On the Road: Dia Seis

After my interesting shower experience (my companions were scarab beetles and a trapped bird), we left the campsite and spent a little more time walking around the lovely Valdevellano de Tera. We ate tortilla espanola for breakfast and left en route to the famous resort city of San Sebastian.

On the way, we stopped in Logrono for tapas. The Lonely Planet tour book said that Logrono had the best tapas in Spain, but we both beg to differ. The food was pretty terrible. At one restaurant, the French fries were microwaved with sauce on top, creating a chewy, hot/cold mess. The Casco Viejo was a nice little area to walk around, but all in all, the city was not that interesting. We did see a thief run out of a bookstore while we were in the city, which prompted me to hold my purse as tightly as possible...

Navigating to the campsite in San Sebastian was a little difficult, but once we finally found the right part of town, we were impressed by the lovely views of the city. We stayed on the western side of the city, close to Monte Igueldo and the lovely Playa de Ondarreta, which we both thought was much more beautiful than the famous Playa de la Concha. Here is the opportunity to decide for yourself:

Playa de Ondarreta:

Playa de la Concha:

Which do you prefer?

When we got to campsite, it was more crowded than we expected since we had arrived in the middle of the Festival of San Juan. We took the bus to the city center to walk around the famous Playa de la Concha and the Parte Vieja (the old town). We ate pintxos (the Basque word for tapas) and drank rioja wine. On the bus, J. Santiago met a lovely old woman from Palencia who shared her life with him and wished me luck during my studies by instructing me to go to class and study hard and I would go far in life :).

San Sebastian is a beautiful place, but it is also very crowded and affluent, thus making it one of the more expensive stops on our trip. I can understand why it is loved by many people, but I prefer quieter, cleaner places to commercialized beaches (though its commercialization is nothing compared to Myrtle Beach!).

The statue of Christ at the top of Monte Urgull (close to the old town):

The carousel at Playa de la Concha:

Fishing boats in a harbor:

Overlooking the harbor and watching the waves crash:

Notice that the rocks are made up of old buildings that have been demolished. They use these rocks to provide a barrier between the ocean and the city: