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Today we spent the day out at the seaside Port of San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque) which is about a 20 km drive from Irun. We had read good things about the city in the lonely planet and had some personal recommendations as well, plus we were looking forward to our first real taste of Spain and its culture, so needless to say we had fairly high expectations.
But first things first - breakfast. We decided to upload the Ibis buffet breakfast for 6 Euros each which was well worth it, good strong coffee for Gabor, tea for Sarah and Kaspar had his first taste of dried apricot which was a hit. Sarah announced that there would be no more buttery chocolate pastries for her - which is a big ask as we have been having at least 2 a day for breakfast alone since we started the holiday. We will see how long that lasts….
So all fuelled up plus pocketed a few snacks to take with us and hit the road ready for another big day.
We headed toward the San Sebastian old town and found a pretty good park by the river Urumea, and after picking up
a walking tour from the tourist office we headed in the direction of our first stop, the Buen Pastor Cathedral. The tower of this neo-gothic Cathedral is the highest point in the city at 75 meters high, and can be seen from almost anywhere.
As we were walking we read that San Sebastian was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1813 by Anglo-Portuguese forces after wrestling it from French hands, so our hopes of seeing any architecture from the 11th century when SS was first settled were quashed pretty quickly into our visit. No problem, we knew there would be much more to this town, and went on a mission to find out just what that was.
Our next stop took us through pedestrian streets filled with Tapa bars and restaurants to the Plaza de la Constitution which is the heart of the old town and was in the process of being set up for a festival. The plaza used to be a bull ring and has numbers painted above every balcony, sort of like old style stadium boxes. Thankfully the old bullring is being put to a better use and most of the cities festive events are held
here.
A few streets walk away found us in front of the stunning Santa Maria Basilica, hidden away down a pokey street and backed up against a hill. The Church was built in gothic style and is quite dark and austere looking. And those clever Spaniards had the foresight to build it with massive double doors so they could drive a cherry picker in to clean the ceiling - no kidding, there are not one but two cherry pickers parked in the back section of the church.
It was almost time for lunch by then so of course we thought we’d squeeze in a hike to the top of Monte Urgull to Castillo De La Mota, constructed in the 12th Century and a key element in the town’s defence. On top of the castle stands a big image of Jesus, the sacred heart statue. There were amazing panoramic views to be seen here (Jesus has the best ones, but if you walk around to the side a bit below the top, mere mortals get a pretty good look in) and well worth the hike up. Great place to sit in the sun and have lunch too.
After lunch
we headed back down towards the gold sandy bays that we could see from Monte Urgull. The beach is huge…about as wide as Oriental Bay in Wellington is long, and was practically empty, except for a few groups of school kids and the odd saggy Spanish topless bather. The walked around the bay on the street, which took a good 30-40 minutes, and felt obliged to stop for afternoon tea at Miramar Park just in front of the summer residence that queen Maria Cristina built . This is a great place to take in the bay from the other side, and obviously the footballing significance was not lost as there a few lads giving the round ball the Spanish treatment. We didn’t have the energy to carry on around to the next point and take the cable car to the top of the hill, and it was getting on and the temperature picking up.
On the way back it was shoes and socks off and kicking it through the surf. Pretty chilly, but well sheltered so by the end of it we could definitely have joined the two other people swimming. The only black mark on the beach was
the two rather garish topless lasses out for a stroll that even made Kaspar look the other way.
Back to the car to find we’d been ticketed (NZ$60), but we’ll just file that for a rainy day.
The day ended with Gabor going in search of dinner while K and mum hung out at the hotel. It was a fruitless 70 minute search that ventured back into France and yielded little more than a baguette and a half dozen cold San Miguels. Gabor claims the armed check point (two with shot guns) threw him off his game, but the refs are calling for a review of his navigation skills.
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