29/09/09

Day 21 – September 29
We’ve been to Spain today – just because we could! When we woke this morning it was very grey and misty, which was a bit of a shock to the system. We thought that we’d move on to try to gain a day or two as we have now loosely planned our route back to Calais, with heavy hearts. We wish we could just carry on now, having had a taste of just how good this way of life is.
Our first proposed stop today was St Jean de Luz, which is a very attractive and historic town that I particularly wanted to visit – the only problem was that it is a totally motorhome unfriendly place which makes no provision whatsoever except for a very small aire for about 15 sandwiched between the major road bridge in and out of the town and the railway track – heavenly! We decided to carry on and thus we ended up in Spain!
There is no border control here and initially the only way we knew we’d crossed was by the shop signs. However the differences between the two countries soon became apparent and we were amazed at the change. This is another strange language zone, where the fiercely independent Basques of northern Spain conspire to make things as difficult as possible for tourists!
We stopped at a town named Hondarribia, which dates back forever, and is beautifully kept and restored in keeping with its famed history of having been attacked on many occasions over centuries because of its strategic border position, but never having been taken. A wander through the old town within feet-thick city walls bears testament to these attacks – the walls of the Paradour in the centre are heavily pitted with indentations made by cannon balls.
From here we went on to San Sebastian and were somewhat shocked by the urbanisation – it was all too much for us and so we hightailed it back to genteel Biarritz – such cowards!
The plan is to spend the last day of September on the beach 2 minutes away taking in a last fix of ozone before we reluctantly turn inland for our inevitable journey home.