San Sebastian

---

Sunny San Sebastian ... well that’s what the photos suggest. We’ve made it to Basque Country and San Sebastian is a draw card for the beach and surf orientated people. As with the other cities we’ve ventured to we seem to attract clouds and colder weather but despite that San Sebastian is a delightful town that is easy to get around and still has a lot to offer tourists.

As with Madrid there are lots of Plazas and areas for the community to congregate and enjoy life and socialise. Our hostel is on the other side of a canal that runs through the city and guess what; you’d be hard pressed to find any litter on the roads or the waterways around here. The more we travel and experience Spain the more you notice the lack of litter.

Our coach from Madrid got us to San Sebastian mid afternoon giving us enough time to check in, have a power nape and head out to explore the town. There is a big statue of Jesus that overlooks the town and yes it’s atop a hill, fortunately not a mountain and some artist, Eduardo Chillida, made 3 massive iron structures he called wind combs and presented them to the city in 1977, these sit off to the far side of one of the bays and future exploration for us.

There are all sorts of nooks and crannies around here with cobbled streets and lane ways in what would be deems “the old part of town”. I read that the city had been burnt down 12 times since it was established sometime in the early 1300’s and the final time, late '1800’s’ only 3 structures survived and they are still in good condition now. .

The town was developed when some queen way back in the 1400’s was told by her doctor that she should swim in the waters from the Bay of Biscany to cure her ailments...whatever they were and she lobed into San Sebastian. Well she got better and made San Sebastian her summer retreat destination. With that came the town being fitted out to suit the needs of royalty and upper class vacationers. For us though it was a comfy hostel that had views of the beach and the waves crashing in.

We walked around the pier to the old Castle and Jesus statue and took in the views that come from the top of the hill and for me to take in the sound of the waves crashing against the walls below. Looking from here the there is a small island in the middle of the bay and the beach curves around and you can picture that during summer the lovely beaches would be packed with every inch of sand at a premium. You can also get some great views of the city up here as well. Walking all around the bay is quite deceiving in its distance but at the end of the walk you can see where the wind comb sculptures have been erected and take some photos.

Of a night time, just like in Madrid you bar hop and get served ½ size drinks and pintox/tapas to eat and when you finished you pick up and head to another bar with the best display of pintox across the bar. You can any manner of food on top be it crab meat mix with mayonnaise to anchovies with grilled capsicum and if you know how to order them they do a whole league of hot dishes to.

As this is still a relatively small town walking around and negotiating your way is quite easy. We extended our stay and could have quite easily extended it again as we loved it so much, but we had tickets to Bilbao to use and it was Adios to San Sebastian for us.

---