Adiós Espana (Friday 26th July 2013)

Today we end our short but very enjoyable visit to Spain. One thing I forgot to comment on since arriving in Spain was the strong identity of each of Spain's ethnic groups. There are 17 altogether known and autonomous communities being formed at various stages after the new Spanish Constitution was adopted in 1978. The boundaries of each region are based primarily on the language spoken and the ethnicity of a given geographic area. This was no more evident when we reached San Sebastian in the Basque Country. The Basque language is completely different to the language of Catalonia or the language known as Spanish. When I was chatting (and I use the term very loosely) with the owner the Pension I asked if he spoke Francaise (French). He understood enough to say, “basque”, which I interpreted as “I only speak Basque”. BTW, the comment yesterday “ On the advice of the owner” is actually the outcome of a 15 minute conversation between us and an interpreter he called over finally nail it. All he wanted to say was “Don't waste your time driving into San Sebastian tonight, catch the bus, it'll be cheaper, easier and quicker”. I was really touched by the continued efforts of the elderly gentleman to get the message across to me to make our holiday just that little bit better.

Anyway, back to today's adventures. We traveled about 20 minutes before we hit the French border and, as expected, just drove on through. Breakfast was yet to be eaten so we pulled of the Peage into the sea-side town of Bairritz, grabbed some croissants and parked down by the Atlantic Ocean where found a coffee to complement the pastry. There was a round of the Women's World Surfing Championship held at this beach recently. The water was full of swimmers and surfers so we just couldn't resist the temptation. Back to the underground car-park we went, got changed in the darkness behind the car, left all our important stuff locked in the car and headed back to the beach and the surf!

The water was perfect, the waves were plentiful and big enough for the board-riders to be out in force, the view back to the historic town was terrific, the sun was warm (~23 degrees) and the breeze was light. All in all, a great way to spend an hour in the morning.

On to our next destination, Lourdes. The journey started with a number of detours that GPS-girl didn't like as the city of Bayonne and the surrounding region are in the middle of five days of celebrations. This is still Basque country, even though we are in France. The ethnic group extend well into both countries. The streets were full of men, women and children dressed in white with a red sash tied around the waist and a red scarf over the shoulders. They were like a crowd heading to the MCG on the day of a big match, coming from all directions to the city's football stadium to watch the Basque Pelota matches being held there. Don't ask me what that is.

We made it out of Bayonne and onto the road to Lourdes arriving at about 3pm, booked into a hotel and chilled for the rest of the afternoon. We were all in need of an afternoon nap. We bought a bottle at one of the many tourist shops to gather some of the special Lourdes water tomorrow, then had dinner just up the road before heading home for an early night.