Hiking in the Pyrenees again – this time with Blaze (a dog that found us and led us for hours). Then a few stops at medieval Spanish towns.
This is yet another post I drafted weeks ago. Busy days continue. Not sure if I mentioned it in an earlier post, but Lilly has started practicing with the only lacrosse team in all of Cataluña, the Barcelona Dracs. She is the youngest player out there but totally crushing it in practice. Most of the women are bilingual, native Spanish speakers. David and I are both so proud of her for just jumping in to join the team when she doesn’t speak the language, knows absolutely no-one and is so young. Most of the girls learned the game while studying in the United States, fell in love with the sport and came back to a country that doesn’t even know lacrosse! We have been told that basically every woman in the area who plays is on the field with this team…all 16 of them. Several girls have never even picked up a stick and are trying it for the first time. It’s amazing to see their energy and enthusiasm. We take the metro to the field they share with the men’s team twice a week. On Tuesdays practice runs until after 10:30 pm when the women, without Lilly, head to grab a beer. *November update – sports practices are cancelled, bugger.
Kids are doing great with our crazy, unpredictable schedule. We know that if we want to travel we need to double up on schoolwork some days. This means Cameron and I spend extra time side by side working through math and grammar, among other subjects. We have fun linking together the topics of world history with landmarks here and in France. I think his exposure to architecture, world history, art and geography are proving rewarding and interesting. Maybe more so for me… but Cameron seems rather engaged. We’ve also watched movies and travel shows set in cities we’ve visited – cracks us all up to see so much look familiar on the tv.
September 17 – 20:
We made good on a promise to get Cameron his first surfing lesson – in San Sebastian. Man, I had not been there since college and it was so much better to explore and dine when you aren’t a broke college student. Cameron had the good fortune of an awesome instructor, Borja, who gave Cameron a few minutes of pointers on the beach and within 15 minutes they were in the water. Cameron caught the first wave and was up like a champ. It was amazing!!!! We sat on shore watching two dudes chatting and reading waves. To see Cam have such success so quickly was an added bonus. I don’t think Cameron stopped smiling for hours. He did such a great job and had so much fun we got him another lesson the next day. As luck would have it, they had slightly bigger waves that were just right for Cameron to try. Sitting on the beach I knew Cameron was completely safe out there; Borja was always nearby, coaching him on which waves to take and which to pass on. It was another great morning.
First time! 
Wipeout! 
David snapped a great photo with Cameron surfing in the back!
As tends to be the case, we then wandered the town and hit up a few local shops and restaurants. San Sebastian is known for their pintxos
https://www.euskoguide.com/food-drink-basque-country/pintxos-pinchos/
and the world-renowned food scene did not disappoint. We didn’t book any fancy pants spots or Michelin starred establishments but rather stuck to the tried and true pintxos bars where we would pop in, grab a few bites from the bar, enjoy a glass of local txakoli
and then would move on. One night we let the kids have pizza in the room while we barhopped (think spaced tables, no one actually at the counters, and mostly snacking outside). It gave us the chance to sample some local delicacies and catch up. David continues to work on our excursions so we hit the town after his workday is done after about 10:00/10:30.
The bar said only 2 to a table for covid restrictions – kids had to go get popsicles and eat them alone across the alley from us. It was hilarious. 
Photo bomb!
We left San Sebastian behind and headed up the coast of the Bay of Biscay to enjoy lunch in the sweet little town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Rick Steves, my favorite guidebook author, told us about free parking and it was right where he promised. Found one of many restaurant-lined streets, plopped down and lunched. Wandering the town for a few minutes after lunch was nice, but the rain rolled in so we took our leave. Next stop: Biarritz, France.
I understand why the rich and famous like to vacation there – it is absolutely stunning. Our hotel was centrally located so we dropped our bags, grabbed the map and walked the striking promenade for a long time. Cameron gleefully watched the hundreds of surfers braving the much bigger waves, explaining which waves were good and which would break short. He’s hooked. It was breezy and a bit chilly and rain was sputtering, but it didn’t dampen our spirits or our drive to be outside and watch the waves crash into the shore. The old town offered more shops, food, drink and shelter from the now pouring rain. Sampling the local craft brews under a portico where we could watch the world pass by was a treat. The hotel suggested a nice little spot for dinner. The place was buzzing, and a couple of small birthday celebrations at neighboring tables told me this was a place for locals. We took our lead from the owner who picked the perfect meal, including some tasty squid that the kids surprisingly liked. *note: I just read this to Lilly and her quote about the squid was that she “more or less tolerated it!” Another full day was behind us and our beds were calling. We had another “family” room where our bed and the pullout for the kids were side by side with almost no room to squeeze over to the bathroom. Chatting is easy when you’re inches apart as we fall asleep and reminisce about our day’s adventures. My brother, Quinn, can probably recall all the silliness and laughter we shared as a family on our European adventures in our tight quarters. We would have been close to the same ages as Lilly and Cameron on one such memorable trip!
Sand art 
Our shelter from the cold rain.
OK. So that brings us up to around September 21. I know, I know. I’m on it.
*Covid update from Barcelona (as I type this on November 9): restaurants have been closed for in-person service for a little over 2 weeks. They are allowed to offer take-out and delivery. Shops are restricted to lower numbers but still open. Malls are closed (doesn’t matter to us). Sports teams cancelled for now – no tennis lessons or lacrosse. This one stings. We were traveling for the first couple weeks of the restrictions in Italy (another post coming when I get to it) so we were not too affected. Now that we are back we still do our wandering and shopping and takeout. On the plus side, I have more time to get these posts done.
Time continues to fly by for us here in Spain. Can’t believe it will be a month on Monday that we’ve been here.
UPDATE: This is all old news. It is now NOVEMBER 6. This story happened weeks ago! We snuck away to the Pyrenees to see another part of the region. It was most definitely cooler, mountainous, gorgeous and we loved our 4.5 mile hike along a beautiful gorge – Ruta de las Gorges Carança.
Cameron had been asking for a good hike – and he got one. It was challenging, stunning scenery, a little dicey, dangerous and Cameron approved. David took a couple videos as we clung to the safety rope along the cliffs. At maybe three to five feet across at points, this mama was grateful the kids had something to hold on to. At the highest I am guessing we were probably 300 feet above the gorge. The whole thing seemed a bit surreal. As we hit what we assumed was the halfway point (yeah, no helpful maps or blazes along the way) David, ever the responsible dad and husband, reminded us that rain was predicted and we needed to pick up the pace. When it was safe to do so and we were not perilously clinging to the side of the mountain to avoid plunging into the gorge, we jogged and tried to make double time. And…just as we finished putting our pack in the truck and climbed in the car the rain began to fall. We would NOT have wanted to spend any time on a rain-soaked trail.
David navigated the switchbacks in the rain like a champ. We also used the time to teach the children an important life skill….how to use an atlas. A-T-L-A-S. We bought one the second day in the city for a couple of reasons. First – you never know when your signal is going to drop and your mapping app quits on you. Second – google maps doesn’t make it easy to spot what might be a cute little mountain village or a town you should quickly research and visit. Grateful that our car had awesome navigation, but we did notice what looked like a neat mountain town off in the distance – the atlas helped identify said adorable town so we headed over to Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via.
A tuckered Cameron zonked almost before we were out of the parking lot after the hike. Lilly and David volunteered to do the reconnoissance mission in the cold, pouring rain while I selflessly stayed in the dry, warm car so Cam could continue to snooze. Mission accomplished. A rain-soaked Lilly returned to lead us to a cute, warm restaurant. The waffles, crepes, cappuccino and hot chocolate with whipped cream warmed our innards and fueled us for a walkabout. The town was virtually void of all visitors, but we were grateful for the few enterprising shop owners who kept their doors open. Forgot to mention that we were in France. We actually kept jumping the border from Spain into France all weekend, mostly because of a funny little island city of Spain surrounded by France. Click the article to learn about that!
Anyway – we had success finding a few tasty French cheeses, a bottle of local beer and another bottle of local liquor from a lovely French woman who graciously helped us. She didn’t speak English and I don’t speak French. She just kept telling us to use google translate when her French didn’t quite translate for me. It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the conversation that it occurred to me that we were minutes from the Spanish border and she might just speak Spanish. Yep. We had a good chuckle since we could have simply been chatting in Spanish the whole time. Our conversation continued and turns out that when two people speak broken Spanish to one another you can communicate pretty well – and no one judges the grammatical errors or conjugation flaws!
The next day we headed back to Girona and showed the kids the church and old town. We previously visited this area with our dads (see Octogenarians in Spain blog) and used it as a chance to recreate some photos. The kids stood in for Lou and Denny. As we climbed and wandered the kids appreciated that their grandfathers made it up the dozens of steep, stone stairs and around the hilly city! I’ll try to upload a split shot of our recreations later – poor David has been tasked with that one.
Today, September 11, is a Catalan holiday. (remember I said I drafted this long ago, just roll with it). We wandered a bit just to see what the locals would do to commemorate the day. Typically there would be upwards of one million residents filling the streets to show their support for an independent Cataluña, but the pandemic curbed most of the big plans. Keenly aware that we didn’t want to find ourselves in a huge crowd or near any sort of riots (we haven’t heard of any) we wandered different neighborhoods to observe how folks were showing their Catalan pride. Lots of folks wearing their flags as capes, one small, very orderly and spaced out march (pro-Communist I might add). Here are a couple of interesting articles about the significance of the day in this region of Spain and an explanation about the different flags flown here in Cataluña. We spent a good amount of time at a local coffee shop reading to the kids and discussing what it means for Barcelona, Cataluña and Spain as a whole. Interesting stuff.
https://www.barcelonas.com/la-diada.html
https://www.barcelonas.com/catalan-flags.html
OK. So that has you caught up through September 11, nearly seven weeks ago. I’ll try to catch up again on our next adventures. But, know this: our days are filled with exploring, schoolwork, coffee shops, people watching, researching cities near to us, road tripping (when and where it’s safe), checking out markets, eating on sidewalks and late night walks to the best darn gelato shop in the city.
More coming. I promise. – I am racing to play catch up. Writing the blogs is the easy part – uploading the right pictures is really dragging me down and causing all the delay.
We love San Sebastian and both Spain & France’s Basque Country where Cameron learns to surf
Hiking in the Spanish & French Pyrenees, with a stop in Girona, is a great long weekend.
