San Sebastian first got on my radar from my Spanish lessons. I have got the feeling that its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. It took me a while to work out the reason why.
We happened to be in town over a weekend. Friday night it rained around sunset. Saturday evening everyone was out in the streets. Many of the bars in the old town were standing room only in the street. The clients were not all young people. Many were mature adults. We are used to such "scenes."
Several places we noticed "Tourist go home" graffiti were left undisturbed, but the tourist office was particularly friendly and competent, except their internet was down due to the ongoing ransomware attack, which had not affected our travels otherwise.
Eventually, we concluded that San Sebastian is popular because it has everything, though it does not necessarily excel at any one thing.
* beach, different bays for surfing and family fun.
* historic center: this, many beach towns lack. Most beach towns used to be villages.
* lively restaurant/bar scene (all of Spain seem to be good at).
* location, as in proximity to France: Spain is cheaper than France and the French like good values.
* not to mention running, standup paddleboarding, open water swimming, sculling, and walking.
* regional public transportation
Walking to our hotel from the train station. Checkout SL and her backpack.
Around the Old Town. The Ale-Hop cow (right).
Private Men's Club.
Plaza and Bull Ring.
View towards the Cathedral.
Friday night sunset rainout.
Our one full day we rode the Metro train to San Pedro and walked back to San Sebastian on The Camino along the Bay of Biscay.
Many surfers in the water at Gros Beach.
And walkers on the promenade.
View from one of several monumental bridges that cross the Rio Urumea.
San Sebastian always feels lively.
Sunset pics.
Evening in city center.
Before taking the train to Biarritz, we have a morning stroll on the promenade; and there's a 10K run in progress.
While walking we see open water swimmers and standup paddleboarders.
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Uzbekistan: Bukhara
Bukhara was a major city on the Silk Road. It had been the capital of various dynasties. Many of the buildings we see today originated duri...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Tashkent, Uzbekistan is our entry into Central Asia. The Silk Road had been a destination for us for decades. Besides the usual concerns for...
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
Khiva is really the first stop on our upstream tour of the Silk Road. An important post on the Silk Road, Khiva was razed and rebuilt many t...
-
From TashKent, we took a flight west to Nukus, located in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Nukus itself is a city establi...
-
Bukhara was a major city on the Silk Road. It had been the capital of various dynasties. Many of the buildings we see today originated duri...
-
Abus Dhabi seems more familiar than Dubai. There is a recognizable downtown. There are city parks connecting downtown to the sea. There are ...
-
We spent some extra time in Tashkent, because we wanted to catch the Persian New Year, Nowruz , in Tashkent, known as Spring Equinox to the ...
1 comment:
Great photo of runner with sunny pathway showing between his feet and his shadow. I have a photo of me with both feet in the air, circa 35 years ago. i can barely manage one foot in the air these days.
Post a Comment