Bavaria, Lake Como, Madrid, Nthn Spain & Barcelona

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I have posted a review of our San Sebastian apartment here http://www.australianfrequentflyer....partment-1a-21-javier-barcaiztegui-69643.html

Around San Sebastion
Day 1
Again we shopped first up and then had a spell while the windy showery weather cleared. We then set out for a “locating” walk. We are about 2km from the Old Town but this is an easy flat walk with plenty of route choices either through residential spots or via shops and the river. It is a much busier and larger spot than we have been staying. There are plenty of photo chances with some stately homes, the 3 main bridges and the scattered monuments. Tapas certainly are the attraction in the many cafes/bars & we enjoy the tastings-some spots are just too crowded for us to bother. Walking at night seems safe and we locate a small bar a couple of minutes from the apartment for a nightcap.

 

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Day 2 San Sebastian
We fit into the late night/late morning start quite easily. We wander a different route to the Old Town & then cross towards Playa de Zurriola (also saw it described as the Gros surfer district)- nice enough beach with a few volleyballers but the umbrella & lounger business could have stayed in bed!
Our main plan for the day is to walk to nearby Pasaia. This routes starts with a steep multi step climb out of the town and then develops into a well trodden route with many walkers-mix of Camino devotees and day walkers & school groups. Parts are very rocky, others muddy patches and there are certainly short sections that defy the “easy” walking ranking. During the 2.5hrs we get great views of the majestic coastline while on other sections you are walking on paths cut through bracken & light vegetation. Signage is good overall but there are a few spots where you are left guessing for a while. Arrival in Pasaia is marked by a roadway & then many steps down to water level at the testy looking harbour entrance and then the bay. The walk in takes us past Albaola-the Basque Maritime Heritage foundation setup but we were more intent on a late lunch by then!-given more time, this had read very well with a great guide to the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] Century Basque whalers and the associated ship building skills-plenty of the timber is stored on the side of the path where we walk in.
We hopped on the E09 bus for a 15 minute ride back to San Sebastian & then finally settled on a big fantastic prawn omelette baguette and beer for a late lunch! Back at our apartment I settled for a beer, read about Origin 2 and managed our washing while thinking of some of the Camino walkers we had spoken to today who had been walking for 7 hrs and still had a couple to go when we encountered them!
We ate at Esparru-a small bar/restaurant about a 5 minute walk from the apartment.They had some outside tables, drinks were fine & tapas were prepared once ordered-all very good.

Our walk towards Old Town


One of many beautiful buildings

A slow day on Playa de Zurriola

Made it up the first climb & look back at San Sebastian

Plenty to please the eye

 

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This is a link to an online guide to the walk Take This Coastal Hike from San Sebastian to Pasaia | Invisible Images

More of our photos of the walk to Pasaia



Final walk into Pasaia
Looks pretty serene from this angle

Lighthouse above Pasaia harbour

 

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Day 3 San Sebastian
The early cloud burns off for a nice day. Today is just walking around the city. We take in both La Concha beach & Ondarreta beach as we walk around the bay via the promenade & the white railing. The glamour set are not out & the beachside rental business for lounges & umbrellas is again non existent. We hike up to the historically, strategically important Mount Urgull-great views back over the city & beyond. Visits to Mota Castle & History House Museum are time well spent. Back down the hill we fill in the spaces of where we had not wandered previously in the Old Town eg city hall, Good Shepherd Cathedral, Victoria Eugenia Theatre, port area etc. We take in a lunch of pintxos-Bar Hori Da suits us, less push & shove, still nice food & had quite booth to sit.

Basque protestor leaving his mark in the sand

 

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Some more shots from our San Sebastian wanderings

 

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Last of the San Sebastian photos

Next stop is Barcelona



"New" San Sebastian with bars scattered around the apartment blocks

A typical play area in the apartment blocks

 

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San Sebastian to Barcelona
It was raining when we awoke. Fortunately our host family had offered to drive us to the Renfe station (less than a 10 minute drive but extremely generous of them). Apparently there is a new bus station being built there. While much smaller than Madrid station the checking system sees you kept off the platform until they are ready to greet you-around 25 min prior to departure in this case & they scan the ticket but there is no luggage Xray - the station cleaner used his voice to control the unaware from roaming where they were not allowed. Not a great start with the train being 15 minutes late but we were not on a tight schedule. A 6hr ride with no changes so no challenges really- we booked online back in Aust & a glitch saw us pay 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] class but select single row seats in a 1[SUP]st[/SUP] class cabin. It was a busy cabin near the restaurant car but comfortable (the Spanish seemed to wander a lot & enjoy loud conversations while drinking their coffee). The bacon & cheese baguette we had on board was excellent. The countryside varied-early on there were narrow green valleys dominated by market gardens that gave way to broad acre cropping & then a variety of olives, grapes & fruits on poor looking soils but assisted by irrigation. Some of the major towns had dramatic looking castles & forts but maybe not a lot to see there. Again there were some major quarries & industrial plants. Solar energy has not been a major player from what we have seen in Spain this trip but today there were several big wind farm locations.
We arrived around 10 minutes behind schedule & spilled out onto a busy station platform - crowds we had not seen since Madrid. Signage for the metro within the Sants station was a little confusing but we got ourselves downstairs & bought a 10 trip ticket (T10) to share on the metro- a good ballpark we read was once on the platform was to allow 5 minutes plus 2 minutes per station- ie if going 6 stations allow 17 minutes. Around 2pm things were not too crowded. We exited pretty close to the apartment & then killed time having a beer & wine at a bar (Bar Celona) 2 minutes from the front door of our apartment. Our host arrived at the agreed meeting time

San Sebastian Station Controller-what a voice

Not so busy station

Pretty comfortable way to travel
Our first Barcelona Bar-cold drinks, great service and nice Peruvian food

 

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I have posted a review of our Barcelona apartment here http://www.australianfrequentflyer....house-carrer-d-merican24-barcelona-69731.html

Around Barcelona
Days1-3
This is our 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time in Barcelona so we set out to see the main sights & anything else we come across in between. We are intent on mainly walking but realise also that the metro is easy to use so we have rough plans for each day & jump on the metro where it provides us with good links. The crowds of tourists don’t seem too big, the weather is fantastic (light winds a lot of the time) & we have really enjoyed the wandering. It is interesting to see the various areas we had read about when booking our apartment & the contrasts throughout the city & we remain happy with our decision. Barcelona seems very pedestrian friendly and easy to navigate with many tree lined boulevards.
The La Sagrada Familia is partly shrouded for renovation and new construction and is an awesome sight up close. The crowds were much thicker here and we elected not to do the inside tour. The old hospital San Pau, which we see some of from our terrace, is an amazing building, the Torre Agbar is certainly unique to us and we really enjoyed our time around Park Guell (the escalators were handy on the way up!) and the Gaudi houses along the Gran de Gracia provide a number of photo stops. Clot market seems special & Ave Gaudi looks nice for dining. Generally we are not city people & the “designer” shops & “golden mile” don’t have a lot of appeal but that is where the big crowds are! We have enjoyed our 1[SUP]st[/SUP] taste of Peruvian food at the bar 50 metres from home, had some nice pizza slices for a lunch & generally enjoyed the laid back area we are in. It is relaxing to sit on the terrace of an afternoon, have a drink, watch the planes approach & depart and soak up a life that is so different to what we have at home.

Having problems uploading photos so will do them later

 

[love_the_life]

I like the central food market in Barcelona for a wander and look at the wonderful produce. We did an actual food walking tour when we were there and it was great - booked through the tourism board from memory.

 

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More photos of our Barcelona wanderings

 

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More of Barceona

A very athletic cat on a mission


Parliament

Had to admire this beggaar with the coke can on the end of the fishing rod

 

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More Barcelona



Never to be finished?

Escalators on way to Park Guell

Jump on jump off buses & the bicycle borrowing system

 

[love_the_life]

Looks like you are getting beautiful weather now. Have you finished the long walks?

 

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Barcelona shots




Night shot of old hospital

 

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Looks like you are getting beautiful weather now. Have you finished the long walks?

Weather was great. Bit more walking at Montserrat that I will post tomorrow

 

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Day 4- Montserrat
We bought the package tickets that included return train trip, 3 funicular rides & 2 metro rides for use back in Barcelona. The train was already at the station so a tip would be to get there early to ensure a seat-train ended up full at stages.
A pretty uninspiring ride out with most of the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] 20 minutes underground & then through mainly industrial areas. It is only about 100 metres from the train station to Aeri which is the start of the cable car up to the monastery level-every 5 minutes & takes 35 people. We went straight on up higher via the Santa Cova funicular-runs every 20 minutes. Up there we walked parts of the mountain walks, got plenty of shots of the unusual rock formations & the surrounding district & then walked down via the path to the monastery level,
The monastery level was where the big crowds were-band playing, huge lines to see the black Madonna, boys choir etc.
We had previously visited Meteora in Greece & both thought that we probably enjoyed that experience more-we had no pilgrimage motive and thought the volume of monasteries & the variety of their structure at Meteora was more spectacular.

Initial ride up

Close up of the passing cable car
Plenty of exercise available-vast majority seemed to stay down at monastery level


You can catch a view of one of the tracks in this

 

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Some more of the Montserrat day out

Great view from track part of the way down

This is where all the crowds were

Santa Cova Rack Rail track

 

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Day 5
Started out as a visit to the tradition & culture of cava at the Bodegas Freixenet but things didn’t go as planned. Somehow we ended up on the wrong train from Sants & apparently ended up on the wrong loop of the line (Catalunya station would have been the better option) So by mistake ended up doing a coast hugging trip to Sant Vincenc de Calders. There are certainly some nice beach locations along here and the area near Castelldefels is host to a massive amount of moored boats.
Back in Barcelona we wandered further down Las Ramblas than what we had ventured previously. Crowds were out in force for St Joan Day festival with the promise of fireworks, bonfires & beach parties. We did a little last minute shopping, some final washing & got organised for our transfer to Munich. The night certainly was a big fireworks celebration with parents seeming to be as enthusiastic as their children.

Managed to dodge the crowds in a couple of photos along Las Ramblas




Hospital in background
Familia in the background of the fireworks

 

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Barcelona to Munich
We spent the morning walking above our apartment to Parc Del Guinardo- it was hot so we only covered a few of the bottom sections of what we had read was a hidden gem of Barcelona. This was a great spot away from crowds & we caught some great views of Barcelona as we wandered back to our apartment to prepare for our transfer.
Using the metro then the airport bus service to T1 were were in the terminal within an hour of leaving the apartment. The buses run every 5 minutes from Plaza Catalunya, are very comfortable & have free wifi on board. Vueling had already cancelled our planned morning flight prior to us leaving Aust & we were now on a late arvo flight-we were checked in & had boarding passes from the time of rebooking. At the airport the bag drop line was slower than check in & we were warned the gate may change. Security was apparently strict with earings having to be removed. The airport building was light & airy but all the glass meant it was very hot throughout. As I had suspected departure was delayed. Signage indicated loading would commence on time but with no plane there 15 min from scheduled departure. Eventually a White Airways 320 ( a Portuguese charter mob I had never read about) not the expected Vueling plane lobbed at the gate. Quick loading was not helped by the wanker with his coat over the boarding signage (the sign indicated which side the various rows should line up) nor the hit and miss of boarding passes on mobiles. We were in row 6-tight fit but pretty plush blue leather seats. The late departure was further delayed while crew meals were delivered. This was the ultimate non service flight (glad we hadn’t paid extra for XL seats, newspaper, drinks, catering etc as they were non existent), not even any water offered as the staff hid behind the front curtain, relocked the front toilet all the time & thus turning on the occupied sign) & peered around the curtain-I was bored and had no room to move so I was watching their lack of action!. Flying time of 105 min was spot on and baggage delivery was very quick.

Lower section of Parc Del Guinardo

Nice views back over Barcelona

2 Man band entertainment on our last metro ride

During our ride to the airport

 

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More of Barcelona-Munich Transfer

What we were originally expecting


Seemed nicely laid out but hot throughout

Guess some Qantas passengers would have been unhappy with their delay

Not helping with his coat hanging antics-ended up sitting in the middle of the plane & had no priority boarding!