Au Revoir France, Hola Spain!

Last night Bryan turned his running joke that Biarritz was 'beernchips' into reality by spilling his beer onto the frites served with mussels that we ate just across from our apartment as entree before pasta we bought at the market. Chips soaked in Heineken is about a 3/10 but thankfully he didnt soak the mussels. Amy especially loved them and we learned how to eat them using an empty shell as cutlery-very clever indeed!

Today it was time to pack up and bid France farewell for a few weeks. Jack and I took a morning jog along the beach and back through town together, before we got ready for the bus trip first to San Sebastian then onwards to Bilbao.

As a parting pic for the french, here's a sign we spotted up near the light house... Apparently even poodles poo, who would have known?

Off we trundled to the bus stop, and were efficiently transferred to San Sebastian. The bus station there was fairly chaotic, but we managed to find the onward ticket office and given we had our luggage just allowed enough time for lunch before the bus to Bilbao.

We started to head towards the town centre, and on the way found a busy pedestrian area with bars heaving with locals. We managed to wedge ourselves and four suitcases in a corner then started on lunch. Oops- Spanish restaurant with no English, and they were crazy busy so no way I could keep up with iphone translator app. I thought I was doing ok with a few words and pointing at menus, until the food started to pile up. Turns out that everything I even waved at was ordered! We had enough for 8 people and were attracting incredulous stares from the locals. Not to mention we hadn't stopped at the ATM so were hoping our stash of €'s would be enough and we wouldn't have to leave Amy doing dishes! We managed to finish most of it and settle up, then headed with full tummies back to our bus.

Our arrival in Bilbao was to thousands of soccer fans sporting local colours streamimg to the stadium near the bus station. A cab was easy to find and we were at our apartment building in around 10 minutes. We checked in to very comfy digs, and headed off to wander the old city area where we are staying.

As it's Sunday (and probably because half the town was at the soccer) the streets were pretty quiet. We both felt that newer parts of the city we had passed had a very similar feel to Melbourne and we really feel comfortable here. We tried to find a bar for a beer, and after a few hiccups managed to grab a spot at a lovely bar with an amazing spread of Pinxos!

Yes that is a deep fried ham and cheese sandwich for Jack!

Thankfully we had walked our huge lunch off, and having learned to order at the counter rather than table service we slowly grazed for a happy hour or so. The prices here are noticeably lower than Biarritz, so hopefully that continues in Spain.... More spare change for a little shopping I say.

The kids ventured out afterward to play in the square, and we managed to wedge in an icecream on the walk home. Choc coated waffle cones... And I had vanilla infused with cinnamon. YUM

We have a fantastic view over the park and towards the river from our apartment, and the activity out there is amazing to watch. The kids were cranky that we were putting them to bed at 8:30 when the park is full of local kids playing on swings and running around. We are still trying to catch up time zones with the morning wakeups a bit earlier than I would prefer but we are nearly there... We've also been walking around 10km daily and climbing loads of steps and hilly streets so they are coping remarkably well so far.