Europe 2014: San Sebastian (Spain) 3 nights before driving to La Guardia

Tuesday 20th May 2014

Photo of door scratches/speedo - just in case

Tram to the train station in the morning to pick up our Peugeot 208 diesel for our first driving experience on the 'other' side of the road. SR drove and AR navigated with Sygic on the phone. We headed off for our 3 hour drive to San Sebastian in Spain planning to stop at Bayonne & Biarritz on the way. The drive certainly had its moments. It was raining and there were masses of trucks on the highways and we had to cope with not knowing where we were, changing gears of manual car, driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, rain, trucks, a GPS and a nervous co-pilot. There was 5 toll gates, mostly accepting credit card, some demanding cash, others refusing it.

Biarritz church

We stopped in a servo for brunch and it was very interesting with salad bar, cafeteria style but super clean and smick. The exit to Bayonne was closed but we did manage an hour in Biarritz.

Made it to San Sebastian and SR stayed with the car in a no parking area in an alley while AR checked into our accommodation Pension Itxasoa ($A83/night room 4). It is just 5 rooms on the second floor and AR was a bit dubious in the dark staircase and gloomy building. When the lady took him to the room - wow - it is only a small room but the balcony looks over the bay with the surf beach up to our right and it is just fabulous. Room 5 looks bigger and would be better for a longerstay

San Sebastian is an amazing place, the food capital of the world. It has 3 fantastic beaches. The beaches are Gold Coast quality with one surf beach but there are 2 bays rather than a long beach and with very high green mountains heads on each end of the bays and then all the buildings are ancient 5 story places lining the beach with cafes/tapas/bars etc. on the ground floor.

Sandy on our balcony

There is also the old part of town which is all pedestrian traffic with loads of tapas bars. They set up all the food and there is masses of it and people have a drink and choose a tapas (or pintxo as it is called here in Basque).

The shops shut for a few hours and reopen about 4pm. People don't go for dinner until 8:30pm or so.

We went to the tourist information and picked up a brochure and it is Restaurant Week which means for 27.50 Euros per person you can enjoy a set course menu at one of their best 20 restaurants at a greatly reduced price.

San Sebastian, Statue of Christ on Monte Urgull

San Sebastian is in the Basque region and even though only 20km from France they have their own language. Founded in 1180 with a population of 185,000 the people speak little English but are willing to try and help. After a pintxo at 5pm we went to La Muralla at 9:15pm for dinner and it was fabulous. 5 courses and every one was perfect.

Wednesday 21st May 2014

Managed to get some cash from our OzForex card which was the first time we have needed to hit the ATM. AR bought some fruit for 2.35 Euros (3 nectarines, 4 apricots, 1 banana, 4 big strawberries & 2 big mandarins) which seemed so cheap. The nectarines were amazing more flavour than anything AR has previously eaten (lots as an ex fruit shop buyer).

SR was relaxing having coffee so AR went to the market and bought 1/2 kg of cherries and a small bag of podded peas. He handed over 20 Euros and only got 5 change with a docket showing 12+3=15. He was sure the lady had ripped him off but it was too busy to argue and he stewed about it for a while. (Next day he sent SR for podded peas and they were 10 Euros so it seems his magnificent cherries were only 3 and the peas were to blame).

Did a lot of walking to all the different areas in the town and the beach areas. Pintxo at 5pm at Bartolo and dinner at 9:30pm at La Cepa which again was superb and great value in restaurant week.

San Sebastian street

Thursday 22nd May 2014

Quiet day doing the diary munching on more super value cherries. More walking the beaches, this time including a climb up Monte Urgell to up close and personal with the statue of Christ that overlooks the city.

Went over to Centro area to a tapas place that SR saw advertised with entertainment and a drink and tapas for 2.50 Euros. It was a fresh food market by day but an upmarket one with 2 immaculate fruit shops. Then at 7pm it became a tapas bar and it was jam packed. No seating just lean to bar structures.

We had made a booking into a Michelin Hat restaurant (famous fine dining rating system), Bodegon Alejandro, for their 'restaurant week special' at 8:30pm and it was sensational. Sat next to a Canadian couple who are walking the Camino and it was great to get a first hand account of it. It is about 900km from France to Portugal across the top of Spain. 273,000 people walked it in 2010.

We had found a jazz club and went after dinner but there was no music today.

Heading off in the morning driving 1 1/2hrs to Briones to visit the museum of wine then another 1/2 hour to La Guardia.