The rain in Spain falls mainly on …

We arrived in San Sebastian (northern coast of Spain) at our apartmento, owned by an Aussie guy who travels a lot.  It was great, complete with all creature comforts and an eclectic mix of books (most in English).  Lois enjoyed reading Lance Armstrong’s “It’s Not About the Bike.”  It had two bedrooms, lounge and kitchen/dining so we could all spread out and get some “space” – appreciated by all!   It was terrific to be living amongst the locals,

rather than in the touristy hotel area.  The first thing we noticed were the outdoor escalators and travelators that went up the hill.  Cool!

The first few days were rainy – the rain in Spain doesn’t just fall on the plains – also the hills of San

Sebastian.   We had lots of shops and bars on our doorstep and started to practice our very rudimentary conversational Spanish.  We sometimes prepared our own versions of tapas, complete with local wine and beer (replacing the Heineken left in the fridge by our landlord that Ed consumed!)

San Se is just gorgeous. When the weather fined up we made it to La Concha beach, where bods of all shapes and sizes soaked up the sun.  It was great to see the waves breaking at Rio Urumeau – we watched many a pedestrian get soaked as the odd wave broke over the footpath at the waters edge, narrowly escaping this fate ourselves.

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We enjoyed seeing all the locals with their dogs – cocker spaniels were popular and we even saw a few Irish Setters. (Lois had a red setter in Scotland when she was a child).

Entertainment was largely people watching and laughing at our attempts at Spanish.  We also had a neighbour who played his Spanish guitar, which was lovely.  We did have a laugh at his singing of English pop songs in his Spanish voice though!

When we went to La Concha and went for a stroll, there was a large group of youths, drinking and having a good old time.  As we started to head home, we turned a corner and got a bit of a shock as we encountered riot police with balaclavas.   We realised that the youths were part of some kind of demonstration.  (The landlord’s notes on the apartment included warnings about being careful about tides and rips at the beach, shutting the bathroom window when showering to avoid gas fumes…and to avoid demonstrations.  Oops.)

San Sebastian is definitely somewhere we would return to again. Loved it.

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Madrid on the other hand…well, firstly we were going to Madrid to break up the length of journey on our way to Jerez de la Frontera.

On the bad side, it was dry, dusty and graffiti ridden. On the good side, it was a buzzing metropolis with a lovely big park in the centre.  The wifi in the apartment was “speedy Gonzales” so we took advantage of that and caught up on some web work and surfing.  We had a small “park” across from us, but in urban Spanish style it was just dirt with a few shrubs around it.  Everyone took their dogs (including pit bulls) and

it was a big bark fest every afternoon.  At night the place really came alive…we were near a nightclub so got an eyeful and an earful from our birds eye view when the patrons spilled out onto the street in the early hours.

It was disappointing to find out that the pool at the apartment was only operational during a few months of the year (wimps!)  so we couldn’t swim in it.  Sash and Lois were hanging out for a swim as they go almost every week at home…but there was a pretty good gym there, which was welcomed.

Madrid had some great shops of course, all the top designers.  Sasha found a lovely pair of purple cullotes in a boutique – very snazzy.   TV in Spain is another highlight…if you like quiz shows that is!