July 9: Getaria

July 9: Getaria

The beginning of this write-up is sad tale and not for the faint of heart. It is the true account of the 2019 Kreuger Camino bed bug encounter. This tale actually began the evening before when Laurel found many bed bug bites on her body and a few on Jim. By the time I awoke, I found their packed backpacks on the kitchen floor ready for disinfection (scalding hot wash and hot drying). After packing up my belongings we drove to the nearest town, Zarautz, and lucky for us, we found a near empty Laundromat where with the aid of Jim’s google translation, we took care of our problem. A small side bit of info—we have been walking for over two weeks and my clothes are snugger than ever. I hope it is because I have twice washed them in scalding water, once by accident as I didn’t check the water temperature on the machine and once intentional to kill unwanted critters.

We arrived back at the flat feeling very proud of ourselves for fixing the problem in record time without losing much of the day only to discover we were locked out of our place. Thanks to a very responsive and animated landlady and her friend, who used a large stiff piece of plastic and handyman Jim to  yank on the door periodically, we were back in our apartment within minutes. Herein ends the sad tale.

We wasted no time in changing and heading out on a walk along the promenade that runs all the way to Zarautz. The walk there was stunningly beautiful as was the beach upon arrival. Zarautz is home to the longest beach in the Spanish Basque Country and also to famous waves that attract surfers from all over the world. I really loved this afternoon as we got the opportunity to observe a sport’s culture that I knew nothing about in a beautiful setting with a perfect temperature of about 24. After lunch in a beach side restaurant we returned home for a round trip total of 16 kms.

After siesta and dinner we went out to explore a bit more of Getaria. It is really lovely to see how the Spanish town people make use of the public spaces. There are always families out walking and many children playing pickup games of soccer or handball. From the outside it appears there is a strong sense of community.