Basque Country and Huesca Trip: Day 3

Monday August 17th,

We spent the day in San Sebastian sightseeing.  One of the nice things about San Sebastian is that it's a small enough that you can get almost anywhere by foot.  We walked along playa de la Concha until we reached the other side of the city, the old quarters at the foot of Monte Urgull.  First we went to the aquarium.  The Aquarium Donostia/San Sebastian is worth a visit if you are traveling with kids, it's definitely better and also more reasonable than the Barcelona aquarium in our opinion.

After visiting the aquarium we walked through the old quarters and sampled about two dozen different pintxos.  Most of the restaurants in the area were very crowded, so Bob and I decided to divide and conquer because there was no way we could all find a place to sit in any restaurant.  I took Ciara and Rylan and we went to one bar and picked out about a dozen different pintxos, it was so much fun and very reasonable at 2€ a pintxo.  Bob took Nathan and Cole and hit a different bar and did the same.  Then we met up in a park to try all of our different pintxos.  So delicious!

This is what a typical pinxto bar in San Sebastian looks like. 

After lunch, we walked back across to the other side of the Bahia de la Concha to Monte Igeldo.  It was a hot and sunny day. Here is where I think I made a grave error.  We packed up the remaining pintxos and carried them with us.  I didn't want to waste any food.  Of course the pintxos are made with fish, seafood, eggs, cheese and other ingredients that should not sit out for too long.  The problem is that you are never sure how long a pintxo has been sitting out before you buy it, and so you should eat them immediately or refrigerate them.  I think that we all might have consumed some pintxos that we shouldn't have.

There is a small amusement park at the top of Monte Igeldo.  We took the funicular to the top. There are no extreme rides, but it was fun enough to entertain our kids for a couple of hours and you get an amazing view of the bay and city from on top of the hill.

Nathan and I started to feel sick in the evening and we both had a really rough night.  No one else got sick that evening but everyone suffered from some minor stomach problems during the rest of our trip.  Fortunately we didn't have any physical activities scheduled for the following day :)

Overlooking playa de la Concha

Aquarium

Catedral del Buen Pastor

View from Monte Igeldo

One of the rides

Beautiful day in San Sebastian

Basque Country and Huesca Trip Aug. 15th - 21st

It's already mid January, and I still have to blog about our summer vacation.  We planned to take a family road trip at the end of August.  I really wanted to visit the Basque region of Spain and also I thought it would be neat to do some really adventurous outdoor activities.  Bob and I are not getting any younger, so I figured this was the time to try canyoning (barranquismo) with the kids.  

Day 1: San Sebastian

We left Barcelona on August 15th and drove the 5.5 hours to San Sebastian.  Once you enter the Basque region it is all of a sudden very green and lush, there are mountains and you are close to the ocean, it reminds me of the West Coast of Canada.  We rented a three bedroom apartment in San Sebastian near Ondarreta beach.  After exploring our surroundings a bit, the kids wanted to put on their bathing suits and swim at the beach.  It wasn't that warm outside, around 20ºC, but the waves were very enticing.

Playa de Ondarreta

First time for kids swimming in the Atlantic Ocean

Really big waves. I wish we knew how to surf

Saturday August 15th happened to be the final day of their biggest festival of the year called la Semana Grande.  Just before dark we headed over to the playa de la Concha and we were fortunate enough to find a good spot to watch the fireworks on the beach.  It was one of the most amazing fireworks displays we have ever seen.

Walking over to the main beach to watch the fireworks

Dusk, playa de la Concha