November 25, 2023 San Sebastian
After sleeping in and tidying up the apartment, I enjoyed a breakfast of an apple turnover (chausson) and a cup of coffee. The weather is brisk and ground damp, but nothing closed toe shoes and a jacket can't handle.
I packed up into the car and made my way south today for a day of exploring a little further away from home base. Today, that means I'm in San Sebastian, which was highly recommended to me by people back home. The drive down went pretty smoothly, I was struck by just how green the drive was. Sure it was wet and cloudy, but there's still a ton of green foliage and shrubs persisting around here in addition to the evergreens. The border with Spain was basically marked by a change from driving on flat roads to navigating up and down misty-tipped mountains; rounding each bend was really quite a sight!
The drive was only about 1.5 hours from Dax to San Sebastian, but I figured I'd spend the extra time here since multiple people had specifically referred to this town. I'd spent the previous night booking a hotel and while I arrived too early to check into my room, it wasn't too early for me to take advantage of some free parking benefit!
First order of business after dropping the car was to get a small bite to eat; I wasn't too hungry because of breakfast but figured a jump start on pintxos would ensure I had to energy to scour this city. So while enroute towards the nearest beach, I popped into a small unassuming bar. For 2 Euros, I had a small radler and selected (essentially at random) a small bite from the countertop display; in this case, my choice was anchoive and eggs on bread (1 Euro). It was exactly what I needed to shake off the drive; it was also an excellent reminder that they speak Spanish in Spain! To be fair, it seems most people around here have a grasp of multiple languages (all the plaques and most menus are in Basque, Spanish, French, and English) but my Spanish is both extremely limited and very rusty (uno poquito y muy malo). Maybe after I feel I've gotten French to a level I'm comfortable/fast enough to engage in life fluidly, I'll switch my Duolingo lessons to Spanish...
Next stop, La Concha beach of San Sebastian (I guess the name is Donostia in Spanish?) Despite the water definitely being cold, there were plenty of people out doing surfing and paddleboarding (and generally living mas), and then there were a few women just going for an open water swim in regular swimming suits!!!! 🥶
Along the western rim of the town's bay is a profoundly interesting sculpture: Haizearen orrazia in Basque, Peine del Viento in Spanish, Peigne du Vent in French, or The Wind Comb in English. From the mind of artist, and San Sebastian native, Eduardo Chillida, the sculpture features three steel ...things that have been anchored to rocks so that wind, foam, stone, and metal all intermingle. Aside from making the large steel sculptures, the installation was a feat of engineering unto itself involving construction of a bridge to access the rocks whilst waves continuously worked at the stone below. Also just to the side of the sculpture was a set of blowholes who's sound effects only amplified the sculpture for me.
Lemme just insert myself into this otherwise amazing picture of a piece of art
The next stop was to take a funicular rail up Mount Igeldo to gain a view over the city. Atop this mountain, a theme park has been constructed with plenty of small rides and games for young children, for the adults, there's a a couple bars and plenty of views of the surrounding area:
I'm trying to mix it up with the facial expressions from here on out 😅
From here, I made the long trek along the waterfront to the other side of town, where the historic downtown district lies as well as a castle atop Mount Urgull. The walk was pleasant and warm in the sun; I kept having to duck my head out of the way of these trees. I've noticed that a lot of the European towns tend to mutilate their trees to maintain large growth to only 2 - 3 meters tall and then reveling in the small leafy twigs that sprout each year. Maybe the effect is better in the spring and summer, but I'm not loving the look this time of year.
I didn't head straight to the historic section, instead I wanted to make the most of the daylight and explore Mount Urgull's park first. But I found the harbor area on the way to be intriguing:
The man from La Mancha, I gave up on the book so maybe I didn't make it to this scene about fish?
I find it interesting to see the backyards of old houses, maybe there's some good new ideas going on back here to mix with the old style home
Starting the park with another Chillida sculpture, this one's more accessible and readily viewable from different angles
The English Cemetery, where WW1 English troops were buried
The climb up the mountain was wet but much of the plant life was still very much thriving. Paths on the mountain were a bit sprawly but I think it added to the charm of bouncing between graveyards, castles, batteries, and viewpoints.
Atop the castillo
There actually wasn't much at the castle aside from this cannon, the structure itself (3ft wide pitch-black stone staircases for the win), and the views.
My name is Rosita Wicke and I sow death and destruction...
"Wouldn't happen to be related to John Wicke, would you?"
For the nerds, the overgrowth on the damp stones around the castle kinda reminded me of the Shaded Woods in Dark Souls II
The historic downtown, from above and kinda to the side
The Basque flag flies tall
More surfers at Zurriola beach
After all that walking, I decided it was time to make my way down the mountain and into the historic district to refuel, starting with a cafe con leche and a bit of Basque cheesecake. The bakery "The Loaf" wouldn't have been my first choice for bakeries to get authentic Basque cheesecake from, but the line was out the door and cheesecake and coffee sounded really good at the moment; so I guess it was my first choice?
This street has a view from one basilica to another cathedral, at the bars just ahead of me were a bunch of guys breaking into chants and cheers; I'm not sure what sport was going on but the echos off of the stone walls amplified their songs to really far away!
All the doors above this plaza were numbered, which I suppose makes more sense than assigning fruit names to each room.
Lots of taverns (taberna) and shops in the historic downtown area; the purely pedestrian streets were really nice. The bars and taverns all featured little display cases from which one could order their pintxos along with their drink. Of course, the pintxos on display are only the cold ones, each bar also features their own menu of hot pintxos for order. Overall, a cool system for ordering food but they definitely add up (both in sating hunger and the tab) after a while.
After eating my fill and getting a sample taste of some torrone / nougat bars, I finished my night in San Sebastian by listening to a group of street buskers. It seemed like the accordion player was running the show, but the guy on the string table (no idea what the actual instrument is and I couldn't tell if he was using hooks or mallets on the strings) was who drew my attention:
November 26, 2023 - San Sebastian and Zumaia
I stayed overnight in San Sebastian at the Antik hotel. While checking in around 9pm, I was informed that breakfast was being served earlier than usual to accommodate those who would be participating in the San Sebastian marathon on Sunday. I was debating if I should make an effort to see the marathon but when I looked out my balcony in the morning, it seems the marathon came straight to me!
The kids in the strollers are going to get some amazing times for their age group
After a cup of coffee, I made the 10 minute drive to the Chillida Leku museum, which is an open air sculpture museum featuring ~40 Chillida sculptures. It was here that I saw a video that helped me truly appreciate the scale of his larger sculptures. For the bench scale / study it shows Chillida and a group of workers using vice grips/ tongs and their bodyweight to pull a small beam into place while another assistant welds it. Then for the actual full size sculpture, Chillida was working with a team in an industrial forge: the giant hydraulic hammer would pound hot steel together but the team would need to reposition the work so they could use hoists and cranes to twist and pull the loose ends into whatever shape the artist had planned! As much as his sculptures might confuse me, it definitely required some creativity and immense skill to actually implement his visions of twisted steel.
The museum also had a decent sized section of wall dedicated to his wife, Pilar Belzunce. She stuck with him through thick and thin since they were 14 and enabled him to operate as an artist while she managed finances, chased grants, managed communications with museums, and raised their 8 children. Apparently she was born and raised in the Phillipines where her father owned a sugar plantation; so weird to think of such roots but I suppose it was a reality pre-WWII.
There was a guide inside the farmhouse to talk about a few of the pieces there; she didn't talk about this one but it left me scratching my head when compared to the sketch posted to the wall.
I liked the juxtaposition of the art and museum of this one: Place to Sit (Do not Sit)
I also stumbled upon a massive bloom of mushrooms on this dewy morning! These were next to the sculpture titled "Forest"
I bade adieu to the Chillida museum and made the short drive over to Zumaia, where I had a specific hike in mind: La Route de Flysch or as they called it here, El Camino del Norte/Santiago. Unfortunately, I brainfarted today and mixed up the order of how I should have done things; I should have done the hike in the morning and the museum in the afternoon. Why a specific order? Because the hike was along the coast and much of the flysch shelf is only visible during low tide, which peaked (bottomed?) at 9:30AM and high tide would occur at 15:30, not much longer after I started my hike... Oh well, I suppose better luck next time, or at least better planning 😅
Despite not seeing all the flysch shelf in the tidal zone, I still had a nice (muddy) hike among the hills (mountains) along the coast. With a light mist hanging in the air, the countryside and all its farms looked very lovely! I didn't actually do much in the town proper of Zumaia (a sweet old man tried explaining to me where I could park to save money but my poor Spanish necessitated some simplification -"aqui, payar. Los otros, gratis"- in hindsight, I could have just used Google translate with him), which seems like a nice enough town in itself; but if I do make a return for low tide, I'll likely head straight to the parking lot at Ellogia to shave off a bit of farmland trek and get straight to rocky business.
The area's tidal zone is a protected area, from the posted signs I think it's a fairly unique biome. Additionally, the flysch is of great geologic interest because the layers of stone (now twisted almost 90 degrees) show when the meteor made the dinosaurs extinct by which layer the fossils stop showing up!
They say it takes an ass to know one
I tried tempting the horse to come closer by eating my pan de maiz in front of the fence but to no avail.
Overall, I'd say the Basque region of Spain is quite beautiful! One of the sculptures at the Chillida museum the lady explained was a sculpture about the sea: he had carved it from alabaster after visiting Greece. With steep cliffs, swooping curves, and areas of rough stone vs flat, polished surfaces, he had wanted to evoke the interplay of the Atlantic's waves against the cliffs at the edge of the Pyrenées but also how the light ties everything together. I've never been to Greece but she said he had remarked how different the light between the Mediterranean and the Basque countryside were: explosive vs subdued. Don't know about the explosiveness of light but I can get behind the if idea of the light in this area just being a little different; just like it's people, it's landscape, and atmosphere.
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