here we go Friday 4th April

Of we went again minus Nerea and plus Barry. Today would be the day, I was feeling much better than I'd been when we went on our previous excursion and was looking forward to the challenge of getting up the 261 steps to Gaztelugatxe and then, once I'd come down them, getting back up the path to the car. Miren was determined that there is a way and I've come to realise that once she gets an idea of doing something then she'll damn well do it!

We'd decided to go to the church first and then back to Gernika to visit 'the tree' and then home along the coast. The day was looking like it was going to be another sunny one and after the obligatory coffee in Etxe Zuri off we went.

We got to the coast at Deba, on past Mutriku and then wound our way to Ondorroa and followed the coast to Leikeitio. These places are little fishing villages and the houses climb up the hills which run up from the port. They are also hugely popular tourist spots during the July-August summer holidays and all along the front of the ports are bars, tavernas and restaurants. Just past Mutriku we went out of Gipuzkoa (province) and into Bizkaia (province) not that this made any difference to me however, it did to Miren, because the Basque language changes from place to place and in Bizkaia it is quite different. She mentioned this a few times after asking for directions.

This is Leikeitio 

Part of the buildings along the port. The houses in port towns have different frontages than houses inland, all closed up with little windows and very few balconies.

Barry and Miren plotting our journey

 

I love these little towns and I've got heaps of photos but I don't want to inundate this page with photos 

and also it takes heaps of our data allowance. I'm doing this at home so haven't got use of free wi-fi just now but I want to get it done so I'm up to date and can tell you about our travel plans.

So to continue - after Leikeitio the road left the coast and we wound our way over hills and along valleys with  little villages here and there along with places called 'barrios' which are The Basque equivalent of NZ's 'one horse towns'. We had a lot of fun working that one out and when Barry thought of the term 'one horse town' and I described it to Miren, in the best Spanish I could find, she nodded, grinned and said, " yep, that's a 'barrio." Finally we were back on the coast.

Stopped for lunch at a place perched on the side of a hill overlooking an estuary just past Mendaka

It was rather more posh than where we usually had lunch and double the usual cost.

 2nd plate - squid in ink for Miren, salmon for Barry and escalopines  for me. tasty, tasty!

  

feeling very full we continued on our way on past Bermeo and dinally we were at the same point that we'd got to the previous time. We stopped at the top of the hill and Miren spotted a cyclist so rushed over to ask him if there was another entrance. Having almost got to the top of a very big, long climb I can't imagine that the cyclist was very pleased to find a woman standing on the side of the road firing questions at him - but, he said there was another turnoff down the hill a bit, as he continued slowly pedaling up the last bit of slope. 

We found the turnoff half way down the other side and after going along for a bit got to,where we wanted to be. We parked the car and setoff on our walk - yay we were going to get to Gaztelugatxe

finally. It was certainly a trek and once we got a little way from the car park the track became a bit of a goat track with steps for people with longer legs than mine. 

  the first part of the track

 not far to the steps from here.

the steps, reminded me a little of the Great Wall of China, in a small way.

  and here's the beginning of the climb up the steps

but NO NO NO this was as far as we could go - thwarted AGAIN!! talk about frustrating. Turns out that workers were doing repairs at the top and this required buckets of cement to be taken from the bottom of the steps to the top by a pulley system which rendered walking on the steps to risky so the steps were closed to the public. The pulley rope is just risible in the photo. We went down some steps going down the side of the walkway and had a look around enjoying where we were and the sun.

 This photo was taken from the top of the walkway so it was quite high up.

 the coast was quite dramatic

and then there was nothing else to do but turn around and go back to the car. It was a bit of a slow climb for me but Miren and Barry trotted up no problem. I didn't take even one photo of this bit. We had a beer when we got to the top just before the car park. There was a huge fabulous restaurant complex there with gardens and rooms overlooking the bay. We'd lost track of time and suddenly realised that it was in fact after 6pm which meant that as well as not getting to Gaztelugatxe once again, once again we wouldn't be seeing 'the tree' in Gernika either. Talk about 'best laid plans' grrrrrrrrrr.

Nothing for it but back to Azpeitia talking about another try before the end of May. We shall see. What we should have done was gone to the guy filling the buckets with cement at the bottom of the church steps and asked him how long the repairs would be going on so as to know if the steps would be open any time in the near future. We shall indeed see.

Tomorrow we're off to a cider-house with Jaione and company so that Barry can have a cider-house experience.