Travels with V
Basque, Spain
The jewel in the crown
Basque part 4, San Sebastian 1
The best, cheapest and most felxible way to travel around in the Basque countries is by bus. Doing so we now move north, returning to the Atlantic coast, but this time to the most famous and touristic city, San Sebastian. You have probably seen its most attractive feature in ads, the iconic midtown superbeach “La Concha”. And if that isn’t enough there are two more beaches nearby.
San Sebastian is a hilly city, not in midtown, but around it. Three spectacular hills line the seafront, to the left Mount Iguelde with a small amusement park, in the middle Santa Clara rising out of the ocean. And to the right just north of the old city Mount Urgull, with cool forests and a citadel on its top.
Further to east is another hill, Ulía, with grand villas in lush gardens. This is the location of Mirador de Ulía, a gourmet restaurang where we have the most exciting dinner of the whole journey. The tasting menu is a gastronomic symphony in the new Basque kitchen style. The only problem is a consequence of the fact that dinners in Spain start so late in the evening. The last three courses have to be a bit rushed before the place closes.
There are many fine old buildings in San Sebastian, one of them is the old market La Bretxa by the Boulevard street. It used to be two buildings, one for fruit and greens in the front and a fish market behind it. But one is now just housing McDonalds and a few stores, och the other one is empty, the building looking close to collapse. Instead all the stalls are moved underground where you can stroll around and just absorb it with all your senses.
Behind La Bretxa you enter the old town of San Sebastian. Actually it’s not very old because in 1819, when it was a French city, it was attacked and taken by an english-portugese army, and in the evening the celebrating victorious soldiers went amok and burned down the whole town. But it was rebuilt using the old streetmap, so it’s still narrow and lively just as in the other cities. But the taverns are more classy here.
San Sebastian is a major culture hub, with a famous film festival and a star-studded jazz festival, the latter is on when we visit. But the only part of it that we notice is a performance of a blues-rock band on a small stage in the harbour. And a tango event in the Regente Erregina park.
One hot sunny day we decide to walk from the harbour in the old town all the way along La Concha, past the old beach palace La Perla with a spa, restaurants and bars. And further on past the neighbouring beach Ondarreta, all the way to the foot of Mount Iguelde. There an old mountain railway takes us to the top and we get a hot coffee, and a priceless view of the whole city.
But it’s not enough, we decide to get on top of all the three seafront hills. So from the old town we hop on a boat that takes us to Santa Clara island. This is a very popular place for a day excursion and the island’s tiny beach is packed with people. We walk up through a cool forest and finally reach a small lighthouse at the top. Inside there is an art installation by Cristina Iglesias mimicking the moment when a sea wave crashes into a rocky shore. Odd, but realistic.
The third hill, Urgul, is also climbed to the top where there is an old citadel where now a 12 meters high statue of Jesus is place. A little way down a slope lies the so called “english cemetary”, a very small burial site with a memorial stone for an english officer who was killed in the so called first Carlist war.
