photos missing

It seems that the last 2 photos haven't posted on the blog for some reason. I copied and pasted them from an email instead of my photos.  I don't know that had anything to do with it. Anyway here they are

Saturday in La Rioja

At about 9.15 on Saturday morning Jaione and Kepa arrived to pick us up and soon after that we were off to La Rioja to have a look at a vineyard called 'Vivanco'. Vivanco sits beside a little pueblo called Briones, population 853, which dates back to the 1st century AD. It is in the La Rioja region, the major wine producing region in Spain. It borders Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country and is about 1hour 45minutes drive from Azpeitia. The day was cloudy and warm, a very nice day to be driving through the countryside to a vineyard.

First, we were driving through the green hills and valleys of the Basque Country north of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque Country, and then the countryside changed to wide, flat valleys and then we were in the wheat growing region of Castille y León whit acres and acres of wheat stretching across the land and which would, Jaione told us, turn the landscape golden yellow in August. After a while we were in La Rioja and the acres of wheat became acres of grape vines marching across the landscape for miles and miles on either side of the road.

 wheat fields I think there must be an anti-sun film over the car wondows which have made the photos taken from the car to be a bit off colour. I thought I'd put some on here anyway.

Along with the wheat and the grape vines are the villages which are scattered across the countryside like mushrooms and usually looking like they've just risen up out of the dirt because the buildings are the same pale, biscuity colour as the dirt.

The road wound through the town of Hora which is about the same size as Azpeitia, 11,000 people, and then down the road a bit to Briones and there we came to the Vivanco vineyard, which turned out to be just one of quite a few vineyards around the little village. All of them have very grand buildings and are very prosperous looking enterprises.

Briones

We were booked in to do a tour at 11am and had arrived in good time. 

Vivanco - the main entrance building taken from the back on the way to where we went down into the cellars.

from the same place as the photo above looking down the grape vines to Briones

At the end of every row there are roses growing, and the reason for this, the guide told us in response to a question, is that the roses are very clever plants and tell the growers what diseases and/or pests are around in time for the appropriate action can be taken to save the grapes. I'm not sure if I knew this already or if I did and am a bit cynical about it. 

The photo I took of the huge vats didn't come out, was very dark, for some reason. This is one of the small barrels, some of the thousands of them.

Jaione was told that the English language audio guides weren't working very well so not to use them, and the tour guide spoke in Spanish, so Jaione translated as we went. It was a bit tricky because there was no allowance for translating time so it was done 'on the run,' so to speak. I did understand some of what the guide was saying but not everything, not by a long stretch. I imagine that we missed a lot of information, not because Jaione didn't do a good translating job, but because it wasn't possible to do more than a quick chat as we went along with the guide and the tour group. 

As well as the huge wine vats and the cellars with thousands of smaller barrels in them there was mock ups of the machines used for the processes which happen to turn grapes into wine. 

From the cellars we went back up to the main building and into a lovely room overlooking the vines and had a wine tasting of 2 red wines. The first one was a Crianza and the 2nd was a Reserva. Crianza reds must be aged in oak for at least 1 year and Reserva reds must be aged for at least 3 years and 2 of those years must be in oak. I've come to enjoy red wine after donkey's years of being a white wine only drinker and since being in Azpeitia my favourite is crianza. I must say that the reserva that we had at the vineyard was a very, very nice drop.

 between the main building and the cellar building

After the wine tasting we went to the vineyard museum. It is a very extensive collection of all the paraphanalia to do with wine growing, making and drinking - an enormous amount of stuff over 4 floors. We all found it hugely interesting but had to cut our time there short because we were booked into a restaurant in the town of Hora at 2.30pm. 

This is in a section in the museum about wine growing areas and the history of the growth of wine making across the globe.  Yes, they found NZ.

 The front entrance/exit 

And so it was off to Hora for lunch. I was impressed with Jaione and Kepa's knowledge of Hora and when I finally said to Jaione that she seemed to know the town quite well, she said that she did because Kepa's parents have a campervan permanently parked up in a campsite nearby and her and Kepa spend a lot of time there and consequently also a lot of time in Hora.

here's some photos of Hora although I don't have one of where we had lunch which was delicious and quite flash. It goes without saying that we were stuffed to the eyeballs by the time we'd finished.

 the town was very quiet because it was siesta time! 

most of the buildings had glassed in balconies like in the towns on the coast and in Beyonne and Paris. Was an interesting observation, we thought.

After lunch we had a walk about and then another drink here, under the sign for the Camino de Santiago amongst other things. The Camino de Santiago sign pops up all over the place, there must be many ways to go. Barry's doing his best to tell the waiter what he wants which turned out to be cointreau

and then it was time to head back to the car. On the way I spied this relic. I'll never get used to seeing such ancient things just sitting there as they've done since forever.

The way back to Azpeitia was uneventful ... except for .... THE SNAKE!!!!

Not far out of Hora we came to an ancient bridge, not so ancient to be Roman, though, and we stopped to have a look at it and Jaione and I were walking together over the bridge and suddenly she shrieked  and rushed backwards. At the same time that she shrieked I spotted the same thing that she had - a snake! a very long snake! I grabbed my camera and stupidly walked towards it and of course, it started slithering away and so this is why I got a photo of a part of it and not the whole thing.  If I had of just stayed still and used the zoom I would have got all of it. When I say that I walked towards it, I was still a decent distance away. It went through the hole in the bridge and ended up curled up in a weed growing out of the bridge on the other side.

By this time Jaione was almost back at the end of the bridge, she hates them with a phobic passion.

After that excitement it was in the car and back to Azpeitia

It was a fairly quiet trip back. Jaione drove and Barry went to sleep! Kepa and Jaline chatted to each other, mostly and I looked at the passing countryside, I coild never have enough of that.

 We got home at about 8pm. It had been another wonderful day thanks to the generosity of a couple of lovely people - thanks a bunch, Jaione and Kepa.

We lay about on the sofas trying to decide if we would have something to eat before we went to bed and in the end, at about 10.30 pm, Barry cooked us some scrambled eggs, not a lot given the amount of food we'd eaten for lunch. Goodnight, Saturday.

Sunday was wet and cold and after talking with Sam on skype for a little while we decided that we should pack all our 'stuff' to make sure that we would be under the weight restrictions for the flights. Ryan Air from Zaragoza to London - 20kgs checked in and 10 kgs cabin bag. Everything must be in the 2 bags, can't carry anything. London to Singapore to Auckland - 30kgs checked in and 7kgs cabin bag and we can carry somethings like a handbag, coat, umbrella and such like. It took a good chunk of the day to get sorted. Just remembered that we've paid for an extra 15kg bag on Ryan air and we'll have another sort out when we get to London.

On Saturday night we had dinner with the our land lady and her family. Another good feed and a lot of fun. They are a very nice family and with their bit of English and my bit of Spanish we had a very good night.

Just before we left to go home

Here they are in Paris (could you guess that) the 4 of them together.

It's a 5 minute walk from their place to ours except that this Sunday night, on the way home, we called into the bar called Pastorkua, to say goodbye to one of the staff there. A youg guy called Eneko,  who had talked to us the first time we went there when we first got to Azpeitia, in very food English. When I asked how come he spoke such good English he said that he'd lived in Wellington for 2 years. How about that!  He now lives in Getaria, where he grew up, and works there as a draughtsman and works on Pastorkua on Sundays. We got into a routine of going to Pastorkua for dinner on Sunday nights, and he'd come over and have a chat with us and as we'd be gone next Sunday night we just called into say goodbye. No, I don't have a photo of him, damn it. He has all of our NZ contact details so who knows, maybe one day,  he'll turn up on our doorstep.

And then it was home. The next day, Monday,  began the countdown to my final class on Thursday afternoon.

 

Penulimate week

My penultimate week of my time here has come and gone and I'm now into my final week at school, our final week in Azpeitia in The Basque Country. My final classes are on Thursday so it's pretty much a week of saying goodbye to a lot of people and to many places. We say goodbye to Azpeitia on Saturday and head off on our final trip with Miren - to San Sebastian to get the bus to Zaragoza and then on Sunday evening we fly to London, leaving London on Thursday, June 19th to arrive in Auckland, via a stop-over in Singapore, Saturday June 21st. Actually, we say goodbye to Miren in San Sebastian because she's not coming with us. Maybe she'll make it to NZ another day. She generously offered to drive us and our luggage to San Sebastian to get the bus, an offer which we gratefully accepted.

Azpeitia sits in a valley with a huge hill called Xoxote, pronounced 'Show shotee', towering up on the right hand side of the town right in front of our building, well, actually directly behind the building in front of ours. Finally, on Friday, we got to go to the top of it with Miren and Nerea.  We didn't walk up from the town, it's very steep and hard going, apparently, so again we took the easier option and drove 10 minutes down the road, took a right hand turn and up a little way to a car park where the car was parked and then we walked up to the top from there. It took us just over an hour to go up, looking at the scenery and views with no hurry and just under an hour to get down. No dilly dallying going down because there were enormous black clouds coming closer and closer by the second and rain seemed imminent. We got about halfway down before  it began to rain and fortunately for us, it never get very heavy. 

 At the beginning of our walk up the hill

 a stop over on the way

 At tomes the path was just rocks

this is the top of the steepest part

and then it was a bit easier and  a debate about which way to go

this time our sign was blue and white stipes and there were plenty of them although not alwys abvious at first glance

fresh and cold mountain water 

 shepherds' hut

almost there

 and here he is - Saint Ignatius

We spent a while wandering around at the top where there is a huge statue of Saint Ignatius standing right on the very edge 912 meters above Azpeitia. How it was securely placed up there defies my imagination and no one seems to know how long ago it was put there.

The view is great although it was impossible for us to get a photo of the whole of Azpeitia because on one side of the statue there was a spotlight in the middle of every shot and from the other side the rock jutted out cutting off our end of the town. Perhaps if we'd been braver we could have stood right on the edge of the platform but it was a very, very long drop before hitting the bottom so here's the best one we got. azpeitia - my home in the Basque hills. The building on the right of the picture almosy halway up is the Loyola Bascilica and the birthplace of Saint Ignatius.

one man, two woman and a saint on top of Xoxote

It would have been great to have had more time up there because it's a very beautiful, calm and peaceful area with some interesting places to poke around in. However, with the black clouds coming closer and also Miren didn't have the night off work and had some things to get done before work, so we had to be mindful of the time passing and .... also .... to have time to have lunch. There is a kind of little lodge/eating place up there but there was a bunch of school children eating inside when we were there so we just had coffee before going down. 

 the lodge

 looking across from Xoxote to the next hill. The track in the valley is the one that comes up from Azpeitia and the beginning of it is the road that our building is on. The little hillock and the building is for ice storage. That's what Miren knows but not how it works and the 4 of us were disappointed that we didn't have the time to go down and have a poke around.

 but the clouds were gathering so it was time to head down

on the way down we came across this herd of beautfulness - about 5 mares and foals and we did take a few minutes to just stand a watch them. They took no notice of us.

A few minutes drive down from the carpark we came to a building kind of like a big house that Nerea said was a restaurant so we investigated and sure enough, judging by the delicious aroma wafting out to meet us, it was a restaurant and we ate a very delicious lunch - the usual 3 courses, 1st plate, 2nd plate and postre (dessert). We never need much dinner after these lunches. The interesting thing is that there is no sign to say that this place is a restaurant, only the name of the house on the gate, and yes, the farm houses here have names. Miren had no idea that it's a restaurant but Nerea knew about it.

the restaurant, a fairly unpretentous little place. I couldn't get a photo from the front because it was on the edge of a precipice.

One of the things that Miren had to do before work that night was to perform in a concert put on by the guitar playing and singing group that she belongs to and which is run and taught by her sister, Amaia.  I think I've written about this group in a previous blog, I've been to a couple of their practice sessions, neither playing or singing, just watching and listening, and taking photos, of course.

So, at 6.30pm on Friday night we were sitting in Sanmartín, an exchurch, 5 minutes walk from our apartment, listening to 7 Basque women playing guitars and singing. Occasionally, Eva, Amaia's wife, would play the bongo drums in between her guitar playing. Yes, Amaia and Eva are wife and wife having had the first same sex marriage in Azpeitia. Can't imagine it was an easy time for them in this little Catholic town!

here they are - Amaia on the far right, eva on the far left and Miren is 3rd on the right

The performance was great and we felt very chuffed that we knew the people on the stage even if we didn't understand one word of any of the songs nor what Amaia said in between them. They had quite a fair sized audience listening to them. After the music performance there was a short break and then we found ourselves watching a play. We had guessed that we were going to see a play by what was going on re prop placement etc on the stage, and we also knew that we wouldn't understand any of the dialogue but decided that we'd stay for a look anyway. 

It was fantastic! 8 woman acting out a story, and then they'd break into the most amazing singing-dancing routines full of sound, movement and energy - just fabulous. Even though we never did work out the plot or story line nor who was who and why they were doing what they were doing, we totally enjoyed it and from the rousing applause, so did everyone else and it seemed to me like it was a full house. 

What did give us a surprise was that not long after the play had begun who should walk on to the stage but Amaia, Miren's sister who had just been leading the guitarists and singers. Not only is she a guitarist and singer, she is also an actor. It was fun to see her up there doing her thing on stage with the others and they all did a damn good job. We were very happy that we'd stayed to watch it.

 It was cold and raining when we came outside after the play was over so we called it a day and headed for our place. 

The next day, Saturday, Jaione and her husband, Kepa, were coming to pick us up at 9am and then we were off to a vineyard in La Rioja.

and that's another story, will tell you all about our greta day in La Rioja tomorrow.

Friday 16th May 2014 ...

 .... was a fabulous day for a long walk ..... so we decided to do the Deba to Zumaia 15km walk which is a walk in it's own right, and is also part of the Camino de Santiago, albeit, a very small part. Pilgrims on the Camino usually do it from Zumaia to Deba however we had read that the incline out of Deba is easier than the incline out of Zumaia so decided to take the easier way.

It was a very beautiful, blue-sky, sunshine day and we set off from Deba at around 12.15pm and arrived in Zumaia at just after 7pm - yes, that is correct - it took us just under 7 hours. What we had read was that it was a 15km walk along the clifftops along the flysch coast and while I was a little unsure about walking 15km I figured that I could do it so long as we didn't push ourselves. Remember,  I'd just come right after 2 weeks of being sick. What we didn't know was that it was uphill and down dale with  long climbs and as steep as f### sometimes, oh my it was hard going, and sometimes it just seemed like we were going up and up and up endlessly. Fortunately, there were other times we ambled along an old road and through a tunnel, and along gentle tracks through countryside or pine forests, To begin with it was mostly inland and followed the coast more after halfway and the going certainly got easier also and it turned out that we'd made the right decision for us to start at the Deba end because there was a very, very long and sometimes very, very steep incline at the Zumaia end and I was surely pleased to be going down rather up.

We were mightily zonked by the time we finished and mightily pleased with our effort. We certainly didn't push ourselves and had quite a few stops along the way, we weren't in a hurry at all, only concerned to get to the end no matter how long it took us, well, we did have to get there before the last bus to Azpeitia and also before dark.

at the top of the first hill, looking up the coast towards Bilbao, Zumaia is on the left.

  

Santa Catalina

 the countrside from the church with our track on the left

There was a lack of signs to begin with and a man set us on the right path, steep uphill, out of Deba and soon after we came to a T intersection and another man just happened to come along and pointed at the track on the left, going steeply further up the hill, so on up we went still not 100% sure, when we saw a man coming down the hill from a farmhouse. I thought he was going to ask us what we thought we were doing but it turned turned out he wasn't concerned about us at all. Instead he told us we were on the right track and where to go from there, and then talked to us for about 10 minutes about the history of Santa Catalina, a little, very old church at the top of the hill. All of which I understood maybe half - 2/3s of. On the way up to the church we found our first track sign and from then on there were plenty of them. Our sign was a red and white stripe and a lot of the time there was also the yellow stripe for the Camino trail.

Our sign on the tree telling us to go down the path on the left. The one on the sign post tells the people coming from the other way to cross the road and go up the hill.

The view from the top of a steep as all heck hill we'd just climbed up looking down on the fairly easy walk before the ascent

same place, different aspect, looking to the right. we sat here eating apples and oranges. It was fantastic!

certainly the views from the hilltpos were fabulous, this is closer to Zumaia. From up here we could here the crashing, rumbling sound of the rocks being moved against each other with ebb and flow of the waves. I don't think I've ever heard this before and heard it for the first time when I went to Gaztelugatxe (the little church on the rock in the ocean with all the steps going to it) with Miren

ocean cliffs

 We had lunch at the little neach down the bottom betwen the two cliffs

 going up yet another hill  

amost there

We met more people along the way than I thought we would. Some were actual pilgrims and some were daytrippers like us, some runners (crazy crazy) and a guy mowing hay on the side of a faily steep hill - hot and hard work, and one guy riding a bike!!!

The serious sloggers - the pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago - the first pilgrims we met were a couple of Americans who were walking the San Sebastian to Santander section of the Camino and then were probably taking the train to the end because they'd be short of time. Unfortunately, we didn't talk to them further about their experiences so far, and we kicked ourselves afterwards but, we were mindful that they'd walked a long way and still had along way to go and we didn't want to hold them up. I think that they'd have had some interesting things to tell us and they were they only English speaking pilgrims we met. I don't know what the nationalities of the others were. 

This guy's pack looked very heavy and all he said to us was something that sounded like "nuff" as he looked at us and hit his pack.

thiis was a young guy and he wasn't stopping for anything or anyone. he's got the Camino symbol on his pack.He also had 2 sticks and both of his knees well wrapped up.

we were lucky enough to see some Basque horses. They are like minature ponies

pink flysch cliffs not far from Zumaia

 not far now

we made it!  sitting outside the little church at the end of the trail. 

from here it was down hill to find a beer. We felt like very pleased with ourselves, had a laugh at how long it had taken us and then raised our glasses to all those who take on the Camino de Santiago - what an achievement. Of course, egos bolstered by our walk, and a beer or two, we then contemplated what it would take for us to do it ..... one day ... perhaps!

I have to tell you that the next day, Saturday we felt very weary and didn't do a lot except walk to Loiola to buy and icecream at the kiosk and then sat in the sun eating it - it's about a 15 minute walk each way. YAY go us!

So, the next day, Sunday, we did some more - the Zumaia to Zarautz walk over the top, not the coast walkway which we've done before.

Again we chose our starting place according to what is described as the easiest start, although I now realise that there isn't an 'easy' beginning to these walks, but once again we made the right decision because the climb up out of Zumaia was most certainly easier than what we would have had to do out of Zarautz. Going down into Zarautz was bad enough - a very, very long steep downhill old cobblestone path and my knees felt every bit of it. Supposed to be good for them though, I did keep telling myself this.

Zumaia from the top of the first hill, almost, from here the path turned inland for a bit.

This walk was easier than Friday's one, for sure. For starters it was much shorter, just under 10kms and althpugh there were some steep parts none were as tough as on Friday amd it took us just under 4 hours. Again it was a fabulous sunny day, hotter than Friday but easier walking mostly. All of it was along wide paths, usually tractor roads and often through vineyards always with the coast in sight. 

This was the steepest hill and I'd had enough of it by the time I got to the top 

  the view was pretty damned nice though. Getaria looking through a txakoli vineyard.

some spectacular terracing

. It is quite steep countryside and most of it is in use, not all is in grapes though

 the sheep in the Basque Country have very long wool and it looks like they're wearing blankets. Some sheep have now been shorn, there must be a reason for the wool to be grown so long and if I remember to ask someone, I may find out what that reason is. A side-on look

 The outskirts of San Sebastian on the hills in the distance. We'd yet to see Zarautz

 around the corner and here it is

past a very substantial farmhouse

 have a little rest 

down past an old fort built in 1914 so 'whoever' could keep an eye on the surrounding countryside and coast for quite a distance, apparently. A local lady was there when we went to have a look and she gave us some information in Spanish that I could understand. It was open so that the public could go up to the top for the view but it is now closed off. 

 from there is was down this path for a long way down to Zarautz. It was hard going, had to concentrate on where we were putting our feet.

I have no more photos after this, surprisingly - I think I must have been so totally focused on getting down this path in one piece that I forgot about taking photos. 

Needless to say, we made it down ok and then it was off to a bar on the beach for a couple of beers. We had about 11/2 hours before getting the bus back to Azpeitia so we just loitered about on the promenade along the beach - along with a few thousand other people. A very warm Sunday and the beach was packed, must be bedlam in July and August.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and looking at the photos - I so totally enjoyed both of the walks and am very happy with our efforts. The weather was fabulous and we had a really great time. 

Oh, and Barry has checked out the Zarautz to San Sebastian walk!!!!!

Oh and another thing - we arrive back in Auckland at 10.50am Saturday 21st of June.