journeywithmadonna

……..became our theme song as we began to realize that spending a little time on the camino was at the mercy of the weather. We left San Sebastián on Monday morning and had already changed our tentative plans to hike part of the camino because of bad weather that was settling in for a few days. We praised ourselves for being flexible and then realized that you would have to be stupid to head out in the weather we were experiencing. It was not cold but in one day we experienced cloud, sun, mild rain showers, torrential rain, thunder, lightening……….and the worst of all, sleet again! We were travelling the camino by car and rather than feeling guilty because we weren’t walking, we were thrilled that we were under cover. We were driving on coastal roads, Coste Verde, that brought us along many seaside villages but the weather was so wild in terms of wind and rain mainly, we could hardly stand up. We drove through some great spots and finally by 3pm we thought we should settle in somewhere and booked a two bedroom apt. in Ribadeo. Lone behold we did not expect this little seaside village of 10,000 people would provide us with the best meal since we came to Spain. Trip Advisor, on the other hand, knew different! We totally enjoyed, finally, paella and duck and all the trimmings.
We are headed south tomorrow and the plan is still to do part of the camino but so much depends on the weather and it is not looking good.. Thus far we have had a wonderful trip in Spain and although hiking the Route of the Monasteries did not work for a variety of reasons we are hopeful that a few days on the camino will…..and, if not, we will make the best of it.  No matter what,  we are not dealing with white Juan II which we heard is on it’s way to Nova Scotia…..stay safe!

……..going for a swim, but then very quickly forgot about it!

…….overlooking the water where people our age, and older, are going for a swim!

……..while the black clouds quickly bring rain!

……….when it began to hail on our planned beautiful walk along the bike path to the ocean and onto San Sebastián city centre!  Fortunately we were right in front of the bus stop so we ran for cover and jumped on the bus two minutes later for a dry ride into town.   And then the rain poured right after we got off the bus so we had to take cover in a cafe with a cappucino…..no problem once you learn to live in the moment and go with the flow…….and give in to your addiction!   Shortly thereafter the sun came out and we walked around this gorgeous old city with a population of almost 200,000 for about two hours.   Not long after the above picture was taken we were walking along the boardwalk admiring the beach and the surf when this rogue wave came ashore and totally covered us in salt water……….what could you do but run and laugh and think “what the hell?”  Good thing we had nothing planned and no place to go so we continued our walk and then decided we needed a brandy to warm us up. I decided I wanted mine in a Spanish coffee and when I asked for that the bartender didn’t have a clue as I was trying to explain what I wanted.   He called over someone who spoke better English, we chatted as I explained to him what we call a Spanish coffee in Canada and then he told me there was no such thing.  Next he rattled off something to the bartender and back came this wonderful Spanish coffee which warmed me up………success!  San Sebastián is beautiful even if the weather wasn’t  and is situated on a shell shaped bay with two beautiful beaches.   The city is well known for its art festivals and the theatre festival is in May, the jazz festival in July, the classical music festival in August and of course the international film festival in September.  Cuisine plays a big part in local life and I was telling Jim that many Basque men belong to gastronomic clubs where they gather to cook, eat, drink and talk.  He seemed quite interested until I mentioned that women are invited to their meetings but they don’t partake in the preparation of the food…….you never know!    We also treated ourselves to a chocolate treat from the fabulous bakery we found today and while there a man and his wife came in.   As he heard us struggle in Spanish he began to chat and recommended a basque dessert from the San Sebastián region.   As we were buying what he suggested for a treat he asked us where we were from and when we said Canada he told us that 300 feet from where we were the Basque fisherman used to head out for Newfoundland.   He wondered if we knew where that was and we proudly told him so…..and he in turn told us where we could get some good baccalieu/cod!   That night we had a feed…….and the rain continued!   Here’s hoping for tomorrow and some good hiking.

……….and headed towards San Sebastián in the north was the plan for the day. We took off around 9:30 because it was a 5-6 hour drive and the weather wasn’t looking great……….cloudy, rainy and a high of 12 degrees…….yuk! But no problem really as getting out of Madrid was easy and although we stayed off the super-duper highway the secondary highway was great. We had an apartment booked in San Sebastián through air bnb and Saint GPS brought us right to the doorway where we met Carol, from San Francisco, although she’s been here for 30 years. She was great and gave us all the info we needed and then offered to drive us into San Sebastián as we were sick of driving and needed to pick up a few things……..OK, it was beer and wine! Given that it was such a rainy, wet day we decided to pick up some quick stuff for supper and some wine, of course, and settle in for the night. It is worth mentioning here that one of the top ten restaurants in the world according to Michelin, called Arzak, is a five minute walk from our apartment.  Apparently you have to book way in advance for a meal and our host informed that on a Saturday night it would be  impossible to get in without a reservation.   She said she hasn’t been in years but that our guidebook would be accurate when it quotes between $210-240 per person.  To make matters worse it is closed on Sundays, thank God says Jim!  We googled Arzak, San Sebastián for more reviews through trip advisor because from the outside it looks like nothing but sounds like it’s fabulous in the kitchen.  Anyway we settled  in for the night and are  hoping that the rain stops and that the sun shines by morning. The plan is a hike to the beach, followed by a hike into San Sebastián and a walk around the city and by the end of the day find a great restaurant for a wonderful Spanish meal. When I told Carol, our host’s friend, that we were looking for some great Spanish food she said you mean ‘great Basque food’ and I just nodded my head. It’s important to know what you’re looking for and to understand the political climate. Stay tuned and touch base tomorrow.

……..was such a treat after my nightmare! It was so well laid out and one of the first things we did, after coffee, was to take the hop on/hop off bus tour to give us a sense of the city. We spent about 2 1/2 hours, with a short coffee break, discovering this beautiful part of the city and it’s history. Madrid today has a population of 3 1/2 million and is the capital of Spain but like the rest of the country it has quite the history which if you are interested, you must google, as this little blog would turn into a boring book if I tried to repeat it here. We really just explored old Madrid not only by the tourist bus but also on foot and were very pleasantly surprised that it was not as easy to get lost here as in some of the smaller walled cities which, of course, are not nearly as well laid out. The weather was good which made the walking great and so we toured for two days. One of the main stops for a few hours during which we got a little overwhelmed was Museo del Prado. This museum contains the world’s greatest assembly of Spanish paintings from the 12th to the 19th centuries, including works from Velazquez and Goya. There’s way too much to tell you about Museum del Prado except that we came away, I think, with a greater appreciation of Spain’s history through its artists. The Prado has collections not only from Spain but also from Flemish, Dutch and Italian, French and German painters. There’s so much to do in Madrid and we barely scraped the surface; this is definitely a city that’s worth coming back to.

…..Is a two minute walk from our apartment and a great way to start the day. It is very well used especially by runners and people out for their morning/afternoon/evening walks. In the mornings we walked through here to arrive in Old Madrid.

…….will only become more beautiful once the flowers are in bloom.

…….in Old Madrid is unbelievable; building after building after building – all with a story that I cannot truly remember!