Polar Bears in France

We stayed at Amy and Rut's beautiful chateau in France that they are running for the year. They'd created a vegetable garden, small orchard, chicken pen and were busy making chutneys and jams for their guests. All very impressive and country-fide. The food Amy cooked was amazing. The house was full of stuffed wildlife - with one of the best being a fierce polar bear in the front room. Other rooms had a woolly mammoth's tibia, a dancing brown bear, a leopard, tiger and an elephants skull amongst other things. Taxidermy heaven.

Inebriated Spaniards

We had a great night out in the old city at the tapas bars. Met some drunk Spaniards and they kept us amused all night. One looked like Willie Thorne (Moustache guy) and the other was about 5.0ft and liked hugging tourists as they came into the bar.

tapas, cheap vino and beach games

Its our fifth day in San Sebastian and the place just gets better. Amy and Ruts have left us now and headed back to France, as they have guests arriving on Monday in the chateau. Saturday day was spent in Mundaka, a bay around 1 hours drive from San Senastian and apparently a good surf spot. Unfortunatley for Sam, when we arrived the sea was as flat as a pancake, but an awesome spot for relaxing and beach games.

We spent Saturday night eating tapas along the little lanes of the old town. The bar had dozens of shoulders of ham hanging from the roofs, with hundreds of spaniards smoking like chimneys next to them. The food and wine was amazing.

Sunday night was in the casino. We came up 50% up, but sadly I had limited Sam's gambling to 20 Euros, so it wasn't enought to even cover my midnight paella.

San Sebastian, Basque Country

We reached San Sebastian today after a painfully early flight from Stansted. The airport was jam packed and we just managed to reach our gate in time. After a 3 hour car journey with Sam, Tom and Amy, which I managed to sleep through, it was all worth it. here are a couple of pictures from the beach today, the view from our 2 bedroom flat on the 5th floor overlooking a main street in the city and a small cafe we found with wireless.

New Sailing Garb

I bought this red sailing jacket and waterproof gear yesterday. I am hoping a bright red jacket will stand out against the sea when I'm swept overboard round the Bay of Biscay. Thermal underwear is in the post! Our Norwegian captain told us to prepare for all weather conditions, as it can vary from hour to hour. I am hoping for sun and a light wind in Oslo, but preparing for torrential downpours and frostbitten fingers.

Pre-saling excursions...

Before setting sail, we've been busy visiting old friends

in Oxford, Cambridge and London. We got lost driving round the city and passed Big Ben twice before finding our way out. Even though this photo was taken at 30 MPH from the car window - I quite like it.

Next stop is France on the 9th July, flying to Pau. Plans have changed slightly, as we're now staying in a villa in San Sebastian in Spain, just near the French border, which is a couple of hours drive from Pau. Its meant to be gorgeous, so I'll be posting some more pics soon.

Already purchased my thermals and wet weather sailing gear! Great time to be getting deals on cold weather clothes when its 30 degrees in the UK at the moment.