Blogs from San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain, Europe - page 27

Woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to take a stroll up the nearby Mont Urgul. Very natural, with awesome views of the bay and San Sebastian below. Also had a cool castle, Mota Castle from the 12th century, with the Status of the Holy Heart atop of it. We hiked back down the other side and around La Concha (Kontxa in Basque) beach, stopping at the Miramar Palace briefly, then around the Playa Ondaretta until we reached the foot of Mont Igueldo and the funicular. Manoli seemed to have no problem with the funicular, so we rode it up to the top for 2 Euros each, round trip (Can´t imagine very many folks getting one way tickets!). On top was a cute little amusement park, but apparently not much opened til evening. There was ... read more

Hola Amigos Well I´m six days into my holiday & already I´ve experienced the transit lounge of Singapore airport, London/Essex, Barcelona & San Sebastian - tomorrow I journey to Pamplona - the trail head for ´my Camino de Santiago´. Highlights to date: Waking up mid flight realising that my mouth was wide open & very dry - was I snoring? - I´m sure I usually don´t!! But I had the funny recollection of John my brother telling me on the way to the airport how he woke up mid flight once with a big fat dribble hanging from his mouth all the way down to his lap like one of those big slobbery dogs!! Elaine & Stuart took me down to Southend the day after I arrived - I made my pilgrimage to ´Boots´and paid respectful ... read more

The day started in tears as Kaspar managed to roll himself off the bed while mum and dad were looking the other way. Fortunately he has inherited his dad’s football hardened head and after a couple of tears everyone was right as rain (not even a shiner to show for his first major encounter with the laws of gravity). We were keen to stay close to home given we will be driving all day tomorrow, so after hearing very little about it we headed around the corner to the medieval town of Hondaribbia. Despite our initial concerns that it would be a bit of a fizzer, Hondaribbia - the town known for its gables and eaves no less - was jam packed with interesting old tales. We started with the colourful painted houses in the town ... read more

A day of driving, and despite making some really good progress for most of our journey, as has been the case on all the drives, there was about a 30km section towards the end that took forever (well, over an hour, which is forever when you’ve been doing 30km in 15 mins and your butt is sore from 6 hours in the car). Spain gave us superbly warm (about 34C, warm) “ola” to us at about 4.30pm local time. It had been a long day so we went straight to the hotel to get a bit settled and give the boys a nap. We’re staying at the Ibis in Irun which is a small town just inside the Spanish border. It’s a bit of a nothing town, but we’re staying here, and in the Ibis, because ... read more

Well we moved on from Barcelona...west to San Sebastián, which is a much different place. It is a small city about 180,000 compared to however many million people there are in Barcelona. But wow...I know that Barcelona reminded me of Mexico City, but the longer I was there the more it made me see the differences. It really is a beautiful city, so much of it is just down right beautiful and there is always something happening. One day outside our hostel there was a festival and parade going on, for what reason, nobody knew but down our street came 20 foot tall people (not really they were in costumes) and bands of small children...then another day there was a marathon and everyday on the street near our hostel, Las Ramblas, there were street performers and ... read more