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Published: July 29th 2017
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As our AirB&B place didn't have any breakfast options this time round, we looked up somewhere on TripAdvisor called Café Santana, which was just next to our other stop of the morning, the tourism office. At least that's what TripAdvisor told us, we couldn't find it at all (I found it later in the day, about half a mile from where it was plotted on the map....and closed!). We seem to have developed a knack for picking inaccurate Google Maps and TripAdvisor listings! We found somewhere else nearby for breakfast and eventually, with help from the waiter, worked out the odd system for service. You sit down, a waiter takes your drink order, returns with your drinks and a receipt. If you want food, which comes in the form of finger food laid out on the bar...I.e tapas (but not as we know it) and pastries, then you go in and ask for a plate, pick what you want and the bar maid tallies it up for you (no prices are listed) and you pay there and then. Once your all done, you return to pay your drinks receipt...weird and inefficient system if you ask me, but what do I know.
After breakfast we went into tourist information to book in a few tours, get a map and enquirer about our respective bus transfers to San Sebastián and Bilbao airport. I went to e bus station after that for me to book my Bilbao bus and then, as we had 40mins to fill before our first tour kicked off, we walked up to CrossFit Zurriola on the promenade of Zurriola Plage (beach) so I could scope it out for a drop-in session. Sadly it was closed so I contacted them online instead and booked myself in for a 19:30 WOD at evening.
We then wandered down towards old town across Zurriola bridge and boarded our little tourist land train for a 45 min tour of San Sebastián. The train pottered past old town, the town hall (which is an impressive and beautiful building) and then runs alongside the other two beaches La Concha Plage (meaning 'shell' based on it's shape, not its consistency) and Ondarreta Plage. It goes through the tunnel which runs below the Miramar Place and park, talks about Santa Klara, the little island in the bay, before doing a U-turn just below the Igeldo mountain and
heading back along an inner road which passes the cathedral and Okendo Plaza which separates the 5* Santa Maria hotel and the theatre.
Once the tour was over, we retraced its route a bit to get some better photos until we made it back to the cathedral, where we stopped to get some food. Having already had some sandwiches and Spanish omelette wrapped in more bread for brekkie, we didn't fancy the same for lunch so we found a cafe with an extensive menu next to the cathedral. It was average at best, but hey ho. I grabbed another iced coffee after lunch to make up for it, I would need he caffeine to get me through the rest of he days plans for sure.
Next on he list was a climb up mont Urgull, the hill behind he Old Town on the north east of the bays. On top of which there is a little museum and a large statue of Jesus which overlooks the city. It was a hot afternoon and he climb left us both very sweaty, me in particular! After a quick cool off at the top, we took some pictures and enjoyed the
views for a while. We took our time coming down and took a different route at the back of the hill. It was a truly beautiful day and San Sebastián was looking like a dream holiday location. Once we made it back down we headed home, I got changed and headed off to the CrossFit gym and Dan watched some Netflix and looked at some places for dinner.
CrossFit Zurriola was a great gym, the €20 drop-in fee stung my pocket a little but I had always intended to do a few drop ins and experience other boxes, I knew it would be pricey. The coach Rebi (I think) showed me around and was very helpful in translating for me and the other English speaker (well a yank) doing a drop-in. There were 2 WOD's, the first a strength/reps for quality piece of 10-8-6-4-2 front squats (increasing the weight) superset with 2-4-6-8-10 box jumps (decreasing the height). 2m 30s per round, resting in he spare time. This was easy enough, though my knees had been hurting from all this walking and lack of stretching and they needed some lengthy warming up. He second part was pretty tough given this
as my second CF session in over 6 weeks, perhaps it was foolish for me to go for RX, but it was only 40kg so I thought I'd be safe. It was a metcon style WOD, 4 Rounds of 20 Front Squats, 15 Hang Power Cleans and 10 Shoulder to Overheads, for time, 20 min time cap. I was last to finish (in about 20m 10s, just too late). I always planned to finish, even if I went over the time cap, as it happened, I had no choice about that as everyone in the box (my class and the people waiting for the next class) all surrounded me to cheer me on and push me to keep going, some true CF spirit, I think if you look up 'love/hate relationship' in the dictionary, ere is a picture of one sucker finishing a WOD surrounded by 20 other CrossFitters cheering him on!
After I stretched a bit and swam home in my own sweat, I showered and we headed out for dinner. Dan had looked up a well rated place on TripAdvisor and after 20mins of searching, we eventually found it....closed! Seriously I think it's us? We walked around
for another 1/2 hour trying to find anywhere that looked like it served a sit down meal for under €40 per head but everywhere was either a bar serving tapas or very pricey. Eventually we gave in and went for more bread, I mean, tapas. It was all very nice, I just wish they wouldn't wrap everything in a bread roll. Potato omelette does not need any extra carbs guys :-) We got s beer each and another selection of things like chorizo, potato and cod croquettes, deep fried spicy meatball, deep fried ham and cheese ball, shredded seafood mix and prawn on French stick and the aforementioned Spanish omelette sarnie. We passed on the tripe stew! After dinner Dan got a gelato and I got what I thought was a chocolate coated pastry but was in fact just chocolate coated bread (Jesus spaniards, haven't you got sick of bread yet)? Then we wandered the squares and promenades for a bit on the way back to the apartment.
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