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Due to my laziness in keeping up to date with my blog I am going to smoosh Bordeaux, France and San Sebastián, Spain, into one blog. So here goes....
After Paris we took a fast TGV train to Bordeaux. Bordeaux is a beautiful old city that is easily walkable but we once again took advantage of the public bike system to get around. A day can be easily spent looking at Bordeaux's must-see buildings and sampling of its wines. The wines weren't particularly to our taste as are much drier and more oaky than our usual Pinot noir of choice. Ideally, you would do a wine tour to the small towns just out of Bordeaux such as Saint Emilion, for some wine tasting and sightseeing, but our budget didn't extend to this! Instead of wine tasting we decided the next day would involve a day trip to Arcachon, a seaside town just a 50 minute train ride up the coast. Arcachon's draw cards were being by the sea, hence beaches (Bordeaux has a river but with the temperature being over 30 degrees this didn't quite cut it for us) and also a large sand dune. Getting off the train we were pleasantly surprised by Arcachon's small town charm, it has a nice promenade and jetty at the main city beach and a market at which we purchased beach towels. To get out to the sand dune and beaches further out of town, we hired bikes and set off on the coastal cycle paths. The sand dune, Dune du Pilat, is the largest sand dune in Europe and it was exactly as you would expect. A very large pile of sand but with amazing views as it really is huge, specifically 3km long, 500m wide and 110m high, it is moving inland at 5m a year and it swallowed a hotel at one stage! It has stairs up the side so you can get to the top, mandatory photos of beautiful seas views and then run uncontrollably back down the side of it. We then plonked ourselves on a nice sandy beach and spent the remainder of the afternoon reading and sunbathing. Although probably not on a must-see list for a European tour, Arcachon was none the less, a very satisfying day out. On our final day in Bordeaux we did some more city sightseeing but due to the searing sun and high humidity Dan decided he needed to go for a swim.... So we took the city tram to Bordeaux lake. Now as a New Zealander and one from the bottom of the South Island, where we know how to do lakes, Blordeaux lake was somewhat of an anticlimax. For those in the know it resembles Lake Rotoroa (not Rotorua) in Hamilton, minus the duck s***. It did however tick the box for a swim box, even if it did mean being in a penned off area full of small children. I didn't put my head under the water for fear of urine and worse. So Bordeaux was done, we didn't really do it justice due to being cheap tourists and not wine touring but we enjoyed our few days pottering around regardless.
Next on our to do list... San Sebastián, crossing the border out of France and heading into Spain. The next story is one that for anyone who knows Dan will have them shaking their heads but will not surprise them. We had an early morning train, we made it with 7ish minutes to spare. Good. Dan then lamented that he hadn't purchased a Bordeux patch (he has been collecting patches to sew on his pack in each place we visit) and needed a coffee so he got off the train to run some errands. I thought this interesting with only a few minutes to spare but thought he's a big boy and knows how trains work, he will be fine. I couldn't resist saying "ok, but don't miss the train". Nostradamus eat your heart out. I heard the conductors whistle blow, meaning if your not on the train then get on the train right now. I then saw Dan with two expresso coffees (I will make this clear, I never asked for a coffee) walking towards the train out the window. I hear the doors close. He tries to open the doors. He can't. The conductor tells him for security reasons the doors won't open. The train leaves. Yes that's right, Dan was on the train, he got off the train, it left without him. I am on the train with both our big packs and day packs. Dans cellphone is on the train. Did I mention he wasn't on the train? I contemplated getting off at the next stop and going back but the kind French conductors on the train assured me they would have Dan (the idiot) on the next train and I would wait for him in Hendaye (the French border town before San Sebastián). I had to waddle down the platform at Hendaye from the last carriage with two 15kg large packs and two 3kg day packs. No one offered to help, I assume they thought "look at that stupid tourist with too much luggage, I'm not helping her". I then had to sit in the waiting area for close to 3 hours without moving as there was nowhere to store our luggage. Dan got off the next train looking sheepish, I refrained from saying anything and we arrived in San Sebastián about 4 hours later than expected.
San Sebastián is great. There is a nice inner city beach and really good food. We stayed in an apartment we found on airbnb, the host was a lovely lady who didn't speak any English but this didn't stop her talking in rapid Spanish that we didn't understand anyway. The apartment was in a perfect location in the old town and we decided on the spot to stay an extra night. The next 3ish days involved sand, sun and food. The main attraction of the food in San Sebastián is pinxtos, small portions of food like tapas. It really is a great way to eat as you can fit a whole lot of different things into a meal. The first night we blew the budget a little bit on fancy places that did things like smoked cod that came out smoking on a piece of charcoal, stuffed tomatoes and capsicum and mushroom risotto. Weirdly, my favourite thing even with all the gourmet food available, was a egg and potato omelette thing they call a tortilla. San Sebastián was also crawling with Australians, it was like every Australian between the ages of 18-25 was currently on holiday there. You almost forgot you were in Spain. So after sunning ourselves and gorging ourselves for 3 days it was time to move on to a new country.....Portugal and my first experience of an overnight Spanish train. I'm happy to report that Dan managed to get on this train and stay on it, everyone was happy.
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