“I See London, I See France. . .”

Wednesday, April 20

Where to start?  Today was slated to be a touring day with Aldo.  We formed a loose plan to hike to the top of a mountain in San Sebastian (yes, hike) to take in the vistas, drive to Olaizola for lunch, continue on to Hondarribia and then who knows?

We arose pretty early in order to meet Aldo in front of the cathedral at 9:00.  Caffeine was the first order of the day.

It was another gloriously beautiful day and we zipped around the city admiring the spring flowers and all the fabulous buildings.  San Sebastian is a lovely town with very much of a French influence. If you look at this map you can see why.

Municipal Government building

In one of the seaside plazas we came across a restored carousel from the Belle Epoque.  We were all quite enthralled with it and carefully chose which animal or figure we would most like to ride (Linda/dolphins, Janel/airplane, Janet/pigs – Janet said she would like to “ride the jamon!”)

We continued on a path around the sea and looked up the mountain to a huge statue of Jesus that beckoned us.  The hike up the hill was breathtaking both literally and figuratively.

Rich rewards awaited us at the summit:

Janet was presented with an opportunity to use her honed acting skills with a lesson to Aldo and Janel about how to reenact a scene from Titanic.

They tried it:

There was a very nice museum inside the old fort at the top that showed a lot of the fascinating history of San Sebastian.  We lingered for quite awhile until our tour guide (Aldo) reminded us that we had a lunch engagement and must go back down the mountain. One last picture of Concha Bay and we took off for parts unknown.

When Janel was in San Sebastian in March and met Aldo for the first time, he took her and her amigas all over the countryside.  They stopped at his brother-in-law’s (Javi) restaurant and Janel has raved about that meal ever since.  We have requested to repeat the experience.   I don’t really want to drive and Aldo is just as happy to get behind the wheel of our car. He scoots along with confidence to get out of San Sebastian and into the middle of what looks like nowhere.

We come to the town of Oiartzun (if you click on the link you can get some idea of where we were). We are here at Olaizola Restaurant and we are also here to see the donkeys.  Javi meets us in the parking lot and heads us out to an idyllic pasture where there are about 5 cute, cute, cute little burros.  He says that they are a very special breed native to Pais Vasco and the government pays they to care for them.  We fall in love.

the baby

We are told they love cookies and must have exactly 3 per day or they start braying.  We indulge them.

The entire setting is like something out of a storybook.  It is so completely pastoral and perfect that we don’t believe we are here.  However, our tummies are grumbling and lunch awaits.

Olaizola Restaurant is exactly like you would picture it in the midst of this picturesque-ness.  The building which houses the restaurant and also the owner’s home was built in the 1600’s.  The walls are stone and about 2 feet thick.  There are wooden beams and a brick floor.  We love it immediately.

Javi (owner/chef) is so friendly and generous.  We ask him to help us choose dishes to share.  H obliges and we order what is soon found to be waaaay too much food.

salad with grilled goat cheese

basket with deliciousness inside

pimientoes stuffed with crab

javelina (yes, javi)

And the star player of the lunch was a HUGE chuleton of beef:

All this was accompanied by bottles of both Sidra and Txacoli (Basque sparkling white wine).

Both sidra and txacoli are poured from a height in order to aerate them

When time for postre (dessert) rolled around we all declined and chose coffee instead.  The waitress was pushing for someone to have the lemon sorbet.  She claimed it would aid in digestion.  Finally, Janet gave in.  We all had a taste and declared Janet a genius.

Lunch almost sent us into a food coma, but we had places to see.  We said our goodbyes to our new friend Javi and set out for Hondarribia.(click to see the location)  Hondarribia is a coastal town on the Bay of Biscaye just across the Bay of Chingoudy from France.  Ever since we began planning for this trip Janet has wanted to visit Hondarribia.  Now I see why.

There are two parts of town that we want to see – the old section and the port area. We choose to visit the old part first.  It is all lovely building where the windows have boxes of flowers and the neighbors talk to each other through their windows.  It is magical.

You really get a sense that you have stepped back in time here.  It is easy to imagine how life was long ago in this quiet village.  It reminds me in many ways of Montepulciano in Italy. We loved it.

The port section of town is equally as charming.  We walked along the port watching the fishermen and boats.

Aldo explains to us that the land we see directly across the water is Hendaye, France.  Janet is especially excited because she has always wanted to “see” France.

Now Janet has seen France

Aldo has one more place to take us.  He wants us to see one more viewpoint – this one being at the Ermita (little church) in San Marcial.  On our way we stop briefly at a beautiful pasture where the horses come out to greet us.

Once again we are charmed by the baby

The view from San Marcial is stunning and we can see France!  We take it all in before deciding that it is getting late and we need to head back to San Sebastian.

It is already around 7:30pm and Aldo has plans to try and link up with Janel and a few of his friends later on.  We drop him at his home in Irun and Janel expertly navigates us back to SS. After a brief rest we recharge and want to walk around the old part of SS a bit.  When we notice a bar with a name I recognize – El Fuego Negro – we go in even though we have all declared that we aren’t a bit hungry.  However with all the beautiful pintxos available we cannot resist.  We order cava (since Janet’s “cava meter” is running low) and one pintxo to share – the lengua (tongue) and cheese.

Since we somehow managed to snag two barstools we feel that we need to linger for a bit.  Seats are very hard to come by in any of the bars.  If you get one, you should hang on to it.  After a while it is clear that we would like to go to another bar for just one more pintxo.  We look at the list that Penelope so graciously provided for us and realize that we are very close to Bar Goiz-Argi.

Penelope has said that they have the #2 pintxo in town right now (shrimp brochette) and that the people running the bar are super friendly.  She is right on both counts.  This place is not crowded at all tonight due to the big futbol game between Madrid/Barcelona.  Seems they don’t have a tv.  Too bad.

We order cava and Rioja and also the shrimp brochette.  When we finish the shrimp we ask the owner for another recommendation and she tells us to have something with smoked salmon so we do.

Janel needs to leave to meet Aldo and Janet and I have opted out of a late evening.  It is already around 11pm and we are beat.  We wish Janel a fun night and away she goes.

Meanwhile, Janet has been eyeing the huge champinones (mushrooms) wrapped in bacon that are sitting on the counter.  We must have one.  We order one more cava to share and I teach Janet how to make the order in Spanish “Queriamos un champi con bacon por favor.”  Yeah!  She is completely understood and we feel a sense of accomplishment at being here and doing this on our own.  Also major thanks to Penelope.  We hope to try a couple more of your suggestions tomorrow.

We manage to find our way home (thanks, Janet) and flop on the sofa.  Janet puts the finishing touches on her maiden blog post (Whole Lotta Bull) while I Skype with Rich and Johnny (yeah!).  We need to get some zzz’s because tomorrow we go to Etxebarri.

Janets first blog attempt