30.10 - Day 289 - Bilbao to San Sebastian, ESP
Wednesday 30th October - Bilbao, Spain to San Sebastian, Spain (Day 289)
Along with schoolwork at Atxuri Apartments we have a call with Bron’s parents Mair and Ray who walk us through the logistics of reopening their house they’ve already shut down for winter - not expecting some freeloaders to appear in early November.
Despite the fact we’ve never actually met them before, they seem very happy for us to stay at their holiday house. Unfortunately no sign of Bron’s keys to the house, so I buy a stamped addressed envelope and leave it with reception - whilst their English is good, you can see they don’t quite understand why the parcel I warned them about on email I now want them to open it on arrival and send it back to London. Fingers crossed they follow through with it.
On we go then just 90 minutes up the road to San Sebastian - this was a late addition to the itinerary - most people come here for the collection of nice restaurants; we came here because of its name and in the interest of fairness to Seb after Sienna’s visit to Siena. Nothing is more important to a child after all than being fair.
We’re allowed to check in early at the Palacio D’Aiete hotel which opens up the afternoon for some exploring.
It’s a 15 minute walk down to the seafront - after the port town of Bilbao, I had no idea San Sebastian would have a large gentle sweeping beach between two headlands. As the clouds clear it’s a very nice beach with a few folk on the sand that we walk past and onto a play park.
We skirt past the Old Town up onto the headland replete with pristine looking cannons facing out over the bay.
As we traipse through the Old Town, primarily just to find a San Sebastian t-shirt for Seb we spot only one sign of ‘Tourists Go Home’ - there was a anti-tourist protest here in San Sebastian on Sunday just gone, similar to others across Europe this summer. We’re either blissfully ignorant or not the worst behaving tourists but we’ve not seen or felt any of this negative sentiment on our travels.
It’s quite a hill back up to our hotel, but Sienna and Seb have a spring in their step because I’ve found a library coincidentally a stone’s throw away. In almost a wide bunker under pristine lawns in front of a manor house, large colourful windows welcome us in, Sienna and Seb grabbing some books and somewhere to sit, happy campers.
Everyone's a little less happy that the cafe we’re found for dinner (‘great for families, next to a playpark’), although open at 6pm is only serving drinks until the food kitchen opens at 8pm. There is no way Sienna and Seb can adjust to this this quickly so we collect the car from the hotel and find a place nearby that is open and serving croquettes, patatas bravas and fried Calamari goodness, When a glass of rose costs the same (1.50 euro) as a bottle of water, you know you’re onto a good thing.