To be perfectly honest, I should have planned our arrival in san Sebastian a bit better. All but one of the places on my were closed during our stay which spanned from a Sunday, leaving on a Tuesday morning. But like the Missus said, "we had a direction and a plan of where we needed to be when and you can't just skip Sunday and Monday!"
We caught the best from the Bilbao Bus Station….basically a big parking lot and ended up at the Amara "Bus Station", basically another big parking lot. From there we caught the local bus to the "Boulevard" and rather quickly found the street we were staying at on, Calle de Fermin Calbeton. Our apartment was basically right at the edge of things; a great location.
So even though the apartment was rather old the location couldn't be beat.
I guess May is still the low season, the places I thought were only closed on Sundays, were also closed on Mondays and visa versa. So we had a bit of a scramble on our hand when we went looking for a place to have bite for lunch. On De Agosto Kalea we came across a place that was doing some decent business. The bar was covered with pintxos (tapas), but as I mentioned in my post on La Vina del Ensanche in Bilbao, I really never took to those…..they looked pretty, but it just wasn't my thing.
Instead we usually went for pintxos caliente or like this meal, some charcuterie. In this case, the lomo iberico de Bellota, cured pork loin sausage.
he portion was quite generous and this combined with the bread made this more than enough for a light lunch. The sausage was very tasty, paprika forward, with a light garlic and herbal touch. Not overly salty, tender and not too waxy.
The Missus also wanted to try Txakoli, a very dry, acidic, "fresh" wine that is a specialty of Basque Country.
It is traditionally poured from about a two meter height. I was told this is to aerate the wine, creating bubbles, and reducing the carbon dioxide. Our bartender was all to happy to demonstrate….. he was really a friendly and funny guy.
The Missus really took to this and I'd try; with mixed success, to try to pour it from a decent height without spilling stuff all over the place. I guess that's best left to the professionals. and while I've read that special pourers are available to help with the process, this guy didn't need that.
La Cepa was a relaxed, fun place to have lunch and a couple of glasses of Txakoli.
Bar La Cepa
31 de Agosto Kalea
Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain
After our meal we needed to "burn off the meal" and headed off; around Monte Urgull. That's Playa de Zurriola and Gros in the background.
On the other side of the Mountain is Isla de Santa Clara and Concha Bay.
The Basilica of Santa Maria del Coro is quite striking, sitting at the base of Mount Urgull. Completed in 1774 it looks impressive when viewed down Calle Mayor. I'll have a bit more on this place in a future post.
We ended our walk at Plaza de la Constitución.
Established in 1723, this version was rebuilt in 1817 after being destroyed by fire. The apartments ringing the plaza have large and distinctive numbers. You see, these apartment used to be boxes from which to watch bullfights that used to take place in the plaza.
On this day, the entertainment was perhaps a bit less exciting……
At this point, the Missus decided we should take a nice afternoon nap, then head out for some evening tapas. Sounded like a good idea to me!
Thanks for reading!
great walks and good food:)
Just in case,
Wishing you and everyone on here a Merry XMass and a very Happy New Year.
Lots of small eateries in Japan is like that too. Closed Sunday or Monday. Glad you found a good spot that was open!
Always works that way Kat!
Happy Holidays to you and yours Billy!
I found that out Junichi. In spite of what Tabelog said.
Thanks Kirk, I have yet to visit San Sebastian.