From Castro Urdalias we made for our last port of call in Spain, an old favourite of ours and anyone else who has been there San Sebastian or to the Basque population Donostia. This lively vibrant city is perfect for an exciting and busy visit, full of lovely architecture and fun bars, pubs and restaurants with the best places being the Pinchos bars in the old quarter (in our humble opinion that is).
San Sebastian – Buzz on the services at the aire
Arriving early evening we parked Buzz at a paid aire (3.30euro) out to the west of the city near the university we had what we considered to be a good safe spot with plenty of people around, security is something we are always aware of in bigger cities. Morning came as expected a little overcast with the possibility of the occasional short shower during the day, it turned out to be a lovely sunny morning with a slightly cooler overcast afternoon but better than expected. Which was good as we had a 35 to 40 minute walk into the old quarter, this was a nice stroll down to one of San Sebastians beaches the biggest and best La Conch beach a long stretch of golden sand curving around a large sheltered bay area. From there we walked through the historic Jardines de Alderdieder then past the stunning town hall building and on to the old quarter but not before stopping for a cup of coffee.
San Sebastian – La Concha beach Arcing round the cove
The old part of town sits on a spit of land with the rio Urumea on one side and the beach on the other, having been here a couple of times before this was a fun visit. Trawling the narrow little streets in the old town, full of bars and little shops dropping in for a beer or wine and pinchos enjoying the hustle and bustle before moving on to the next. Tip, look for the smaller old bars full of locals where you will get the cheapest drinks and pinchos. Just in case you haven’t had the pleasure of pinchos these are small 1 or 2 bite size, usually bread based treats with anything on from cheese, cured meats, fish, chorizo sausage to big slabs of Tortilla and range in price from 1.5 to 3 or 4 euro depending on where you buy and how complex they are. The combinations available are amazing , with each bar normally having their own speciality.
San Sebastian – Pinchos bar mayhem
As you can imagine our day was a blur of fun and happy moments spent eating and drinking. In one place I was taking a photo on the phone when an older gentleman came over dressed nicely in shirt and tie pointing out the best place to get the best shot. Turns out he was an old professional photographer who was really pleased when I heeded his advice and got a better shot.
San Sebastian – Selection of cakes
After a great day and feeling we should start making our way back we decided on coffee and cake just to round off the day, after which we made our way back to Buzz our ever present warm and cosy house on wheels. The 40 minute walk out was a bit slower going back, more like an hour but we didn’t mind. Feeling happy and relaxed we got back in Buzz just before the heavens opened and stayed open pretty much all night only stopping in the early morning. Oh well a second day might have been on the cards but the weather didn’t really let up so we took the opportunity to stock up on essentials and fuel before leaving for France, hoping to get good enough weather to explore Bayonne!
Leave a Reply