On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The thing that really stuck with me though was that, sadly very French smell, of urine, which actually followed you a good way into the church. It says something for the respect people have for religious buildings.
EWWW! Maybe they were trying to create the mood of what it might have smelled like back in the 12th and 13th centuries? Just gross!
Monday 6 September – part three: a new country and new scenery!
Biarritz came into fashion in the late 19th century, when sea bathing became the thing to do. It was first put on the map by Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie and then the famous people just kept coming, including Charlie Chaplin, Britain’s King Edward VII and then his son King Edward VIII. Today the big draw here is still the Grande Plage (big beach), which stretches out in front of the town’s casino. As we pulled up to take some photos, I could see why it had been such a big draw all those years ago and why people still come here today. Not only is it a beautiful beach and a wonderful town, but I really liked all the rocks off the coastline, which added a bit more charm to the place.
We followed the coast road for a little while, stopping to get a few more shots along the way.
As we came out of Biarritz, I noticed that the road signs were now in two languages, French and the Basque language, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to any European language I’ve ever learnt. :
Soon we were back on the motorway and heading rapidly towards toll booths and then the Spanish border.
Almost as soon as we crossed the border, the landscape changed dramatically and suddenly we had sweeping hills on either side of the road, with views reminiscent of what we had seen before in Switzerland. This was certainly not what we had expected to see here. : A look at the guidebooks showed that none of them particularly ranked this countryside, but driving through it, it was hard to work out why, as it was stunning. I think it certainly made for a more pleasant drive for Mark with at least something to look at finally.
Something else that made the drive much more pleasant was the fact that there had been a lot of new roads built recently, so while poor old Tim was completely lost at times, we had the benefit of nice straight roads with long tunnels through the mountains, instead of the winding and bending roads that we would’ve had to have gone on otherwise. Again, it reminded us of Switzerland, in terms of the engineering marvels that had been created here, with roads just ploughing through any hill or mountain.
I saw rocks in the water off the beach like that on the Oregon/California coast and it just thrilled me. That just makes for beautiful pictures!
Those rolling hills/mountains did make for a beautiful drive. I love driving through country like that, although I'm probably a bit dangerous, craning my neck all around, trying to see the best view!!
Monday 6 September – part four: how do we get there?
Eventually, we were past the hills and the scenery changed almost suddenly into a mainly barren landscape that was reminiscent of the drive from Las Vegas to California. Unlike that though, there were patches of colour, where sunflowers would be growing, with the odd trees around, so there was still variety in the landscape to look at, which was pleasant enough.
About two hours into the drive, we decided to stop and have our Carrefour lunch, having found a service area. At first glance, it appeared to be quite sparse with facilities, offering just a gas station, fast food place and some places to park up, which is where we headed for. The prawn salad:
... was very nice, but the second we opened the terrine, we opted out, it smelt so strong that neither of us could face it. : Instead, we each had a bag of chips and the fruit and then I set out to explore where I thought the restrooms were, having seen a number of women walk in and walk out. My instincts were right and they were much nicer than most of the restrooms we’d encountered in France, with a seat on the toilet (trust me, a novelty after France! ) and no stench coming from them. We’d both stopped earlier to use the toilets at the shopping centre, which was home to Carrefour, and although there was no charge for it, the facilities weren’t great. Mark commented that he works on many sewage works and the stench in there was much worse than anything on a sewage works!
All fully rested, eaten and refreshed, we set off on our way again and it wasn’t long before we were reaching our next stop of Burgos.
This was founded in 884 and was the capital of the united kingdoms of Castille and Lyon from 1073 until it lost that honour to Vallodolid in 1492. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the city grew rich from the wool trade and used much of the money it made from that to invest in the buildings seen here today.
San Miguel (beer) factory
Getting to see those buildings proved to be far from easy, as we didn’t seem to be able to get to any of the roads we wanted. Sounds familiar? I was thinking that it was a replay of Bordeaux. We ended up travelling along the other bank of the river that runs through the city and we saw the attractions that I wanted to see, so Mark kindly pulled up into an area that said you could wait for 10 minutes outside an hotel and off I went.
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) and no stench coming from them. We’d both stopped earlier to use the toilets at the shopping centre, which was home to Carrefour, and although there was no charge for it, the facilities weren’t great. Mark commented that he works on many sewage works and the stench in there was much worse than anything on a sewage works! 
I was thinking that it was a replay of Bordeaux. 
We ended up travelling along the other bank of the river that runs through the city and we saw the attractions that I wanted to see, so Mark kindly pulled up into an area that said you could wait for 10 minutes outside an hotel and off I went. 
Glad you found better ones! LOL!
Katie's graduation
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