ROCINANTE'S LAST RIDE

Our premature departure to cooler climes has caused a reshuffle of our plans and early August found us loading up our faithful steed for one last adventure - a hasty 2 week gallop around the north of Espana, uncharted territory for the Legsyboys.

Our Day 1 destination is the famed Basque country seaside resort of San Sebastian (Donostia in the Basque language). We make a day trip of it by detouring via one of Spain's finest wine producing regions, La Rioja. The centre of the region is Haro, and the plan is to visit 3 bodegas. Although most state they are open until 3:00pm this is clearly an indicative time only as numerous are closed. Undaunted, with gusto we throw ourselves into tasting at two wonderful bodegas, Lopez de Heredia and La Rioja Alta.

Bodega Lopez de Heredia....

....the tasting room

La Rioja Alta

Needless to say, Rocinante is further weighed down by a few boxes of their finest vintages (set for shipment to the aforementioned cooler climate, where one needs a 2nd mortgage to buy a bottle of vino).

The countryside is beautiful as we meandered through little villages

before arriving in the sleepy haven of Elciego, home of Marques de Riscal, the bodega with the eye popping private hotel designed by Frank Gehry (see also the Guggenheim in Bilbao). Travel Tip: it's a private hotel, but if you go and have a coffee then they'll let you in! It's interesting to say the least, and the views are spectacular; and the coffee was OK too!

Marques de Riscal Hotel

Whatever Frank was on, I want some!!

On departing, Rocinante's suspension is put under more duress, although not from the revolting white asparagus!!!

Inedible

Onward, and we skirt around Pamplona (no running today) as we head towards Donostia. Sometimes you can arrive at a place and immediately sense that "yep, this is fantastic" - welcome to San Sebastian! We check into our fabulous 3 bedroom apartment, literally 200 metres from Playa de Zurriola, SS's surf beach, and los ninos are EXCITED! Best of all, our lovely friends from Madrid, Connie, Francisco, Javier (Liam's best buddy) and Jaime had delayed their trip to the Pyrenees and were waiting to show us around. We stroll over the beautiful Puente de Zurriola and enter the old town for our first experience of SS's fabled pintxos (tapas) bars.

Puent de Zurriola

  There are over 200 (!!) of them, and being from the area, Connie and Francisco are well versed on where to go. It's holiday season and every bar is packed to standing capacity,

 but we manage to squeeze into Bar Atari Gastroteka and, amongst other delicious delicacies, we try the house specialty - foie a la plancha....it's delicious, especially when washed down with the local Basque brew, txakoli (a dry, slightly sparkly white wine).

Decisions, decisions.....

 A short stroll and we're outside the glorious town hall and overlooking Playa de la Concha, which would reveal itself in all its glory the following day. It's been a long and memorable day; we can't wait for tomorrow.

Next day, it takes us around 45 minutes to walk around to the far western end of La Concha where we  all meet up to catch the funicular up to the top of Monte Igueldo.

All aboard.....

 There's an historic theme park with plenty of fun for the kids and a vintage wooden roller coaster that has, without exception, the most spectacular backdrop you will ever see.

...for some old fashioned fun

Magnificent

But the real star of the show is the breathtaking vista of San Sebastian - of all the beaches we've seen around the world, this is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all.

Breathtakingly beautiful

Playa de La Concha

Connie, Francisco and the boys bid us 'adios' as they head off to the mountains, and we (i.e. Dulcinea and los ninos) hit the beach for a paddle.

Afterwards, we get the unexpected bonus of seeing the finale to the Clasica de San Sebastian, the 230km cycle race that is one of the premier events on the UCI World Tour.

Alejandro Valverde - the winner!

 

There's still time for a swim in the surf at Zurriola (and a lesson in cross currents!) before we head back to the old town for another pintxos assault.

 'Someone' gave us some hints and so we try out Bar Goiz Argi where the scrumptious specialties are Pincho Mari Juli (salmon and anchovies) and Brocheta de Gambas - skewers of BBQ shrimp (Buzzy has 3 serves of this!!). Bar Ganbara and their amazing mushrooms is next on the agenda, and the LegsyBoys once again have dined like kings.

The local mushroom vendor

San Sebastian has more Michelin stars than any other city in Spain, but the thing is, you just don't need to go to the high end restaurants. All the pintxos bars serve mouth watering food, and one doesn't have to be a 'foodie' to appreciate and enjoy the quality of the bite sized morsels available at every second doorway....it is, simply, food heaven. A special treat awaits tomorrow......