Wrapping up this leg of our travel adventure

So we have been back in Cheltenham UK for just over a month now and have obviously been neglecting our blog (sorry!!). So much has been going on and it is difficult to stay up to date with it as I’m sure you can imagine. I’ve got to a point that I’m so behind, that I’ve struggled to be bothered to write anything at all! But, this blog is important….not only for all of you who want to be kept updated with our adventures, but also for our own record because we want to look back on this some day and remember the details that are so easily forgotten. So…. it’s time to bite the bullet and put those of you who eagerly await our posts, out of your misery. I’m going to try and break this one up into a few posts and I may not get it all done tonight, so bear with me! We still have our time in France to cover as well as settling back into ‘normal’ life – who knows what that really means for us right now! So we’ll start with leaving Spain and making our way across the French border where we spent 6 nights (Nov 19-25).

We left Gijon in Spain after our ordeal with the Policia and we stayed another night in San Sebastian on our way over the French border. The first thing we noticed when entering France was the complete and drastic change in scenery! We went from beautiful green, rolling hills and mountains with such a diverse array of architecture in Spain, to an absolutely flat plain, with scenery that was dead looking and every house almost identical – cream render with red tiled roofs! Hmmm, in that moment we wanted to go back to Spain….but we had to slap ourselves and we decided to give it a chance. So glad we did!

It was about 2pm and we were getting quite peckish – almost ready for lunch, well at least in Spain it was. We neglected to check what time the French have their lunch and when we drove into a small village to find food, the streets were deserted and there was no food in sight! We walked around for a while trying to find somewhere that would serve us food, but the best we could do was coffee so we ended up snacking on what we had in the car. Mental note – the French have lunch from 12noon-2pm. We were actually a bit relieved because it was hard to get used to the Spanish meal times. We did have the chance to try out some French speaking with the waitress that served us coffee which was quite amusing because we had spent no time whatsoever even glancing at our French phrasebook or learning anything from it until we crossed over the border. It was a little challenging (to say the least) to switch from trying to speak Spanish (after just starting to get the hang of that), now we were switching to another language again! So needless to say, we continued to speak Spanish to French people automatically and we wondered why they looked at us weird. Then we would realise and have to correct ourselves! Haha! It didn’t help that most of the pronunciations in our phrasebook for French were wrong, so we found out!

Anyway, we arrived at our B&B just outside the gorgeous little medieval town of Saint Emilion in one of the major wine regions of France (half hour from Bordeaux) at about 5pm. We had a good start with our host (Agnes) who couldn’t speak much English…..Tim started off by saying in French “hello my name is English”!! LOL! I realised what he wanted to say was do you speak English! It was a good laugh which helped to break the ice! We settled into our room and managed to get some recommendations of where to eat in Saint Emilion, then we made our way our for dinner. The meal was a bit of a let down compared to what we’d had in Spain – Tim had steak which had to be sent back because it was still mooing on the plate and I had chicken….well it was all bone actually. I searched for any sign of meat under the chicken skin, but it was nowhere to be found! The poor chicken obviously wasn’t alive long enough to grow any meat! A bit disappointing, but we weren’t too phased because we were in such an amazingly beautiful place! We wandered around the streets for a while and admired the cobblestones and ancient architecture lit up with the reflection of the street lights. We couldn’t wait to explore the village in the daylight! We drove around for a while, trying to navigate the one way streets and came across the tiniest laneway we’d ever seen and we wondered if cars were even meant to attempt to drive through. The side mirrors were literally an inch from a stone wall on both sides of the car!

We came across a wine bar and decided to go in, but before we did we came across a timid stray dog that we had seen earlier that day. I’m such a sap when I see any animal that doesn’t look like it has a home. All I wanted to do was take him home!! Bit tricky considering I was in a foreign country though. I can thank my Mum for developing the desire to ‘foster’ any animal or person that looks like they need some love! Hehe. We got chatting to one of the locals who also took pity on the poor dog which looked like it hadn’t eaten for some time and she spent the whole evening texting her friends to see if anyone would take it in. Meanwhile, the dog slept on the front door mat inside the wine bar – it had obviously found a temporary home. Thankfully, by the end of the night, this local woman had been successful in finding it a home! A happy ending……needless to say I slept well that night!

In the same wine bar, we met a wine importer from Brazil (Fernando) and his associates who were buying bottle after bottle and sharing it around, including with us! Sweet! We found out later that we actually drank wine from a 200 Euro bottle! Ahhh! We were also personally invited by Fernando to stay at his home in Brazil! We could not believe we were in a tiny French village drinking very expensive wine for free and then being invited to stay at some rich dude’s house in Brazil!! A memorable experience to say the least! Another local guy invited us to go and have some wine tastings in his shop the next day which we gladly accepted.

So….the next post will finish off our time in France and I’m going to be really slack and dot point the highlights otherwise I really am going to be here forever, or so it seems.

Policia Encounters - in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On the morning of Wednesday November 18, we were packing our stuff getting ready to leave Gijon for the last time and head toward San Sebastian. Our car was parked a couple of blocks away in an uncontrolled parking zone so we could avoid paying for parking. I (Tim) decided that it would be best to bring the car closer and pay for half an hour so we didn’t have to cart all our stuff two times over to the car. As I approached the car, I noticed that there was an orange cone at the rear of my car and no cars parked behind. I thought it was just zoned off for no reason that I knew of. I got in the car, started it up and made an awkward three point turn and made my way on the right hand side, navigating my way down a lot of one-way streets mind you, to park the car closer. As I crossed the lights, made a left turn and took my time making my way toward the park, all of a sudden I saw in my rear vision mirror and little blue Peugeot 206 with a single blue light on its roof speed up overtake me and cut me off with all sirens and lights blazing, Hollywood style!!!! At this point I was feeling quite calm and thought they had just pulled me over because of the GB number plates. Four undercover cops hopped out the car and approached the car rather cautiously, one guy with his hand inside his jacket. At this point I began to feel a little nervous because I knew he was holding a gun and they were going to question me in Spanish which I knew little of. The police began interrogating me while I was still in the car and I couldn’t understand a word they where saying, just the tone. ‘Lo Siento. No Entiendo!’ (sorry, I don’t understand) was all I could say in the panic! They made me get out of the car and stand on the pavement. I was now really beginning to shit my pants as they were all very serious. I tried to communicate by speaking in very limited and broken Spanish and lots of hand waving only to have them tell me to ‘Be Silent’ and ‘Keep Calm’. This seemed to be all the English they could speak. They wouldn’t allow me to call anyone or do anything!!! I started to really sweat when one copper got my car and drove off. I thought he was taking it away!!! It was ok, he was only moving it out the road of traffic. Because I couldn’t understand them, who knew what they were doing with my car??? I asked what I had done wrong with one of the more helpful cops who told me (in broken English) that I had run a red light… I thought to myself ‘All this fuss over a red light?!’ I couldn’t even remember which red light I could’ve run? I didn’t see anymore lights… Finally after lots of Spanglish, more hand waving and a thorough car search, Sally called my mobile Hallelujah! I told her to get her butt down stairs with our passports and our Spanish phrase book so we could ask the cops what they wanted to do with us. One of the cops looked at our phrasebook with much amusement when he read the line 'These drugs are for my personal use'. We were told we had to follow them to the police station so with me in the driver’s seat, Sal in the back, cop next to me in the front and a cop next to Sal in the back, we made our way to the cop station. We walked into the station with all eyes on us… we felt so conspicuous! Spot the tourist… Not one copper in the station could speak English and they had no access to an interpreter! No joke! After failing to get in touch with Marcos at his restaurant we finally got hold of Adriana who spoke to the police and interpreted for us - apparently the police were looking for a couple of similar description to Sal and I who stole a car like ours with British number plates and were supposedly on the run in Spain… Lovely coincidence! I guess we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time! Unfortunately we had to go the police headquarters to sign a book to say they had checked our passports. After two hours with the police they escorted us to Avante Garde where Marcos works so we could pick up his keys so we could get our stuff. One of the nicer cops who had been the most helpful gave Marcos an explanation of our situation and with a very warm farewell he let us go free!... Yah! We couldn’t get out of Gijon fast enough after that. Good story for the Grandkids. One that we’ll certainly not forget in a hurry!

We ended up arriving in San Sebastian at about 7pm and hung out at the hotel for the night (we were exhausted from the day) before leaving for Saint Emilion, France in the morning.

Tim.

Sal's bit: So I was waiting for Tim to get the car so we could pack it to leave for San Sebastian....'geez, he was taking his time! What the hell is he doing' I thought to myself. So I gave him a call, only to hear on the other end...'Thank God you called, I've been pulled over by the cops and I can't understand a word they're saying. Can you come down here with our passports and phrasebook!' So with a half blow dried head, I went down there with my heart racing the whole way. We were both a bit shaken up about it all, but in the end we didn't have anything to hide, oh except for the drugs lol, so we just stayed calm and went along for the ride. Because in the end, that's what it was...an entertaining ride and a bloody good story.

Our final days in Spain (for now)

We left the small village of Zarautz on Sat Nov 14 and headed for Santander where we arrived late. I was having another bad day with pain, so I (Sal) hung out in the pension (budget hotel) and watched Packed to the Rafters on the laptop while Tim went out on the town with Marcos & Adriana (again- boo hoo). Our last day of travel back to Gijon with Marcos and Adriana was spent stopping at some stunning coastal villages and having another 3 course lunch along the way. I think we were all feeling pretty tired from the full week that we had and we were ready for a good sleep. It is pretty incredible to now reflect on the experiences we had during that week and the privilege it was to be travelling with locals who also happened to be our friends. We got to experience the Spanish culture from the inside so to speak and for us, that was pretty special.

When we got back, I think we all needed a bit of space from each other or at least to get out of each other’s pockets. So for the next couple of days, Tim and I did our own thing while Marcos and Adri prepared to go back to work. We savoured the sunshine in Gijon, explored the coastal city a bit and we ate in Marcos’ restaurant Avante Garde for the second time. We can say now, that eating Marcos’ food was the biggest culinary highlight of our time in Spain – now considering Spain is famous for its food, that’s a pretty big statement. Marcos, you are a veeeeery talented man! All we can say is thank you so much! In fact, we have to say a massive thank you to Marcos and Adri who are probably reading this, for taking us in and making us feel like part of their family. We won’t forget their genuineness and hospitality.

So the day we left Gijon – November 19, was an interesting day to say the least. Read on...

Sal.

San Sebastian

After an entertaining day on Tim’s 29^th birthday, we drove to San Sebastian – Spain’s gastronomic capital and a stunning seaside town that is obviously a very popular place to visit. We booked into a luxurious four-star hotel where Adriana managed to get us 40% off through her connections – sweet! It was nice to say the least and the bed was like sleeping on clouds!

When we arrived in San Sebastian, the weather was borderline monsoonal – crazy wind and rain, we didn’t know if we wanted to leave the hotel! However there was obviously too much to see and amazing food to be tried so we braved the weather, hopped into a taxi and went out to a pretty fancy restaurant where the food was incredible. Despite not living up to our previous gastronomic experience at Marcos’ restaurant in Gijon it was impressive nonetheless. The bill of about AU$400 for all of us did hurt the hip pocket a little bit, but asked ourselves – when do we really get to experience restaurants like this? That was our excuse anyway….ha! We finished dinner at about 12:30am and we were all ready for bed after a long drive that day, but the question was, how were we going to hit the sack with our bellies so full! I think we both felt a bit sick laying down that night and we woke in the morning still feeling like we’d just eaten!

Unfortunately I woke up that morning with excruciating pain in my lower back and hip – as most of you would know, the recovery after my hip operation has been extremely complicated, but I honestly thought I was past the worst of it. When I woke in this much pain, you can imagine how devastated I was….I wasn’t leaving the hotel room that day, because I couldn’t walk! So, for me this was one of my lowest points of the whole trip….Tim went out with Marcos and Adriana to check out the beautiful sights of San Sebastian while I was stuck inside four walls. I couldn’t understand why this was happening and it was that day I felt extremely homesick. I desperately wanted and still want, to experience to the full everything I can on this trip and being limited by my body is a real downer. The thing I have to keep holding onto is everything usually makes sense in hindsight. I have learned a lot about life and myself through all of this – the journey continues. At least I got to eat the entire contents of the mini bar (almost) that day! lol

So as I said, Tim went out with Marcos and Adri that day – here’s his version of events….

Started off the day on the foreshore at a placed called the Windcomb. All along the foreshore were many sculptures by a well-known artist, which were amazing. After spending a couple of hours walking along the foreshore we arrived at the Old Quarter of San Sebastian. The Old Quarter is filled with narrow laneways plenty of Pinchos bars. Again the vino and pinchos started flowing again as we proceeded from bar to bar, I was starting to feel quite sick from going to bed on a full stomach every night and really needed a break from the excessive food and alcohol lifestyle of the Spanish. On this particalur day the King of Spain was in town to open a new section of the aquarium. The atmosphere of the place seemed to be on edge as there was a lot of police activity. I grew to learn from Marcos and Adriana that the reason there were a lot of police was because there is a known terrorist group that fights for the independence of the Basque country from Spain. They are sort of an extremist group that have terrorist bombing attacks from time to time to make their point. Many of the police were wearing balaclavas to hide their identity to avoid being personally targeted by the terrorists. As we continued through the old quarter we came to a bar were I could tell Marcos and Adriana were a little edgy about entering (which I didn’t fully understand the reason at the time) but we decided to go in anyway. There were some crazy looking characters smoking weed, not really caring about the fact that it was illegal. Marcos told me the police turn a blind eye to it as long as they are not doing it in public; the police have bigger fish to fry. I saw there were Basque flags available at the bar and wanted to buy one only to be told by Marcos and Adriana that I should buy one elsewhere otherwise I would most probably be directly funding the terrorist group. So I left it…

Already feeling full, we made our way for another gastronomic session at a restaurant on a hill were I tried salmon roe (eggs) for the first time and loved it! It was a good meal but I still think Marcos’s cuisine was better. Although the chocolate dessert I had was absolutely amazing. It was filled with chocolate pieces that crackled in your mouth; a bit like the chocolate I tried a couple of days ago. The views of the city from the restaurant were beautiful to say the least.

After being more than full to the brim, I decided to return to the hotel to give Sal some company because I felt really sorry that she had missed out on such a great experience. We hung out there until about 8pm when Sal was feeling a bit better and was keen to go out for some non-minibar food. So we went out and managed to eat more pinchos! Not sure how that was possible!

Sal – Thankfully, I was feeling a bit better the next day (Thurs Nov 12) and was able to get out to see the beautiful city of San Sebastian. The sun was shining and it was about 20 degrees so I was loving it! Although I was still feeling a bit sore, it’s amazing what a bit of the sun’s rays on your skin can do for making you feel a whole lot better. San Sebastian is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen…..every building has been so creatively built, with the old and new perfectly blended together and it’s set right on the ocean surrounded by mountains. Tim and I walked the laneways of the old quarter, ate more pinchos, had another 3 course lunch and wandered along the boardwalk on the foreshore. It was such a relaxing day that we were able to spend on our own as Marcos and Adriana went to experience a Michelin star restaurant at 180Euros per head!!! It would have been nice to join them, but we just could not justify 300 Australian dollars each for lunch no matter how amazing the food was. Maybe for another time, when we’re richer!

Marcos and Adriana picked us up at about 7pm and we drove to our next stop on our way back to along the coast – a small village called Zarautz.

A birthday to remember (finally, a post from Tim)

So it was my birthday on the 9th, I was hoping something special would be in store. As it turned out it was a huge day! Just wait…. Let me expand on that. The day started out with a whole miscommunication from Marcos about what time we need to leave that morning. Apparently, we needed to be up and down for breakfast by 9am and then leaving at 10. Well we got up on time but the bathroom wasn’t available, so instantly I new we weren’t going to be on time. When I made my own way down for breakfast there was a concerned look on everybody’s face who were present (those who couldn’t speak English). I could tell they were wondering why Sal wasn’t there. How do you communicate to people when you don’t speak their language that we were running late because the bathroom wasn’t available??? Well it resulted in lots of arm waving and broken singular words that I don’t think I understood myself.

After everything was clarified we finally said goodbye to those who were present of the family we stayed with and set off for the day. Amazing to see that even in the Spanish culture the old men cry when they see people they care about leave and not know when they may see each other again.

Our first stop was a winery in the Rioja region (don’t remember the name sorry) where we had a tour and tastings. The cellar was built deep into the underground some by hand many years ago. Exciting times seeing how wine is produced in other countries! The wine tasting was good and would say it could give SA a run for its money on some wines.

We then made our way with Marcos, Adriana and the their good friends (who couldn’t speak English mind you) to the little town where we were stopping for the night. I must mention again that people here don’t do lunch and dinner at 12 and 6, hence the reason we were drinking vino (wine) and pinchos (Spanish finger food) right through to past midnight! We went from bar to bar in a horseshoe shape ordering pinchos and vino in each new bar we entered. On our bar hopping adventures, one bar was offering wine from a drinking contraption called a Porron. A Porron (pronounced pirrone) is like a small version of a decanter but with a long skinny spout for pouring directly into your month. A Northern Spanish tradition of drinking wine with no wine glasses involved lots of fun and spilt wine. The barman heard that it was my birthday and gave me a Porron as a gift - stoked! Lots of fun to be had with it when we get back to Oz! Not sure what I'd do if it got broken though....mmm. When we finally settled in the last bar for the evening, Sal had a couple of baileys and set of to bed as she is a light weight now days, while we carried on to the wee hours of the morning, carrying on the vino theme before moving on to some serious local rum and coke cocktails which made the communication thing a whole lot more interesting. With a bit of liquid courage into me I now thought I was a linguistic master trying to interpret everything and be involved in the Spanish spoken conversations… to no prevail, so it seemed.

As dawn approached we decided that we all should hit the sack as it was 3 am and we had another day of travelling ahead of us. All the guys decided that we would meet downstairs for coffee at 8.30 in what turned out to be a failed attempt of all other parties but me as they rocked up at 9 where I had already decided to go back to bed a long time ago. So much for being punctual.

Anyway, it turned out to be a brilliant birthday – certainly one to remember. To top it off, I got 30 personal messages on facebook to wish me a happy birthday! Thanks everyone!