San Sebastian

San Sebastian is the western world capital of cuisine. It has more top rated restaurants per capita than any other place. Of course we get here in November when everyone takes a vacation and the world famous chefs are in Seattle for a food conference. I still had the best meal ever. The language and signs are unrecognizable in Basque, so we had to just stumble on things and did a very good job of it. There are the obligatory churches under repair and the scenic alleys and streets. But the added bonus is the beach plus a river that runs through the middle of the city. Here is a shot of the city hall and the surrounding tamarind trees. Since San Sebastian is in the Pyrenees mountains, it has been a hot bed of terrorist activities by a group called the ETA. While we were here the French and Spanish government had a combined group activity which resulted in the arrest of the head of the group. We also have been lucky in that there was a transportation strike last Friday and Air France, our ride home, is on strike.

There are lots of surfers even though the water has to be 5 Celsius. The only rain we have seen has been here, and it is only a cheepy-cheepy drizzle.

HoneyCrisp went out to make new friends and found a playful cupid that seemed friendly enough initially. Little did HC know, but the cupid already had a friend and tried to push HC into the river. Nora saved her, even though she is going through that phase of life with depression, wrinkling, bad smells and skin discoloration (HC, not Nora).

Nora and HC decided to go to the beach. HC demanded an umbrella so her skin didn't burn and then headed out to catch a wave. Unfortunately she washed back up.

I, in the mean time, wanted to follow Dad's admonition that you can always survive anything if you have clean dry socks. We have been traveling for almost three weeks and the strange thing about Spain is there are no laundromats. Everyone just looks at me with a blank stare when I ask, and try and send me to the tintoria (dry cleaners). The hotels all offer to send laundry out but it is 5-10 euros for a pair of socks. I finally got desperate and sent out 3 pair of socks, 3 undies, one shirt and two pair of pants. They did a lovely job and delivered it back to the room, tissue wrapped and in a basket. All for a mere $97.75. I am buying new stuff next time.