We’ve had a full on first week of our winter trip. We took Lo11y to Chelsea to show her off to Colin’s old work colleagues, then overnighted at Colin’s mother’s in Pulborough (West Sussex) before heading to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Bilbao.
It was a 36-hour journey on the ferry, including two nights, and we were looking forward to having some down time to do some route planning and enjoy the Club Lounge where we had access to included food and drink at all times. We knew the Bay of Biscay is a notoriously bumpy crossing, even in the summer, and after a reasonably smooth start things started to get a bit more rock and rolly. In the end we probably slept more than 24 of the 36 hours, as that was the only time we didn’t feel queasy – definitely didn’t get our money’s worth in the lounge!
It was very dark, wet and overcast as we disembarked the ferry, and we headed straight to the Camping Aire (a municipal camping area) that sat high above the city with terrific views. As this afternoon was showing dry fine weather, with heavy rain forecast the next few days, we decided we needed to get as much outside sightseeing in as possible. A bus took us down into the old town (Casco Viejo) where we visited the Mercado de La Ribera (an indoor food market and food hall), had a walk around the streets of the Casco Viejo admiring the architecture, then after dipping into the commercial shopping area to buy SIM cards, we walked along the waterfront to the Guggenheim Museum – a striking metal structure housing contemporary art exhibitions. There are some famous monuments around it – a giant bronze spider and an enormous Puppy that’s made up of colourful flowers. After a walk through a park we headed back into the Casco Viejo for a glass of vino in a nice square, then continued to the commercial centre where we’d spotted some lively pintxos bars earlier. Pintxos are the Basque equivalent of tapas – small snacks of meat, seafood, olives and peppers to name a few ingredients. We managed to get a table inside a buzzy bar and tucked into delicious octopus, anchovies and other picky bits. We loved watching the groups of locals and presumably work colleagues enjoying a few drinks and tasty food without going over the top as us Brits tend to do.
We headed back to the Campsite and enjoyed the colourful lights of the city below us. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was right and we awoke to torrential rain showers the following morning. It was lunchtime before we got a break in the rain. We had thought about visiting the exhibitions in the Guggenheim, but most people’s reviews seemed a bit luke warm, so we finally plumped for something more culturally appropriate for us - a tour of the San Mames Stadium, home of Athletico Bilbao. It was a really enjoyable self-guided tour through a museum then getting pitch side, seeing the changing rooms, and the press box. Slightly bizarrely the last section of the tour was about cycling. (See photos for a plaque that described the first basque cyclist to take part in the Tour De France in 1910).
It was still very mizzerly when we came out, so we visited another art and culture centre in the city called Azkuna Zentroa. The building had been a former municipal wine exchange market but had been restored and refurbished by Philippe Starck. Colin appreciated the mix of the old and the new (something he experienced a lot on his last two building projects). There was a swimming pool on the fourth floor with a glass bottom which you can look up at from the ground floor and see the hazy images of people swimming past.
We had planned to go to another pintxo bar but everywhere we tried weren’t doing food until after 8pm, so we settled for a large refreshing lets start the weekend G&T and headed back to Lo11y. We were still kicking ourselves for not realising Athletico Bilbao were playing a La Liga match at home that night against Celta Vigo. We could hear the chants and roars of the crowd from our campsite which overlooked the stadium. It was a thrilling 4-3 win for Bilbao, the winning goal coming in injury time.
There was more biblical rain through the night, so we decided to continue our journey as planned along the northern coast heading east towards San Sebastian. We drove through the old port district of Gexto which looked lovely – somewhere we need to come back to when it’s not raining. Our route took us up to the coastline at Sopelena, and then took us back inland on windy hilly roads which looked stunning with the low clouds and autumn colours. Much of the hillsides were covered in pine and eucalyptus trees. We reached the fabulous little town of Lekeitio around midday. We parked in an Aire on the edge of town from where it was a short walk into the town, the old centre having lovely buildings and seemingly countless bars full of locals. There is a huge gothic church, then the narrow streets open up into a marina with lots of bar-restaurants harbourside. We had read that there is a narrow causeway path from the beach to an island in the bay which we were keen to walk and see the supposedly magnificent views of the town from the island. As the tide was in and large waves were crashing down we guessed this wasn’t a sensible idea. It was also bucketing down with rain again, so we did the only decent thing and got a covered seat in one of the restaurants and enjoyed a long seafood lunch.
The following day we had a shortish drive towards San Sebastian which took us along the coast and on some green windy inland roads. It was Sunday and we were amazed at the number of lycra clad cyclists we passed for the whole of the route.
They formed large pelotons in places, and some were not happy to be stuck behind a slow lumbering Lo11y going downhill. There were noticeably no female cyclists at all though. We had been told that to get parking in the most central Aire in San Sebastian we needed to be there as early as possible as previous overnighters were leaving and before the current days visitors arrived. We rocked up late morning, but were shocked at the volume of campervans parked on the streets. When we got to the aire it was rammed (and not particularly large) and other vehicles were loitering. A Spanish guy told me we could park on the main roads anywhere for free on a Sunday, but we must move at 9am in the morning. We couldn’t find a space on the side streets so we ended up on a 5 lane main road – at least level but likely to be very noisy. There was a ticket machine that confirmed Sundays are free and we could at least leave Lo11y there the following day if we paid.
Finally the sun was starting to come out, so we jumped on a bus into town. The town is in a stunning location with sweeping beaches, a large promenade, and a cobblestoned old town rammed with the Pintxos restaurants and bars (many world-renowned Michelin starred) that the town is famous for. We suddenly realised why parking up had been so challenging – there were literally thousands of runners finishing a half marathon run from the French border. We headed to the old town to get our first taste of the local Pintxos – we were taken to a different level of any tapas type food we’d had before. Everywhere was absolutely rammed though with thirsty hungry runners celebrating their achievement. We had a steep walk up to the castle in the old town with views back over the town and bay. We then had a well-deserved (well we think so) glass of wine if the main square, before heading back into the mayhem of the narrow streets of the Pintxos places which were still as manic as ever on a Sunday evening. We ended the evening with another classic dish here – burnt cheesecake - delicious. We needed to walk back to Lo11y to walk some of this off. The road did thankfully quieten down so we managed some sleep.
The next day we headed into town on our Bromptons (folding bikes). There are dedicated cycle lanes all the way into and around the centre. Everything felt much more chilled today with the runners presumably having headed home or still recovering from the celebrations. We had breakfast in a café overlooking La Concha beach. We then cycled around the central commercial area and up to the surf beach, had a cold drink on the harbour, then some nicer pintxos in the old town than we’d managed the day before.
After we picked up Lo11y we retraced our route from the day before back to a campsite near the town of Zarautz on the coast. It’s a large campsite on top of a hill with all the facilities. Our pitch just about has a view down to the sea. We booked two nights here so we can take some time to plan our next steps and get our own lycra on to go for a hilly bike ride while the good weather is with us.
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