San Sebastian

I wake up thinking, I wonder where in Spain Zara was founded? Turns out it was here in Galicica, a slight jump off our route to San Sebastian. Over breakfast I pitch that we should head to A Carüna, the home of Zara, then on to San Sebastian. An easy pitch until I realise that when we booked San Sebastian, I was really thinking of Santander, San Sebastian is 7 hours away, across the northern coast of Spain snaking through the Pyrenees, and I just convinced everyone to add an extra half hour to our journey :(

It's dreary grey drizzle as we head into A Corüna, Fid and I drop the girls at the home of Zara, somehow Bux has convinced herself this is as important as Gab strolling Rue Cambon, she may be right.

Our morning distraction behind us, now we're off on a six hour run to San Sebastian. The realisation that it's so far has us contemplate cancellation, but at one of our most expensive, un-refundable bookings of the trip, we can't cancel.

We're cutting across the northern coast of Spain, the mountains remind us of Piedmont in Northern Italy, or coming down through the Dolomites. Bux tries her latest YouTube sensation, a hot rolled dorito she finds in a truck stop with a predicable outcome. But apart from that, nothing else happened.

We're a street back from the beach in San Sebastian - you have to come.

We stroll the promenade, stop at "The London" for a beer and chips before heading into the old town. Here Tapas is replaced with Pintxos bars, as best I can tell the only difference is Tapas is a pre-prepared plate, Pintxos is a pre-prepared piece, but delicious! Gab hits the prawns, I hit Crab & quail egg, followed by black pudding and fried quail egg - this stuff is insane! Fid can't handle all the seafood so orders himself a sirloin - he's now a convert too. We stroll the old town hoping between Pintxos bars, artisanal t-shirt shops, and mini-mercardos, this is us for a few hours, wash rinse repeat - I could have kept going for days but they insisted we return.

Nearly home Gab & Bux want a burger across the road so we watch the England v Columbia game on the telly across the street before heading home. This place is a mecca we will return to - as relaxed as Rapallo, food to rival Tokyo, an old town to beat Stockholm and a placa culture to beat Nice - San Sebastian wins it all - Paradise Found!

July 3rd, 2018Read more