Day 83 Balboa, Spain

Arriving into the port of Balboa today and this is what we were greeted with. Just, wow…..

I thoroughly enjoyed our tour today that took us to the two villages of Bermeo and Gernika that both have a population of around 17,000.  The two towns though are quite different.  Bermeo is a sleepy coastal town with colourful architecture as opposed to Gernika, that is a little more staid.  This is because Gernika was bombed and badly damaged in 1937 by the rebel, General Franco who was also an ally to Nazi Germany.  The bombing has been declared a war crime, post war, as civilians were largely targeted.

Our guide today absolutely made our day so much more enjoyable.  We were docked beside a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that was twice the size of our little ship.  So our guide starts the tour by saying "I hear that the smaller the cruise ship the better it is.  Of course that only applies to cruise ships".  Philip and I burst out laughing straight away (that says a lot about our sense of humour) and it took the rest of the tour group a little longer to get the joke.

Our bus driver takes us on the scenic drive to Bermeo that is about an hours drive.  The countryside is so beautiful and I can now understand why people become obsessed about living in Spain.  It is so green and our guide tells us that it rains 70% of the year.

 Once we arrive in Bermeo, that is incidentally our guide's home town, we are guided down to the port where, once we are given directions and places of interest, we are allowed free time to wander on our own.  I love doing this as we move at our pace that is much faster than the usual Regent passenger pace.  We wander up every staircase we can find and enjoying the views from every angle and believe me it is a photographers paradise.

After our free time is completed we now make our way to Gernika for a full guided tour (just like a school excursion, as our guide says).  It is not a long drive but we notice so many of the Aussie Eucalyptus Trees along the way.  In fact our guide says that they have adapted so well to the climate that they have become a weed and the government is working on controlling their number. Once we arrive in Gernika our guide leads us to a lovely outdoor cafe where we enjoy a glass of wine and a Pintxos (their version of a tapa).  It was delicious and gave us just the right amount of sustenance to continue our walking tour that takes around an hour and a half.  

The architecture in this town is so different to the colourful buildings we found in Bermeo.  Most of this has to do with the bombing of the town.  However, it is still a lovely town.  Our guide takes us to some of the most important places and also inside a tunnel that has been set up to replicate the air raid bombing that took place here in 1937.  Our guide says that the bombing has been forgiven but not forgotten.  

A good example of the size a Eucalyptus can grow given a different environment.

Pablo Picasso painted an Anti-War painting after the bombing in Gernika called "Guernica".  This painting is replicated in a large mural in the city area of Gernika.  Our guide explained the mural to us as Picasso's abstract work can be hard to understand, but I think this one is very self-explanatory.

This has been a fantastic tour and our return to the ship is along the freeway that only takes us 45 minutes.  When we are back in Balboa our guide points out to us a mansion that, at the moment, is being rented by Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones.  Its a very beautiful place with the price tag to go with it…..

Day 82 Bordeaux/Pauillac, France

We didn't go for our intended walk to the reflection pool at Bordeaux last night as our dinner date with friends didn't end until almost 11pm.  Instead I took a couple of photos from our balcony.

Today our ship re-positioned from Bordeaux to the small coastal town of Pauillac (pronounced po-lac) - just 23 nautical miles.  Rather than stay on the ship we decided to do a tour that would take us from Bordeaux to Chateau Fluer De Lisse for a wine tasting and tour,  then on to the little village of Saint Emilion for lunch.  In the afternoon, the bus would take us to our ship at Pauillac via the Chateau district.

Chateau Fluer De Lisse is impressive.  It is so clean and newly renovated, and I have never seen so much stainless steel in all my life.  As you enter the building the first smell that hits your nose is the smell of oak.  Outside, the last of the harvest of grapes is being processed.  We are first walked into the bulk storage area and then we move to the cask storage.  The majority of the wine is stored in the wine casks but surrounding the edges of the room are large ceramic containers holding more of the bulk wine. Our guide then takes us to the cellar door for our wine tasting.  We taste three different wines but as these are all reds I don't bother with the tasting.  I just don't like the taste of red wine.

From the Chateau it is a short but very scenic drive to the medieval village of St. Emilion that is another World Heritage listed place. Our drive takes us past thousands of hectares of grape vines, so many vines.  Our guide tells us that drinking of red wine in France is on a downward trend so I do wonder at the wisdom of planting so many vines.  

St. Emilion is absolutely gorgeous.  Our guide walks us through the narrow cobblestone roads that are only wide enough for pedestrians, to a vantage point that overlooks the town and beyond.  St Emilion attracts over a million tourists each year and there is plenty to see and do if you love Merlot Wine and excellent food.  There are numerous restaurants vying for your attention and we even pass a couple of Michelin starred. The one that we eventually land on for lunch is a recommendation by our guide and the food was some of the best I've eaten, and that said after being on a cruise ship for three months! St. Emilion is divided into the upper and lower and it's quite a steep walk to the lower section.  This is where you will find clothing, jewellery, craft shops, to name a few.  I purchased a bamboo scarf but that was the sum of our spending today.  Still, it feels good to give back to these small villages.

The restaurant we chose to dine at was called L'Envers Du Decor.  As soon as we entered we were taken straight to an inside table (grateful for that as it was cold outside) with street views.  The menu is written on a large blackboard that is positioned so that you can easily read it.  The waiter explains the menu to you and he is very attentive and our questions are answered easily.  The entrees we chose were the Brie soup that intrigued me, and Philip went for the grilled octopus tentacle.  For our main we went for a share dish that was Slow Cooked Roast Lamb Shoulder.  We also ordered a glass each of Rosé.  As a complimentary dish we were brought a chive dip with very crispy toast to eat while we waited for our entreé, that came out as soon as we ate our last piece of toast and dip.  

My soup was brought to me in two parts, a large tureen with the brie cheese soup and a soup bowl with a very lightly poached egg and croutons.  I mixed the soup with the egg and took my first spoonful.  Wow.  That was one of the most creative and delicious dishes I have even eaten.  Philip's entreé was equally creative and I particularly liked the plating.  We ended up swapping our dishes half way just so we could get a taste of each. 

After our entreé our main was almost an anti-climax, but it was delicious if not the prettiest dish I have ever seen.  The meat just fell apart and the jus, with a hint of mint, was perfect.  Gosh.  I'm such a foodie…..

After that huge lunch, we walked around St. Emilion a little more before heading back to our waiting bus.  We have to head back to Bordeaux in order to reach our final destination of Paullic, but our driver takes us a different route.  This route takes us past some very impressive Chateau's.  We don't stop at any to get photos so they have to be from the bus window but you still get an idea.  There are over 7,000 Chateau's in the Bordeaux region and our guide tells us that these days they are owned by either Banks or Insurance Companies, that is a bit of a shame but it seems the way of the world these days.  The little fish get gobbled up by the big fish. The drive takes us just over two hours and once again it is gorgeous.  Here is a sample of just some of the Chateaus that I could photograph.

I don't know whether any of you have watched the tv show "Escape to the Chateau" that followed the lives of the Strawbridge family as they were renovating their Chateau.  This is close to the area that they have their Chateau.

As we draw close to Paullic we see the hulking form of our ship.  It seems to be sitting in the middle of no where again.  The village of Paullic looks interesting as we drive through it but we have no interest in walking back into town to check it out.  It is very overcast and we have just been on tour for 7.5 hours so our bed will be calling us very early tonight.  Tomorrow is another day and another port.