San Sebastian

Thursday 25 July

We are currently on the ferry on our way back to Plymouth.  We embarked (sailing talk) last night at 8.15pm – the ferry set sail at 9.15pm.  We retired to our cabin at 10.30 pm and slept soundly till 8am this morning with the help of a Phenergan - I was feeling a bit queasy with the motion of the ship.  The water was calm enough but not as calm as the trip over.  It is still rolling a bit this morning.

Jim has been out on deck taking photos of a lighthouse.  It is sitting on a small cluster of islands – La Jument.  We are sailing alongside France.  Jim is having fun following our route on Google.

Our week with Lisa and Kenny in our suburbian (Aiete) apartment quickly found it’s routine.  Each morning we slept late and made our way to the local bar for OJ and café con leche (coffee with milk). 

The people of San Sebastian and surrounding villages live in high-density housing (apartment blocks).  Across the road from our apartment block, set around a courtyard there is a bakery; bars and delis come supermarkets (where we bought our supplies).  This area is known as Muntomar, Lisa liked it because it reminded her of her surname ‘Muntz’.  Munto was the name of the family who settled here many years ago and their house was named Munto hence the area being named after the family and house.

The first few afternoons we sat in the courtyard outside the bar in the sun enjoying the vino and cerveza while Kenny watched the Tour and explained the technical side of the race to Jim.  Lisa and I did what girls do best – talk.  We were chatting to a young local couple.  They gave us a few tips on restaurants in the area and a good day trip to do to Hondarribia near the French border.

San Sebastian has three beaches.  From our apartment they are a 2.5km walk downhill which was okay, it was the walk up that was a killer along with the afternoon sun.  We caught the bus a few times.  After spending the mornings walking around San Sebastian (old & new towns) we would head for the beach to cool off for a few hours.  The water was clear but had litter in the white wash.  Yuk!  The Spaniards love the sun, they love to sit in the sun and walk in droves on the shoreline.

One day we caught the funicular up Monte Igueldo (a half hour walk from our apartment) to the mini theme park.  The views were spectacular over San Sebastian.  We had two rides on the roller coaster.  It was very sedate by roller coaster standards but great fun with panoramic views over the ocean.  It is a theme park from the past.  Jim liked the place because he thought the name was like Gelder. 

Another day we took the bus to Hondarribia (45mins) suggested by the young local couple.  We had a yummy lunch of seafood and (more) vino – just what holidays are made of.  After lunch we wandered around the village eating ice cream – another daily habit for us whilst in San Sebastian.

Our last night we had dinner at La Vina in the old part town of San Sebastian, just down the road from the pension where we stayed the first part of our holiday.  It has a good reputation – infamous for it’s cheesecake.  The food was simple but tasty.  We all had seafood and shared a smooth bottle of red vino leaving enough room for the cheesecake.  Jim amazed us all by trying the wafer cornet filled with cream cheese and anchovies - the complimentary canape. The cheesecake was as good as they say.  Light but rich (with no base).  We  were given a DVD on how to cook the cheesecake and pintxos, shame it is in Spanish.  Dinner was a civilized way to end our time in San Sebastian.

Description of San Sebastian: relaxed, bocadillos (sandwich/breadsticks) even kids chewing on a chunk of bread everywhere, friendly people – helpful and smiley, people of all ages dressed in style and casual wear on scooters buzzing around the place, locals standing around drinking vino and enjoying life but it’s hard not to with great weather, yummy food and the beach all around.

PS. It is Sat 27 July & we are camping at Boswinger till Friday unfortunately we won't be able to post the photos on Flickr till we return to Karen and Dave's on Friday.  The Internet is operational here but not fast enough to load photos.