Just back from a top weekend in San Sebastian with Janine and Ross – must have been as I seem to have put on a whopping 6lbs in a mere 4 nights! Well worth it though, I reckon..
Managed to get the last of the summer sun, so strolled the length of the two vast, unspoilt, pure sandy beaches, toes in the sand, feet in the freezing clear water, trying to work off a few of the pintxos..
Took the creaky old Funicular up one of the hilly peaks for a great view back down over the city – the Old Town where our apartment was, is the craggy lump off the the left. What you don't see here is the 4 of us crammed into tiny seats on the hilltop wooden rollercoaster – must have taken all of 40 seconds to get round the little loop, but the final dip still made me scream like a banshee…
Hawksey was totally 'piggy shitty' as we call it – like a very happy pig in shit, as we spent one whole day traipsing round the endless Rioja wineries, with him cramming g as many bottles of the red stuff into the back of J&R's car as J's kindness would permit. And yes, there was even a vineyard tour – luckily only an hour and they had extra virgin olive oil to try alongside the wine tasting at the end, so I wasn't entirely left out…
And thence to the rather marvellous Gintoneria - a small but inventive gin bar with very sweet bartenders and about 100 gins on the menu and some rather snazzy making/serving with dry ice, theatre and every botanical under the sun. Yup – went back there twice, just to be sure we'd tried as many as possible…
And after gin? All you need is pintxos – and in San Sebastian there must be a million or more on the multiple bar counters, every day and night of the week. For a tuna monster like me, the joy of tuna with paprika sprinkling for breakfast, tuna with an anchovy and blended with avocado for lunch and tuna in a spicy red pepper for dinner is just about heaven.. Not forgetting the chicken wings, crab tartlets, quail eggs, prawn skewers etc etc etc… My whole year's bread allowance in 4 short nights..MMMMMMMmmmm.
And of course, when you only pick at pintxos, you get…… very happy, especially when the vodka/whisky is free pour by very generous laughing barmen… What a hoot.
And finally to our last day – J&R had been packed off in the car, heading south to Toledo and Salamanca. Hawksey and I chose this place for our final scoff – and chose one ginormous bit of meat to be grilled off, and served with rough chunks of freshly-cut whopper tomatoes and lightly grilled green tiny peppers. You have never seen such a man feast (and me, trying to turn the rather rare meat and huge globs of meat fat at least slightly brown on the sizzling plate).
What a place…
Loved our weekend but lovely to get back home too (despite the two leaks, Mum's red alarm having gone off and the blocked loo – ah, the return to reality!)
Where next???
Some ideas are already forming.. S x