Donostia (or San Sebastián), the capital city of the province of Gipuskoa in Euskadi, and an international destination for foodies from all over the world, is also known for its fabulous buildings and architecture.
So let’s not overlook the role good old Blighty played in ‘accidentally’ burning it to the ground in 1813 during the Peninsula War when it was held by Napoleon’s troops. So, much of what is so fabulous about the city besides its food, is due to it having to be re-built in the early 1800s after over-enthusiastic looting and burning by the British Army…
And what a beautiful city it is. Our journey started on the wonderful Eusktren, the 1m wide narrow gauge railway system run by the Euskadi authorities that connects in different parts of the region with the Spanish state RENFE network.
It’s great value and very efficient - €2.75 pp each way for an 18km journey. And unlike the UK, and as with the buses here in Spain, everyone is wearing a mask, as required by law once you climb aboard.
Once we disembarked, we made our way up the river to Mt Urgull, one of the two hills that dominate each end of the bay that makes up much of Donostia/San Sebastián. The modern city is pretty big, but as we wanted to visit the old town/Parte Vieja/Alde Zaharra, walking along the river made navigation easy, as we passed the Maria Cristina bridge, modelled after the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, in all its ornate glory…
Our reason for heading to the old town of course, at lunch time, was to feast ourselves on ‘pintxos’ – the local version of tapas… up to a point! In essence, the difference would seem to be that pintxos are never free and always very imaginative with ingredients (usually) on top of a slice of bread, whereas tapas, although not often free these days, are usually more straightforward fare – and cheaper!
We’d also read about the local wine, Txakoli, made from the Hondarrabi grape grown around here. It’s young, very dry, low alcohol and although usually white, Mrs B sampled the rosé whilst Mr B had the white – poured alarmingly from shoulder height like Asturian cider!
The wine and the pintxos were delicious, and we were soon stuffed. What we should have done was wander around the old town a bit more and sat and had a coffee somewhere…
Mr B however, was keen to get to see the ‘English cemetery’ at the top of Mt Urgell, imagining it to be part of the city’s Peninsular War history. (He’s a bit of a Sharpe fan, of Sean Bean/Peninsular War fame).
Which is why, as the sun continued to grace us with its warming (hot) presence, we started scaling Mt Urgull.
The views, both over the town…
and over the famous Concha beach…
were fabulous.
Arriving at the top, a little hotter than we had planned, we swerved the castle museum and headed off for the cemetery, now, thankfully, downhill!
The cemetery (clearly not part of the UK War Graves purview) was pretty neglected and mainly comprised a memorial to a Colonel in the Scots Guards, killed in the nearby battle of Ayete in 1836. So not the Peninular Wars at all!
But Mr B did learn instead that there was once a British Auxiliary Legion, raised from volunteers to fight on behalf of the Spanish liberals against the Carlists…
Sated (or saturated) with history, we made our way down the north side of Urgull, in the shade, noticing an area where free camping was clearly condoned…
and arriving at sea level to admire one of the two large metal sculptures that sit at either end of La Concha bay.
Heading towards the old town again, the sight of the sun dropping lower in the sky reminded us that we needed to get a wiggle on if we wanted to see more of the old town…
Looking back up Mt Urgull to the statue on the castle, we heaved a sigh of relief that the rest of the afternoon would now be on the flat…
With easy access back into the narrow streets via one of the old gates…
we had time for a wander followed by a cortado and chat, admiring the Basilica of St Mary, bathed in sunlight…
the understated city hall…
a fabulous old carousel…
until, realising that we should be making tracks, we ambled back to the Euskotren station, having loved our time in Donostia/San Sebastián enough to warrant a return trip; next time maybe to one of the 11 Michelin Star restaurants in the area! We’ll start saving now, then…
S&J
22.11.22
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