San Sebastian, Spain

                                                                                                                  

Our next stop was another city in the Basque region. For some reason, the train between Bilbao-San Sebastian is 2.5 hours and the bus is half that time, so we opted for the bus. We arrived in town just as it was beginning to rain and, conveniently our hotel was close to the bus station. 
 This was the first hotel we booked that wasn't a chain where we used points. The hotel, luckily, was a great find. The Astoria 7 is a sleek and modern place with a movie theme. Each room is named after a movie star and decorated with photos from movies. We had the Elizabeth Taylor room and it was a triple with an extra bed for Casey.

This was our only day the weather wasn't perfect, but it cleared up enough for us to explore the city. Our first stop was the statue of Jesus that stands on a hill close to old town. We are not sure what was going on that day in San Sebastian, but we encountered lots of young people as we walked along the harbor and through the park leading up to the statue. Imagine the largest fraternity party you have ever been to and then add a Kenny Cheney concert and you will get the picture.
The city sits along the Bay of Biscay, along the Atlantic Ocean. (In the past two weeks I saw the Pacific in San Francisco and Sausalito, the Mediterranean in Barcelona, and now the Atlantic.). A promenade stretches the length of the city with a lovely wrought-iron railing painted a charming white. The ironwork is evident on lampposts and other details throughout the city.

After our hike, we found a place away from the crowds where we could rest our feet and hydrate. Many of the adults that passed by were wearing a handkerchief scarf around their neck that appeared to show their allegiance to a political party. I do know that the Basque people don't consider themselves Spanish or French and they speak their own language. This was visible from all the street signs that we couldn't understand because they were written in the Euskara language. We assume the large crowds wearing of scarves denoted some sort of city celebration took place that day, but we never confirmed our suspicion.

The next morning the weather had cleared up and so had the streets. We took a walk around town and were amazed by all the garbage trucks and street sweepers. We found a diner kind of place and had a neat breakfast that included churros with a pot of chocolate for dunking. This will probably make the list for our favorite meals.