Bayonne

This is the day that Fi and I started our Hemingway adventure. We had planned to visit a friend in Madrid for some time, but hadn't decided how to get there. However, having just read Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises we decided to follow in his footsteps through Biarritz, San Sebastian, Pamplona and Madrid.

Fiona came down from Rouen to Paris on the Thursday then from Paris to La Rochelle on the Friday. We did all the touristy things that you should do in La Rochelle. We then went to party, and decided to stay out all night, which was a mistake as we had to get the train to Biarritz the next morning at 6am. 4 hours sleep on the train wasn't enough and by the time we got to Biarritz we were still groggy and tired. We could only appreciate it for the rare 5 minutes that we felt normal. It is more of a summer town though, in my opinion. 20s style hotels climb up from the beach front which made it feel like you had walked onto the set of Boardwalk Empire (sorry for those who haven't seen it). After lunch and a hot chocolate, we headed to Bayonne which is a mere half an hour away. Bayonne was completely different. It had a more 'mountain town' feel to it. Less beach and boardwalk, more timber framing and dried meat. I know that doesn't really typify a 'mountain town' but you get the idea, right? I hope so. This picture was taken at the side of the river that flows right through Bayonne.

From Bayonne we followed Hemingway's way down across the Spanish border (still within Basque territory mind you) towards San Sebastian. We arrived at around 20h00 and caught the bus to the hostel. We weren't sure, however, which stop to get off at. The hostel website said get off at the last stop. So we sat and waited. Ten minutes later, we realised that we had already seen this sqaure before, and that building. Damn! The bus went in a loop, a long loop too. So we enfed up having a night time tour as a introduction to San Sebastian.