Europe 2017 – day 16

As has been our modus operandi on this trip, we decided yesterday afternoon that it was time to start looking for accommodation for our next port of call (for tonight).
We were originally going to go to San Sebastian, but when she started looking for an Air B’n’B there, Cath said “It’s more expensive than I thought it would be and it looks REALLY touristy”. We don’t particularly go for ‘touristy’.
So I said “Well, stuff that. What else is there?”
A quick browse on Google Maps and we came across Zumaia, maybe 40km west of San Sebastian.
Hmmm, interesting rock formations, an Air B’n’B that was in our price range, AND available… OK, let’s do that!

So, this morning, we hit the road for what was to be our biggest driving day of the trip. About 7 hours to Zumaia.
We stopped at a town called Sahagún for lunch. While we were there, I grabbed a shot of the Arco de San Benito (the Roman Arch).
A couple of hours after that, we pulled off the motorway at a little village called Pancorbo, nestled at the feet of some large and imposing hills.

Here we found a church (which even the venerable Google Maps doesn’t identify). You could look inside, but only through a locked door of steel bars. The image that I shot was probably the trickiest execution of any shot on this trip! The inside of the church was so dark, yet outside it was high noon in a cloudless sky. When I looked through the viewfinder, I couldn’t see ANYTHING inside the church. So, I did what any self-respecting photographer would do…. set up the tripod, switched to manual focus (focused to infinity, then wound the focal point back just a tad) and manual exposure (f13 for the depth of field, and 4 seconds to capture enough lumens) and away we go. Gotta say that despite the lens flare, I’m pretty proud of that shot.

When we arrived in Zumaia around 17:30, we had some time to kill before we could meet up with our Air B’n’B host, so we decided to wander around town a bit. Although we knew we were back in Spain, it struck both of us that none of the names or signs we saw looked like Spanish. Some googling revealed references to Basque. And some reading of Wikipedia introduced us to the concept of the Basque Country (an autonomous region of northern Spain, but not answerable to the Spanish government; with its own language, food and culture). This would prove to be quite the learning experience over the next 48 hours.

Once we were settled in our accommodation, Juan (our host) pointed us in the direction of a good restaurant or three. And after dinner, I grabbed the camera and took to the streets for some night time imagery.

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