Today is our first day waking up in St. Jean de Luz. After having breakfast at the hotel, we’ll be on the road to Bilbao, where we’ll stop for lunch. Bilbao is most well-known for being the home of the Guggenheim museum, but we’re going just to see the city itself. But first, le petit déjeuner.
Hôtel De La Plage
The breakfast room at the hotel looks out on a wide, sandy beach. Europeans aren’t into “big American breakfasts.” That just made the array of choices at the breakfast buffet even more impressive.
We haven’t been here long, but so far, I’m liking this hotel a lot. Great location, friendly staff, nice room with a view, and now, an exceptionally good breakfast.
If you want a piece of bread or toast with your breakfast, you just go over to the bread-cutting station and cut off whatever you want. So French, eh?
And how about some beurre for that pain? We have a choice of two butters, including one from nearby Gironde, the land of Bordeaux. A choice of butters from two different regions? Even more French.
Bilbao
I’ve always been interested in Bilbao. I have no idea why. Maybe I did a report on Bilbao when I was a kid. We’d have to pick a topic and write about it – like a book report. (Do kids still have to do book reports? I hope so).
The Guggenheim museum is Bilbao’s big tourist draw. I want to see it, but just to see the building itself. The Guggenheim is full of modern art. I saw all the modern art I need to see at Venice’s modern art extravaganza, the Biennale. Whoa. I’ll leave it at that.
Our plan is to arrive in Bilbao around lunch time, take a look around the old part of the city, then have lunch. A lunch of tapas, I mean pintxos, would be ideal.
Bilbao is 80 miles from St. Jean de Luz. Toll roads connect St. Jean de Luz, San Sebastián, and Bilbao. We were on one of them yesterday.
Toll Roads – Ugh
I’m never sure what to do at toll stations in Europe. It’s always nervous-time because people who have places they need to be are always lined up behind you. The pressure is on.
We encountered a toll station yesterday on the way to St. Jean de Luz. All I had to do was swipe a credit card. The bar went up and off we went, so hopefully today’s toll stations won’t be a problem.
We hit the road, crossed the border into Spain, and came to the first toll station shortly thereafter. I had my credit card ready, but at this toll station, unlike yesterday, there weren’t any diagrams showing something that looked like a credit card.
Instead, there were diagrams that seemed to indicate some type of ticket or pass. I looked for a gate where a real person was collecting money. No such luck.
We had no choice but to get into one of the lines and try to see what people in front of us were doing. I couldn’t tell. Then it was our turn.
The Pressure is On
Once inside the gate, I looked for some kind of instructions or diagram. Nothing. There was something that looked like a very thin slot, but nothing indicating what to do. You just had to know. Well, I didn’t know.
It seemed like I should insert a ticket into the slot, but I didn’t know anything about any tickets, and I certainly didn’t have one. People in the cars behind me waited patiently as panic set in.
Just then I spotted a maintenance man working a few lanes away. I stepped out and made universally understood motions indicating cluelessness. He understood. He yelled out, “Teeket!”
I yelled back, in English, even though I was pretty sure he didn’t speak English, “I don’t have a ticket!”
He yelled back, “TAKE ticket!”
I looked and looked. There was no ticket to take. I looked back at him. He made universally understood motions recognized to mean, “IT’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!”
I looked again and there it was, right in front of my face. I didn’t see it before because it was tiny, on edge, and exactly at eye-level – almost invisible to me.
During this time not a single person honked. They’re so patient here. On the other hand, entertainment had been provided while they waited.
I grabbed the ticket, the bar went up, and we got out of there before it changed its mind.
To be continued…
Nice photo of Bilbao at the top of this post. Credit: istockphoto.com/jon chica parada.
