:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Monday 18 September 2006 ::

WOGFROG06 DAY 4 BORDEAUX TO BURGOS

I know, I know. Burgos is in Spain. Not France, so "Frog" is hardly right, eh? Yeah, well, yeah. I cannae find a decent rhyming slur for the Spanish leg of my drive - Spic just isn't the right sound. So, whatever. I will stick with the existing title and youse can all get over it.

So it was
bye-bye Bordeaux on a gorgeous morning, and all big drive down to Burgos in Spain.

Went through some weird squally weather - weird cos it only lasted in spershort spurts, then the sun would be back out. But it was mostly sun. And saw a lot of these looming lumber trucks as I rolled along. Needless to say, a convertible's nightmare to be stuck behind one of these trucks, cos the loads look so precarious, it's all heartstopping and they are best overtaken at speed.

Speaking of speed, for any petrolheads, you gotta put this drive on your list cos the highway going out of the south of France at Bayonne and into Northern Spain is absolutely fantastic. It winds all around and about and goes through the seriously big Pyrenees mountains so there is loads of beautiful scenery and fun tunnels to be enjoyed - the Mazda sounds soo good in the tunnels - and the raod quality, while not as supergreat as the French stuff is pretty durned good indeed.

One of these drives I am going to have to pre-install a mounted videocam on the dash so youse can see what I see properly, cos it really it breathtaking.

There was, however, boiling rage during this trip, caused by the objective disgrace that is the Basque "language". Yetcht. Ha - that's probably the Basque word for butterfly. Takes something beautiful and make it sound like you're spitting up.

I tell you, this stuff is pure bullshit. Sadly it pollutes most of the signs along the drive so one has to endure the sight of the words of this stupid language (its verb endings are, I shit you not, "-ek" and "-ak") alongside helpful words that are perfectly understandable to everybody because they are essentially Italian words.

Like "Attencion". "Kasu egitea?" How about "exit". "Irteera" (that's the one that set me off.)

Or this kicker "speed 50 kilometres per hour".

In Basque? "Orduko 50 kilometroko abiaduran." What the ..?

"Kilometroko". Isn't that just priceless. Natch, they're too "proud" of their "cultue" to just say "kilometro". Idiots in the mountains who the Romans could not be bothered to ever chase, would never have had a word to describe the distance of 1000 metres. But having been presented with one, they naturally shit all over it.

It is an objective truth that language spoken in France and Spain should be variants of Italian. Full stop. End of story. I got no problem with the Poles and the Czechs and Hungarians et al speaking their own stuff with all the "w's" and the "k's". In fact, I think I can pinpoint my hatred - it is the excessive use of the letter "k". There is no "k" in the Italian alphabet. As nature intends.

Anyhoo, enuff already. Once I got the hell out that zone I powered on down into Castilla y Leon and into Burgos, a big ol' town that is just lovely. Stayed at a top shelf hotel on the river that included this perfect painting:

Just says "Spain" to me

And natch had a wander in the cooler evening, for a few hours, along with all sorts of Spaniards out taking the air in beautifully lit plazas. Including the plaza in front of
Burgos Cathedral. Gorgeous.

Then back to hotel room for restiness, in front of the box seeing a pretty terrific Spanish Talk Show all very very mucho mucho supportivo of Il Papa. Lots of footage of Benedict speaking in Rome, and getting whooping applause from loads of folks for not apologising to Muslims.

He really did not. He is sorry for their reaction - a very different thing. But enuff of that - other bloggers have it covered plenty.

Tomorrow, more road action. Out til then.
:: WB 11:17 pm [link+] ::