Yesterday I mentioned that I sometimes take too many pictures…well you’re about to bear witness to that. I blame it on San Sebastián which may be the most beautiful place that I’ve ever been. As such this post is mainly pictures, but I don’t think you’ll mind.
San Sebastián is located in the Basque Country, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and is only about 20 kilometers from the French border. The Basque Country (or Basque Autonomous Community) is an autonomous community that was granted the status of nationality by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 which was signed by current king of Spain, King Juan Carlos I, in December of 1978. The Basque Country (or Euskadi in the Basque language) even have their own parliament and King! They also have their own language, Euskera, which sounds and looks nothing like Spanish.
But anyway back to San Sebastián (or Donostia in Euskera), the most beautiful city in all the land. It has everything: three churches, three beaches, three hills, one island, one river, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay, so it’s not a partridge and it’s not in a pear tree but they do have a dove so there.
From this point on, I don’t really have any history to share with the group and I’m not going to bother to include food and drinks since I already did that in my last post. And to be honest, I have enough pictures without it. Trust me. With that said, I am going to group the pictures according to location instead of day by day. You’ll notice that I have different outfits on; although the workout outfit is always the same for both days (Penn State got some nice exposure in the Basque Country…well if anyone up there knows what a Nittany Lion is!)
First things first, let’s start in the old town. This is when the churches and the Town Hall are located.
Now let’s climb. During one of my morning runs I decided to tackle Mount Urgull. The views from the top (and actually the whole way up) were amazing. The whole area is a basically a park with lots of trails, so I looped around the hill as I made my way up. That way I was able to overlook the city, the beaches, the open waters (of the Bay of Biscay) and the coastal mountains of Ondarroa in the distance. The hill originally served as a defense point dating back to the founding of the city in the 12th century and there are military barracks and a castle (with a chapel and a 40 foot tall Jesus statue (added in 1950) that overlooks the city). Back in its day it was the site of many military operations including the Siege of San Sebastián in 1813 and the assaults of 1823, 1836, 1876 during the Carlist Wars. Of course now, the city is a touristy resort town and the area was sold to the city council in 1924 so that people like me can get view like these!
After working up a sweat, let’s hit our first beach, Playa de Zurriola (Zurriola Beach) located in the part of town known as Gros. Along the walkway just past the beach is the Dove of Peace statue which was built in the1980s as a symbol of the city’s commitment to peace, freedom, and coexistence. It’s also apparently the area for the young folk and the beaches were full of young surfers and sunbathers. Although there were quite a few families too and I definitely saw a little girl get swept up by one of the waves with her father chasing after her. She cried and then went running into the water. No harm, no foul. I mean who wouldn’t want to go running into this?
Next the big beach, the Playa de la Concha (La Concha Beach). Remember that ad from yesterday’s post? The ad that was etched into the sand at the beach? Well this is that beach! The pictures are from a couple of different days at a couple of different times a day so you’ll see that sometimes the water is all the way out but sometimes the water is in. Imagine watching that and seeing all of your hard work being swept away?
This was my favorite city of the trip. I’m sure you can see why…