A little bit country

Just when we thought we’d been to the best place so far, we end up in Lasarte-Oria, Spain. Our last place may have had glorious views of an ancient massive fortress, but they didn’t have sheep!

Our 3 girls are still a little skittish, but we had fun coaxing them with corn and hay. The small city of Lasarte-Oria is just 5 minutes down the hillside of a narrow road, but we figure a little place away from the action might be just what we need!

Getting to Spain was not easy but not awful. The drive was incredible, as we hugged the Pyrenees Mountains for a couple of hours.

I was a little worried about getting gas because of the fuel blockades, which I can’t really figure out except that it’s primarily in Western France–well we are as far west as you can get. So at a half tank, we thought we’d fill up at the next chance. Except even with a 20 km warning, we drove by it before we realized it…….ok, another in 60 km. We found this one fairly easily. $57 for 2/3’s tank–over $7 per gallon!

There were mannnnnny tolls on this highway, which was a bit stressful. Once we were in the wrong lane, like the EPass lane. Most times you took a ticket and paid later, but there are no people it’s all by machine. One was simply pay a fee here, so we waved our bank card in front of it and the gate went up. We think one cost over $20, but who knows.

At the bottom of a very steep mountain slope was another. I was so surprised they had one there because even in our car we were being careful on the hill, but the trucks were inching along. As we passed through we noticed several armed guards–AH! We were in Spain, where the mountains of Basque country looked completely different. Woo!!!

Now we were 30 minutes from our place. It’s complicated to get to, so the host asked me to call Miguel and meet up with him at a hotel parking lot. The highways were not too bad, but then there was a split and google maps left it up to us to decide………..well we picked the wrong one and soon we were on these little tiny roads like in Italy only out in the country.

The wind was whipping sand everywhere and I expected to see sheepherders haha. We got turned around but found our way again…..finally we were in town and Miguel was easy to find. He led us to the house which was up such a steep slope the car wouldn’t go up easily. Ultimately we made it and Miguel gave us the tour 🙂

The forecast showed a couple hours of sunshine so soon we were walking through the sheep pasture. There was a bench on the hillside where we let the sun bake us and the warm wind whip around us.

It was a dry windy 79 (!!!) when we arrived, then very suddenly the temperature dropped. Within 30 minutes it was 61 and cloudy and windy–storms were coming!

We wanted hearty food, not a deli sandwich and not anything unknown. We tried to sort out the restaurants, but it was just confusing. So we figured we would head to the grocery store and hope to see something on the way.

Both France and now Spain use tons of roundabouts. Sometimes they are 2 lanes and pretty confusing. After several circles, we saw the grocery store with an underground parking garage–oh boy. Mike took a ticket and we really hoped we were parking in the right place.

Living in Orlando, we all know a bit of Spanish and Latin culture, but this was alllllll different. You take a shopping cart down a moving ramp. Like Italy and France, the cart wheels go sideways too, so this baby was everywhere!

We have reached a new level of travel fatigue. We just wanted some from home. In fact, for the first time Mike let us buy peanut butter! There was only 1 brand, so here’s hoping. That’s how I was in Japan–the food is amazing, but after weeks, I just couldn’t keep eating it and found myself with Katie at McDonald’s 3 times a week.

We knew from our mistakes in Italy that sometimes you have to have your produce weighed, or figure out the scales and put a sticker on. So imagine our surprise when a Hoho-like cake also had to be weighed. So did nuts in a plastic container. I tried in vain to wave-off the clerk like just forget it, but she had another clerk help her. It was all very slow and soon there were 8 people in line and I realized I forgot to look up “I’m sorry!” (Lo siento) The clerk was saying something and I finally heard the word Ticket. This nice lady was trying to help us validate our parking ticket. Wow. How did she know we didn’t have a clue!? Turns our you needed that to get out of the garage…. aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! It was all very embarrassing and I tried to smile and apologetically wave at the people in line. Good grief.

Even after trying to make sure we knew how to get home, we still missed a turn on our narrow winding roads. Starting dinner was a bit nuts, with no 2 ovens, microwaves, stoves operating like to anything we have ever used.

Then we enjoyed a sunset like I have never seen. You’ll probably think I’m making this up and the picture does not capture it well, but the sky was a liquid white–no orange red yellow.

It rained with the water coming straight down, and thundered off in the distance. Tuesday we have rain in the forecast but staying home with the sheep all day doesn’t sound too baaaaahhhhhd lol!