San Sebastian

What a beautiful city! Even in the winter, San Sebastian is a great place to visit and soak up the charms. We're at the east end of Basque country, not far from the French border. Many older gentlemen here still wear the signature black berets. When do these people work, except in Pintxo bars? People are drinking at all hours of the day, it seems. Slowly, and with food, but still.... People are friendly and the pintxo (PEEN shows), which are basque tapas, are amazing.

Deanne saw a tourist "Pintxo Bar Crawl" tour advertised for $175 Euros each. What the hell. Do you really need someone to take you to a bar to order simple and delicious seafood apps and great wine? We do this on our own and after 4 wines and 4 tapas each, we have a hard time paying more than $65 Euros for both of us. Most pintxos are in the $2 - $4 range and a glass of good regional wine is slightly cheaper.

We scored an amazing large 2 BR apartment in the Egia district, which is not in the trendy old town or up and coming Gros district. But it's not far from either and it's convenient to the bus and train station. We're walking a lot, but that's a good thing. There's no need for a bus or metro pass here.

With 4 days in Sanse (as locals sometimes refer to it), we spent one going to France for the day. See the St. Jean de Luz post for that. The rest of the time we've spent just walking and soaking up the sights while stopping at random Pintxo bars. Today, we went to the Sao Telmo Basque museum. Lucky for us, Tuesday is free for everyone. It gave a good overview of the Basque culture but I need to read up more on the language, Euskara, which is not related to any other language and is the oldest living language in Europe. But they talked about how this was iron country and it seemed to be the most industrialized part of the country. The iron ore deposits and vast forests led to ironworks, charcoal making, ship building, and fishing industries.

We walked through the old quarter several times, at night and during the day, and it's just lovely. It's full of tourist shops also, but it's still lived in by locals and every other shop is a pintxo bar. But tourist apartment rentals do seem to be common here also. There's a great promenade along the coast at Concha (Kontxa) beach and walking along it is a treat. An Art Deco spa sits right in the middle, at beach level. There's a huge ferris wheel near a plaza. Christmas decorations are up, and people are out and about, rambling along, as the Spanish are wont to do. This walking is officially called the Paseo, and it's one of the best thing about Spanish culture. People just walk here. They walk to talk with friends and happen upon other friends. They walk off the wine, and they walk to and from work or the local tienda.

We've also spent a fair amount of time in the Gros district, just east of the old town and on another bay that's popular for surfing. Even at this time of year, with temps in the 40's F, people are surfing and we've seen lots of elderly people swimming. Our friend Mo gave us a great recommendation for a Michellin star restaurant called Bar Bergara. They won one a few years ago and again this year. We walked right in the other afternoon and sat at a shared picnic-style table and had several pintxos and wines. Amazing. (Thanks Mo!) Where else can a couple eat a fair amount of seafood and have 2 glasses of wine each for under $41 at a Michellin starred restaurant?

We've had nothing but good times on this trip, but we are especially loving the Basque Country. Bilbao and San Sebastian have been great and it's some of the best food we've had on the trip. We have been planning on visiting the Rioja wine region. It's become my favorite red wine since our trip here a couple years ago. It doesn't give me a headache (bonus points!) and I've never had a bad one. It's just a great wine. But, tomorrow is Constitution Day in Spain, which is a day off. And it seems a lot of Spaniards are traveling to Logrono, the largest town in the Rioja region. Rooms are sold out or more than twice what they should be and many bodegas are not giving tours in December. Soooo, we're shifting gears and heading to Pamplona. It's a city I've always wanted to see, but we thought that since we're so close to the Rioja region, we should check it out. We're going with the flow and now looking forward to seeing the city made famous to Americans by Ernest Hemingway in "The Sun Also Rises."

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