Up and ready for the day. We go down to (-1) floor where the hotels buffet breakfast is served. Dave is not hungry yet. His plan is to visit a place he saw yesterday where all the locals were eating pintxos (pronounced pinch-os) and drinking coffee. We cross the bridge and go directly to the bus stop. The ride is short and we arrive in Old Town. We want to explore the area we discovered yesterday. We see a building with Mericado at the top and go in thinking it is a big market. It turns out it is more like a mall with a variety of different stores. We exit the backside and head for Dave’s planned to stop. He gets a pintxo with egg and potato and a coffee and is happy with his choice. There are many plates being filled by people choosing their breakfast or lunch. Most people are having coffee or a glass of wine with their plate. The price is right costing only 4 euros. We stand outside at a bar height table and people watch. Why doesn't someone do this in the states? Seems like it could be really popular.
We wander around the narrow streets and move in and out of the stores, eventually finding a large church, so we shoot pictures. We start to enter but see that it costs 3 euros each. Wait, we have seen really amazing churches I think we can skip this one. Eventually, we head for the beach. We will need supplies in order to survive out in the sun - so off to a grocery store we scoped out the day before. Let’s see, we need a six pack of cold beer (.30 euro extra for refrigeration), some fruit and a small pack of nuts. The guy at the checkout gives us a free insulated cooler bag - score! We are excited because it folds small - we can find space for it in our suitcases. Small thrills.
Out on the surfer beach we choose a spot to place our stuff. We notice right away that a few people are totally nude. This beach is further away from the touristy main beach - so I guess any rules they have are loose. There appear to be many more locals and a large amount of families with naked kids running around. A family settles in a little distance from us and the naked little girl just pees - standing up - right in the sand. We adapt to the new setting and settle in and realize we are wound too tight in the states. This is not a big deal here. We take a swim in the warm ocean and cool off. Monique has a great idea to make Trisha a birthday card in the sand. The next two hours are spent creating our masterpiece which includes a rock border. We shoot a lot of pictures to make sure we get a good one to send to her on her birthday (3 days from today). We lay in the sun and drink our beer and swim many more times. Now Dave has an idea to make a sea turtle out of the available large and small rocks in our area. We make quick work of the project. When we are done we sit back and open our last beer. Within a couple of minutes a little girl walks by, sees the turtle and immediately is attracted to it. We had made a hole behind it and put round rocks that look like eggs. The first thing she does is cover up the eggs with sand - she knows about turtles. The next thing she does is climb on top to ride it. We built it to last so it holds up fine. Her mother comes and takes her picture of her riding it. Dave asks if he can take her picture too. At first the girl thinks she did something wrong but Dave smiles and says it is ok. He shoots the picture and leaves her to play on it. We get a kick out of the fact that this kid is really enjoying what we made.
After collecting our gear we walk for the shade and the area of town behind the beach. We want to explore another yet unknown area so we stop at an outdoor cafe with umbrellas to have a nice cold beer. We wonder why they don't appreciate this in the northern countries we visited. In Spain they do have ice. Dave goes in to use the WC and returns with a shrimp pintxo. We eat the small bite, finish our beer and continue to wander around but decide the Old Town area is better. In Old Town we choose a bar that has a nice selection of pintxos. We get a plate and make our choices and order sangria as our drink. The food and the drink are perfect. Lets go to another place and repeat the process (that is what small plates are about). Different pintxos and another sangria (the first drink was better). Now our bellies are full. We have a five hour train ride in the morning so we return to the grocery store to get snacks and more wine. We make one more stop for a beer at the place Dave ate his breakfast. It is quite popular with the locals. The plaza is active with people coming and going and we take our time to people watch. Monique comments that she loves the fact that older woman dress up and get out to stroll with their friends. There is every age out conversing with each other. In the states we don't have squares where people meet like this. They do this everyday and stay connected well into old age. Pretty cool.
To the bus stop and we ride away from the great day. Dave strikes up a conversation with a mother (who could speak English) and her daughter who cannot. The daughter is maybe ten or twelve and we are told she loves to travel. The mom acts as an interpreter. Dave explains where we have been. It blows her mind. Dave tells her it is fun to not know the language and have to point to something on the menu and hope it works out. We all get a laugh out of that. Our stop arrives too soon, we smile, wave and exit the bus.
After a quick shower to wash off the salt water we prepare our bags for travel. Our train to Madrid leaves tomorrow morning at 8:55 am. San Sebastion is a special place that I know I want to return to. Let's hope that comes true.
Breakfast of Spanish champions - a potato-egg pintxo with cafe con leche.
Basilica of Santa Maria del Coro (18th century baroque style) tucked into the narrow streets old town in San Sebastian.
Zurriola Bridge over the Urumea river. Did you know that San Sebastian is the European Capital of Culture in 2016? The tide is out now - no jet skiing until later.
Trisha’s sandy birthday postcard - it was a fun, creative project - it tells you we are missing our kids.
Dave’s brain child - inspired by Monique’s sandy turtle the other day. This one might stay a bit longer - but who knows?
An art enthusiust who appreciates the value of creativity - thanks!
Time to leave surfer beach - we hope to return some day.
The pintxo dinner is waiting. They hand you a plate, you put on what you want - most range between 2-4 euros each. Get a couple and move on to the next place.
We came full circle - started with breakfast and finishing with “dessert” after our multiple stop pintxo adventure.