Stoke Works (and a weekend in San Sebastian)



We’ve just come back from a weekend away visiting Catherine (Karen's eldest daughter) in northern Spain, hence the reason for no blog entries for the last few days.  As it was a last-minute trip, Buddy’s normal kennels were full so we had to find another.  After a lot of searching, I found one with a space just outside Droitwich and I must admit he seems to be none the worse for being there.

We arrived at Bilbao airport early on Friday morning and it was wet and windy but warm.  The bus journey bus to San Sebastian took just over an hour and we soon found our AirBnb after arriving and then went for a wander around town whilst waiting for Catherine to finish work at 2.

Neither of us had been to this part of Spain before and it was like Wales in that every sign was in two languages, with Basque being the prominent one.  Catherine taught me a few basic Basque expressions which always brought a laugh and smile from the barmen and shopkeepers hearing a foreigner, especially a Brit, using their language as opposed to Spanish.

It felt like we spent the whole weekend on one long tapas crawl but we did other touristy things such as walking along the beaches, taking pictures and wandering round the markets.

Opera house with sympathetic lighting for the month of June – you can see how rough the weather was


One of the many tapas bars wevisited

It was Catherine’s birthday on Saturday so Karen improvised a birthday cake out of a couple of palmeiras.

Cat’s birthday cake

Sunday was a glorious day and we lazed around in a bar in what was the original bull ring square.  The numbers have been preserved above (what was) every bull ring box in the square.

Lazing in constitution square


Numbers above the bull ring boxes

We arrived back at the boat at about 9.30 on Sunday night and fortunately no one had moored behind us.  That meant we didn’t have to worry about running the engine so that Karen to get hot water for a shower before work on Monday.

Other than picking up Buddy from the kennels, I spent most of Monday catching up with admin and working out where we will be cruising for the next month.  The plan is to get to Cropredy, which is just north of Banbury on the South Oxford canal, by the first week of August.  Once we get going it will mean travelling most days as it is 65 miles away through 120 locks.  We also have another weekend away soon, Matthew’s graduation in the Czech Republic, so that will take a few days out of the schedule..

Our journey for the next four weeks

Here are a few other pictures from our weekend away:

Me and Cat in a tourist pose on Friday evening


Cat and Karen in our apartment


A dessert tapas – cream horn with an anchovy!


The river running through San Sebastian


Looking across the harbour



 

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