This blog post was... a bit of a process. I fell asleep on my computer last night uploading pictures (likely due to the food and wine coma -- see below -- and the fact that we didn't get home until almost 11). I decided to finish the blog in the car, but it turns out the internet is not terribly reliable when driving 6 hours through rural France. After we arrived at our apartment in Pocé-sur-Cisse (close to Amboise and the Loire River), we let the girls swim for a bit and then headed to Amboise for some much needed food. We are now home, the girls are working on their role playing identities (something about teenage clones in the year 4,020), and Stefani and I are blogging/planning our day tomorrow.
So I am dialing back to yesterday morning, because yesterday was A-MAZ-ING. If the following feels like it is a paid advertisement from the San Sebastián tourism board, that is because I fell in love with this city and everything we did there:
San Sebastián is a magical city. And our Airbnb is absolutely perfect (see also, yesterday's post). If you are interested in visiting San Sebastián and need a 2 bedroom apartment (full kitchen with laundry), I highly recommend Carolina's place near Zurriola beach (also known as the surfers' beach... due to the surfers). It is a short walk to La Concha (the big beach) and the Old Town, but much smaller and somewhat quieter.
The best part of the apartment is the terrace, where we ate all of our meals. First up: breakfast. Ellie and I went exploring and found fresh bread, cherries, peaches, and a mysterious but delicious pastry. Ellie ordered in French which seemed to work (although the language here is Basque or Spanish, we are very close to the French border):
With this fortification, we headed out to the beach. Because we are on European hours, we ate breakfast at a respectable time (10ish) and headed to the beach about 11:30, where we laid in the sand, jumped in the water, and generally had a great time. Then Ellie buried Stella in the sand:
We didn't have any beach towels, so I wandered around until I spotted an inflated pink floaty in the distance (I tried a few beach shops but they all had towels in the range of 40 euros so I kept looking). The pink floaty establishment had several excellent options in the 6 euro range so I got some towels and rejoined the ladies. Our original plan was to walk by Zurriola and then spend our beach time at La Concha, but we never left Zurriola. It might be smaller, but we found it just right for our needs (and to clarify, it is NOT small, but it is smaller than La Concha which is huge).
We managed to find some food for lunch: yogurt, nectarines, olives, pistachios, manchego cheese, mystery cheese (gouda?), and quince paste, and (of course) more baguette:
Ellie loved the manchego/quince paste combo.
If you have not yet noticed a theme, today was all about eating (see above and below). Stefani and I also decided to secure a bottle of wine for later and found this lovely wine shop:
I guess they also sell ham.
Lots of ham.
Later, we set off for the Old Town. Although we were on our way to an epic gastronomic experience, we wandered by this chocolate shop and had to make a quick stop for a pre-Pintxos treat.
The girls are having a wonderful time -- sometimes we take pictures of them when they aren't looking. Here they are crossing the bridge from Gros (our neighborhood) into the main neighborhood a little north of Old Town:
We also wandered through a city park before our tour. You can see the Basque flag is featured prominently here.
And then... we met our group for our Pintxos tour. Before I get into the details, I have to rave about this experience. Stefani booked this tour a few weeks ago and I am so thankful she did. Calling Pintxos "tapas" seems like a travesty. Although I guess it is technically fairly close to accurate. There are many many establishments serving Pintxos and it is honestly a little overwhelming when you are walking by. Stefani booked us this fantastic inclusive walking tour, which included 6 different locations (food, wine, and juice included). Our guide, Arantxa, was simply the best:
We had a group of 9, plus Arantxa. She ordered for us and made sure everyone (including our 3 vegetarians) were well taken care of:
The adults drank wine, and Arantxa introduced the girls to a local grape juice drink that they LOVED. The girls hit is off with Arantxa and asked many questions about Basque language and culture:
Arantxa ordered excellent vegetarian food for Stefani and the girls. When she asked me if I eat meat, I enthusiastically replied, "I EAT ALL OF THE MEAT." And I do. Yum.
The girls were partial to these peppers:
We were out on the town determined to eat ALL OF THE FOOD THAT EXISTS, but managed to find a few sights along the way:
The girls started to get a little tired (we were up until midnight the prior evening), so they ordered cappuccino with ice:
Then I ate more meat:
And more:
Stefani thought this picture was particularly funny:
It was delicious. I am sure the vegetarians were eating during this part, but I guess I was focused on my own food. The girls *might* have tried a sip of wine (really, just a sip or two):
We enjoyed this street musician while at our fifth location:
Where we also enjoyed (more) wine:
In the picture below, you can see the food on the counter, but the real trick is ordering from behind the counter. Thankfully Arantxa took care of this for us.
Here is our group, complete with photobomber:
And sans photbomber:
We had three ladies from Wales and England and two gentlemen from Arizona and Chicago with us. All were great fun! We learned about the Welsh and Basque languages and discussed languages in general -- everyone agreed the girls should keep up their French and study more languages as they get older!
Here is a shot of the girls on our way home at 10:22pm. We are holding European hours while we are here:
The view from our terrace at 10:40pm:
Goodnight San Sebastián. My only regret is leaving tomorrow.
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