Thursday, April 21, 2011

Costa Vasca: Lekeitio y los alrededores

The weekend of April 9-10 we joined another family for an excursion to Lekeitio, along the Basque coast. We left Saturday morning and headed straight for the beach, well with the exception of a few missed turns and re-routings it was straight to the beach.


Most of this story we will tell in pictures. This first set gives you an idea of the beauty of this small city. It is a port town. Many of the homes have beautiful ocean views. As you will notice there is one house with extra view. Think skylight without the glass. It appears they had a fire which is unfortunate but I suspect with the views that they had, they will rebuild. While the day was sunny, the winds were strong so it wasn't as warm as it looks. After some time at the beach, we walked around the town, stopped for some food, and then went back to the beach.

Across from the town is an island. When the tide is low, which it was after lunch, you can cross over to it, well at least if you have a swimsuit. The girls made it over and climbed the stairs. The water is freezing, although you wouldn't think so from seeing the girls in it. There is a rock wall that is supposed to offer another option for reaching the island however there were parts that were broken and worn away by the water. Since the adults didn't have suits, we decided to not risk getting soaked.


Our friends Patricia (mom), Eusebio (dad), and their two daughters that go to school with Maia and Morgan were great company.


We stayed in Kurtxia a casa rural (country house) that was quite lovely. We had great views of the city from our window as well. Breakfast in the morning was really good and the owner, Xabier, was nice enough to give me the recipe for the very yummy lemon breakfast cake. 


By Sunday it had cooled off quite a bit and appeared to be an on and off rainy sort of day. Since we had gotten cool by the end of Saturday we decided to venture inland a bit on our way home. We visited a waterfall and took a short hike in the Gizaburuaga area. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, although the winding roads aren't meant for people with a weak stomach.

It was a great weekend and we look forward to our next excursion.