Bordeaux to San Sebastian

Taking the train from Bordeaux to Bilbao should have been easy until our train was separated in two. Not being able to understand the announcements in French our end went to Pau 130km east of Hendaye oops!
When we finally arrive in Hendaye it started hailing!
Fortunately it passed quickly and we rode across the Spanish boarder to Irun. We took a local train to San Sebastian and decided to stay there instead of Bilbao as it was already 8pm.
Having no map, no Spanish skills, no accommodation and no Internet we wandered around in the rain pushing intercom buttons of the pensions apartments until after many unsuccessful attempts we found a room.

After a longer than expected day we head out for pintxo (the basque version of tapas) at the local bar. Washing each delicious morsel down with a glass of red wine or Txakoli, a fresh young white wine that the barman poured skillfully from a great height to aerate the wine.
Numerous pintxo later we asked for something more substantial and ended up with a huge slab of steak carved straight from the carcass.
The steak was then presented to us raw on a plate for a nod of approval before being seared and sliced. It was sensational!
What a way to start our Spanish adventure!