Sep 4 - back in the land of grathias

My three years of high school Spanish does come in handy, but not when it comes to menus.  I at least know how to pronounce words in Castillion vs Mexican Spanish ...

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Where do I start ?  It was a tough day. Something that I ate (not drank) yesterday gave me cramps. I was up several times during the night to use the toilet. Not to be graphic, but there was nothing urgent, if you get my drift.

The cramps, however, were somewhat debilitating. Staying cold kept them at bay so I froze all day with the A/C blowing straight at me in the car. If I pointed the A/C away, the cramps came back. It was just as well this was a driving day. !

The time change worked in our favour this time and we were at our hotel in Vitoria SP by 4pm. Once parked we sought a glass of wine and found the proprietor watching the Vuelta. He informed us that tomorrow's start in here in Vitoria and heading into the Pyrenees.  What a treat !

I was thinking that we'd delay our drive to Bordeaux tomorrow by a couple of hours and catch the start, doing laundry in the meantime.  That was until we found that a laundromat was right across the square from the not Araba, so here I sit at 7:15 pm doing laundry.

The race passes close by so we will catch that and then hit the road.

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After our glass of wine at the hotel we went for a wander, but not very far.  We are out of the central city area this time and there's not a lot to see -- apartment buildings, live in the suburbs.  The restaurant at the hotel was closed for the day, not sure why -- speculation is vacation -- but there was a bar just up the street, so we stopped for, you guessed it, a glass of wine.  It was cold walking outside anyway, about 15C.

Since we are outside of any tourist area, there is NO, repeat NO English spoken.  We can order Vinho, and Agua con gas, but not much else.  Oh, by the way, that "g" in Agua is silent.  "awa con gas".  In Portugal it's the same only you pronounce the "g".

We asked the girl in the bar if there was a laundromat nearby -- lavanderia -- and no, they (she and some others at the bar) knew only of one in center city.  Then a girl with spikey hair and spikey boots took me by the hand out of the bar and we crossed the street -- it seemed that she knew someone who knew something, or at least that's how I interpreted it -- but no, there, right in front of me, was a lavanderia, open from 7am to 10pm -- wonderful !

So that's how I ended up doing laundry as I wrote the blog intro above.

I was very chilled, a combination of what was going on with my stomach as well as the outside temperature; hadn't recovered from the A/C blowing at me all day.  Once I was back from the laundry, as it was then past 8:30, we headed back to the bar where the did have a limited menu.  I'd confirmed the opening time for food when she said 8:30 ... ocho.

However, best intentions aside, there was a misunderstanding.  Food wasn't until 9:30.  It was 9pm at that point and the way that I was feeling, I could have simply headed to bed.  At that point the fellow that I'd taken as the owner of the bar, Ali, l assume (Ali in the bar / restaurant name) led us aside and upstairs.  He turned on the lights to a beautiful big restaurant and with the personal attention of the cook and the helper and my Spanish/English dictionary, we figured out what was on the extensive menu.  Unfortunately, many words didn't appear -- local names for fish, meats and preparations -- and no idea of accompaniments.  Eventually I ordered a seafood salad and lamb; Sandy ordered a fish.

We are in Basque country.  Perhaps that's why many words didn't appear ?  Who knows.

At any rate, my salad came and it was, without doubt, one of the if not the best on the trip.  Huge with an assortment of shrimp, thinly slice tuna, a simply wonderful sweet balsamic, it was to die for.  Sandy helped herself as well so it became ensalada for two.

Then came the main course -- a huge, perfectly piece of fish for Sandy, looked like it had been poached, and well trimmed lamb riblets with roasted veggies for me.  OOH OOH OOH.  Did we ever eat well !!!!

So ... today we have a slow start.  I've already done the laundry, his and her undies, and we're eating breakfast as I type this.  We'll take our time and be out of here a little before 11am and wander down to where the race will pass by shortly afterwards.  As it's close to the beginning and they've cris-crossed the city, it will mostly be a parade; they won't really be racing yet.  After the action passes by, we'll collect the car and head for France.  Our destination is supposed to be about 3.5 hours away.

Onward !