We had a lovely night and a beautiful breakfast in the best accommodation so far. A lovely B&B in Getaria called Usotegi. The owner was lovely and the best hostess we have had. Spain has been great for accommodation, helpfulness and friendliness. She told us she had a cancellation yesterday afternoon, put it on booking.com and we booked within 30mins. We were very lucky as it was the best.

After a walk to the top of the little island at Getaria which afforded us lovely views of the little town and our accommodation on the hill we headed in to San Sebastian. We had a lovely afternoon and evening here. It was very busy, we walked through the old town looking for somewhere to have lunch, this was a challenge as there were football fans everywhere, the streets were packed and we had to weave in and out of people to get through. DB following me as he isn’t the best at pushing through crowds, I just hoped he kept following as he would have been there forever. I even struggled a bit and tripped over someone’s dog and fell into a lady. The atmosphere was like at the football in Barcelona but it was still 3.5 hours till the game. All the tapas bars were bursting at the seams so we had to go out a little bit as it was too intimidating to go in these crowded bars with no Spanish and no idea what we were really doing. we found a not so full but far from empty bar and went in. Luckily 2 of the barmen could speak a little English and we ordered some tapas. We tried anchovies and a sauce based on a ladies recommendation, a seafood one, and some mushrooms. All of them were very tasty. We were told San Sebastian was foodie heaven and so far this seems the case. There were Tapas bars everywhere. We then walked around the old town and saw many of the towns monuments, churches and old buildings. We climbed the hill to Castillo de la Mota (Statue of Jesus) which was very big. Whilst here we could hear the football crowd cheering and chanting for their team and the game still hadn’t started. We then walked around the beachfront along the boulevard with the thousand or so other tourists, past the palace to a wind comb and sculptures.

Then it was dinner time. Finding a restaurant was challenging again as we wanted a sit down meal instead of tapas and it was early. DB doesn’t like to be the first in the restaurant to order food and most people were just having drinks. We finally found somewhere and it was equally as good as lunch. Grilled vegetables, prawns and fresh salmon. Yummy.

Onwards after dinner to a budget Ibis hotel in Bayonne. Just a stopover for our long drive tomorrow.

A bit more excitement for the day as we drove in to France. At the first toll gates which was within the first few minutes as we left Spain 2 policemen and 2 army officers with automatic rifles stopped us. We thought it might have just been because of our Netherlands number plates. DB went to get out of the car and they saw he was driving in bare feet. They said he must wear shoes to drive. DB tod them we don’t wear shoes in Australia. They said in France you must. So DB put them on. The policeman then put his arm in the window and showed DB that the lights had 3 settings “A, B, C” he said. We think he may have been indicating we didn’t have lights on or were using high beam. Not really sure. It was all done in good sprits. I offered my passport which they declined and then I lifted my foot up and showed them that I had shoes on. They indicated that I was good. So we are still none the wiser as to why they stopped us. DB’s theory is they thought he had someone in the boot or we were maybe their entertainment for the night.

Tolls 8,75
Parking 13,95