Sunday 8 June - San Sebastián
We made an early start, and were on the road by 9.15 am. Travelling is so easy in France, there seems to be 3-lane motorways to where ever you want to go, I guess the tolls go towards roading and there are plenty of toll gates.
María Cristina Bridge
We were all on car park alert, but the city was packed and certainly nothing left on the roadside. Fortunately there is a huge car park built under the Plaza and after we went around a few times trying to find the entrance in maze of one-way streets we got it!
We walked up 4 flights of steps out into bright warm sunshine amongst throngs of people.
We found a nice empty bench next to Don Quixote and his donkey
and had lunch, and watched all the people walking up and down the prom.
Wikipedia: "San Sebastián, or Donostia (Basque) is a coastal city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 20 km from the French border. Capital city of Gipuzkoa, the municipality's population is 186,409 (2012), with its metropolitan area reaching 436,500 (2010). Locals call themselves donostiarra (singular), both in Spanish and Basque. The main economic activities are commerce and tourism, and it is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Spain. Despite the city’s small size, events such as the San Sebastián International Film Festival have given it an international dimension. San Sebastián, along with Wrocław, Poland, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2016."
After lunch James took our picnic things back to the car and we did a bit of exploring along the beach front. It was a great atmosphere, people out on holiday just enjoying the sun. We walked through the old city with its narrow streets and bustling shops and bars, people just spill out into the streets enjoying their beers and Sangrias.
Looking up side streets has become a bit of a hobby for me, so many surprises, such beautiful churches crammed in, or maybe they were there first and people built around them.
The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Chorus is a baroque Roman Catholic parish church and minor basilica completed in 1774.
Portal of the Basilica
Wikipedia: "The Parte Vieja (Old Town) is the traditional core area of the city, and was surrounded by walls up to 1863, when they were demolished so as to occupy the stretch of sand and land that connected the town to the mainland (a stretch of the walls still limits the Old Part on its exit to the port through the Portaletas gate)
The Old Part is divided in two parishes relating to the Santa Maria and San Vicente churches. After the end of Franco's dictatorship, scores of bars sprang up all over the Old Part which are very popular with the youth and the tourists, although not as much with the local residents. Most current buildings trace back to the 19th century, erected thanks to the concerted effort and determination of the town dwellers after the 1813 destruction of the town by the allied Anglo-Portuguese troops."
We needed an ice cream stop by now and decided that James, Rach, Jasper and Penelope would take themselves off towards the hill checking out the other side of the harbour,
and Hannah, David and I would go to the playground and also buy tickets for the boat trip around the harbour.
We met up and hopped on the boat, the trip lasted for about an hour with a couple of stops at the islands to let people off and take more on. It had a glass viewing area, but we couldn't see much as the poor weather the previous week had churned the sand up. Although the harbour looked calm there was quite a swell and poor Penelope soon began to look quite green!
We needed to check into our apartment by 5.00pm, so it was time to get the car and get Ken to show us the way. These privately let apartments are always down narrow streets with no direct access for cars. In fact we were lucky to get this one as San Sebastián was packed. So we did our circuitous route as usual but between Ken and James we found it. Rachel hopped out to meet the owner and she gave her the keys to number 3. The rest of us unpacked the car and David and Hannah put the bags by the door off the footpath. James then put the car in its official car park. We were dying to get in so Rachel put the key in the door and it wouldn't budge, so she tried again, by this time the landlord had disappeared. So she gave it one more go and realised we were standing outside number 5! Sound familiar? Of course the key fitted perfectly in number 3...... The apartment was just right, a bit rustic and well used, not quite enough crockery, but no matter, as long as we believed there would be no earthquakes we could ignore the rather large cracks in the walls and ceilings!
Rach and James took the kids to the beach while David and I had a nice wine and I made dinner. After the kids were in bed Rach and James walked around the bay to see what the old town was like and have a glass of Sangria with the locals (or other tourists!), David and I went to bed, feeling happily exhausted and looking forward to another sunny day and more adventures tomorrow.
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