The entire trip took a turn for the better as we passed into Spain (sorry France). We really saw some beautiful places in France, and we can't wait to return to see some of the places we missed. We drove south from Bordeaux until we crossed over the border into Spain, or rather the Basque Country. The Basque Country is absolutely beautiful. In San Sebastian, they speak Basque and Spanish, and signs are in Basque and Spanish.
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| The look of driving through France after our auto ordeal |
When we got to San Sebastian, we checked into our moderately-priced room at
Pension Nuevas Artes. I don't think we would stay there again, at least in the same room. The mini-bar drinks were cheap, so we drank our local beers and got ready to go to the beach. We stopped at a "chino" and bought a couple more local beers and some towels and hit the beach. Playa de la Concha is huge and perfect. I have never seen the tide at a tourist beach change so drastically in the course of an afternoon. Be careful not to fall asleep while tanning, or you may wake up under water.
We are usually "do it yourselfers" on trips, but I booked four
Viator tours for this trip. We missed the first one in Bordeaux, but we made it to the next two in San Sebastian. I think that overall they were a little pricey, but we would not have had the experience without signing up for the trips. There was only one other person on both trips, and it turned out to be the same woman, who we became friends with.
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| La Concha Beach |
Our first tour was the "Pinxo" tour, where we were guided by a wonderful woman named Maria. We saw one bar in Old Town and then headed over to the Gros neighborhood. Gros is where most of the locals like to go out, and we'll stay there next time we visit. There are pinxo bars on every corner, and the Donostians like to party until early in the morning.
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The second drink was red wine (vino tinto), and the
pintxo was sesame seeds covering a soft cheese cube. |
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Txakoli is famous wine in San Sebastian. It is poured cold
from a height and turns cloudy. It is delicious. The pintxo is
called the 'Gilda,' and it's meant to be eaten whole. |
The next morning, Nate and I got up for our second Viator tour. We did a fairly rigorous hike through a portion of St. Jame's Way (the Camino de Santiago). One day we will walk the whole camino. At the end of the hike, we took a boat over to Pasaia Donibane from Pasaia San Pedro for pinxos and drinks. They say the best thing about San Pedro is the view of Donibane.
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| Just up the first big hill at the beginning of the hike ~ The far beach is La Concha. The closest one is a good surfing beach and much less crowded. |
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| Great signs along this leg of the Camino. The sign for the Camino is a yellow arrow or a sideways seashell. |
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| The view of Donibane from San Pedro |
We had a wonderful time in San Sebastian, but we had to get back on the road. On our way to Madrid, we decided to stop over in Burgos for lunch. At the time, they were having a book festival, and many people were out in the streets. We walked towards the Cathedral and had lunch and a drink looking at the UNESCO heritage Cathedral.
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| It was impossible to capture the sheer magnitude of the Cathedral. |
When we finally arrived in Madrid, we were exhausted. We stayed at a
Hostel, but it was by far the nicest hostel I have ever been in. And it had AIR CONDITIONING! For those of you that live in Europe in the summer, you probably know that the summer can be a miserable time. We checked in to our room and were greeted by this sickeningly-adorable "romantic suite." Just LOOK!
After one night in Madrid, we got back on the road and headed towards Malaga for the wedding.
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