Week 3 – Monday 14th July – San Sebastian

After a long drive on Saturday, a day off on Sunday was a nice break for us, so today we hit the road again, but just down the coast to San Sebastian. We’d been a bit undecided about what we should do, but once we consulted our global calendar and realized that the running of the bulls was having it’s last day today, Pamplona was ruled out. Being July 14th, heading to Biarritz or St Pied de Port didn’t seem like a great idea either as we assumed that most things in France would be closed for Bastille Day.

The weather is still a bit cool and the day dawned overcast. We got on the road before having breakfast, not that it was either particularly early, nor a long trip to get to San Sebastian. We spent some time getting lost in the “old town” before finding ourselves on Place De La Constitution, the main square in the old town. There we stopped for a Café con leche and some Pintxos (pronounced pinthoss) – the Basque version of Tapas. The Pintxos are all laid out on the counter and you get given a plate to individually select the items you want. Apparently the locals use Pintxos as a snack between meals, but the tourists have taken to having them as complete meals. The Pintxos are generally seafood (Tuna, Anchovies and Prawns being particularly popular), meats, cheeses or paté served on top of a slice of French bread – each bar doing their own rendition. The presentation of the food is the thing that makes it so special, and it’s really nice to be able to pick many small tastings, rather than having a whole meal of just one dish.

Having had some food, we went for a walk around the waterfront, which was crowded by seafood restaurants and small fishing boats in the harbour. San Sebastian is a beach town with a Mount Vic type hill at each end of two large beaches. We went for a walk to the top of Mount Urgull, which has castle of La Mota (originally constructed in the 12th century) and the Sacred Heart Monument (large statue of Jesus). Starting at the bottom of the hill, the skies were overcast and we even got a few spots of rain, but by the time we reached the top the sun had finally broken through and clear blues skies arrived.

Lunch was again Pintxos, had over a beer and a wine in the town square. After another burst of sightseeing we returned to Hondarribbia to watch the last half hour of the Tour De France.

Pre-dinner drinks were held in one bar in Honda, accompanied by the usual range of children and dogs of all ages running round the square we were sitting in. For dinner we moved to a small café just around the corner from our hotel and outside the local Paradore (up market Spanish hotel chain housed in historic buildings) and had – you guessed it – Pintxos and wine.

When we were in Southern Spain, we were particularly disappointed with Spain’s White Wine (Blanco), but either our tastes have softened, or the wine here is significantly better, particularly that from the Rioja region.

At 11:45pm, there was a huge sound of explosives being let off, as the French celebrated their national day, less that a mile away over the border.