Roland Garros

We spent the last couple of weeks in France with my parents visiting Normandy and Paris. We will have a couple of posts about our adventures coming up, but first a quick post about our last two days in Paris attending the French Open.

Although we attended one day of the US Open in 2000, this definitely felt like more of an event. Roland Garros is not technically in Paris, it's just outside the city and was an easy 35 minute ride on the metro. The days we attended were the first two days of the tournament and our tickets gave us access to the 12 outer courts, and the third-largest of the named courts, Court Simonne-Mathieu. We arrived before play even started on the first day. So early, in fact, they hadn't even written all the names on the men's and women's brackets (128 names each):

Here is part of the same board on the morning of the second day with the previous day's results already noted:

The first match we watched was a women's match between Taylor Townsend of the US and 19th-seeded Gabine Muguruza of Spain. It was difficult to decide who to root for, especially because Muguruza's father is Basque (her mother is from Venezuela), so we were just looking for a good match. While it wasn't a great match, Townsend took the first set 7-5, which meant we got to see three sets, which Muguruza won fairly easily 5-7, 6-2. 6-2.

Our second match was a men's match between 37-year-old Nicholas Mahut of France and 26-year-old (and 16th seeded) Marco Checchinato of Italy. Even though it seemed like an easy win for the Italian, we were looking forward to this match because we expected the crowd to be really into supporting the home-country player. When the match started, it looked like it would go as expected. It took about 10 minutes for Cecchinato to go up 4-1 and he easily won the first set 6-2. In the second set, Mahut played much better, and the crowd really started to get behind him with frequent chants of NIC-O, but neither player could get a service break and Cecchinato won the tiebreak (8-6) to go up two sets to love. Mahut continued to play well, and finally got a break late in the third set to go up 5-3. But, serving for the set, he was immediately broken himself, and we expected that the wheels might come off, but instead he broke again and won the third set 6-4.

From there, Mahut really seemed to take control, and with the crowd very vocally behind him, completed his comeback from two sets down to win 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4! Definitely the match of the day and a very exciting three hours of tennis.

By the way, Mahut, who qualified as a wildcard entry, has already won his second round match over 35-year-old Phillipp Kohlschreiber of Germany (6-3, 6-3, 6-3). His third round opponent will be Leonardo Mayer, an unseeded 32-year-old from Argentina so maybe his run can continue for another round.

After that, we were excited to watch Venus Williams play against the number 9 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, but after a few minutes, it was really hard to watch because Venus is suffering from a medical condition and other than when the ball is in play, moves on the court like she is 68 (78?) not 38. Since we had already watched over five-and-a-half hours of tennis, we decided to call it a day.

Back the next day, we saw another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, defeat Mischa Zverev (both unseeded) in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. We then watched a decent men's match between 24th-seeded Stan Warwinka of Switzerland and Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia. Warwinka has won a couple of majors and clearly expected this to be an easy match. He won the first set very easily (6-1), but Kovalik showed a lot of poise in the second set and won a tiebreaker (7-3) during which Warwinka was warned for "racquet abuse." Unlike Mahut the previous day, however, Kovalik could not keep it up and fell pretty easily 6-1, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.

After that match, we decided to go check out a match on the outer courts. Those courts, which are numbered 1 and 4-14 are open to everyone, and range in size from pretty large to tiny (literally like 100 seats). We went to one of the latter and got a close up view of an American qualifier Tennys Sandgren and his Moldovan opponent, Radu Albot:

First, I have no idea if the American pronounces his name "tennis," but it is a pretty funny name for a tennis player. Second, it was interesting to watch Sandgren talk to himself (and berate himself) between points. While we only saw the first-set tiebreak and second set, both of which Albot won, it was clear that Sandgren was a bit out of his depth (he ultimately lost 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-1).

And, that was it for our French Open experience. It was really fun, and we would consider doing it again, but would definitely not go without tickets to one of the three main courts. From what we saw, the people who only had access to to the outer courts spent a lot of time standing in line waiting for a change-over (and a seat to be open) so they could get into a match, and even now we lack the patience to do that all day.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe – aka Dragonstone

We finally made it out to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, one of the most beautiful spots in the Basque Country. It is much easier to get there with a car, so my brother’s visit created the perfect opportunity to visit this amazing site. We rented a car in Bilbao and spent the day driving along the gorgeous coast to San Sebastian. Less than an hour from Bilbao, and past the charming town of Bakio, you come to this stunning place:

It’s a 10-minute walk to the lookout point where that photo was taken, and a 25-minute walk to the island.

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe is an island - the path is man-made. The building at the top is a small church that dates from the 10th century, and it has been an important historical site since. However, what has made the site really famous is that it was used as the site of Dragonstone in Game of Thrones. Since the release of Season 7, the popularity of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe has soared. Luckily, we were there early morning and mid-week and enjoyed this pilgrimage site in an uncrowded state. To their credit, the local government has chosen not to charge an admission fee to visit the area.

It’s 241 stairs to the top, where you’ll find the chapel (not a giant dragon fortress, which is a CGI creation). Legend says it is good luck to ring the bell 3 times and you can hear the bell often during your ascent to the top.

This is truly a special place. Fisherman still come to ask for blessings in the chapel in advance of their voyages as the season begins.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff

A Walk Above A River – Our Return to the Puente Vizcaya

In January 2018 we visited the Vizcaya Bridge, the first transporter bridge inaugurated in 1893, but were only able to take the gondola across because the foot bridge was closed. We returned with my brother (May 8) and were delighted to have the opportunity to ascend to the top and take in the views.

The bridge straddles the river and allows boat traffic to pass without the need of a drawbridge:

The hanging white gondola car transports people and cars across the river approximately every 4 minutes. Here’s a view of the gondola from above:

Standing on the bridge nearly 50 m above the river the crossing gondola creates a strong vibration. This is not for the faint of heart. But after a few minutes you do get used to it and don’t notice it as much. There are numerous panels showing the history and design of the bridge. And even a marker regarding its designation as a world heritage site:

But the best part are the views:

We had the bridge almost entirely to ourselves and found it to be quite a tranquil place:

After we descended, we took the gondola to the other side of the river. The price had gone up five centimos to 45 since January – still a bargain at about 50 cents. We then took the metro back into Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum – where the bridges just don’t compare even if you get to watch rowing practice.

It was worth the wait to revisit and experience this exceptional bridge from another angle.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff

Up Close with the Flysch

We're back after a short vacation from blogging due to the normal ups and downs of everyday life. The next few posts will be about the many fun things we did during Shana's brother's recent visit . We had a great time showing him around the Pais Vasco. As we always remind you -- all visitors are welcome.

In October of 2017, we wrote about our adventure hiking the Flysch Route from Deba to Zumaia. Last Sunday (May 12), we returned to Zumaia for a boat tour of the flysch, which allowed us to learn a lot more about what flysch is and to get some fantastic views from the sea:

As you can see, it was a beautiful day to be on the water. Here is Adam enjoying the scenery:

After the one-hour boat tour, we took some time to enjoy the flysch from the shore as well:

And, for you Game of Thrones fans, Itzurun beach in Zumaia is the setting for Daenerys Targaryen's arrival in Westeros:

Two further GoT fun facts from the Basque region: (1) Zumaia is actually not close to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe where Dragonstone is set (ah, the magic of film), and (2) Daenerys's throne is designed to look like flysch. So, if you want to come see the places that inspired part of the show, we will be happy to show you around.

So, what did we learn about flysch? (Anyone who doesn't care about science stuff can safely skip this paragraph and the next.) We learned that flysch is layers of sediment that was turned on its side when the Iberian Peninsula collided with the rest of the European continent sometime between 20 and 80 million years ago (this collision also formed the Pyrenees Mountains). Before that, the Basque region was under water, and the layers of sediment were at the bottom of the ocean. However, the collision and formation of the flysch allows scientists to read the geological record like a book. Now, instead of layers of sediment getting older from top to bottom, they get older from east to west, allowing for easier research about the history of the planet.

For me, the most interesting thing is how the flysch supports the theory that a meteor striking earth led to worldwide climate change and the extinction of the dinosaurs (along with 75% of other species 66 million years ago). You can actually see in the flysch the line that marks the K/Pg (Cretaceous/Paleogene) boundary. This layer contains a large amount of iridium, an element that is very rare on earth, but very common in meteorites. Pretty cool.

Overall, it was a very fun and educational day, capped off by Shana making a new friend. This is Kaia, and she is only two months old:

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana