mainly motorways, so it’s very easy driving with any speed feeling almost pedestrian as the roads are so smooth and wide, with only the gentlest of corners and there was virtually no traffic on the road.
The hotel we are staying at in Salamanca is also very nice and after a bit of a lull across the Costa Verde, we are now back into the best that Spain has to offer in terms of beautiful villages and towns to visit.
I have again got a bit behind with our blog and am now writing this in the square in Segovia (50ks north of Madrid) enjoying a beer, while Anne has a Blanco (white wine - which we have found to be much better than the last time we were here).
Salamanca is a university town, and is popular with international students to visit for summer schools. We have run across heaps of American College kids in the town and the general population is all very young and trendy. Salamanca also has the most impressive square in Spain – it was the set for the movie Vantage Point, which we saw on the plane on the way over – a cathedral and various other impressive buildings and monuments. Like so many of these European Cities, the historic centre is a pedestrian precinct with restaurants set up on every thoroughfare, terrace or square available.
The square is used for hosting events, bull fights etc and is surrounded on all sides by a 4 storey building which houses apartments, offices and a hotel. On one side, is the city hall, with large balcony adorned with various flags of the region, country and continent. Ground level contains fashionable shops, restaurants and bars, which are set back under arched pillars. Restaurants tables and umbrellas are set out on all four sides, the different table cloths and chairs depicting different restaurants. The open central area has a number of stone bench seats and decorative street lamps.
At night in Salamanca we went into the square to have a drink and people watch. A medieval band (in pantaloons, tights and puffy velvet jackets) played at one of the restaurants on both nights, which drew a large crowd of onlookers. At 10pm each night, all the lights in the square are turned on, on the buildings around the square to create a quite magical effect. It was obvious that most of the people in the square are tourists by the gasps of amazement that occur when the lights are turned on.
The buildings in the town are amazing and at every turn you come across buildings that take your breath away. We went into the cathedral, which was beautifully decorated with frescos over all the ceilings and beautiful chapels. All the buildings are totally flood lit at night (no power crisis on here) and it was fun to take out a camera and tripod at night to photograph in a different light.
I don’t know why, but all the buildings that we have seen in central Spain are completely free of mould or dis-colouration due to pollution. My assumption is that the climate is so dry that the pollution doesn’t have anything to stick to the buildings with. I can’t justify this argument and it may well be wrong because this part of Spain suffers from very harsh winters (much to our surprise, but apparently worse than what you’re having), but because ALL the buildings are the same colour, it can’t be some massive restoration effort. After writing that (I’m proof reading the following day), Anne has spotted that one side of the cathedral is quite mouldy, so the mystery deepens regarding how all the other buildings are so pristine looking – maybe somebody ran amok with 30 seconds in the spring to give all the cities in Central Spain a spruce up prior to the tourist season.
We had a superb lunch in Salamanca on Wednesday and our overall impression of the town is that it is alive and buzzing, in an agreeable way, the same as Santiago DC was composed and relaxed – both really enjoyable, but totally different in their feel and pace of life.
We had booked 4 nights in Toledo at the end of our trip and had planned to commute to Madrid on two days to visit the Prada, Thyssen-Bornenmisza, the Palace and the rest of the central city. Anne came up with the brilliant idea of just commuting once and finding a hotel to stay in Madrid overnight. This is something that would have meant trapsing the steets a few years ago to find somewhere to rest our heads, but thanks to www.wotif.com, we were able to get a last minute cheap rate at a four star central city hotel, which we booked before we left the Salamanca Hotel and headed to Avilla and Segovia.
The hotel we are staying at in Salamanca is also very nice and after a bit of a lull across the Costa Verde, we are now back into the best that Spain has to offer in terms of beautiful villages and towns to visit.
I have again got a bit behind with our blog and am now writing this in the square in Segovia (50ks north of Madrid) enjoying a beer, while Anne has a Blanco (white wine - which we have found to be much better than the last time we were here).
Salamanca is a university town, and is popular with international students to visit for summer schools. We have run across heaps of American College kids in the town and the general population is all very young and trendy. Salamanca also has the most impressive square in Spain – it was the set for the movie Vantage Point, which we saw on the plane on the way over – a cathedral and various other impressive buildings and monuments. Like so many of these European Cities, the historic centre is a pedestrian precinct with restaurants set up on every thoroughfare, terrace or square available.
The square is used for hosting events, bull fights etc and is surrounded on all sides by a 4 storey building which houses apartments, offices and a hotel. On one side, is the city hall, with large balcony adorned with various flags of the region, country and continent. Ground level contains fashionable shops, restaurants and bars, which are set back under arched pillars. Restaurants tables and umbrellas are set out on all four sides, the different table cloths and chairs depicting different restaurants. The open central area has a number of stone bench seats and decorative street lamps.
At night in Salamanca we went into the square to have a drink and people watch. A medieval band (in pantaloons, tights and puffy velvet jackets) played at one of the restaurants on both nights, which drew a large crowd of onlookers. At 10pm each night, all the lights in the square are turned on, on the buildings around the square to create a quite magical effect. It was obvious that most of the people in the square are tourists by the gasps of amazement that occur when the lights are turned on.
The buildings in the town are amazing and at every turn you come across buildings that take your breath away. We went into the cathedral, which was beautifully decorated with frescos over all the ceilings and beautiful chapels. All the buildings are totally flood lit at night (no power crisis on here) and it was fun to take out a camera and tripod at night to photograph in a different light.
I don’t know why, but all the buildings that we have seen in central Spain are completely free of mould or dis-colouration due to pollution. My assumption is that the climate is so dry that the pollution doesn’t have anything to stick to the buildings with. I can’t justify this argument and it may well be wrong because this part of Spain suffers from very harsh winters (much to our surprise, but apparently worse than what you’re having), but because ALL the buildings are the same colour, it can’t be some massive restoration effort. After writing that (I’m proof reading the following day), Anne has spotted that one side of the cathedral is quite mouldy, so the mystery deepens regarding how all the other buildings are so pristine looking – maybe somebody ran amok with 30 seconds in the spring to give all the cities in Central Spain a spruce up prior to the tourist season.
We had a superb lunch in Salamanca on Wednesday and our overall impression of the town is that it is alive and buzzing, in an agreeable way, the same as Santiago DC was composed and relaxed – both really enjoyable, but totally different in their feel and pace of life.
We had booked 4 nights in Toledo at the end of our trip and had planned to commute to Madrid on two days to visit the Prada, Thyssen-Bornenmisza, the Palace and the rest of the central city. Anne came up with the brilliant idea of just commuting once and finding a hotel to stay in Madrid overnight. This is something that would have meant trapsing the steets a few years ago to find somewhere to rest our heads, but thanks to www.wotif.com, we were able to get a last minute cheap rate at a four star central city hotel, which we booked before we left the Salamanca Hotel and headed to Avilla and Segovia.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Week 4 – Monday 21st July – Santiago De Compostella
To cap off our love affair with this hotel, the breakfast in the garden bar was fantastic and set us up for a late start to wandering around the old town, round the botanic gardens for panoramic views of the old town and the university area.
Today has been a nice quiet day, with lunch followed by reading a book (with my eyes shut some of the time) and now just relaxing over a beer in the garden bar. We’ll go out again later for some Tapas and to see what show is being put on on the stage.
Tomorrow, we head inland to Salamanca and the start of the last leg of our trip in central Spain. Hopefully the weather won’t be too hot, but it won’t matter because Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid, Toledo and the areas around them have some great sounding areas, so we are really looking forward to the change of scenery and kicking on with the last part of our trip.
Today has been a nice quiet day, with lunch followed by reading a book (with my eyes shut some of the time) and now just relaxing over a beer in the garden bar. We’ll go out again later for some Tapas and to see what show is being put on on the stage.
Tomorrow, we head inland to Salamanca and the start of the last leg of our trip in central Spain. Hopefully the weather won’t be too hot, but it won’t matter because Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid, Toledo and the areas around them have some great sounding areas, so we are really looking forward to the change of scenery and kicking on with the last part of our trip.
Week 3 – Sunday 20th July – Santiago De Compostella
Today we headed for Santiago De Compostella – about a 3 hour drive away. The drive through Green Spain helped explain why Green Spain is Green, as it rained for most of the way. Now that we have cleared France, Bilbao and Santander and all the reasons for trucks to congregate (borders and ports), the driving was much more pleasant, with campervans, a very rare truck and one obnoxiously slow driver the only minor obstacles on the trip.
The road itself was a combination of motorway and back road driving with one section being through a high mountain pass. About an hour out of Santiago, it cleared into blue skies. Jane delivered us to the front door of the hotel, which is a beautiful little hotel just on the edge of the historic city.
The hotel is a renovated historic building and is probably the nicest we’ve stayed in. I’m not sure what makes a 2-star hotel only have 2 stars, but our room is on the third floor and includes the bedroom, which is in the historic part of the hotel which leads through 3 ft thick walls to a glassed in sitting room and a small bathroom, both on the new extension that has been made to the hotel. From the window we get views over a nearby church and then the local country side, so it’s very picturesque and light. It is beautifully cool in the morning as it is west facing and when the sun streams in in the evening, the only solution is to head to the hotels very popular garden bar and enjoy a vino or cerveca (which is what I’m doing now as I type this) sitting under the shade of the wisteria..
After checking into the hotel we headed off for a walk around the historic part of the city. Ten minutes later, we returned to the hotel for me to change my shirt as one of the local seagulls landed a major league strike all over my back in tow places and my shoes – bastard. Returning to the site seeing, we wandered round more of the historic part of the city. There are lots of people there would have walked there as part of the pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostella. The walk which goes from various locations in France and Spain is one of the three most popular Christian pilgrimages in the world, along with Jerusalem and Rome and is known as the Camino de Santiago. We have been crossing the path of pilgrims since our day in St Jean Pied De Port and saw on that day a sign saying that Santiago De Compostella was 790ks away, so it’s quite a walk. You can recognise the walkers because they usually have a scallop shell swinging from their back packs, which is the official symbol of the Camino.
Santiago is the final burial place of Saint James (apparently he moved around abit after popping his clogs), hence it’s attraction to christian pilgrims. We heard it was a really nice town, hence its appeal to us. Having been here for just over a day, it really is a nice town and with the appeal of the hotel it has been one of our highlights of the trip. Funny that this was the one place that we weren’t sure if we would come to. Certainly the town and hotel have made up for the last couple of days along the top coast, which hasn’t been as good as the other stop-off points on the trip.
We stopped for a late lunch at one of the more characterful looking restaurants and then spent the evening in the garden bar of the hotel doing a catch-up of the blog for the last few days of our trip.
After our drinks, we went for a walk around the old town, as there is a stage set up outside the cathedral and they were having a local folk music and dancing festival and one of the acts was putting on a show.
Deciding to forego dinner, as the drinks in the bar came with a bowls of crisps and a bowl of olives with each round, we appeared to inadvertently move ourselves from the top of the food chain to the bottom as some small insect enjoyed the night dining on us. What was even more galling was that the previous night we’d been kept awake by one of those annoying wee midgees that buzzes in your ear all night, but was obviously feeding on something else. This night, the silent assassin was out and now both Anne and I are covered in insect bites.
As I said, I’m not sure what separates hotels from being two or three star, but maybe sound proofing is one of the criteria. Our hotel is lovely, but the guy in the room above us stomps around as if he’s got horses hooves. I hope that I didn’t make as much noise during the night. Fortunately, horse hoof man headed to bed prior to the end of the USA MotoGP and apart from a few obvious pit stops in the middle of the night and the midgee, we enjoyed a good nights sleep. Anne, who has the ability to sleep like the dead, even through the MotoGP heard nothing.
The road itself was a combination of motorway and back road driving with one section being through a high mountain pass. About an hour out of Santiago, it cleared into blue skies. Jane delivered us to the front door of the hotel, which is a beautiful little hotel just on the edge of the historic city.
The hotel is a renovated historic building and is probably the nicest we’ve stayed in. I’m not sure what makes a 2-star hotel only have 2 stars, but our room is on the third floor and includes the bedroom, which is in the historic part of the hotel which leads through 3 ft thick walls to a glassed in sitting room and a small bathroom, both on the new extension that has been made to the hotel. From the window we get views over a nearby church and then the local country side, so it’s very picturesque and light. It is beautifully cool in the morning as it is west facing and when the sun streams in in the evening, the only solution is to head to the hotels very popular garden bar and enjoy a vino or cerveca (which is what I’m doing now as I type this) sitting under the shade of the wisteria..
After checking into the hotel we headed off for a walk around the historic part of the city. Ten minutes later, we returned to the hotel for me to change my shirt as one of the local seagulls landed a major league strike all over my back in tow places and my shoes – bastard. Returning to the site seeing, we wandered round more of the historic part of the city. There are lots of people there would have walked there as part of the pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostella. The walk which goes from various locations in France and Spain is one of the three most popular Christian pilgrimages in the world, along with Jerusalem and Rome and is known as the Camino de Santiago. We have been crossing the path of pilgrims since our day in St Jean Pied De Port and saw on that day a sign saying that Santiago De Compostella was 790ks away, so it’s quite a walk. You can recognise the walkers because they usually have a scallop shell swinging from their back packs, which is the official symbol of the Camino.
Santiago is the final burial place of Saint James (apparently he moved around abit after popping his clogs), hence it’s attraction to christian pilgrims. We heard it was a really nice town, hence its appeal to us. Having been here for just over a day, it really is a nice town and with the appeal of the hotel it has been one of our highlights of the trip. Funny that this was the one place that we weren’t sure if we would come to. Certainly the town and hotel have made up for the last couple of days along the top coast, which hasn’t been as good as the other stop-off points on the trip.
We stopped for a late lunch at one of the more characterful looking restaurants and then spent the evening in the garden bar of the hotel doing a catch-up of the blog for the last few days of our trip.
After our drinks, we went for a walk around the old town, as there is a stage set up outside the cathedral and they were having a local folk music and dancing festival and one of the acts was putting on a show.
Deciding to forego dinner, as the drinks in the bar came with a bowls of crisps and a bowl of olives with each round, we appeared to inadvertently move ourselves from the top of the food chain to the bottom as some small insect enjoyed the night dining on us. What was even more galling was that the previous night we’d been kept awake by one of those annoying wee midgees that buzzes in your ear all night, but was obviously feeding on something else. This night, the silent assassin was out and now both Anne and I are covered in insect bites.
As I said, I’m not sure what separates hotels from being two or three star, but maybe sound proofing is one of the criteria. Our hotel is lovely, but the guy in the room above us stomps around as if he’s got horses hooves. I hope that I didn’t make as much noise during the night. Fortunately, horse hoof man headed to bed prior to the end of the USA MotoGP and apart from a few obvious pit stops in the middle of the night and the midgee, we enjoyed a good nights sleep. Anne, who has the ability to sleep like the dead, even through the MotoGP heard nothing.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Week 3 – Saturday 19th July – Oviedo and Cudillero
These couple of days are getting us across the top of Spain to Santiago De Compostella, so today’s trip is going to get us half way there and let us do a bit of sight seeing along the way.
Two hours of motorway driving got us to Oviedo. Considered one of the most beautiful cities in Northern Spain, it is also the oldest Christian city in Spain. On top of that, its location meant it was a good point to have a stop off along the way. Being Saturday lunch time when we arrived in the town square, weddings were the order of the day, with all the Spanish women dressed in their finery to celebrate the day with friends and relatives. Making everything match in Spain is very important and they are exceptionally good at it, although I’d have to say that the standards in Northern Spain aren’t quite as high as they are in Andalucia. I thought the woman in the dress crocs was, however, letting the side down somewhat even if they were fluorescent green, so passed the colourful test.
Unbeknown to me, the Spanish have bag pipes. There are several different types, but there was a band playing Asturian pipes in the town square. Of the two types of bag pipes that I’ve now heard, the sound of the pipes and the dress that the musicians wear seems to reflect the climate and mood of the people – Scottish being deep and dark, while the Spanish pipes have a much more jovial tone and the musicians wear much more colorful uniforms.
From Oviedo, we headed to Cudillero a very small fishing port about 60ks along the road to Santiago to find our hotel for the evening. It was tucked away in an even smaller town and after a very late seafood lunch in Cudillero, accompanied by the heavy beat sounds of the local boy racer car meet and sound off, we retired to our hotel for the evening to watch the qualifying for the US MotoGP
Two hours of motorway driving got us to Oviedo. Considered one of the most beautiful cities in Northern Spain, it is also the oldest Christian city in Spain. On top of that, its location meant it was a good point to have a stop off along the way. Being Saturday lunch time when we arrived in the town square, weddings were the order of the day, with all the Spanish women dressed in their finery to celebrate the day with friends and relatives. Making everything match in Spain is very important and they are exceptionally good at it, although I’d have to say that the standards in Northern Spain aren’t quite as high as they are in Andalucia. I thought the woman in the dress crocs was, however, letting the side down somewhat even if they were fluorescent green, so passed the colourful test.
Unbeknown to me, the Spanish have bag pipes. There are several different types, but there was a band playing Asturian pipes in the town square. Of the two types of bag pipes that I’ve now heard, the sound of the pipes and the dress that the musicians wear seems to reflect the climate and mood of the people – Scottish being deep and dark, while the Spanish pipes have a much more jovial tone and the musicians wear much more colorful uniforms.
From Oviedo, we headed to Cudillero a very small fishing port about 60ks along the road to Santiago to find our hotel for the evening. It was tucked away in an even smaller town and after a very late seafood lunch in Cudillero, accompanied by the heavy beat sounds of the local boy racer car meet and sound off, we retired to our hotel for the evening to watch the qualifying for the US MotoGP
Week 3 – Friday 18th July – Santillana Del Mar and San Vincente de le Barquera
With two nights in Suances, today is road trip day. Just down the road from Suances is Santillana Del Mar, which is a very old well preserved Spanish town. Despite its name, it is not by the sea, but about 3ks inland. No mind, there’s plenty to see by the seaside around here, so this was a nice change. I’m not sure why, but cows and bison are the big thing in the town – lots of statues and tourist shops selling “cow”y things. It has an old church, some very rustic old buildings, a wide range of tourist tat, some nicely decorated squares, some uneven cobbled streets – all that sort of stuff. We did see an ATM machine that was installed behind the iron bars over the window of a bank, which was something a bit different.
Although its not coastal, it is a much nicer town than Suances, and in hindsight we should have stayed there. One of the reviews we read of one of the hotels in Santillana, said it was really noisy, but looking at it, I’d have to doubt that very much. The town isn’t big enough and there aren’t enough people around to throw a decent party.
From Santillana we did a drive through the countryside and around the coast to San Vincente de la Barquera. This coast of Spain is known as Green Spain and with all the mountains around, the whole area from across the Pyrenees all the way across the coast of the top of Spain is very green. The drive today was no exception and with the rolling hill sides, fields, forests it is a scene much more reminiscent of parts of New Zealand than what I usually think of as Spain - the dry arid olive grove covered countryside we experienced in Andalusia a few years ago.
San Vincente is on the coast, with a castle and church on the hill over looking the town. The harbour is tidal, so when we arrived it was a mud flat with little boats all sitting on the bottom, waiting for the tide to return. We did our customary walk around the town, up to the top of the hill, past the castle, round the church and then back down the other side to find a restaurant for lunch – nice chairs, white linen table cloths, large wine glasses being the criteria to identify possiblities. A walk up and down the strip identified the candidates, and then a selection criteria as rigorours as that for the candidates was used to select the actual restaurant (I think it was the one that didn’t have the sewerage truck outside it pumping out the storm water drains). Lunch was a very nice Paella.
After lunch (about 4:30) we wandered back to the car, which was parked by the harbour. By this stage the tide had returned and all the boats were bobbing in the water and the arched bridge across the harbour had the incoming tide sweeping past it – a much prettier scene. (Anne’s just told me I’m sounding poetic so apologies if I’m prattling on too much).
Although its not coastal, it is a much nicer town than Suances, and in hindsight we should have stayed there. One of the reviews we read of one of the hotels in Santillana, said it was really noisy, but looking at it, I’d have to doubt that very much. The town isn’t big enough and there aren’t enough people around to throw a decent party.
From Santillana we did a drive through the countryside and around the coast to San Vincente de la Barquera. This coast of Spain is known as Green Spain and with all the mountains around, the whole area from across the Pyrenees all the way across the coast of the top of Spain is very green. The drive today was no exception and with the rolling hill sides, fields, forests it is a scene much more reminiscent of parts of New Zealand than what I usually think of as Spain - the dry arid olive grove covered countryside we experienced in Andalusia a few years ago.
San Vincente is on the coast, with a castle and church on the hill over looking the town. The harbour is tidal, so when we arrived it was a mud flat with little boats all sitting on the bottom, waiting for the tide to return. We did our customary walk around the town, up to the top of the hill, past the castle, round the church and then back down the other side to find a restaurant for lunch – nice chairs, white linen table cloths, large wine glasses being the criteria to identify possiblities. A walk up and down the strip identified the candidates, and then a selection criteria as rigorours as that for the candidates was used to select the actual restaurant (I think it was the one that didn’t have the sewerage truck outside it pumping out the storm water drains). Lunch was a very nice Paella.
After lunch (about 4:30) we wandered back to the car, which was parked by the harbour. By this stage the tide had returned and all the boats were bobbing in the water and the arched bridge across the harbour had the incoming tide sweeping past it – a much prettier scene. (Anne’s just told me I’m sounding poetic so apologies if I’m prattling on too much).
Week 3 – Thursday 17th July – Bilbao and Suances
Boy, do the Europeans love their small yappy dogs. Everywhere we go we have to watch to make sure we don’t step on them. I’m reminded of it, while we listen to three of them having a ding-dong fight on the other side of the street.
Checking out of the Hotel Pampinot in Hondarribbia, we got on the motorway to Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum. It was a cooler day, so it made driving with the roof down very pleasant, until it started to rain. That was OK, it stopped before we got to Bilbao.
So, the Guggenheim – what a building, in fact what an area. Outside the museum is “puppy” the 30m high floral sculpture of a puppy that started off as a temporary exhibition, but because of it’s popularity is now a permanent feature of the entrance to the museum. The building itself is a masterpiece construction of titanium, glass and stone, set in a large park beside the Nervion River. The museum, which is a stylized rendition of a ship is set between two bridges on the river and had a garden and river walk way surrounding it, so it is possible to get many different views of the building from lots of different elevations. The inspiration for the design is to create the illusion that the ship is moving up the river towards the city. Between the museum and the river is a shallow pool, with a bridge walkway over it, to create the link between the museum and the river.
We walked all the way around the Museum and over both the bridges. The bridge at the bow of the ship is accessed by climbing the stairs in a large tower that represents a sail. Although I’m not good with heights, I was ok with the metal meshed stairs that took you up to the level of the bridge, because they were all within the structure of the sail. It was the solid metal bridge that went over open space from the sail back to the bridge that made me feel a bit queasy. From the bridge, we looked out over another pool on the other side of the ship. Lots of people had thrown coins in the pool beside the river, but this other pool was about 40metres below the level of the bridge and so throwing a coin from there seemed like much more fun – so Anne and I did. And we watched our coins sail down and go ‘plop’ in the pool. Because the pool is only shallow, we could see the coins sitting on the bottom and ours were the only two coins in that pool.
Having walked right around the Museum, viewed it from a range of angles and elevations and been impressed by what we saw, we decided we should “pays our money and takes our chances” about what might be inside. Art galleries can be a bit of a lottery, you never quite know what you are going to get inside and we were quite disappointed by the Peggy Guggenheim we’d visited in Venice last year. Nonetheless, this was a great building and the art inside would surely be great, wouldn’t it….surely.
Anyway, a quick summary. Ummm, interesting, but a lot of space for interesting. There isn’t really that much in it. If you took all the items in it, you wouldn’t fully clutter up a large room and it’s all very interpretive…hence the reason they give you the audio guide as part of your entrance fee. In one room, was a largish model of a train wreck, with the streets of a town built on the inside of the train. Also in the room were some paintings, so after learning about the train wreck, I pushed the audio guide number for the paintings, but instead got a dialogue about the artists fascination with hand rails and balconies. Huh? I had a look around, and sure enough on a 20 m wall, was an 8 foot handrail, nothing else on the wall just the hand rail. The audio told me the artist had attached a flick knife to the back of the hand rail to illustrate the hidden dangers that await us all. I wandered over to the hand rail and sure enough, there was a flick knife taped to the back of it….call me an artist… 1 million dollars….thank you…. Caching… How much dope did he smoke to come up with that.
The other major exhibition was by a guy who was fascinated with people, so lots of the rooms had human figures standing round, looking at balconies, listening to walls, talking in groups. In one massive room, the whole floor was covered in a 3-dimensional patterned lino. On one wall, was a model of a small child sitting on a ledge on the wall. That was all….that whole big room for that. After an hour and a half of that, I said to Anne, “somebody had better paint a picture pretty soon, or I’m outta here. And soon we both were.
Overall: Loved the building, could walk around it for hours. As for the art……tick…seen it.
Shamefully, we stopped for lunch at Burger King in the shopping mall where we had parked the car, as we wanted to get on the road to Suances. A shame really, because although it was a food court, the restaurants looked like they all served really nice food and all had linen table cloths and large wine glasses on the tables…not your average food court by any stretch of the imagination.
So off we went to Suances. Just a bit of a blast along the motorway, past Santander, which as the large ferry port is a large part of the reason for all the trucks on the road.
Suances is a beach resort on the Costa Verde. It’s a bit down market compared to what we’d seen at Biarritz, Hondarribbia and San Sebastian.
Checking out of the Hotel Pampinot in Hondarribbia, we got on the motorway to Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum. It was a cooler day, so it made driving with the roof down very pleasant, until it started to rain. That was OK, it stopped before we got to Bilbao.
So, the Guggenheim – what a building, in fact what an area. Outside the museum is “puppy” the 30m high floral sculpture of a puppy that started off as a temporary exhibition, but because of it’s popularity is now a permanent feature of the entrance to the museum. The building itself is a masterpiece construction of titanium, glass and stone, set in a large park beside the Nervion River. The museum, which is a stylized rendition of a ship is set between two bridges on the river and had a garden and river walk way surrounding it, so it is possible to get many different views of the building from lots of different elevations. The inspiration for the design is to create the illusion that the ship is moving up the river towards the city. Between the museum and the river is a shallow pool, with a bridge walkway over it, to create the link between the museum and the river.
We walked all the way around the Museum and over both the bridges. The bridge at the bow of the ship is accessed by climbing the stairs in a large tower that represents a sail. Although I’m not good with heights, I was ok with the metal meshed stairs that took you up to the level of the bridge, because they were all within the structure of the sail. It was the solid metal bridge that went over open space from the sail back to the bridge that made me feel a bit queasy. From the bridge, we looked out over another pool on the other side of the ship. Lots of people had thrown coins in the pool beside the river, but this other pool was about 40metres below the level of the bridge and so throwing a coin from there seemed like much more fun – so Anne and I did. And we watched our coins sail down and go ‘plop’ in the pool. Because the pool is only shallow, we could see the coins sitting on the bottom and ours were the only two coins in that pool.
Having walked right around the Museum, viewed it from a range of angles and elevations and been impressed by what we saw, we decided we should “pays our money and takes our chances” about what might be inside. Art galleries can be a bit of a lottery, you never quite know what you are going to get inside and we were quite disappointed by the Peggy Guggenheim we’d visited in Venice last year. Nonetheless, this was a great building and the art inside would surely be great, wouldn’t it….surely.
Anyway, a quick summary. Ummm, interesting, but a lot of space for interesting. There isn’t really that much in it. If you took all the items in it, you wouldn’t fully clutter up a large room and it’s all very interpretive…hence the reason they give you the audio guide as part of your entrance fee. In one room, was a largish model of a train wreck, with the streets of a town built on the inside of the train. Also in the room were some paintings, so after learning about the train wreck, I pushed the audio guide number for the paintings, but instead got a dialogue about the artists fascination with hand rails and balconies. Huh? I had a look around, and sure enough on a 20 m wall, was an 8 foot handrail, nothing else on the wall just the hand rail. The audio told me the artist had attached a flick knife to the back of the hand rail to illustrate the hidden dangers that await us all. I wandered over to the hand rail and sure enough, there was a flick knife taped to the back of it….call me an artist… 1 million dollars….thank you…. Caching… How much dope did he smoke to come up with that.
The other major exhibition was by a guy who was fascinated with people, so lots of the rooms had human figures standing round, looking at balconies, listening to walls, talking in groups. In one massive room, the whole floor was covered in a 3-dimensional patterned lino. On one wall, was a model of a small child sitting on a ledge on the wall. That was all….that whole big room for that. After an hour and a half of that, I said to Anne, “somebody had better paint a picture pretty soon, or I’m outta here. And soon we both were.
Overall: Loved the building, could walk around it for hours. As for the art……tick…seen it.
Shamefully, we stopped for lunch at Burger King in the shopping mall where we had parked the car, as we wanted to get on the road to Suances. A shame really, because although it was a food court, the restaurants looked like they all served really nice food and all had linen table cloths and large wine glasses on the tables…not your average food court by any stretch of the imagination.
So off we went to Suances. Just a bit of a blast along the motorway, past Santander, which as the large ferry port is a large part of the reason for all the trucks on the road.
Suances is a beach resort on the Costa Verde. It’s a bit down market compared to what we’d seen at Biarritz, Hondarribbia and San Sebastian.
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