Buses, Biarritz and a Basin on a Urinal

Early changes and a wet surprise

Our departure from the ship today was pushed forward from 9:45am to 9:00am. The reason? Vaguely explained. Apparently, we couldn’t dock and needed to take a tender into San Sebastian’s marina, then hop on a bus. My guess? Someone somewhere didn’t get the right permissions. So instead of a gangway, we had a 10–15 minute ride across open water from about 1.5km offshore.

Ros and I were the last two onto our tender, and we snagged the last seats. I had my back to the open door; Ros was in front of me. All smooth sailing—until the end when a rogue wave splashed in and got me! The Scenic crew promptly shut the door. Not too bad—just a little soggy.

The distance doubt (again)

The itinerary claimed “about 4km of walking,” which we took with a grain of salt—past experience taught us that 800m often turns into 7km.

Once ashore, we had a 200m walk to a small shuttle bus, which took us through town to a larger bus headed into the Basque countryside. On board, we met more of the lively American group we’d seen earlier—characters, in the best sense. They were part of Group 2; we were in Group 1, so we waved them off when we swapped buses.

Wandering Saint-Jean-de-Luz

Our first destination was Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a small coastal town. We strolled from the drop-off point along the marina to Louis XIV Square, where we got a brief history lesson. From there, it was the usual pattern: walk a bit, stand around, hear some history, walk again. Eventually, we landed on the town’s main commercial street.

Some opted to break away and enjoy their own free time. We stayed with the guide and eventually made it to the open-air market—this one full of life, unlike yesterday’s seafood no-show. Fish of every kind was on display. We didn’t buy any, but we did each get a pastry. Not Paris-level, but decent. The hunt for great pastries continues.

Cute dog cameo and lunch with Aussies

At 12:15pm we regrouped in the square to head to lunch. While we waited, we sat down near a cute little white fluffy dog perched on a bench — a tiny slice of home and a reminder of our own pup. The restaurant had four tables set for our two tour groups. Lunch began with a salad of some sort — no idea what was in it, apart from very thinly sliced ham. Next came some perfectly cooked fish, followed by a chocolate mousse with mango sauce. The mousse was great. The mango... less so, for me.

We chatted with three couples from Sydney. They were continuing on through Europe for a few more weeks, while most of the Americans we’d met were heading home after Dublin. Makes sense when your flight is only eight hours!

A Lighthouse, Designer Shirts, and Gelato

After lunch (and a quick toilet stop — the urinal with a hand basin on top was a definite ‘nope’ from me), we headed to a lighthouse overlooking Biarritz. Beautiful views, very warm, very quick stop. Then it was into town for our final bit of free time.

We wandered through Galleries Lafayette — basically Myer with a Parisian price tag. €130 for a shirt that looked like it came from the towel aisle. Hard pass.

Time dragged a bit from there. Ros enjoyed a dark chocolate gelato while we waited to rejoin the group. The return journey was thankfully smooth: coach to minibus, minibus to tender, tender to deck.

Sights in the bay

Ros and I just watched the sights in the bay - boats coming and going. There was plenty of action taking place including a guy using his paddle board to come out towards the boat.

Performance tonight

No nap today, but tomorrow’s a sea day. We’ll rest then. Tonight? A performance on the heli-deck to line up with the sunset. As we were going to the heli deck, the hotel director mentioned that Ros and I are the only two from this cruise going onto the next trip to Iceland. Everybody else will be getting off the boat. That does explain why I haven't spoken to anybody who is doing the next cruise, although a few did the trip before from Barcelona to Lisbon.

It was a wonderful evening with Chloe and Sean singing a number of songs, set against the sunset. The last song they did was Hallelujah, which coincidentally just happened to be one of the songs I had on my 'mix tape' for Ros at the start of the trip.