Tuesday 11 February
A long day on the road to travel to San Sebastian in the Basque Region of Spain – brightened by the glorious flowers along the way.
A cool, overcast day with light misty rain as we travelled; darkness was falling and the rain became heavier as we reached our destination. Finding our hotel became quite a challenge with increasing wrong turns and the GPS scrambling to keep up with the driver; in the end, John parked the car and walked to the hotel to find out where we had to go.
A light dinner and an early night after that marathon effort.
Wednesday 12 February
An overcast morning that cleared to a bright, sunny day as we walked the few blocks to Cathedral. The walk was through streets lined with magnolia trees; some with tightly closed buds and others had blooms well opened and the fragrance, while subtle, was a delight.
San Sebastian Cathedral is another massive house of worship and also quite different; lots of beautiful stained-glass windows that gave a golden hue to the interior. The main altar was quite simple with the side altars much more ornate. Once again it was good to sit and study the church in detail as well as reflect on our journey and life in general.
“The architect of the Cathedral, Manuel de Echave, was apparently was inspired by Cologne Cathedral when he designed San Sebastian Cathedral; the dimensions of the church:
- an area of 1,915 square metres
- a nave height of 25 metres
- a tower of 75 metres
- a central nave of 64 metres long by 36 metres wide at the crossing
- a capacity of 4,000 people
This is a church with a Latin cross, three longitudinal aisles, transept nave and a pentagonal sanctuary; there is no ambulatory and the two gables of the transept house two large rose windows that accentuate the light inside the church. The naves up to the crossing, of which the wider and the highest is the central, are segmented into five rectangular sections covered with four-parts vaults of simple ribbing.
The two arms of the transept consist of two sections arched in the same way. The crossing is the only section that features complex ribbing, incorporating tiercerons (gothic rib vaults) between the main veins. From the crossing to the head, the naves are extended with three sections. In this posterior space, the four aisles, two on each side, balance the width of the transept, resulting in two separate areas of equal height and divided into six sections separated by four pillars. The slender bell tower (currently under renovation) located on the portico of the entrance, is clearly inspired by the Cologne Cathedral. The set of pilasters and buttresses terminating in pinnacles and spirelets decorated with buds enhance the verticality of the building.”
Over lunch we researched places to stay on our drive to Barcelona – the Pyrénées became the decision.
Armed with my bag of washing, I headed off to the beachfront to find a coin laundry that I had located on the net. There is a channel, which I expect would have been the old river, leading to the sea and I followed it for some distance taking photos of one of the crossing bridges which had 4 ornate pillars to show-off the bridge.
Arrived at the city centre and located the laundry which was no effort at all. When the washing was completed, I followed the channel to the sea entrance to be met by a massive swell and huge waves. As I moved along the shore there was the occasional wave that would splash over the rock wall and down the roadway. The roadway was blocked but I could see a number of people walking so I followed. There was evidence that the waves were much higher earlier in the morning and it would have been dangerous at that time. The shoreline lead to an inlet that is the main beach for San Sabastian, with a lovely walkway around the shore and surrounded by apartments & hotels. After a few photos I headed back to the hotel to see if Gae felt like an evening stroll.
John returned from his walk (as well as doing the washing) at 5pm; after 15mins rest we walked down to the sea-front to watch the waves rolling into the seawall. The waves rolled in at an angle giving some rise to some great waves for surfers and kayakers to ride inside the sea-wall – crazy!
When it was too dark to see any longer, we walked across the road for dinner and then back to the hotel to pack ready to leave in the morning.
Thursday 13 February
We were up early so I was ready for a FaceTime Governance Committee Meeting.
After breakfast it was on the road again and heading to France and the Pyrénées. One thing we have missed travelling in Spain, Portugal and France – public toilets; quite often we were stopping at a restaurant, service station or McDonald’s to use their facilities because nothing else could be found.
The drive into France was on highway that was not very interesting, but from Oloron St Marie to Bedous was through mainly open country, lots of ploughed paddocks as far up the slopes as possible; very few cattle to be seen, I guess they are still indoors for the winter. We arrived at our hotel about 3pm – an old grey, granite building – formerly the railway station master’s residence that had been renovated to make it fit for purpose; a charming building with any wooden parts painted bright red which added to its appeal.
Once we carried our gear upstairs and unpacked, John fell asleep for a couple of hours. After a light dinner, it was an early night.
Friday 14 February
After breakfast we were offered the accessible room on the ground floor which I accepted with great relief – did not fancy climbing those stairs again if I didn’t have to. While we went for a drive, the hotel staff moved all our gear for us.
Our day was filled with a drive to Accous to the supermarket and then up into the hills for a drive around some of the minor roads; hiking trails going off in every direction up here, some from 3 to 8hrs while others were given in days.
After a late lunch we spent a couple of hours on research and paperwork before having dinner at the hotel – a wonderful meal, delicious, fresh local produce and all freshly cooked. Edith, the owner was telling us they are well patronised – we saw this with the crowds in for lunch as well as dinner. The diners kept enjoying themselves until well after midnight.
Saturday 15 February
A clear, bright day without a cloud to be seen. We enjoyed fresh croissants and tea sitting in the sunlit breakfast room, overlooking the new railway station – a small grey granite building that opens for the train to arrive and then departs half an hour later, six times per day with Bedous being the last stop before returning to Oloron St Marie. The local bus service collects passengers throughout the valleys and brings them to the train and then takes the incoming passengers to their destinations.
As we were not crossing the Pyrenees at this point, I wanted to drive up to the summit to witness the few peaks that were covered in snow. In years gone by the rail line continued up the valley with one loop to gain elevation before the final tunnel into Spain where there was a huge railway station built for the transborder passengers and freight. Like Bedous it has been abandoned and given away to trucks.
I climbed up what would have been to old pass over the mountain before the road tunnel but is still used for sight seekers and those accessing the higher peaks for skiing. Many people were hiking below the snowline and others had brought their children up for a play in the snow.
Right on the very top was a chairlift and road gang workshops before crossing the border into Spain. I elected to return at this point but found out from our hotel owners later that I should have gone down the Spanish side to view the old rail station and return home via the tunnel. Always wise after the event but I was able to see a lot in the afternoon.
When John returned from his excursion, we had a late lunch and then went for a drive to the medieval village of Borce a little further up the valley. A delightful place to stop and go for stroll along one of the three streets in this little hamlet; we stopped at the church.
“The small village of Borce (France) is located in New-Aquitaine area of the Aspe valley in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. There is documented evidence of people living in Borce at least since the fourteenth century. Agriculture has always been the main industry and being close to the Spanish border, it is subject to the Treaty of Bayonne of 1862 allowing some Spanish shepherds to graze their cattle on the territory of the municipality.
Today, Borce is largely focused on tourism, offering an interesting architectural heritage, as well as beautiful natural sites and is part of the area of appellation of Cheese Ossau-Iraty (specialty of the Basque Country and Béarn, Ossau-Iraty is a traditional cheese from the Pyrénées; it is cylindrical and with a pressed, uncooked natural crust which varies from yellow-orange to grey in colour; made the old-fashioned way, from whole milk exclusively from three local sheep breeds).
The alleys of the village contain several houses from the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th centuries as well as fortified houses of the 13th and 14th centuries, stables and old bread ovens.
Built in the 14thC and renovated in the 17th century, the church of Saint-Michel presents in its interior a beautiful black limestone font decorated with a scallop shell, a bumblebee and a bearded mask. Borce has indeed long been a stage of the camino aragonés, portion of one of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela.
Created in 2004, the animal area of Borce was the initiative of the municipality, following the closure of a first place of protection of the bears. There are several wildlife species preserved by volunteers.
Located between the plateau of Lhers and Borce, the pass of Barrancq is crossed by the GR10, a great hiking trail linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean.”
