Plan B

I only used that title because I just left Brive, traveled thru Bordeaux on my way to Biarritz and tomorrow I'll head to Bilbao. Boy, ya just can't mak ethis kind of stuff up!



Yes, it was a long travel day to get here but gave me time to plan for Spain which starts tomorrow. I try to watch the scenery go by but I find myself drifting away in thoughts of the next hostel, the upcoming holidays and how come you put groceries in a bag on the East Coast but in a sack out West and then realize "Oh, I'm back in a wine growing region!" That was when I started planning out Spain. I also found myself on one of those late arrivals into town. I knew the hostel was kind of close but I didn't seen my second favorite sign- a lower case "i" indicating tourist information so I decided to take a cab. Bad idea. I've used taxis only a few times and each time it seems the hostel is about 6 or 7 €. This one was 8€. That would not have bothered me except the trip took less than 90 seconds! So beware of the rip off cabbies if you travel to Biarritz!



After that unpleasant start, things looked up. The next day was a walking tour and into the city center which is right on the beaches of the Bay of Biscay. Even though it is mid-November and it was mostly overcast, there were more than a dozen surfers scattered along the beaches. The surfers were all out there in there neoprene wetsuits sitting on top of the water meanwhile over at the Port Vieux beach, the senior citizens of The Polar Bear Club were taking their daily swim in just the regular tank tops and Speedos!



After the beach tour, I did lunch at a little bar. I decided to try a sort of sampler platter of tapas. I had the pate, the fish soup, little shrimp with something else, two different kinds of salami with different cheese on different bread and a little bowl of little pastries and little squids. Sorry 'bout those little squids, but they remained on the plate. They were presented beautifully but I left them for last and wasn't hungry enough to be that adventurous by the end of the meal. Stuffed with tapas and a slice of basque cake for dessert, I then visited the Chocolate Museum. Not a chocolate factory, they still managed to provide almost sensory overload of the Cocoa bean aroma. Free samples, too. I guess I wasn´t that stuffed but I still had no room in my stomach for squid or maybe I just didn´t have the stomach for squid.

Earlier today, I took the bus bqck into town to visit the two museums that were closed on Monday. The first was the Sea or Maritime museum. It's a sort of cross between the history of the town and an aquarium. While all of the informational signs throughout the aquarium are in French, they do have an English audio guide. The various tanks and displays of the aquarium only have species found in the waters surrounding Biarritz but that's still quite a few species. Grouper, striped this and sharp beaked that. There was a sea turtle, a massive crayfish, crabs, sea horses, a couple of eels, lots of flounder-ish type and at least two types of rays and of course the shark tank. Only four inhabitants but one was a type of tiger shark. On two levels there were seals. All of that only covered about 1/2 of the contents of the museum. The rest of it was devoted to all of the maritime/historical aspect of Biarritz from the days of whaling (boo hiss) to present day fishing methods with the various collections of artifacts and models of boats through the years. All in all, it was very well done and a pleasant way to spend the morning. In fact, considering the way the weather changed in the afternoon, I probably should have just stayed there and stared at the fish the rest of the day