Day 9 - Bordeaux, France to Santander, Spain

 

After five amazing days in France we would move today to Spain. We were looking forward to that indeed as we can understand and also speak the language quite fluently and as we have found there is much more intimacy in a conversation when you are able to converse in local language. We were also looking forward to visit Basque country and specially see the high mountains. Up to now we had not encountered any real mountains in our trip and today we would see the Pyrenees and the next day the Picos de Europa. And of course looking forward to the Spanish cuisine, paella ... tortilla ... chorizo ... gazpacho ... jamon ... dulce con leche and many other delicacies.

But I am moving ahead too fast. As we had arrived very late in the evening at our hotel the night before we were not able to admire the country side or the actual hotel we were staying in. This hotel we had chosen using the Logis site (highly recommended way to find accomodations in places you do not know) and this was how they characterized our hotel "a charming place, with a lovely garden, providing ten very comfortable bedrooms. As soon as the nice season arrives, you can take your breakfast or have lunch outside on the terrace overlooking flowers and trees."

 

I was looking forward to the breakfast part which turned out to be even better than I had anticipated. Quality of food was excellent and couple who owned the hotel were very service oriented.

 

As we were having breakfast we heard someone shout "Portugal, Portugal ..." (as a painful reminder Portugal that evening would play Spain in the semi-finals for the European cup). It turned out a young lady that worked in the hotel was Portuguese and was very excited about Portugal chances that evening. So we chatted a bit.

We had planned to do the trip into Spain hugging the coastline and stop for lunch at Biarritz but plans sometimes are made to be broken we threw that plan to the wind and changed our route to go through Lourdes, France. Paula was very excited to go see a town where Mary appeared to Bernadette Souberiois on eighteen occasions and it has become a major place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and of miraculous healings. I was excited when I read that Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France, the word Pyrénées doing the trick.

I also knew of this area quite well as it is usually used as stage/s for the Tour de France. This year there were two stages (15 and 16) that would use Pau as the main town around where the stages would be finishing and starting. Stage 16 would be specially difficult with two Highest Category mountains, Aubisque and Tourmalet and two Category One climbs, Aspin and Peyresourde. The Frenchman Thomas Voeckler would win the stage and take the polka dot (king of the mountain) jersey which he would wear until arrival in Paris.

 

 

The ride into Lourdes is very beautiful and the closer we get to the Pyrenees it just gets better.

 

The day was very hot at 100F (38C) and while Paula visited Lourdes I baby sat the bike and had lunch just outside. There were a lot of people on the streets and as the town is very charming we took a number of interesting pictures.

 

 

 

We also had lunch in Lourdes and then we saddled up and took a nice winding road next to the river northbound until we got highway and then turned west towards Saint Jean-de-Luz as we had heard this was a very nice town next to the sea.

 

It was quite late so we could not stop and just drove past the town towards San Sebastian then Bilbao. As we were leaving Bilbao, the heavens opened up and we had to stop in a tunnel to put the rain gear on. After being there for about 5 minutes we were told (through the loudspeaker closest to us) that we should not be stopping in the tunnel (although we were out of traffic's way) to change clothes. As it was raining quite hard and we did not dare to go out there without the proper clothing, we accelerated the process and got ready.

The riding into Santander was quite technical and we found a car that was going at acceptable speed and just shadowed it until the outskirts of Santander. As we were arriving and Portugal was playing Spain that evening for the semi finals of the European cup we listened for hooting and noise in the streets. As we heard nothing we assumed Portugal had won. As it turned out, game had gone into penalties and it was still going on. As we parked at the hotel and took off our helmets we heard a lot of commotion coming from the bar and then a loud shout immediately followed by clapping and more shouts. Spain had just won by penalties. We were happy to have arrived safe and sound after a very long day but quite sad that yet again we could not beat the La Roja. Spain went on to eventually win the cup and to all La Roja fans ... Muchas Felicitaciones !

We were allowed to leave the GSA just in front of the hotel for the night. We were very happy we had chosen a good hotel with room service which we used that evening.

As we arrived on Day 9 to Spain here is the original Eviva Espana performed by Belgian singer Samantha in 1971.

 

For the next days we would be in Spain and we were looking forward to ride the Picos de Europa and El Camino ... Ole !

Click HERE for all pictures of Day 9

 

Posted by Armando