Bordeaux
Bordeaux was a stopover on our way to Spain. I know, how can you only stop in Bordeaux for about 15 hours? You have to do what you have to do. I am not a fan of wine, so one of the main attractions in Bordeaux is wine tourism, I was not missing anything. We were heading south and needed to allow for more travel time on the Iberian Peninsula. After all, the clock on our 15-day Global Eurail Pass had started; there was no time to waste.
So, Bordeaux became a pit stop along the way. Unfortunately, most of the affordable apartments, hotels, etc., near the city center were booked. We had to stay at a hotel that was a 15-minute ride in an Uber from the train station. Due to the distance from the city center, we were not able to easily walk to the city center that night. We arrived at the hotel after 10 PM, which was well after my geriatric required bedtime ;-). In order to see as much as possible the next day, we called it day and went to sleep.
4 Hours in Bordeaux
There was a light rain the next morning so we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed downtown to the train station to drop off our bags. The station had secured baggage storage and all bags had to be scanned by security prior to entering the locker area. Our bags were secured, we were fed, and reservations for the next train booked, it was time to explore Bordeaux. Even with our planned early exit from the hotel, we did not start exploring Bordeaux until about 10 AM.
We had booked a train for around 3 PM to head south, so we had very little time (about 4 hours total) to see the town. Phones out, GPS running, we were off to see the city. There were a lot of small backstreets that we took to see the architecture, people and everything that we could in the short time we had. Bordeaux is a beautiful old city, with classic architecture, old churches, and street cafés.
Weather Improved
The rain had dissipated for now; we should be able to stay dry for a while. That lasted for about 60-90 minutes, and then the rain started again. We found a small bookstore café on Cours Victor Hugo to take shelter and to get something to drink.
The rain eased up again, we were on the move to cram in what we could. France had seen a lot of rain recently so the Garrone River was very muddy, that and the overcast skies ruined a picturesque view that I really wanted to see. Ruined or not, it was still very beautiful but felt like I was looking at Victoria Falls without water, something was missing. We spent the next hour or so walking along the river and the nearby streets down to Monument aux Girondins. We had about 90 minutes left before our train departure, so we headed to Place Tourny to grab an Uber back to the station.
Heading South
The next train ride was about 3 hours with one change in Hendaye, France. The Hendaye station is on the border with Spain and you can walk to the train station in Irun, Spain in about 15-20 minutes. This did not leave us much time to spare, so we opted to wait for the train vs missing the train in Irun.
Our next stop was San Sebastian, Spain, a short 30-minute train ride from Hendaye. We had booked an apartment with an ocean view near the city center and a short 15-minute walk from the station. I couldn’t wait for that view and to grab some local food and take in a new culture. I had been to Costa Brava (on the Mediterranean side) in 1989 while living in Germany. However, the local cultures were not the same, something new for me to enjoy. I will cover San Sebastian in my next post.
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