San Sebastián y Biarritz

The date is November 18th - 19th, 2011 - The days of our last excursion with ISA to San Sebastian and Biarritz. To San Sebastian, Spain the first day and then to Biarritz, France the next. The picture above is the beautiful bay in San Sebastian. We took a little tram car, called a funicular, up to the top. Beaches are so photogenic, plus it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. I don't have much history to tell you about this place... Although I do know that they used to smuggle people in and out of Spain through this port during the Spanish Civil War, where they would be taken to Biarritz or St. Jean de Luz for a safe place to stay or continue they're journey through Spain to get intelligence information.

Here's a little tour of San Sebastian:

Beautiful, right?

Now, off to Biarritz for a day!

Another gorgeous beach town just two and a half hours away from Bilbao. Everything was different there - the architecture, the people, the feel, etc. France definitely felt like a different place; however, I could just be making that up in my head. If I had decided to speak French instead of Spanish and I knew about this place I would've picked it for my studies. Absolutely beautiful and it smelled like crepes.

If life was a postcard this place would be it!

Next week: Random scenes from Bilbao! Be ready to search for that teddy bear because he's ready to be found!

Barcelona

Ah! Barcelona! So much to say... I would have to say, if you visit anywhere in Spain - and I mean anywhere - you would have to go to Barcelona. Just to visit though... I, myself, would never live there - too touristy. Touristy, for a good reason though. The famous architect, Gaudi, has decorated the city with his innovative and modern architecture. Including the Sagrada Familia, he was a number of other different buildings scattered around the city. This is the view from Park Guell where the architect lived the remainder of his life. Besides Gaudi, there's the Fountain, the Barcelona Cathedral, el Palau de la Musica Catalana, etc.

So, as far as Gaudi goes... I visited Park Guell, the Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, Casa Amatiller and the Casa Batillo. In the following picture, there are various pictures of all of the places.

La Sagrada Familia:

And for the inside, I've made y'all a video:

Another really neat sight is the Barcelona Cathedral. Absolutely breathtaking. I honestly liked it more than the Sagrada Familia, but the indoor pictures definitely don't do it justice.

The next place is the Palau de la Musica Catalana. It's a magnificent concert hall, again with absolutely beautiful architecture and design.

The last place I'm going to show you is the fountain which is absolutely gorgeous. There are lights and music timed with the water so it's almost like a firework show, but with water.

In my opinion - not that y'all need it - if you ever traveled to Barcelona, go to the Barcelona Cathedral, Sagrada Familia and the Fountain. They were the top three and a close fourth would be the Palau.

Thanks for reading! Next Friday: San Sebastian, Spain and Biarritz, France! The one time I will be going outside of Spain during my trip to Spain, so tune in!

Burgos

I went to Burgos on November 5, 2011. Quite rainy the day of and not quite as warm as Spain usually is, but altogether a gorgeous city. The city is well known for the large cathedral located in the old part of the city. It is absolutely beautiful; however, besides the church there ain't much more to see in Burgos. The weather was brisk and the fall changing trees were lovely, but in my opinion I think the city was lacking unless you count the awesome "chocolate con churros".

Here are some photos of the city - Somebody's head somehow got in one of the photos - :

Anyways since the city was lacking - I'll tell you about the Cathedral. It is a gothic style roman catholic church and is dedicated to the virgin Mary (like a lot of the other churchs in Spain). The cathedral is famous for being ginormous and having at least ten different chapels inside - all with different decorations, priests, saints and donors. Construction began in the early 13th century and was continued until the 16th, although some very important modifications have been added to the building since then.

As if you can't see the cathedral in the first picture... Here's a close up!

Here are some pictures of the many different ceilings within the building:

And... Here are some pictures of the more important things inside the Cathedral (the stuff you see in postcards and travel books). The quality of some of the pictures aren't that great, but you get the idea.

On Friday: Barcelona!

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

Well, hello there everyone! I visted San Juan de Gaztelugatxe - pronounced Gaz - te - lu - gatch - ay - a few weeks ago and I wanted to share the photos and a little history!

Gaztelugatxe is a small island located outside the small municipality of Bermeo, a forty-five minute bus ride from Bilbao. The church and the bridge to the island were constructed in the 9th or 10th century by the Knights Templar - Masons. The funds were donated by the Lord of Biscay, don Iñigo López to the church to the monastery of San Juan de la Pena.

The pathway up to the church as around 230 steps and is made of stones from the surrounding beaches. Once you get up to the top it is said that if you ring the bell on the church three times you are allowed one wish. I did not know this at the time, thus I did not make a wish; however, I would have liked to...

Now, I'm going to take on a little picture tour of the hike up to the top of Gaztelugatxe. The bus dropped us off about 3 miles away from the top in the little town of Bermeo. We had to walk along a hilly road - along with some passing cars - for quite a while before we arrived at the actual trailhead. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous and I would not mind spending some time out there. Bilbao is a big city and it was really nice to get out of the city for the day. Anyways, here we go!

The first sign we saw on the way there... I forget what the leaf means. It's something similar to the shell that represents the Camino de Santiago I have mentioned before.

Frollicking along the road and admiring the scenery to our destination...

The traditional basque house - baserri - were built so that in the winter the animals could be housed in the bottom level of the house. This way the body heat from the sheep, cows, chickens, etc. would rise and heat the house during colder winter months.

Through the woods and over the hills... to San Juan Gaztelugatxe we go!

Woohoo! Finally the last sign telling us where to go... You can see the other island, Aketze, as well.

The view from the small parking lot where people can park if they decided to take their cars on the unkempt road to the island. Hardly anybody drive all the way out and there are no services to drive you out because the road is so bad. Looks, like the spaniards/basques need them some 4-wheel drive cars. Gorgeous I tell ya!

This was my favorite scene on top of the island.

This is the church with the bell that I rang a few times, but didn't make a wish...

After seeing the top of the island we headed back to town to catch our bus back to Bilbao. The sunset was absolutely beautiful as we walked down those rolling hills. I just might have to go back - if only for that.



Next week: Burgos

*I'm sorry little Herman hasn't been in the blogs as of late! There'll be another blog soon where you can search for that sneaky little bear!