An Unplanned Year

We left Porto and started towards Donestia-San Sebastian on a rainy day. We broke the journey at Burgos-purely an overnight transit stop. On check in they mentioned that the kitchen OPENS at 9pm!!! (Tell me you’re not in Australia without telling me you’re not in Australia!). So at the minute room service starts (8:30pm) Kevin was on the phone to order us some dinner.

The next day we left early-ish and headed to Donestia-San Sebastian via Logroño. We stopped at a major archaeological site Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, where they have found fossils of all sorts of things including mammoths, bears, lions, sabre-toothed tigers, rhinocerous, hippopotamus, lynx, macaque and more, as well as a hominid they are still trying to determine is homo sapien or a precursor!

It was a pleasant and interesting walk.

We then continued to Logroño in the Rioja Valley and started seeing signs for the Camino de Santiago as well as a couple of walkers – you’d need to be keen to do it this time of year, it was 3 degrees this morning!

When we got to Logroño we went in search of some pintxos for lunch (found them). We then had a wander. This is a gorgeous town, worthy of several days of your time. We came across a parade of drummers and 29 people carrying a huge platform.

A bit further on we found a gorgeous church. I’m certain every town in Spain has one.

Inside was as stunning as any Cathedral we’ve seen, with a fresco painted ceiling on the “chapel” off the main section.

Heading back to our car we inadvertently found ourselves walking the Camino de Santiago. It counts right?

After leaving town we started to head up into the hills where the temperature dropped again and there was snow! Not just on the mountains, but at times just 100m from the road! (The Pyrenees, our next 2 stops, are likely to be c-o-l-d!)

After catching up on washing, our first day in San Sebastian saw us in search of some of the (mostly food related) recommendations we have received.

After a late start on our first day in San Sebastian, we just wandered around, to the palace that was used by royalty in the 1800s, along the beach,

up the main hill to the castle, a stop at the pub halfway down that hill.

We wandered into Old Town and did a DIY food tour and sampled pinxtos and a couple of places, sadly (for the reader) the plates were cleared before we took any photos. But my goodness pintxos have lived up to their reputation!

We wandered some more and found ourselves outside the cheesecake place we had been instructed to find.

It was REALLY good. Apparently it ruins all future cheesecakes!

7 hrs of walking was enough, so we headed back to our accommodation and practiced putting snow chains on in case they are needed in the Pyrenees.

Day 2 in San Sebastian was sunny, with blue skies. Completely different to yesterday!

We spent today walking in a different area of the city and around the castle base where we spent about half an hour just watching waves crash on the rocks!

The city was both quieter and noisier today. There is a general strike on, with protests at 1230 and 6pm, so most shops, restaurants and bars are closed. Clearly schools are closed also as the beach was packed with teenagers.

Luckily, one of the Bassk Cheescakers stores was open, so we figured if we were to ruin all future cheesecakes, we may as well annihilate them. It was chocolate this time-apparently a new flavour. It was like a deliciously rich mousse crossed with chocolate custard.

Consider cheesecakes ruined!!

Can’t begrudge people protesting for a higher minimum wage if it kept peaceful. It was here as far as we could tell, but not so in Bilbao.