San Sebastian, Spain

On Friday October 17th, Paul and Angie arrived back in London for their 2nd visit to see us since we've lived here. We were so thankful that they spent last Christmas & New Years with us in London and felt very lucky to start another 10 day adventure with them for the 2nd time in a year!  I went out to Heathrow when they arrived and here we are on the way back...

 That afternoon Brian met us when he was done with work at the pub across the street from our flat...

 It felt so great to be with two of our best friends again!

The next morning we started out by getting picked up bright and early at 4:00 AM to head to London's Gatwick airport to start our travels!  The cab ride couldn't have ended quick enough as it seemed like our driver was the most tired out of any us...he was struggling to stay awake, talk about a scary ride!  

Our flight left at 6:30AM for Bordeaux, France.  Once we landed we drove 2 1/2hours to San Sebastian, Spain.  We arrived and got checked into our hotel around 2:00 PM, then we headed out to check out the beach, it was gorgeous!   We completely lucked out with the weather being around 80 degrees, which is very warm for the middle of October.

The water was quite cold but there were lots of people at the beach soaking up the sun and warm weather...

After walking along the shore for awhile we found a spot with view to get some snacks and drinks.  We even had to move from a table in the sun to the shade since it was so warm.  

Then we did some wandering of the central part of the city.  We all loved San Sebastian and it's beauty...

We were signed up for a pintxos tour (will explain what that is shortly) at 6:30 PM and before starting we had some drinks at the fancy hotel bar which was the meeting place to start our tour.

As the sun was going down between the streets of San Sebastian we started our pintxo tour and were taken to parts of the city where the locals hangout...

Eating at pintxo bars is a very common social traditional in San Sebastian and other parts of Northern Spain.  Pintxos (pronounced pinch-os) are small dishes typically served on a small skewer or toothpick.  It is very common for family and friends to gather at pintxo bars to socialize in the evening. Most of the time people hop from bar to bar while eating and drinking. The pintxos are served individually and normally you would just take whatever you want since they are set out along the bar and then you pay at the end for what you had.

 Luckily our guide took us to 6 different places and took care of the ordering for us so we didn't have to worry about where to go, what to order or the language barrier.  We brought our appetites and open minds since we knew some of the food we might try might be a bit out of our typical choices.

 Below Angie and I are trying pintxos with olives, peppers and anchovies...not bad!

We also were given drinks along the tour at each bar as well.  Below on the right were some delicious mushrooms which were stirred around and mixed with a broken egg yolk.  

 

Below on the left was a yummy sausage and crab tart.  It's a tradition in pintxo bars to throw your napkins on the ground while you eat to keep them away from the food.  It felt so wrong to begin with but we got used to it as the night went on.  It is said if you are not sure which bars to go to and want to find a good local spot you should look at how many napkins are on the floor towards the end of the night. 

At a few of the stops since it was so warm and crowded inside we stood outside at tables like many others.  In the picture below we had Ox cheek which I was skeptical to try but it turned out to be the most tender delicious meat.  We also had vegetable risotto and were daring enough to try pigs ear!  Surprisingly the meaty part I had from behind the ear was very good.  Brian went for the actual cartilage part of the ear which almost caused him to loose his previous pintxos...Pigs ear was our least favorite of the evening!  But hey we tried it right?!

 The display at some of the bars were very elaborate and beautiful...

 We wished we could try everything!

Some were very unique looking dishes...

 

My favorite pintxo of the night was also the most interesting. It was a piece of raw codfish served on hot grate with a smoldering coal underneath.  We turned the fish on the skewer it was on to cook it slightly.  Then we put it onto a piece of bread with a delicious sauce, it had a nice smoky flavor.  It was then finished off with a suck of lettuce water  (sounds very strange I know!) 

Brian's opinion was that it was the best food we've had so far in all of Europe!

At our last stop we got to enjoy an amazing cheesecake for a dessert (no picture).  We also really liked talking with the people in the group who were from Australia, Scotland and one other American couple.  It was a great night and we were so glad we had taken the recommendations we had received  to do this tour!

 We wished we had one more night in San Sebastian!

 

The next morning we did some more walking around after breakfast before heading out...

With of course one more trip to the water...

What a beautiful place.

That afternoon we left to drive back to the Bordeaux region of France where we spent two nights in the tiny wine village of Saint Emilion.  (Separate blog on that part of the trip to follow.)