Tag Archives: Spain

Europe, Spain, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 10: Madrid

MADRID

21-23 September 2013

It was always one step forward, two steps back. On the bright side we found Atocha Station in Madrid surprisingly easily (once again without Google Maps); on the downside dropping the car off turned into a nightmare!

We found a petrol station right outside Atocha Station and filled up the car, as instructed. We had no problem finding the Europcar depot or passing the checks. The big fight started when Europcar wanted to charge me SIX HUNDRED Euros for the car when my total according to the online booking I did months prior was €278.

They were saying we had opted for insurance, we definitely did not – and distinctly said no – because the insurance was more than the rental and our online booking contract included the major theft/damage waivers so we didn’t actually need it. That brought the total to €400. Then they added a whole bunch of other admin charges like one way fees (already covered in our booking contract) and fuel surcharges (not applicable because we’d filled the car up).

Two hours of back and forthing, phoning the Barcelona depot where we got the car and the online agency that rented us the car etc until I eventually had had enough and asked for a complaint form. I put my sorry story on paper and told the man at the counter that they could call me when they had the correct paperwork ready and I’d come in to pay. Needless to say, despite a post on their site, a series of Tweets and an email to their central customer services, I still hadn’t heard from them. So, it was as yet unresolved, but all my correspondence stated they could not take a cent over €278 off my card so hoped like hell that they were consumer litigious like in the US and that was scary enough for them not to just deduct the €600!

Anyway, that was enough to ruin the first impression of Madrid, but fortunately there was much more to come.

We caught a taxi to our apartment since we were now very late to meet our landlady and there was no wifi at the station or Europcar office for us to reschedule. Fortunately, she was very understanding and showed us around our digs. While our entire apartment (bedroom, living room and bathroom) totalled about the size of my bedroom at home, the space was very well allocated and the flat newly upgraded and clean, so we were very pleased. And we could not have asked for a better location – a quiet street with a festive café at the bottom of the road, a small plaza at the top with a shop a restaurant and a pub and a short trot to all the action on Gran Via and surrounds, which is where we headed first.

It was early evening and the place was teeming with people! Restaurants and cafés full; wide pavements a throng of people moving in all directions. It made it slow-going to get anywhere and since we didn’t have a specific plan to get anywhere, we stuck with what always worked and entertained ourselves with caña, tapas and, for a change, a nice sit-down dinner with lasagne, seafood pasta and good Rioja.

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning we were once again grateful for Lonely Planet guide since there was, surprisingly, not a tourist office to be found. Having breakfasted at the apartment (boiled egg and soldiers) we planned on a vigorous sightseeing walking tour (of our own design), starting with the museums Christian wanted to see, then the a few key monuments and buildings, leisurely lunch and an evening of tapas touring.

Spanner in the works when we got to the first museum, the Museo Del Prado, only to find they have free entry in the afternoon from 17H00. Quite a saving on the usual €18. So we went to the next one, the Reina Sofia art musuem. Same story, free from 15H00.

Not to be deterred, we did a walk around and took in some of the other sights. The Puerto del Sol, which is where the city gates once stood and was now the official centre and “heart” of Madrid; the Plaza Mayor, which might be every bit as lovely as its Salamanca counterpart were we not so biased; down this road and that to churches, monuments, old buildings, arches, statues and fountains… stumbling across less famed treasures in between.

We of course stopped for the obligatory refuels and lucked out in crossing another aim of the day – an authentic Spanish paella – off the list quite by accident when we were served it as a tapas at Los Madroño in the Plaza del Angel and a huge bowl of it, also as a tapas, at Boñar de Leon on Calle de la Cruz Verde. Both recommendable depending whether its quality or quantity (respectively) that you’re after.

We returned to Reina Sofia and had no trouble gaining free access. Our primary mission was to see Picasso’s Guernika, so we went to that hall first and worked through the rest of the Picasso, cubists and Dali exhibits from there. Quite a thing to have seen such famous works up close – especially Guernika since it was so relevant to the regions we’d just visited.

We then made our way back to the Prado, but weren’t as lucky. The queue was out the door, round the corner and up the street. We made do with a photo of the statue of Velazquez outside (since it was the exhibit of his works that we’d primarily wanted to see) and went back to our informal wanderings.

Madrid is a great city for that. Even though it was criticised for being younger than most of the other main tourist cities in Spain, having only been capital since the 16th century and most of its buildings being from 19th and 20th centuries, there was a distinct elegance to its layout and a healthy enough representation of enormity and grandiosity to have us impressed! It had all the wide avenues and beautifully manicured street gardens to equal the most sophisticated European cities as well as a lively energy and the constant hubbub that gained the city its reputation for character and unsurpassed nightlife and entertainment. Madrid was not a city that never slept, but certainly one that didn’t sleep at night!

MONDAY

Monday, being our last day, we covered the other half of the city, starting with the Mercado Marvellas. Even though well after midday, lots of restaurants and cafés were only starting to open for the day – and even more were still shut tight. By sharp contrast, just as many people were drinking beer and wine as were drinking coffee and OJ!

The crowning glory of the day’s tour though was the Real Madrid stadium, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, which is predictably enormous! Similarly sized to our FNB Stadium with a seating capacity of 90,000 people, it must cause chaos when there’s a match on seeing as the stadium is right in the middle of the city!

Last stop was a fond farewell caña and tapas (lomo, pork loin) at our corner pub. It was quite something to watch those barmen operate. The pub was about the size of my lounge (maybe 20 x 6m) with a wide bar counter running lengthways along the middle. The barman was on one side, with his hard tack and barrels behind him; the counter had tapas cases on it on one side, a sunken sink built in on the other and draught taps facing the barman in the middle.

There were customers sitting on barstools, standing leaning on the counter and milling about… and 1 barman serving the lot! And by serving it means taking orders, pouring drinks, serving the tapas, keeping tally of who has had what, sorting out bills and even washing glasses and tapas plates! One guy! It was amazing – and a little exhausting – watching him juggle everything! Maybe we’d been on holiday too long! 😀

Europe, Spain, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 9: Toledo

TOLEDO

20 September 2013

We must have gotten quite an amount of good luck from spotting the frog in Salamanca as our trip to Toledo started off with a nail-biter. We left Salamanca with 20km worth of fuel according to our digital fuel gauge and wrongly assumed there would be a service station on the outskirts of town. It was only with the dumbest of luck that we freewheeled through a little town about *thirty* kilometres from Salamanca… having been holding breath since the range number tripped to zero several kilometres earlier!

From there we could at least start to enjoy the scenery. Not that there was much to see as a drive through the Spanish heartland is akin to a drive through the Free State at home.

AVILA

We’d initially considered an overnight stop in Avila based on recommendation in the Lonely Planet guide, but it wouldn’t have been justified. The town is so small that it was easy to crisscross and see all the sights in half an hour (assuming you were happy with a “walk past” the churches and monuments and a few snappies of the prettier relics, as we were). It was definitely worth a stop though, since it was so well preserved and looked every inch a fairytale.

Its real history sounded a little more dramatic than a “once upon a time” though, tributing the foundation of the town to obscure Iberian tribes, who were then assimilated into Celtic society, Romanised, Christianised, changed hands regularly for 300 years, and then became an important commercial centre after Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085. Things then got controversial with the nobles picking fights with the Muslims and in the imperial escapades in Flanders and South America, then expelling the Jews in 1492 and a century later trying to get rid of the Christianised Muslims. No wonder Tomas de Tourquemade chose to retire to Avila after organising the most brutal phase of the Spanish Inquisition!

The city walls, built in the 12th century were still perfectly preserved and offered a 2.5km walk including 2500 battlements, 88 towers, 6 gates, 3 wicket gates, the apse of a cathedral and a singular belltower. That was thirsty work! In a town with more than proportionate watering holes!  Had we not been driving, Avila would be lovely setting for a caña and a tapas, and there were many pavement cafés and restaurants that looked very alluring.

If we had done an overnight, it would have been nice to visit neighbouring Segovia, which is supposed to be just as wonderous but on grander scales with the extraordinary engineering of the 728m aquaduct and the Rapunzel-like Alcazar towers, turrets topped with slate witches’ hats and deep moat around (said to have inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland).

TOLEDO

The countryside changed quite radically when you entered the province of Castilla-La Mancha with its harsh dry southern plateau, as immortalised in the literary classic, Don Quixote. There was little else to see beside Toledo (its capital), so the region was often skipped by tourists.

I’d tussled for quite some time trying to figure out where we wanted to be based in Toledo. There are so many websites giving info and flogging accommodation that it was info overload and increasingly difficult to make decisions. Toledo was a tricky one since the town was contained within old city walls, nestled into a U of the Rio Tajo. This city particularly was known for the labyrinth-like maze of roads, so I logicked that this was one place worth sacrificing the authenticity staying in the old town and the beauty of a view of the river for the pragmatism of staying just outside the upper city gates, parking the car at the hotel and managing the rest on foot. Paydirt! I could not have done better as the town was super confusing, even with a map, and the roads were the kind you’d have to be born to navigate!

We stayed at the Hotel Martin, which could not have been better. Off the main drag but only one road from the Toledo old city gates, the hotel was rated (and priced) a 2 star, but our suite was big and beautifully decorated with white linens and curtains, wooden wardrobe and furnishings, a bathroom big enough to have a party in – and terraces off the bedroom and the bathroom. Add the location, big fluffy white towels, free toiletries and big flat screen TV and it was madness that we only paid R400 for the night!

Being about 17h00 by the time we were in and settled, we rationalised it best to leave the hard work tourist stuff for the next day and just focus on a dinner in the old town… but despite ourselves we got swept up on entry, approaching the Bisagra Gate with its triumphant arch flanked by semicircular towers, impressive imperial 2-headed eagle coat of arms, the insignia of the Golden Fleece… appearing as magnificently to today’s visitors as it did to visitors approaching from Madrid in 1550!

We’d been given a tourist map at the hotel so blended a “best of both” tour of our own, smattering some sights and cultural stuff in between a caña and tapas crawl (an art we’ve perfected) and even upping the ante with paying for a round of tapas since there were 2 local dishes I really wanted to try.

First was a Carcamusas de Toledo, a rich blend of pork cubes stewed in tomato and herbs that was equal portions tender and juicy – absolutely delicious. The second was a peculiar local favourite called Migas Manchegas that I was more curious about than anything – white bread lightly toasted fried in garlic and oil to make sort of croutons, served with diced sausage and ham and topped with a fried egg and bacon. The result was a sort of breakfast dinner.

We also managed to log a pint on our Guinness Index at an unexpected Irish pub called O’Brien’s, that was on the windiest, steepest street that was just begging for a wettie-stop when you were neither up nor down!

FRIDAY

Day 2 in Toledo was made that much easier since we already knew where everything was and what we wanted to visit (properly) AND we knew what and where we wanted to breakfast on – although we have adapted to Spain time, so breakfast was scheduled for midday!

We entered by the same Bisagra Gate – now fully appreciating what we were seeing – and up the entry road to the next attraction, the Puerto del Sol inner gate, built in the 14th Century and so named because of the sun and moon on its tympanum. There was a modern art statue in front of it that, from its label, claimed to be a bull. Personally I thought it was a load of bull because frankly it looked more like a big metal speech bubble!

First stop was the famous central square, Plaza Zocodover, to try and get an English tourist map, which we did. The legend made it easy to narrow our hit list. Nix the 7 museums, 4 churches, 4 convents, 2 mosques, 2 synagogue and a monastery and it was easy – 3 gates, 2 bridges and a Roman Baths (we could have had a partridge too since it was a local delicacy, but without the pear tree it was just a bony little bird really).

The bridges were so worth seeing! Enormous arched structures spanning deep gorges to connect the multi-volumed brick outer walls of the city to the green valley banks on the far side of the Rio Tajo, with high towers and arched gates flanking either side. It was quite a job getting up and down the slopes and stairs toward the gates, but perfect if you were working up an appetite for Salamanca Charcuteria, where you could get the *best* jamon bocadilla and lomo and chourizo pie, which was made like a Beef Wellington so the cheese melts into the pastry and the lomo is soft and tender.

Since we’d already done the gates, all that was left was to check out the Roman Baths, which turned out – bonus – to be a free exhibit. Beautifully preserved since the Romans had used cement to build them. This wasn’t the only ingenuity they’d used – they were really clever and had made all sorts of thermal aquaducts to heat the water for their steam rooms.

All said and done, Toledo was a ‘must do’ stop – and it was only 79km from Madrid so can easily be done as a day trip or overnighter.

Europe, Spain, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 8: Salamanca

SALAMANCA

19 September 2013

After a 314km uninterrupted drive from Coimbra, we were pleased to arrive in Salamanca – and the first impressions on driving into the town further warmed our welcome.

As usual, Google Maps had successfully guided us the bulk of the journey, but we once again found ourselves left hanging as we approached the town and found the directions for roundabouts and exits not matching up.  At least Salamanca was a less complicated layout though, with 4 bridges crossing the Rio Tormes on approach and most roads in the town directed toward the central square, Plaza Mayor (right upon which was the pension I’d booked us into). Rather than messing about, we parked the car in the first parkjng garage we saw (€14.40 a night!) and attacked the finer directions on foot.

It was really easy to find our accommodation (Pension Los Angeles) since it was literally on the Plaza Mayor, a little door wedged among the bars and restaurants leading to the apartments upstairs. The perfect location! Our en-suite room had a balcony overlooking the square. The perfect view!

Plaza Mayor, with its harmonious and controlled Baroque design, impressive size and symmetry, built-in matching City Hall and arcaded square, was noted as being the most beautiful in Spain – and this was fact, not opinion!  The Plaza was much bigger than others we’d seen (roughly 80 x 80m) and the combination of its “squareness” with uniform rows of balconied rooms mirroring each other and the monochromy of the use of golden-hued Villamayor stone (same colour and texture as sandstone) from floor to ceiling, would send poor old Gaudi into apoplexy! But the result was breathtaking and literally awesome.

Having garnered a tourist map from our landlord, we realised it wasn’t worth plotting a formal walking tour route around Salamanca as almost all the sites (all bar the Roman Bridge) were contained within the old city and there was something to see on almost every corner – although with 11 churches, 4 convents and 10 historically relevant mansions it can get a bit samey-samey.

Salamanca was home to the oldest University in Spain, founded in the 13th century, and most of the old buildings house university faculties museums. It was understandable why young people would relish spending time here – and their presence was definitely felt in the price and value offering of the glut of restaurants and bars and the overwhelming amount of entertainment options, more or less 24/7.

We did visit the one university building, the Universidad Civil, to do some “frog-spotting”. It is said that if you can spot the frog on the elaborately carved facade, then you’ll enjoy great luck. We both managed to see the frog… but with a little direction from the info boards!

Hard work aside, we were able to settle into an evening of tapas hopping…

  • Meson La Dehesa – baguette with jamon (cured ham) and Iberian cheese
  • O’Hara Irish Pub – kettlefried crisps, chourizo on baguette
  • Bambu – lasagne, bolognaise tortilla, sourdough with prawns on garlic cream, Iberian ham and sweet tomato pizza
  • La Perla Negra – no tapas, but a free boys Guinness t-shirt
  • Casa de Vinos Doctrinos – sourdough with lomo cabecero (combination of lomo and jamon) and Iberian lomo (marbled)
  • Catalina’s – bacon and cheese croissant and ham, cheese, cream cheese  and onion crepe
  • Cervesaria Gambrinus – (poor) sausage and quail’s egg on baguette; pork dumpling in phyllo
  • Disfruta de Todo  – jamon croquette
  • Irish Rover – crisps and a free girls Guinness t-shirt
  • Gastro Taberna El Reloj – calamari strips and tuna lasagne ; meat lasagne

All of the above served free with our orders of caña or fine local Rioja, never over €2!

Europe, Spain, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 4: Leon

LEON

14 September 2013

With a 2 and a half hour (265km) drive from Santander to Leon, we decided that we would break the journey with a stop en route. Originally planning on breakfast in Santander before handing the apartment keys over at 11h00, we were bemused to find that we were likely the only people awake in the city at 10h00, let alone a supermarket shopkeep or open kitchen in sight! Fortunately we had our trusty chocolate mousse protein shakes on hand, so good humour was still intact as we hit the road.

It was quite a straightforward route along the A-67 South, then the A-231 West, both of which passed directly through a number of small towns. Consulting the Lonely Planet guide, we selected Aguilar Campoo and put foot on the journey to get there.

AGUILAR CAMPOO

A small town of only 7700 people, Aguilar has been around forever and a day, being a settlement of the Cantabrians, the Romans and Visigoths, a bulwark during the Arab occupation in the 700s, and then being rebuilt, restored and expanded from 820 to become a very important town in the Middle Ages. King Alfonso X declared the site a Regal Town and the fiefdom of Aguilar de Campoo exercised jurisdiction over one of the most extensive territories of Castille at the time, stretching across current day Cantabria, Burgis and Palencia.

Long history aside, it’s a small town easy to circumnavigate on foot, best begun at the central Plaza de Espana where you can get a free local map. From the doorway of the tourist office you can already see 5 of the town’s 19 top sights! The most impressive of these is the Collegiate Church of San Miguel, elevated to the rank of Collegiate by Pope Paul III in 1541.

We had little interest in touring the town – and seeing the likes of its 120+ shields and coat of arms adorning palace fronts and house facades – until we had eaten, so we headed along the Paseo de la Cascajera running alongside the Rio Pisuerga which is lined with bars and cafés. We couldn’t find anywhere serving off menu – everything being pintxos and raciones, so we chose Nuevo del Rio to have a club sandwich (cheese, ham, egg, tuna) since it was the most substantial looking and ordered Cokes to accompany. The Cokes were served with a snack each – a long crunchy straw that looked like a springroll on the outside and turned out to have a prawn on the inside. Delicious!

We’d studied the map and the Medieval Castle on the hill overlooking the town was the only thing we wanted to see, so we walked down the Calle Modesto Lafuente which took us to the foot. A short steep climb had us at the Chapel of Santa Cecilia at the base of the Castle’s much steeper hill, so we made do with a photo and moved back to the car.

LEON

Leon was gorgeous! We got lost as we entered the town and – frustrated by a series of pedestrian roads blocking us from where we thought we needed to be – parked the car first opportunity. We found the tourist office to be closed so couldn’t get a map, didn’t have a street address for our destination and couldn’t find anyone who could speak enough English to understand our request for a payphone (messages not going through on cell phones).. and we still weren’t put off the town in the slightest!

We found help in a hotel where the receptionist spoke English, called our host to extract the street address and arrange our meeting. They even provided a tourist map and marked simplest route, easiest on foot through the old city.

We had 15 minutes to kill so stopped in the plaza closest our destination, which is called the “wet district” because it has the highest concentration of bars and restaurants in a very bar and restaurant intensive town! The bar we picked, at random, from the 12 or more choices clocked from our pivotal point in the centre of the small plaza, served our beer with a wedge of cheese and a strip of deep fried calamari each. Apparently this is a major cheese producing area, and the mild light white creamy cheese served bore testament that it was indeed their specialty!

We were in top spirits when we met our host, Fran, some 20 minutes later, having arrived at our square to find that it was equally beautiful to what else we’d seen of this wonderful old medieval town, with its authentic uneven cobbles on winding warren of streets, but with the added appeal of being alongside the monastery overlooking the central water fountain monument. A quiet square, with only 2 tabernas!

Fran was very pleased to see us and offered to walk us back to the car so as to navigate us to closer free parking. This chore doubled as an impromptu tour since we’d managed to park all the way across town (still only a 10 minute walk) and we passed almost all of the major sites en route. Fran’s English was about as good as our Spanish (which was coming on quite nicely, thanks to the in-car tutorials), but we managed to communicate quite effectively with slow simple speak and animated hand gestures (and Google translate for absolute fallback).

It was quick ‘n easy to find our digs, now that we knew how, and a free parking right outside Burger King seemed a good omen.

Our apartment was incredible. All the finishes were shiny and new and this apartment was an absolute bargain and highly recommended on facilities and location for anyone visiting Leon! It was enormous, with a living room (large kitchenette against the back wall, 4 seater granite table against the far wall, couch and big flat screen TV unit occupying the remaining space) as big as both our San Sebastian and Santander apartments combined! That, and a big bedroom also overlooking the square and a bathroom big enough to have a party in!

But partying in town was likely to be more fun, so we headed out.

It was very early by local standards, being around 17h00, so we took the opportunity to go back to the Tourist Office (that had reopened from its 2-5 siesta) to get a map and cover some of the sights. The first was a neo-Gothic Gaudi building (Casa de Botines) right opposite the tourist office, which delighted me since I fancied myself to be Gaudi’s newest fan.

Our whirlwind tour included all the Palacios (palaces), mercado (markets), plaza (squares) and Iglesias (churches) as well as a walk around the outside of the old city walls, admiring the merge of medieval inheritance with modern growth… and working up quite a thirst.

Beers were served in a variety of common sizes: corta couldn’t be much more than 100ml for €1.20, caña about 200ml for €1.60, cañon at 350ml for €2.20. They know about pints (pinta) but don’t stock the glasses because there is no demand. The only place that had was Molly Malone, which had Guinness pints as standard, for €2.50.

Leon followed the doctrine of free tapas tasters with drinks orders – no matter what size drink is ordered. We found caña to be optimal and spent the evening pub crawling by pinxos:-

  • Casa Miche – cheese and deep fried calamari
  • Cervesaria Gotica – baguette with cheese/jamon and jamon croquette
  • Molly Malone – corn, peanuts, olives and gum sweets
  • Jamon Jamon – sour dough, salchichon (greasy sausage), chorizo, cheese
  • Bar La Noria – deep fried mussels; patatas with jamon York (fried potato with wedges of boiled ham)
  • Enburidos Caseros – sourdough, chorizo, cecina (dried, uncooked, like biltong)
  • Nuevo Racimo De Oro – sourdough, chorizo, salchicon (and all served in a lovely cellar Bodega with original 2000 year old Romanesque walls!!)
  • Bacanal – homemade kettlefried crisps sprinkled with bacon
  • Taberna Orienta Media – chourizo server on a flaming skewer
  • Vinos Serveca – jamon and cheese on sourdough (seemed a bit dull after the rest)

We learned to pick and choose according to tapas offering. Bearing in mind we were ordering about 175 ml of beer at a time at an average of about €1.50 a pop… It was working out cheaper to feed-and-water in Spain than at home! We couldn’t work out how they make any money from customers with the decadent offerings and generous portions of the tapas, but a local in the one bar said it was a matter of bars being compelled to offer tapas to draw customers (locals flatly refuse to support tabernas that offer no free tapas). There was an endless number of options so competition was stiff despite the café terrado (party til dawn) lifestyle; the bigger and better the tapas, the more customers they attract. Especially the student market since Leon was also a major university town.

It would seem that this combination of choice, economy, locale and air of festivity made Leon Spain’s bachelor and bachelorette destination of choice and we encountered several groups in custom t-shirts with a comically-dressed guest of “honour”.

For such an old town, steeped in religious history as it was, even the churches were good sports and the churchbells mercifully only start their Sunday morning tolling at 11h00!

Europe, Spain, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 3: Santander

SANTANDER

12 – 14 September 2013

We negotiated our exit from San Sebastian Donostia like seasoned professionals and were soon on the tollroad heading for Santander. I’d downloaded free Learn to Speak Spanish tutorials onto my phone, so we plugged it into the car stereo and the 2 and a bit hour journey passed quickly.

We’d initially wanted to go via Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum and Guernica to see the war memorials, but with the horror stories we’d heard about parking, we decided to give it a skip. While I’m sure we would have enjoyed the planned sights, the drive alone was a pleasant one seeing as Cantabria (the province that Santander is in) is one of the greenest and lushest in Spain, with a beautiful coastline along the Bay of Biscay on the one side and a patchwork of green meadows on the other. So, with a rich view – and €12 in tolls later – we arrived in a lovely sunny Santander.

We’d made loose arrangements with the landlady of Patricia’s Place (our rented apartment) to meet at 14h00, but committed to sms through confirmation when we left Guernica. Of course the networks chose to play up and the message didn’t reach her, but fortunately there was a pay phone shop across the road from the apartment and she only took a few minutes to get to us.

Patricia, our hostess, was very friendly and helpful, enthusiastically giving us the tour around our single room apartment like it was an estate!  The apartment was easily twice the size of the Carmen’s Place in San Sebastian, with most of the extra real estate allocated to a proper kitchenette and granite peninsula counter separating the kitchen from the rest, with chair on the kitchen side and barstool on the living room side to balance the split level design.  The bed was still small, but as a bonus we had a row of storage shelves beneath the mattress and another pull out bed right at the bottom – that we decided to use as a sort of daybed couch. No complaints, the apartment was brightly painted and decorated and all the peculiarities somehow add to its charm.

We had apparently been lucky in our choice of arrival time in Santander as parking is free from 14h00 to 16h00 (usually € 1,70 per 2 hour block and the car has to be moved every 2 hours!) but Patricia offered to show us options for longer term and free parking. We headed out the door so that Patricia could drive us around the neighborhood and I almost literally heard angels singing as there it was… a proper free parking bay, right on our doorstep!! Christian hustled to get the car while i did a really literal dance of joy, much to Patricia’s amusement.

With renewed vigour, we dumped the bags and headed off armed with a tourist map that Patricia had provided. The plan being, since it was already 15h00, to start with a walk along the waterfront, circle back and do the sights in the Centro and conclude with a seafood dinner in the Mercado del Este at any one of the number of highly recommended restaurants and bars in the Lonely Planet guide. Day 2 would then take us across town (on a bus since it “is very far”) to the Palace complex and to explore the 3 beaches.

Of course, as usual, we did very little according to plan… but had a great time doing it.

I’d been quite worried about my choice of home base location since our requirement for parking and preference for economy left few options from which to choose, with Patricia’s flat meeting the base requirements at the expense of being neither in Centro (town) nor El Sardinero (beach) as are the 2 main choices for optimal stay on Santander.

But, once again, scales were on our side and what appeared to be quite far from the action turned out to be at the bottom of our road and 2 blocks right (and that must be the start of the good stuff because that’s where the Burger King was!). We had saved literally thousands of Rands booking a block or 2 out of the premium blocks in each city – and once you were out it was all new stuff to see anyway, so I’d do it again if had to be done over.

We cut through the Centro to the Antonio Lopez main drag that ran along the waterfront and 20 minutes later had far outwalked our plan for the day and were more than halfway to the Palace (day 2’s plan) so figured we might as well get all the sightseeing behind us and have a full beach day ahead of us the next day.

The walk was simple and pretty, with wide pavements running along the sea’s edge all the way from the Barrio Pesquera (fishing quarter and seafood restaurants), past the ferry station, alongside the Zona Comercial (shopping area with impressive Santander Banco headquarters building) and all the way to the Playa de le Magdalena, which was a quieter beach facing the bay.

The water on this side is calmer mostly because it is protected from the Cantabrian Sea by the extension of land on which the Palace is built and the view across the water is of Somo, the seaside town on the opposite side of the bay that can be reached quickly and cheaply from the ferry port. It was quite a bit cheaper to stay on the Somo side, parking was more plentiful and it was easy to access from the road from Bilbao so this had been a strong contender for where we’d stay.

Having not dressed for the beach, we carried on with our walking tour and moved into the La Magdalena Royal Palace complex. There was a museum in the Palace itself (that we didn’t go into), but the grounds were free to wander around and there were some exquisite viewing points. We did a stop past the Museo del Hombre y La Mar (Museum of Man and the Sea) and the little zoo to see the Sea Lions and Walruses, which led us out to La Playa del Camelloso named for the big rock in the shallow waters that looks like a camel sitting down.

Completely outdoing even our revised walking tour itinerary, we decided to stop at the Terraza BNS cafe perfectly placed between the two premium beaches, offering views of both. We ordered Cana beers, which are served in red wine glasses, ice cold, but only about half full. We’ve debated whether this is an issue of economy (since half a glasses is already €2,50!), being fancy (like serving double espresso with a tumbler of ice to pour it into) or the Spaniards’ very responsible attitude toward alcohol. Alcohol, like food, seems to be plentiful and often, but in micro quantities – and most often the two together. While struggling to adjust to the portion sizes with firmly entrenched Western “more is more” thinking, we’re completely embracing the frequency of the feedings!

It was now just the timing of meals that was a big conflict. Both being fans of (very) early supper, we left the Terrace just before 6 with the romanticised notion of finding somewhere to have a lovely bacalao (cod) and/or lomo (pork loin) meal overlooking something interesting, sipping on something wonderful and watching the last of the sun go down.

No such luck.

Not even with deciding to walk along Menendez Palayo (beautiful long road with gorgeous houses and some spectacular parallel parkings!) instead of taking the bus… we were still 2 and a half hours early for dinner, which only opened at 21h00.

No mind, we ordered a Rioja (red wine) from Canadio (where we’d intended to eat) and watched the kids playing soccer in the Plaza de Canadio, in the shadow of the beautiful old Iglesia de Santa Lucia. Most of the other restaurants and pubs were only opening their shutters and putting out their tables and chairs, so we should have counted ourselves lucky we even got the wine!

It was at this time that Christian suggested we “join ’em” and embrace the nibblybits lifestyle, which I conceded to do on condition that we didn’t sink to canapés and stuck with heartier options.

Our compromising spirit paid off and we found a gem of a place called La Dolores. For €2,50 each we could get a rioja or a cana AND a pintxos! We figured there must be a catch, but decided to give it a whirl since the place looked nice and the deal was as good as any even if there was no deal.

Turns out there was a deal though and we got our (chilled quarter glass of) Rioja and a choice of any of the pintxos on display. We chose a half club sandwich (cheese, omelette, fish and garnish) and a ham and cheese patatas tortilla (wedge of potato bake) and both were delicious! As is customary, Christian finished when I was half way and when he ordered a top-up Rioja, it was served with a small bowl of potato salad (very creamy, very eggy, but fresh and lovely). The next round was served with a (mandatory) small bowl of chorizo paella (maybe 3/4 of a cup, with 2 cake forks).

And it was hard to tell whether it was timing or beverage choice, but when we switched to beer (to sample the local Mahou), we got cheese croquettes. The barlady (who spoke not a word of English) was starting to enjoy the game as much as we were… which earned us a bonus round of croquettes and another bowl of potato salad. We were honestly sated when we eventually left (again being the only stayers, seeing many rounds of customers turn).

FRIDAY | EL SARDINERO

Sightseeing behind us, we upped and outed (post a weird dance with the plastic shower curtain in a tiny 60×60 shower that turned every movement into a curtain magnet) for a day at the beach. I’d been worried that the very grey sky we’d awoken to made our prospects bleak, but by the time we’d made our stovetop cheese toasties, the sun was out. Presumably their early morning rains feed the greenness of the region, leaving the afternoons still for fun in the sun. Perfect really for the nocturnal Spaniards!

Since we were in no hurry, we added a visit to the Barrio Pesquero (the fishing quarter) to our route. Our planning was a bit off since, even though it was close to midday, restaurants were only just starting to wake up. Pity, because there are quite a few restaurants that looked good.

Not a problem though, having mastered the city layout the previous day, we were easily able to revise the plan, opting to cut through the Mercado del Este straight to El Sardinero, grabbing lunch en route. Santander is a compact but charming city, easy to navigate and pleasing on the eye, with a good mix of buildings new and old (despite the old city burning to the ground in a huge fire in 1941) and wide avenues and narrower cobbled streets. It’s easy to walk around and a pleasure to be in.

The Sardinero seafront is gorgeous and elegant, not dissimilar to Biarritz – although on a smaller scale. The beach sand is soft and thick; the waters (the Bay of Biscay) deep blue… but freezing! The view is captivating, with the Palace on the right of the panorama and the old lighthouse on the left. Perfect backdrop for a day on a lounger (€4), reading books and grabbing a lomo bocadilla (baguette with spiced juicy roast pork loin).

Amazing how quickly time can pass even when you’re doing nothing – and the conditions are perfect with clear skies, moderate temperatures, forgiving sun (that doesn’t sting like it does at home) and cool breeze coming off the water. Before we knew it the whole afternoon was frittered away and it was close to 18h00 and time for our evening forage.

We followed our route from the previous day to deposit us in the restaurant quarter, stopping for a sundowner at an atmospheric pub called Cervesaria Cruz Blanca, surveying the map to weigh up the various dinner/pintxos options we marked down that morning. All things considered, we decided that La Dolores was too hard to beat so we headed in that direction.

True to form, we had a few beers and were provided with delightful accompaniments each time: potato salad and paella with the first, tortilla wedges (cheese & ham and chicken mayo) with the second and croquettes with the third. We marvelled at how different this socialising was – very small drinks each time (a cana of beer can’t be more than 100ml, served in little glasses like we get at breakfast buffets at home), little bowl of food with each drinks, no more than one or two drinks then move on, dinner from 21h00. Our South African “boerewors and braaivleis” mindset doesn’t compute 2 guys in a bar with with a thimbleful of beer each, picking at a shared miniature potato salad with a little cakefork!

SATURDAY

Adding merit to the theory, we again awoke to light rain, which had turned to grey skies by the time we left our apartment at 11h00 and which were brightening further as we moved out of  Santander and on to Leon. It’s a great formula – after sunny days and extended nights (including recycling trucks working the streets at 03h00!), we’d been sleeping longer and deeper in the early hours of the morning, cooled by rain and its gentle soundtrack.

Europe, France, Travelogue

Travelogue Iberia 2: San Sebastian

SAN SEBASTIAN

9-12 September 2013

We picked up “Negrita”, our black Seat Ibiza, at the Europcar without complication – and I was worried with how casually the date change had been handled sans paperwork – and took the first motions into our road trip experience.

It wasn’t the easiest of asks, having Christian execute his first left hand drive experience in amidst the bustle of Estacio de Barcelona-Sants, with me having to navigate using a city map (why oh why didn’t we bring Lixi and her mad maps skills?!)… that didn’t show the one ways!! Fortunately though, more by dumb luck than design, the station was toward the edge of town so there wasn’t too much to endure to get onto the highway out of Barcelona. And soon we were on our way – the 573km from Barcelona to San Sebastian.

It was slow going at first, while Christian found his feet (on the wrong side of the car), but at least the open road offered fewer challenges while we got used to our new appointments.

There wasn’t much of interest in interior Catalunya – although I’m sure that there must be more to offer slightly off the beaten track since Lleida (about 2 hours inland from Barcelona) is a relatively successful wine district, that we’d intended an overnight in on some of our earlier draft itineraries.

Amazingly, the landscape changed dramatically as we left Catalunya and travelled through Aragon, which was sparsely populated and known for its mountains, castles and ancient stone villages. We’d contemplated a stop in its capital, Zaragoza, which Kate (our hostess in Barcelona) had told us feels like a town out of an old Western, but were keen to get to our destination so decided to keep moving.

Our last intended stop was Pamplona but, on reading up and realising it was only really famous for Running of The Bulls on 6 July, we again decided to skip it and keep on trucking.

What might’ve been a good overnighter, had we had more time on this trip, is La Rioja, where the best red wines in Spain are produced. It would be good to enjoy an afternoon of wine-tasting on the Basque side as an introduction to Basque Country… but clearly not with driving to do afterwards!

We had some difficulty entering San Sebastian as the Google Maps I’d downloaded was quite vague and the road and offramp numbering didn’t seem to correspond with the signage. (Oh, and I’d managed to accidentally throw the print outs away at the first truck stop… but got free wifi and redownloaded them at the second). Everything made infinitely more confusing by the reference to San Sebastian suffixed with “Donostia”, its Basque name. We took a wrong turn initially and ended in the thick of a suburb completely the wrong end of town, but managed to navigate back onto the highway and instinct our way into town correctly.

I’d booked us another apartment called Carmen’s Place through www.airbnb.co.uk since we had 3 nights in San Sebastian, so the logic was to have a bit more freedom to eg make a light breakfast or just a cup of coffee (not for me, clearly). This meant we were placed in the slightly more suburban part of town, across the dividing waterway from the central sights and main beaches. Of course, this turned out to be a matter of only a few blocks – with several bridge crossings – as commonly happens when maps make cities seem bigger or more complicated than they are in real life scale.

I’d selected our location (in Egia) largely based on the promise of it being the only neighbourhood in San Sebastian with free parking (costing up to €20 per night elsewhere!), both on our one-way downhill  road (Calle Virgen del Carmen) and the parallel one-way uphill road (Avenida de Ametzagana). It was clear, however, that this was not a well kept secret! I have never seen such expert parallel parking! The kind of level of expert that is only achieved through constant necessity! Cars that had wheedled their way into a bay with mere single digit centimetres of space front and back! Worse still was the number of cars with bumpers touching both sides! What if we got parked in?? Or someone bumped us and we were liable for the hefty €780 excess on our rental?? And why oh why had we let Europcar upgrade us for free, when we could have had the halfloaf Fiat 500 to park?!

Anyway, we couldn’t worry about all those things at once, so we decided on focusing on finding our building first, a parking (big enough for an amateur left-hand driver and reasonable parallel parker) second and the courage to leave the car there last.

Fortunately, the very blurry seemingly-not-to-scale map got us to the right apartment block, where Christian parked in the loading bay across the road to offload our bags and then set off to hunt down a parking while i sorted our check-in and induction.

There really wasn’t much to induct since our “apartment” was little more than a room. Obviously our landlord had converted a room of their apartment into a flatlet by adding a built-in kitchenette unit and a minute bathroom. But, it was lovely and modern and new, with clean and soft bedding on the 3/4 bed, so no complaints.

Christian took some time to find a parking, but in the meantime I managed to get some great advice on local sights and eating spots from residents on their way into the building. By this time it was well after 21h00 and, on the good advice of our new neighbours, we nipped straight out to a bodega called Beti Boga in the next road to grab a quick bite.

Tapas has now been replaced with pintxos (nibblybits), racions (bigger portions of nibblybits) and bocadillas (baguettes). The bocadillas were very good with generous amounts of meats and grilled cheese, with fresh garnish for crunch. All washed down with a cervesa, of course.

It had been a long day on top of a short night so we were finished and hunkered down (relatively) early, comparatively.

TUESDAY

It was disappointing to wake up to grey skies, especially since Tuesday was supposed to be our San Sebastian beach day. Christian had popped down to the shops to get supplies so he made us scrambled eggs on fried bread (genius, since we had no toaster) in our kitchen (which is also our bedroom), while I started plotting a walking tour at our desk (which was also our dining room, coffee table and bedside table).

We crossed the bridge and made our way into Centro, did a turn through the Parte Vieja (where the old and famous buildings are) and were heading for a stroll along the waterfront at Playa de la Concha when the heavens opened.

We sought solace in Garagar… the local Irish pub… and listened to not very  Basque international chart tunes while we sipped not very Irish Cokes and played cards.

Luckily the rain ebbed long enough for us to find the tourist office so we could source a local map to organise our walking tour further and another to prepare our day trip to Santander in France the following day… and get to McDonalds to do all that over a McBacon!

With renewed energy and ambition, we took on Mont Urgell, climbing the steep hill to get to the bastions, castle walls and enormous statue of Christ that overlook the city and, best of all, Isla de Santa Clara (700m into La Concha bay, that I fondly refer to as “My Island”). It was a hefty climb, but so so worth it.

San Sebastian was really easily navigable once you had a tourist map, so it was easy peasy to then wander over to Playa de Zarriola and back again for a promenade stroll and some very civilised sundowners at La Perla overlooking Playa de La Concha.

It was a great section for people-watching. It was a far more glamourous and sophisticated city than Barcelona, probably largely due to an older population. The hotpants jeans shorts from Barcelona are replaced with lots of beige and twin sets in San Sebastian. And all the old ladies have dogs – Yorkies, Maltese, Boston Terriers… – which has made me very houndsick for the Sausages!

And sausages make me think of food…

Which makes me hungry…

So we went in search of food…

Which is an odd affair here.

Restaurants and pubs had their pintxos displayed on the bar counter and you picked and chose what you want. Hot pintxos were either displayed in “raw” form on the counter or listed on boards. It was sub-optimal thinking for me. I disliked the idea that the baguette open sandwiches are left lying around to get stale and I couldn’t reconcile eating a mouthful at a time at €2 – €4 a pop! So… we only had Txakoli (local wine) and moved on.

… finding a rock bar called Minuto Y Medio.

A tiny little place at the edge of town that caught our attention with their heavy metal themed menu and endless complimentary crisps. If it hadn’t been for the Kantxa (a shooter cross between Jagermeister and Sambuca) we might still be there!

WEDNESDAY

We were relieved when Wednesday morning was cloudy but bright, concerned that another day of rain would ruin our planned daytrip to France.  We celebrated with homemade boiled egg and soldiers, innovatively served in carved-off sections of the egg carton and prepared for evac.

HONDARRIBIA
We entered the city quite blind since we didn’t have a detailed street map, but instinct told us to stick to the marina, which we did and it paid off with a brilliant parking bay perpendicular to the road, that we could drive forward into! Simple pleasures indeed!

We’d seen a Turistico sign when we entered town so headed off on foot in that general direction. The town was very patriotic, with lots of houses, shops and apartments displaying the green, red and white Basque flag and the Hondarribia red cross and crest on white flag. This might not be a year-round phenomenon though as we found out later that 8 September sees the commemoration of victory over the city’s worst siege in history (in 1638), still celebrated annually with the Alarde parade.

There remained an air of festivity,  especially as we approached the old city, where there were families being entertained with music and people dressed up in strange caricature costumes with quite dramatic overgrown head masks.

Although this area has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age,it only started fortifying in the Middle Ages after being granted its town charter in 1203. It was during the Renaissance that the city took on the form still showing (in part) today – the robust walls, strongholds, drawbridges and moats – and was so sturdily built that it resisted nine major military blockades, with a well preserved grid of cobblestone streets, stately buildings, wrought iron balconies and finely carved eaves to show for it.

It was well worth the half hour or so trot around the old city and, having secured a free walking tour map from the tourist office on Arma Plaza, we easily navigated around the narrow cobbled streets – and the bitesize snippets of info on the map tell you what you’re looking at.

As luck would have it, the exit gate at the end of our tour was right near our car so, all in all, it was quite an effortless stop!

BIARRITZ
Christian masterfully negotiated a seemingly endless series of roundabouts to get us on the road to France. A €1,70 toll (bringing tolls from San Sebastian to France to a total of €4,30) saw us cross the border with 25km to go to Biarritz.

It was a beautiful town with big elegant buildings lining a spectacular seaside, with a warm blanket of shops cushioning the shore – enough that there was everything you’d need; not so much to intimidate the day-visitor.

Again we easily secured a tourist map (available at any of the many hotels) and saw that there aren’t many formal sights per (discounting the naval museum and aquarium), so we busied ourselves with a review of the esplanade and an enormous filled baguette lunch in the Port Vieux enclave. This tiny beach was a genuine natural swimming pool with high rock walls on 3 sides facing the open sea. Napoleon III opened baths here in 1858, but subsequent the bathing huts have been replaced by the stairs and a horseshoe of freestone for bathers and sunworshippers to enjoy.

We opted to take on the more ambitious sights to work off lunch, including the best vantage points at Belle Vue and then top of the lighthouse – all 248 steps to the top of it! Built in 1834 and standing 73 metres above sea level it offers exceptional views over the Basque coast the sea and the mountains, but is very windy. Worth the €2,50 entrance fees, but not for the faint of heart with the number of stairs and the stairwell quite dark at the bottom and snug at the top where the lighthouse narrows.

The other option for similar views is then to walk across the footbridge to Rocher de la Vierge, which is a big rock in the sea that Napoloeon III planned to use to anchor a port he planned to create. He apparently didn’t get that far, but at least built the bridge so there was access to this peninsula from which you can admire the vast ocean in front and the landscape behind.

We’d planned our time well and as our 3 hour parking (metred at €4) was up, we were done. A very pleasant roadtrip all in all.

Back in San Sebastian, we deposited the car in the same neighbourhood it had been parked the night before – at the top of the hill near a grand old cemetery. It was a beautiful sunny evening so we decided to redo the walking tour from the previous day, with more patience and for better photos.

We didn’t even need to follow the map and as we now seemed to know our way around San Sebastian, even being able to find our favourite pintxos spot in the heart of the muddle of crossroads in Parte Vieja!

Back at Astlana 1960, we had txakoli and Keler and made an attempt at pintxos, ordering bacalao croquettes and bacalao with onions (bacalao is cod, which I’d never had before). The place was as full as the previous night, but luckily we got a table (well, a keg barrel and barstools). We seemed to be the only people that lingered and in the time it took us to have 3 drinks and pinxtos – which we ordered one at a time with our drinks – the clientele had turned over several times.

With the food all laid out on the counter, the experience seemed unlike any restaurants we have at home – people walk in and join the queue that runs the width of the bar; when they get to the front they load up a side plate with cold tapas off the platters on the bar counter and order hot tapas and drinks from the barman; then they move away and stand (mostly) around little cocktail table peninsulas affixed to the walls (some inside, mostly on the outside walls in the street; barman delivers hot tapas; eat, drink, move on… and presumably repeat. It didn’t seem like a whole lot of food was eaten in a meal – and it was a very expensive way to eat (although there is no obvious price displayed so this didn’t seem to be an issue). It also seemed to follow the Spanish disregard for mealtimes and as many people were filtering in at 22h00 when we left as were there when we arrived two hours prior!