The weekend just gone was just great - more visitors - this time I had the absolute pleasure of the company of Yolanda and Jose Antonio, my mates from Zaragoza. One of the best things to come out of my time in Zaragoza was getting to know these two fabulous people. My other two Zaragoza friends couldn't come, unfortunately they were just too busy. I was a bit sad about that however that is life and the 3 of us had a great time.
They arrived in Azpetia, their 1st time here, early afternoon on Saturday, still morning by Spanish time, and headed back to Zaragoza early Sunday evening. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm all weekend.
First we had a walk through Azpeitia, stopping off for a pintxo and a drink, before driving to Zarautz, on the coast, for a walk along the beach , more pintxos and my first taste of the local wine called Txakoli, pronounced -chockolee.
Txakoli is to be drunk while it is young and, possibly there is more to it but this is what I know and also that it should be poured from a height, the more skilled the pourer, the higher up it is poured from. I really liked it and while I'm no wine connoisseur and therefore can't be descriptive re bouquets, flavours etc I can tell you that it is a very easy wine to drink and I liked it a lot.
in Zarautz
outside a very famous restaurant run byma very famous chef from here - Karlos Arguiñano
On Saturday night we went to a local Cider House, called Añota, my 2nd cider house experience and of which I shall write more about next time. I had thought that these are exclusive to the Basque Country but have now been told that they can be found in other parts of Spain as well.
We decided to make use of the cider house bus which is run by the cider house for its patrons and picks up people in Azpeitia and the nearby town of Azkoitia and takes them up the hill to the cider house and brings everyone back down at about 12.15 am. The bus that we got on was full.
The downside to getting the bus is that we then have to wait until it's time for it to leave, not leave when we are ready. The food came rather speedily so dinner was done well before the bus leaving time.
the cider house
time for a glass od cider except that it's not correct to get a galls full, 1/3 at the most
We thought that it would be a long wait but we got ourselves more cider and chatted away. There were 3 guys sitting next to us and one of them told us that he'd been born either there or in one of the houses in the picture hanging on the wall, I'm not sure which. Not very long before bus catching time, after going outside to find that it was freezing cold out there, far too cold to wait outside, we were told that we could wait next door which turned out to be a full on bar. The time passed well enough and then it was time to board the bus and head on down the hill. It was a rather more interesting ride down then up. First of all, we were close to the front and could see how narrow the road is and how it just winds around the hill, at times seemingly too narrow and the corner too sharp for the bus to get around but of course it did, no problem. Secondly, there were a lot of very merry people on the bus singing full volume and laughing raucously, all good fun. Yolanda wasn't impressed and probably the fun of it it would have worn thin eventually but it wasn't a long bus ride so it was ok.
On Sunday we went to San Sebastian, the first time for Yolanda who was looking forward to seeing La Concha Beach and visiting a few of the famous/infamous 'Old Town Pintxo Bars'.Of course Jose Antonio and I were also looking forward to this as well. It was a really warm day and there were a lot of people also wandering along the promenade in front of La Concha Beach, almost too many for me. Not much surf but a few hopeful board riders sitting on their boards, waiting to catch a wave.
I much prefer the beach in Zarautz to La Concha because the beach at Zarautz is a long sandy beach with big rolling surf roaring in much like the Gisborne-East Coast beaches whereas La Concha is smaller and generally has calmer sea like Auckland - city that is, not talking about the west coast beaches here.
And so - to the pintxo bars we eventually went. Expensive but so nice and washed down with more Txakoli poured from higher than in Zarautz, by a rather skillful bartender, not that I could discern any difference in the taste. 6 Pintxos and 3 glasses of txakoli cost me €22/$36NZ. As you can see by the photos the glasses of wine are not exactly full, just the opposite in fact.
pouring Txakoli in San Sebastian
good people, good food, good wine
We had a bit of a wander around the old town and all to soon it was time be in the car and back to Azpeitia. Mind you, if it had been up to me to find the car we'd still be looking for it, I so easily become completely disoriented and thought that the beach was in the opposite direction to what it actually was. Fortunately for me, Yolanda and Jose Antonio don't have the same problem so back to Azpeitia we went, to drop me off, and they were on their way back to Zaragoza all too soon.
Yes, well, I was really sad to see them go. Such good people, fun and easy to get along with. We'd decided that we'd speak English on Saturday because Yolanda is learning English and this would help her ( Jose Antonio speaks English fluently) and on Sunday we'd speak Spanish because this would help me. Well, Yolanda speaks much better English than I do Spanish, no doubt about about that and conversation flowed much more easily on Saturday than on Sunday. They do have a lot of patience, that's for sure.Yolanda and Jose Antonio - I know I've said this before but here it is again- thanks so much for visiting me
with La Concha Beach behind us
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