we try to get up a bit later, to get into the Spanish time zone. breakfast is great, with homemade scones and marmalades. we pack up everything again and have some trouble fitting it into the car. we take off, first taking national roads to get to Bordeaux and then on the highway to Donostía. we know this road already. we have made reservations for dinner at Asador Etxebarri at 20h30 (which is the earliest possible time for dinner) and should have plenty of time to reach the B&B, get installed and to the restaurant.
the B&B is not that easy to find, since the GPS does not fully get the spanish system of identifying locations. it’s in a suburb of a small town, but the GPS does not know the suburb itself. so finding the right street is easiest done by looking it up on Google Maps and then selecting it on the GPS map as a destination. the location is superb, on the slopes next to a dammed lake, with steep rocky cliffs surrounding it. due to the wet climate, the landscape is a combination of green pastures, exuberant woods and stone cliffs, which creates spectacular views. the lushness is thanks to the frequent rainfall, which we’ve experienced the last times we were in Basque country as well. but we’ve come prepared with rain jackets, ankle high mountain shoes and even gators.
the hosts of the B&B (Urkulu Landetxea in Larrino) Fernando and Monica only speak Spanish, so I’m mainly using body language and guesswork while Arne manages quite well with his Mexican Spanish. the room is large enough to spread around all our stuff and there are comfortable common rooms downstairs. we take a shower and head over to Asador Etxebarri, it will be the third time that we’ll eat there. the food is great, the menu has some of the classics that we’ve had before (chuleta and belly of tuna) and some new dishes, like the pea stuff and grilled squid. we’re back home around 1 am.
Febe writes 