Day 4- San Sebastian Architecture

We love San Sebastián. This pocket city has a perfect setting: two yellow horseshoe beaches tucked between three green and hilly peninsulas, a nearly circular bay, and a broad river running into it. There are three parts to the city: the charming old town packed with tapas restaurants; the suitably named La Romántica, with broad boulevards lined with extraordinary Belle Époque architecture, and its second cousin Gros across the river. Just the river: lined with freshly painted wrought iron fences, red carnations on every pillar, and two white Nepali temple-like structures at either end of the main bridge. They are like figurines on a wedding cake. The entire architectural atmosphere is playful, the upper spaces in particular, with octagonal turrets and building-long balconies and loggias and almost wildly decorative facades, one after another, street after street. It reminds me of what life should be like after reading too much CNN.

All of the above came from a day spent walking all over until our feet gave out, interspersed with two more culinary adventures. The first was more tapas in the old town (or pinxtos in Euskara, the Basque language — first Catalan and now this!) The second was a hike across the river to a top rated “Michelin alternative”. Spain’s Basque Country boasts the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, which is great because it has raised the level of gastronomy in the area (in other words, you don’t have to pay for a Michelin star restaurant in order to eat outstanding food!) We will let the pictures speak for themselves.Read more