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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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".
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Gail with Cristina, Karlos and Ander on our pintxo night |
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