One of the world's most beautiful cities--San Sebastian

panorama of San Sebastian

If you love to travel and haven't visited San Sebastian, Spain, you should be adding it to your list. This is a beautiful city on Spain's north Atlantic coast, surrounding a gorgeous bay, with a popular surfing beach across the isthmus.  It shows off the Basque Country at its finest, proud of its language and culture and happy that the days of terrorist attacks by Basque nationalists are over.

surfing beach, San Sebastian

San Sebastian has a charming old center and, if you love food, some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world, including 3 Michelin three-star restaurants.  Even outside the high gourmet restaurants, you'll find excellent food everywhere.  Many of these have been around for a century or more. Seafood is a specialty, very fresh and perfectly prepared.  Octopus, cod, hake, sea bream and sea bass are particular favorites.  A visit to the central market, underground, is like a festival of gourmet, with so many shops selling everything from fish to cheese to fruits and vegetables.

fish in the market

 A wonderful tradition is pintxo (pronounced "peencho") nights in the old part of the city.  Tiny bars serve pintxos (like tapas) and local wines and beer.  Families and friends meet at a bar to share a pintxo and a glass of wine, beer or local cider before moving on to their next favorite bar for another pintxo and drink. The pedestrian alleys of the old city are crammed with people every night, socializing and enjoying the excellent food and wine along with their families and friends.  Parents bring their children who play in the streets and under the tables.  It is a wonderful mixing of people enjoying this fixture of the Basque culture.

coastline west of San Sebastian

The city was mostly destroyed by the British in 1813, but survived Spain's horrific civil war by collapsing under Franco's pressure before bombs could be dropped (as they were elsewhere in the Basque Country).  During that era, no one could speak or teach the Basque language. But, families clung to their traditions and taught their children the language in secret so that, today, Basque and Spanish are both spoken throughout the region.

Maria Cristina's palace

The city today is full of beautiful neoclassical buildings, most in very good repair, lining the river and beaches.   A wonderful boardwalk runs along the river and beaches, providing great running and walking space along with its beautiful views. Families congregate there to enjoy the walks and the water.

San Sebastian cathedral

Queen Maria Cristina of Spain fell in love with San Sebastian in the late 19th century and built a summer palace there.  From that point on, royalty from across Europe came to visit, creating the first tourism boom and international "chic".  Not that the weather is particularly summer-like.  It's often rainy, but that makes for lots of wildflowers and lime green mountainsides, covered with grass and, increasingly, vineyards.

Outside San Sebastian, there are over 30 wineries making the local txacoli wine.  It is a green wine, fresh (if it's good) and a bit spritzy and tangy.  The vineyards and wineries are well worth a visit.

txacoli vineyard

Another important visit is Gernika (Guernica), brutally bombed by German and Italian warplanes during the Spanish Civil War and poignantly recorded in Pablo Picasso's famous painting, Guernica.

tile rendering of Picasso's painting, Guernica

The town is important primarily because it was the heart of the Basque Country in times gone by. The elders would meet under an oak tree to discuss and solve problems.  The latest generation of that tree, grown from seeds of the original tree. is now about 20 years old and growing on the site of the first council tree. So, Gernika is, as our Basque guide described it, "the soul of the Basque Country".

Bilbao's Guggenheim museum

Near San Sebastian is the large industrial city of Bilbao.  What is most remarkable about Bilbao is not that it has the only international airport in northern Spain, nor it's famous Guggenheim Museum. What is fascinating is how the Guggenheim Museum has transformed a formerly decaying city of 1 million people into a charming tourism center, full of vitality, festivals, activity and beautifully restored buildings.

Bilbao's central square

The river on which the museum resides now has a long boardwalk.  The old city has been renovated and is teeming with people (locals, not just tourists) eating pinxtos, barbecue, ice cream and other delights, enjoying their friends and families.  While the museum collection has improved over the last 15 years since I last visited, it does not have a world-class collection.  What it does have is an incredible building by Frank Gehry, well worth the visit just on its own.  And what is even more exciting is the impact this one institution has had on the city of Bilbao.

Bilbao barbecue along the river

A couple of decades ago, one of Bilbao's mayors sought to change his city, to make it an international tourist attraction.  He was able to get the Guggenheim Museum to build a museum in Bilbao, but it was so much more than that.  They did not just build a museum, they built an architectural marvel that, by itself, attracts millions of visitors.  Beyond that, the city restored the riverfront to an attractive promenade and made it and the center of the city a gathering place for locals and tourists alike.

One final and wonderful note--my former exchange student, Karlos, lives in San Sebastian.  He is a cardiac critical care doctor, his wife is an oncologist, and his son is a surfer.  Everyone loved spending time with them.  For me, it was a special joy to be with Karlos and his family nearly 30 years after he graduated from Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado.

Gail with Cristina, Karlos and Ander on our pintxo night

The Basque Coast of Spain

vineyards and mountains above San Sebastian

One of the prettiest towns along the northern coast of Spain is Santillana del Mar.  While it was once on the sea, those days are long past, but the town retains its charming character.  It is now a very attractive tourist town, filled when we were there with busloads of Spanish kids romping through the cobblestoned streets.

Romanesque church, Santillana del Mar

Santillana del Mar's huge Romanesque church is at the center of this medieval town.  There are Renaissance palaces aplenty, lots of cafes where you can sit outside and watch the people stream by and pretty vistas over the brilliant green countryside.  Sheep and dairy cattle are the principle livestock.

home in Santillana del Mar

An hour's visit is enough to see the town unless you want to poke around the shops.  I talked to one shopkeeper who told me that, given the still-terrible economy in Spain, it is better to own your own business.  He makes his money mostly in the summer months and doesn't earn a lot of money, but, he said, "enough to live a good life".  Kids go off to the university expecting to have good jobs waiting for them when they graduate, only to be disillusioned to discover that there aren't many jobs that use their skills and pay well. Spain's average unemployment is over 20%, and worse in the south, though better in the far north.

Gitaria beyond vineyards

Farther along the northern coast, past Bilbao, is the former Basque fishing village of Lekeitio, now a summer resort, with lots of apartment buildings for the many Spanish families who want to spend part of the summer at the beach.

Gitaria, near San Sebastian, is still a fishing village, with an interesting Romanesque church whose floor slopes up towards the altar.  That's because when the town decided to enlarge the original small church, they needed to expand it over the main road leading from the port to the center of town.  So, they built a tunnel under the church nave for the road, requiring them to lift the altar, and thus the floor, above the tunnel, sloping it from the original church to the new altar.

Elkano vineyard owner with bottling machine

Above San Sebastian is the thriving txacoli wine industry, covering the mountainsides with vineyards and small wineries.  We visited the Elkano vineyard and winery to meet its owner and hear about txacoli winemaking.  This is a green wine, fermented for 21 days to 3 months and bottled directly from stainless steel tanks at the time the wine is sold.  It is a tiny bit spritzy and very fresh-tasting. Some of it is exported, but most is sold locally, particularly to the many small bars where locals and visitors flock at night to socialize and eat pintxos (more on those later) while drinking local wines.

Elkano is a very important name in the Basque Country.  Elkano was from Gitaria (as was Balenciaga) and one of Magellan's sailors. While we all think of Magellan as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, Basques credit Elkano with that accomplishment and are very proud of him.  They are correct, since Magellan died on the voyage and Elkano, along with 18 other sailors, completed the entire voyage.

upended rock slabs above beach

fishermen's church

Near Gitaria is a beautiful series of beaches and coves where the slabs of rock stand on end. The waves are big, breaking well (according to a surfer among us) and loaded with surfers.  At the top of the cliff is an old fishermen's church famous for being in a film about Basque people.

rock slabs form cliffs along coast

On to Ribadesella, pretty fishing village in Asturia

cliffs along Atlantic Coast just east of Ribadesella

Yesterday, we drove from Santiago to Ribadesella, stopping in the large city of A Coruna to visit it's old city, Roman lighthouse, and port, with our daily visit to a cafe for morning coffee thrown in.  The lighthouse has been rebuilt on the outside, but inside it is all Roman and, so we've been told, the oldest lighthouse in the world.

Maria Pita Plaza, A Coruna

Our driver, who spoke good English, followed his GPS since he didn't know the area or the routes, but his GPS failed him over and over.  So, after a number of wrong turns and more guidance than he needed from several of us with Waze and Google Maps on our phones, we finally stumbled into Oviedo, another wonderful medieval university city, 2 hours late for lunch.  But, the lunch was worth its 4 pm start, as the owners cooked the best meal we've had yet (Ca'Suso--right on the garden above the Oviedo cathedral in the center of the city).  Despite our tardiness, they seemed genuinely happy to have a group of 10 Americans and 2 Swiss spend 2 hours over their delicious fare.

Roman lighthouse, A Coruna

Hotel Villa Rosario

We came to Ribadesella because Don and I had visited the town last year on our planning trip and loved it.  We're staying in a large, nicely renovated, 12-room Victorian mansion, the Villa Rosario, right on the beach in a beautiful shell-shaped bay.  The beach is lined with these mansions, including more that are undergoing renovation.  While there aren't many tourists here now, it will be crowded in a couple of weeks, despite the fact that this is a rainy part of Spain with chilly water, but good surfing waves.

hiking near Ribadesella

Today, several of us went for a hike in the rainy/sunny weather.  We lost our way, but found a beautiful country road that led us to a small village in the hills above the Atlantic.  We stopped for coffee in a cafe and the owner, who probably doesn't see a lot of Americans in her establishment, gave us a wonderful Asturian stew of garbanzo beans, pork and vegetables to go with our coffee.  No charge--she just wanted us to taste some traditional food.

contented cow

view of Atlantic Coast from hiking path

The path eventually led to the Pilgrim's Way (or Camino Santiago), which runs through Ribadesella. We took a muddy path to the cliffs above the ocean for a spectacular view of the coastline and a tiny rocky beach below.  The wildflowers are blooming in the pastures with milk cows and their calves, so it is a very picturesque place right now, particularly since rugged mountains form a backdrop to the villages, animals and bright green fields.  Quite idyllic.

beach at Ribadesella

The culmination of the Pilgrim's Way--Santiago de Campostela

pilgrims resting in cathedral plaza, our parador in the background

As you drive into Santiago de Campostela, a beautiful medieval city in Galicia, you see dozens of pilgrims nearing the completion of their journeys to the cathedral in Santiago.  In the main plaza right in front of the cathedral, pilgrims gather to rest and enjoy the triumph of completing what for many is a very long journey of hundreds of miles.

pilgrim's entrance to cathedral

Our guide told us that about 30% of pilgrims make the journey for religious reasons and 70% for the sake of the journey itself.  Before the movie, "The Way", very few pilgrims came to Santiago, but the momentum gathered after people around the world saw the film (which, according to Wikipedia, only earned about $4.5 million).  In 1993, the province of Galicia and city of Santiago started promoting the Pilgrim's Way as a major tourist activity, leading to more than 350,000 pilgrims now walking the pathways ending in Santiago each year.  Today,

window inside cathedral

this is the largest part of Santiago's economy.
The city itself has long been a major center of Christendom, ever since the remains of St. James, one of Christ's apostles, were reportedly found not far away.  They are now interred in the cathedral.  The Moorish invasion did not get this far north, so the city has remained a Christian bastion, uninterrupted for more than 1300 years.

baptismal font in cathedral cloister

Our hotel, the Hotel de Dos Reyes Catolicos (right on the central plaza next to the cathedral), was built in 1499 to house pilgrims, no doubt in considerably less luxury than guests enjoy today.  In the cathedral itself, the huge balcony surrounding the nave used to provide a place to sleep for tired and dirty pilgrims. There is a huge urn that 8 men swing from door to door across the nave to spread incense, perhaps, our guide told us, to help mask the smell of the balcony's exhausted occupants in days gone by.
Santiago has also been a prominent university center for hundreds of years.  Today, of the 100,000 residents, 25,000 are students.

doorway to one of the university buildings

buildings above Santiago de Campostela at sunset

This is a walking city, at least the old city center, with its winding, cobbled streets, beautiful medieval churches and pretty squares.  Most of the residents live outside the inner city because it is not only expensive to live there, but renovating a home according to UNESCO standards is prohibitive for most people.
Galicians justifiably take great pride in their cuisine and the many restaurants in Santiago bear that out.  We had one incredible dinner at Abastos 2.0, which Don and I had found last year as we wandered around the city, that serves a delicious tasting menu of fish and vegetable tapas along with Galicia's excellent wines.  Each day, the chef visits the large market next door to buy what he thinks is the best of the fish and vegetables and creates his varied dishes from the fresh food he buys there. We all loved it.

pilgrim and opera singer both singing arias

Then, there's the gelato, made, I'm sure, of purest cream, and so smooth and delicious that several of us slurped down 3 large cups of ice cream in one day.
Not surprisingly, street musicians (and beggars) populate the squares and walkways of the old city. They change places periodically to give equal opportunity to some, if not all.  Last year, the opera singer in the photo to the left entertained late night strollers under a large medieval arch covering one of the stone alleys, so we stopped to listen for over an hour.  This year, he was there again.  A young woman pilgrim sat listening to him sing, then jumped up to join him with her beautiful soprano voice.  What an extraordinary end to a wonderful evening!

Onward to Spain and the beautiful Galician coast

foundations of stone houses at Castro de Barona

Driving north from Portugal to Spain, you'll go through high hills and valleys covered with vineyards and farms.  Whitewashed villages with red tile roofs dot the bright green landscape.

Castro de Barona with its old port in the distance

Once across the border into Galicia, you can continue straight to Santiago de Campostela, the famous pilgrimage city said to hold the remains of St. James, one of Christ's apostles, in its mammoth cathedral, or take the coastal roads along the deeply indented and rugged Galician coast, which is what we did.   Pilgrims flock to Santiago from all over the world, particularly, of course, from Europe, and you can see them along the roads walking with their backpacks and hiking poles and, occasionally, their dogs.

There are an average of 1000 new pilgrims per day joining the trek.  To qualify for a certificate, you have to walk or ride horseback at least 100 kilometers or bike 200 kilometers.  Many travel much further, over 800 km from France.  Once in Santiago, you get to attend the noon mass at the cathedral and get a certificate.  Pilgrims are one of the major industries in Santiago in addition to tourism and its old and famous university.

Roman bridge, Ponte Maceira

fireplace in Castro de Barona home

On our way here, we stopped at Castro de Barona, a Celtic town on the rocky and rainy Galician coast, one of many.  What I hadn't realized is that the Celt culture is still dominant in this part of Spain, having survived and thrived for more than 2000 years.  The Celts came from northern Europe and spread across the British Isles and southern Europe, leaving a large mark here in Galicia.  Our guide told us that, while most people are Catholic, virtually everyone here still practices a smattering of the Celtic religion, including using Celtic symbols in their buildings and daily lives.

spring flowers in Castro de Barona

Castro de Barona was probably inhabited about 200 BC.  Homes were circular and made of stone and thatch from the indigenous rock and trees.  At Castro de Barona, the Celts built a religious center, now long gone, on top of the rocky promontory.  Today it was chilly, windy and rainy, probably just like it was in the days of the Celts.

Next was Ponte Maceira, a pretty Roman bridge in a tiny village near Noia.  This is reportedly the loveliest part of the pilgrimage that moves on to the coast from Santiago, for those who haven't had enough walking.  We thought it was beautiful.

millhouse at Ponte Maceira

Guimaraes and Ponte de Lima--charming cities near Porto

Guimaraes Castle

After our day in the Douro Valley, we stayed in a charming old hotel in the heart of Amarante, just a mountain range away from the Douro.  The Casa de Calcada overlooks the river, main square and old church of Amarante.  It's a good location for touring the area.

Amarante's main square and church

About 45 minutes from Amarante is the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage city of Guimaraes, the place where Portugal was founded in the fifteenth century.  Like Porto, it must maintain the character of its buildings as they are and not destroy them with bulldozers or kitsch or modern facades.  Unlike Porto, Guimaraes' old buildings are mostly well-kept, even those that are abandoned, but are cared for by the local government.

restored home in Guimaraes

The Norman castle is the center of a Guimaraes visit.  It sits on a hill above the town and on a bed of granite meant to keep potential conquerors from tunneling under the fortress during a siege (which never happened here). The castle was primarily a fortress, which was fortunate for its potential occupants since the interior is small and the rooms set aside for the local lords were musty, small and right above the animals.  Nonetheless, if there had been an attack, the local populace could have found safety for a while at least inside the castle walls.

homes along Guimares' main square

If you visit Guimaraes, take the time to sit in a cafe in one of the 2 main squares to admire the beautiful old homes, most with colorful window boxes full of flowers (in spring and summer).  They have obviously kept the character of the original medieval town, given UNESCO's strictures, and that makes this town a popular tourist attraction.

You can walk or drive or take a cable car up the nearby mountain to visit a relatively modern church and, better, see the views of the city and surrounding mountains.  In the large plaza in front of the church, a photographer has set up camp with an old box camera and mobile printing shop so you can get a traditional black and white photo of yourself either in front of the church or on a little plastic horse.  Apparently, every child in this part of Portugal has at least one such photo.

Roman bridge--Ponte de Lima

Near Guimaraes is another pretty town with a long Roman bridge as its principle attraction, Ponte de Lima.  Parts of the original city wall remain.  Horsemen and women ride across the bridge and along the sandy shore of the Lima River while overly loud music blasts across the water from a former church on the far side.  Ignore that and you can enjoy yourself in one of the many cafes, walk across the bridge and along the river and feel a bit of the history of this ancient town.

Ponte de Lima church on bridge

A day in the Douro Valley

looking down on the Douro River

If you take the mountain road to the Douro Valley from Porto, you come to the top of a high ridge and a lovely view of the spectacular Douro River far below.  The steep mountainsides above the river are covered with terraced vineyards.  This is wine country, both excellent red and white varietals and the Ports for which Portugal is justifiably famous.

mountainside vineyards

Today, the vineyards were bright green, highlighted by brilliant red poppies and golden daisies growing wild between the terraces.  Most of the vineyards, called quintas, cultivate roses, which are also in full bloom in June.  Wines have been produced here since the days of the Romans.  In the last 500 years, the British have dominated the industry, though, today, the Portuguese government and industry associations set the standards and production quotas.  About 85% of the wines made in Portugal are now exported all over the world, including to Japan and China.

200 year old olive oil factory at D'Origem

We began our day with a visit to D'Origem, both an olive oil and wine producer.  The factory is perched high on a steep mountainside, part of a tiny village surrounded by vineyards.  So, the views are incredible.  The family's 5th generation, personified by a charming teenaged boy who gave us our tour, is preparing to take over the operations one day.

Olive oil used to be made using very hot water, but today is cold-pressed, which produces a smooth, nutty (in D'Origem's case) oil.  The residue of crushed seeds, skins and pulp is used for fertilizing the fields and feeding animals.  The winery makes several varieties of wine, including a very good rose, and exports its wines around the world despite its small production.

Lunch today was a "slow" lunch at a wonderful restaurant right on the river.  Actually, the river flows under the deck where we ate.  After 3 hours of a superb tasting menu accompanied by several different wines, we stumbled off to a Port wine quinta, also way above the river overlooking steep slopes and vineyards.

watching slow river during slow lunch

Santa Eufemia is a full family operation, with 7 brothers and sisters and their respective spouses all playing some role in the vineyards and winery.  They "stomp" the grapes for their Ports, literally. Depending on the year and the variety, the stomping can take 2 to 3 hours in the first round, with 5 people, including the sister-in-law who told us their story, doing the stomping.  Next is the pressing to squeeze the juice from the grapes and remove the skins and seeds before transferring the fresh wine to barrels for aging.

Port is fermented for a very short time, usually 30 minutes, because of the need to keep the natural sugars in the wine.  To stop fermentation, the winemaker adds wine that is 87% alcohol, usually the family's old and less valuable wine, to the juice, which immediately stops the fermentation.  This happens right at the end of the crushing process and before the wine is transferred to the oak casks.

Port can be aged for years, but doesn't change its character with aging unless it's exposed to oxygen. so the corks now have plastic tops to keep oxygen from entering the wine through the cork.  We tasted 5 Ports, all excellent, ranging from an old white Port to both tawny and ruby Ports.  Enough wine for one day!