Today we got up early to get showered and presentable for our trip to San Sebastian to meet our ex student Iker and his family. Dave opted for the twisty, scenic route to our meeting point in San Sebastian. There were loads of cyclists out for their morning work-out. Quite a few of them were cycling in packs so it was quite difficult to navigate the twisty roads, which sometimes had cyclists on both sides. There were also quite a few motorbikes strutting their stuff and showing off their superior acceleration.
We made it in good time to our agreed meeting point at the Hotel Ezeiza which Iker’s family had chosen because it was easy to park nearby. Our first challenge was trying to pay for parking whilst wrestling with the Basque language at the parking metre! We literally had no idea what was going on but were thankfully saved by a young Spanish couple who told us that parking is free on Sundays. Result! In our defence, they had apparently had the same problem but just asked a policeman! 😃
We waited in the café and had a pintxo of bread with jamón Serrano. Iker then arrived with his Dad, Luís, and they drove us up to the Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo. From there we had a beautiful view across the bay. Luís then headed off to watch Alba’s handball match and Iker was our guide for the morning.
We had a lovely walk around by El Torreón tower (18th century) and the vintage amusement park and could see the two main beaches down below, Ondarreta and La Concha. There was a small island in the bay which Iker said he had swam out to the day before. Impressive! We then took the funicular railway, Funicular Monte Igueldo, down to the promenade. This was a 1912 cog railway with wooden carriages, giving you iconic views of the Guipuzcoan coast. It is the oldest funicular railway in the Basque Country.
We had a lovely catch up with Iker as we strolled along the promenade. He was an excellent guide and his English was even better than when we last saw him. He was also quite a lot taller! 😃 The weather was gorgeous, so the place was bustling with people. We stopped for a drink in the Hotel Londres and then continued with a walk around the port area. After that, we made our way to meet Luís, María and Alba for lunch. Alba’s team had won their match, so everybody was in a good mood!
We headed to a typical Basque restaurant a few streets back from the coast, Itxaropena 1910. This was a historic bar in the old quarter. We decided to let Luís and María – the experts with the local knowledge 😃 – choose the food! We shared lots of different pintxos, some of which were entirely new to us. The squid in black ink was particularly delicious and we also had some lovely local mushrooms (xixas) and fresh seasonal asparagus. Alba also did very well with her English – and she enjoyed drizzling the honey onto the sheep’s yogurt dessert! 😃 They very kindly treated us to lunch and we were chatting in the restaurant until a quarter to five – very Spanish hours! We then wandered back along the promenade and drove back to the campsite via the toll road, which was significantly quicker.
When we got back, we chilled at the campsite for a while. We had a light snack of gazpacho with some freshly baked bread from the campsite shop. Dave had had been coveting a Spanish brandy for the whole trip so we decided to stroll up the hill to a local bar just outside the campsite. The barman gave us typically very generous quantities of Spanish brandy and we had a nice chat followed by an excellent night’s sleep.
