Have I Mentioned the Tapas?

A cabdriver in Madrid told Ed that we should travel north because the food is better. This wasn't universally true but we did have some excellent meals at the end of our trip. San Sebastian took tapas to another level and its Old Town is just filled with bar after bar with all kinds of tapas. Fancy post-modern tapas on long sticks, old-school tortilla espaniola tapas, mayo-heavy seafood salad tapas, grilled meat tapas, pisto-style tapas, and of course the ubiquitous pepper tapas.

After a hike up one of the hills to get a better view of the city, its islands, and the ocean, we went on a tapas tour with a hot chocolate + churro stop as well. I haven't taken many photos of the food in Spain. I keep forgetting as I cut up/disassemble foods for the kids. But I remembered in San Sebastian so perhaps the cab driver was right after all.

Yup, Still Raining

Our kids were the only ones in the water when we arrived at the beach the first morning. Probably because it was raining and while we dressed them in bathing suits we only figured we'd be wading. But the bay was warm (like bathwater warm) and they were wet within seconds anyway so what did it really matter. And they had a lot of fun--so much fun that other people began to drift down to do some swimming nearby. We lasted for a couple hours that day and then it turned into a serious downpour and it was time to leave. Still, that beach morning showed us just how great a week in San Sebastian could be (for when we win the lottery some day). Apparently the water is only warm enough to swim in from mid-June to early September but people still come in droves. Spanish royalty of the 19th century made San Sebastian (or Donostia in Basque) its summer retreat and you can see why with its protected beaches and clear water.

We also happened across a big boat race and watched them load and ready themselves while people lined the piers to cheer on their favorite towns' crews as they raced out (and in) across the bay.

And just so you don't think we were living it up in some fancy hotel that made San Sebastian seem better than it really was, here's a photo of our hotel's "breakfast room" with its grotesque clown faces. What you can't see here is the horrific stench in Ed/Nate's room; when Ed asked what could be done, they replied "it's quite normal when it rains" despite the fact that no one else's room had the ammonia/urine reek. No matter. San Sebastian still shines for the Stackler*Williams family.

And the Temperature Drops 30 Degrees

To get from Cadaques to San Sebastian, we'd made some decisions, chiefly to get around the mountain ranges of northern Spain and southern France avoiding twisty roads that cause motion sickness. We could go north and then west via France or south and then northwest. Outside Figueres, the landscape has that could-have-been-on-a-canvas feel to it. Rolls of hay, fields of sunflowers--Toulouse is not so far... As much as we were tempted by the signs to Franca, we returned south to skirt the ranges on Spanish highways.

But as left Olite we realized the heat of Zaragoza was behind us and the world got a lot wetter and colder as we traveled north further into Basque country. When we climbed the Sierra de Andia and rolled through towns like Lekunberri,we thought were experiencing fog but it was really rainclouds hanging on the mountains. We'd only seen cities, beaches, or dry landscapes in Spain, so the deep green of the forests was an exciting change. Plus the language switched so highway signs were all in Basque language, rich with z's, i's, x's, and a typestyle/look all its own.

By the time we reached San Sebastian, the temperature had dropped from 95-100 degrees to 60 degrees. San Sebastian has a broad, golden beach (actually two), nice waves, clean sand, pale water, swimming platforms with slides, and a gorgeous promenade of beach bars that must be such fun when it's not raining. That first evening we did find a lovely carousel that even our roller-coaster kids wanted to ride. In fact, we couldn't find anything to fault that beach for, other than the endless drizzle. We really hoped for better weather in our 2 1/2 days but it wasn't meant to be, though there was much more to love about San Sebastian...