All the guide books recommend that I spend an extra day in San Sebastián. I know I have only walked two days and you are saying that after walking only two days I don’t need or deserve a rest day. But the guide books call San Sebastián a “must see” city on the CDN. Anthony Bourdain once said that he would like to eat his last meal in San Sebastián. So why not stay an extra day? Tomorrow the Camino will be there to welcome me like a prodigal son after I have feasted on delicious pintxos and enjoyed the air conditioning of San Sebastián.
Don’t laugh about the air conditioning! When was the last time you slept in a small bunk room with seven other people when it was 100, hotter than hell, degrees? We have all become so accustomed to air conditioning. How did people live in places like Atlanta, Miami or Houston without air conditioning? Yesterday my father wondered why the men in Picket’s division would charge up that hill at Gettysburg knowing that it meant almost certain death. I imagine they charged up that hill because they feared death less than another summer in Atlanta without air conditioning.
This morning I got up and went down to the local coffee shop for the breakfast provided by the Pension Regil. I handed my breakfast voucher to the woman behind the counter at the coffee shop. She handed me a piece of toast and a small, and I mean shot glass small, glass of orange juice. I basically said WTF, and she politely told me I could also have butter and jam with my toast. Oh goody, I get butter and jam with my toast. How about a couple of eggs over easy, hash browns, and a rasher of bacon 🥓, crisp but not burnt, to go with that toast? I can hear you saying that if I wanted that kind of breakfast I should have stayed in America. I wonder if I can find a Denny’s in San Sebastián.
After breakfast I walked over to Old Town where I signed up with Go Local for an electric bike tour of San Sebastián.
The electric bikes.
You still need to pedal an electric bike but there is an electric motor to give you an assist when you need it.
This is our group.
From left to right, Mike and Terry from Chicago, and me and Allin, one of the owners of Go Local. Allin had a very self deprecating sense of humor and insisted that everyone call him Big Al. Big Al was an amazing tour guide. He is Basque and very proud of his ethnicity. He spent about ten minutes at the beginning of the tour describing the current political situation in Spain and what it means to be Basque in Spain, in the past and now. Then we got on our bikes and rode up to one of the hills overlooking San Sebastián. It was hazy over San Sebastián this morning but the views were spectacular.
This is a view down the coast to the west of San Sebastián. This is the direction I will be walking tomorrow.
This is a mile and a half bike tunnel they built for bicyclists 🚴♀️ to ride through the hill that separates east San Sebastián from west San Sebastián. It was nice and cool in the tunnel. Outside the tunnel it was very hot 🥵.
We stopped at a gymnasium and Big Al taught us to play Basque handball.
According to Big Al they have a professional Basque handball league. The place where we were playing has seating for about five hundred people. The spectators gamble on these professional handball games. When you buy your ticket to get into the game you also get a tennis ball 🎾 with a little hole drilled in it and you get little slips of paper. When you want to place a bet you write it on one of the slips of paper, roll it into a tube with your money and stick it in the hole in the tennis ball. Then you turn around and throw the tennis ball with your bet and your money to one of the bookies sitting in the back row of the seating area. The bookie fills out a receipt, rolls it up and sticks it in the hole in the tennis ball, and throws the tennis ball back to you. This sounds like a strange way to place a bet, but Big Al said that this system is a Basque handball tradition and if anyone tried to change it there would be a riot in Basque country.
This is the beach where they are going to have a free concert tonight.
Behind the stage is Monte Urgell and on the top of Monte Urgell is Castillo de la Mota. Big Al suggested that I climb to the top of Monte Urgell this evening and watch the sunset 🌅. I told him this is supposed to be a rest day for me and it makes no sense for me to climb a mountain on my rest day. Besides, the sun doesn’t set here until almost 10:00 PM and I want to be out walking at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. I plan on getting to bed early tonight.
After we finished our three and a half hour electric bike tour I made a stop at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. What a beautiful cathedral. This is a stained glass window in the cathedral.
While I was at the cathedral I got a stamp for my Pilgrim Credential. I also lit a candle and said a prayer for Anna and everyone else on my prayer list.
After the cathedral it was time for a late lunch.
At the top of the plate we have olives and green beans wrapped in anchovies. In the middle of the plate we have a goat cheese and lobster 🦞 pintxo and on the bottom of the plate we have a guacamole and tomato and shrimp 🍤 pintxo. The pintxos were delicious. And nothing complements pintxos better than a grande Radler.
That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a great Wednesday. Tomorrow I plan to start walking at 6:00 AM. I am planning to stop at Orio, about a 17 kilometer hike. If I feel good when I get to Orio I may continue walking to Getaria, which would be an additional 10 kilometers. We will see how hot it is and how I am feeling when I get to Orio.
Good evening from San Sebastián, Spain.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 
Great post. I was in San Sebastian for a few days in 1972 and loved it. I had fallen asleep coming into town and woke up alone in the train in the middle of a crowded switchyard with no obvious safe way out. Obviously I lived to tell the story. Unfortunately I was there in February and it was dead. Great to see these pictures with lively summer scenes.
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Bruce
Great to hear from you. Your train adventure in San Sebastián had a happier ending than my bus station adventure in Bilbao. San Sebastián is such a great town and yesterday they weee getting ready to celebrate the feast day of St. James, so it was really hopping. Please tell Barb I said hello.
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