JC Diary: July 6-7 Spain Part 1

Tuesday, July 6/65 
I felt much better this morning after a good night's sleep. I just hope that I won't peel and I think I'm safe as I've got a pretty good tan. I want to see some of Biarritz today and it looks like a good day for doing that. 
We walked around here for a few hours. The main shore in Biarritz was crowded with people. It is a large curved arc of white sand and at the end end we visited it is punctuated with large natural rocks against which the surf breaks. Some people would swim out a ways and let the surf, about 4'-5' high at the crest, carry them back. On our walking tour we stopped at a small peninsula which is almost an island and probably is during high tide. This used to be a leper colony and some hollows in the rocks bear evidence as they were carved out as a place for the leper to escape the elements. 

About 1:00 pm we started for San Sebastian and the Spanish part of our trip. We landed in near the harbour and parked the bus and started to walk about. Stopped at a souvenir place and Rod began to use his Spanish. After talking to the owner, his wife, and three lovely daughters for 3/4 of an hour we got the name of a cheap restaurant in a basement where only the working class goes. A good substantial meal and more wine than we should have had cost us about $1.75 [ About $12 Cdn in 2020 dollars...]. The owner of the souvenir place used to be an alcoholic and just two months ago turned his bar into the present souvenir shop. He gave us a note to give to the owner of the restaurant and because of that, I think, we weren't charged too much. One of the bottles of wine was seven years old. Not that we are connoisseurs (or something) but we did appreciate it more after seeing the label.
San Sebastian Harbour

There are two large hills (or small mountain peaks) which are on either side of the main beach. One was lighted up at night and the trees (pine) shone a very delicate green. The other hill has a small castle on top. This was where we slept out under the stars.
Wednesday, July 7/65 
Woke up about 8:30 am and walked around the top of the hill and saw a beautiful view of the city in the morning. We met an American couple ( in their 50's) and went into the fun house (labyrinth) with them -- I can't remember the last time I was in one. A lot of fun.

After walking around the main part of the city and through a small market where rabbits, chicken claws, horsemeat, etc was for sale we left to got to Pamplona. 
This is the city where for week, during the Festival of St. Fermin, the bulls run through the street to the bull ring. The bull fights that day started at 5:30 pm. We gravitated through the crowd to the bull ring and were accosted many times by scalpers who had tickets to sell for $5 to $8 a ticket. Naturally we didn't buy any. We ran into the two American fellows we saw in San Sebastian and they had bought tickets around at the back of the ring. We saw the custadors arrive and also to the butchers who can carve up a bull in 15 minutes after it has been killed in the ring. Also we met a girl from Montreal who had lost her tow friends somewhere in France or Spain. She came along with us. 

 For a whole week the people drink, sing, dance, and parade in the streets. After the fight we met some Spanish people in bars and they would buy us drinks. Luis and Manuel were two of them and were pretty well blotto. It was fun singing arm in arm as you were caught up in the enthusiasm and friendship which everyone offered. Three Spanish Senioritas came with us ( or really us with them). One could speak some English so that was a relief. Florence, (the Montrealer) and us had dinner walked around a bit then all camped around the bus in a park.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

John Carter's Diary, Summer of 1965 -- the first three days.

Image
About a month ago, on one of those -32c mornings that are exhilarating to those who love The Valley and perhaps too effing cold for those who don’t, I asked my 6 year old grandson Max if he thought that Spring would ever arrive.   His response was terribly cogent in today’s crisis and uttered in a sweetly derisive tone of voice that small children reserve for their obviously daft grandparents. “Of course, Spring always comes after Winter.”   The words “you idiot” were clearly implied but left unspoken. And, of course, as Max predicted Spring is following winter and has arrived. The snow in The Valley is running away surely. The 10 feet piles of snow along the roadsides have melted away and the flocks of redwing blackbirds and grackles have returned to Dead Horse Pond across the street. The ice-huts have been pulled in off the lake – more than a week early. Spring is springing – although we’re a long way from seeing any tulips at least the snow is off my two newly planted...
Read more

Some more American Cousins.

Image
The start of our second week on the road! Morning in Statesboro was lovely after a brief rain near dawn.  Another day off my quota of really nice days, I guess. We’re now well enough stocked to have breakfast in the trailer. We won’t even try to get the fridge working until we get to Naples. Just too much to do to wait again for repairmen who don’t phone and we’ve both done enough camping with coolers and ice that it won’t be a giant deal. I’ve long used the example of my Ogilvy ancestors as a glib way to turn any bad judgement on my part into a joke about DNA...  My ancestors were kicked out of Scotland by the English and then came to Georgia only to be kicked out by the Americans for siding with the English.  I’ve always wondered why?  My Dad and his wife Susan have worked very hard to establish his family tree;   more than half of mine as a result as they’ve been kind enough to do research on my Mom’s line a little as well. They find out quite a few int...
Read more

Briggs Boardwalk and the Southwest Florida Conservancy

Image
On Wednesday we started out early with the best of intentions of trying to hit either Koreshan or to head to the Naples Nature Conservancy. But the fridge guy called just as we were finishing breakfast and debating the relative merits of the two and trying to figure out the timing of each.  Our desperation at getting the fridge fixed before we left Naples, of course, over rode all educational and entertainment concerns. Fridge Guy ( we’ll call him Scott because that’s his name ) was going to arrive between 1pm and 3pm and he had the part that we needed.  This limited our choices pretty heavily and so we shifted towards something we could do quickly without a long drive. The Briggs Boardwalk is part of the Southwest Nature Conservancy. The conservancy is focused on the protection of the ecological systems related to the sheets of water that flow west out of the everglades.  The Briggs Boardwalk is only about a mile as the wood stork flies across the estuary and only a ...
Read more
Image
We're just a little over half way through the physical diary at this point. I believe based on the note that precedes the entry for July 13th that he was mailing the diary home in sections.  So when he picked up letters in Madrid on that day he would have mailed what I'm guessing is the 2nd installment of the diary to Aity.  The storm today is pushing lots of mist and fog off the lake despite the frequent wind gusts. I'm guessing this might be the last day for ice or maybe tomorrow it seems to be at the breaking point.   Another dull day in isolation -- one of our days off from grandparenting -- makes a great opportunity to provide more of JC's diary. -------------- (insert after page 71) Tuesday, July 13/65   Today we left for Madrid. Rod isn't feeling well and has some stomach trouble. Got to Madrid and went to the Cdn. Embassy where I got four letters. I'm so happy that Lillian and Tom now have a boy and that everything is fine.    We found ...
Read more

Gloom, Despair and Agony on me...

Image
Biloxi, Mississippi, Sunday the 31st. What a crappy day.  High of 8C and rainy with a stiff breeze making it feel much colder.  A month ago I’d have been happy in shorts and a t-shirt — or at least able to pretend to be comfortable.  Today, I had to dig my leather jacket and my wool hat out of the closet.  This is our 28th day on the road and we’re probably a little homesick and without much to distract us from that given the weather.  At home, Alex and Sarah and the boys faced up to 25cm of new snow and the road in to the camp was closed by fallen trees and more than 30cm — and the old snow is still deep on the ground; that would almost be better at least for our mood. Clearly, we’ve been spoiled by nearly 3 weeks of perfect, really perfect, weather;  It’s been 70s, sunny, low humidity for 24 of our 28 days on the road; it’s like we’ve been travelling back and forth between LA and San Diego... Lacking energy and enthusiasm, we drove out to an anti...
Read more