2 Walk On!: A new favorite place...

We arrived in San Sebastion 3 days ago in the rain and wind and still we fell in love with the place immediately. We've got a great place to stay in the old town, with a gazillion restaurants and pintxo bars within a stones throw. This is the way we love Europe - little cobbled pedestrian streets, vendors at the markets displaying their wares, umbrellas in the main town square where you can sit and have coffee or wine and watch the world go by. And this place is absolutely stunning. It is around a bay like St Jean de Luz with a wide beach but it's a much bigger town and does not seem to be just for tourists. We cannot believe how many places there are to eat, coffee, bars, restaurants and more bars. Most of them serving tapas, (called pintxos here in the Basque Country,) all day.

We went for pintxos our first night here. First had a very small piece of tender steak in Bearnaise-like sauce with fried potatoes and zucchini slices. It was so good that we had a 2nd one along with a couple of glasses of Rioja red wine.

Also a coquille st Jacques in garlic sauce. Then we met a Spanish gal who is a tour guide for an American company, chatted with her for a bit (about pilgrimages and independent travel). She took us to another bar for a dessert called Bob Limon. Looked like fried egg but was really a mango compote inside meringue. We had to eat it in correct order - next was a lacey cake (centre left) then a small piece of VERY raspberry fruit leather (almost invisible on black slate on right) and then the middle of a flower (far left) that was amazingly lemon - a real zinger! The chefs are all young guys who like to create and experiment. All was served on a flat slate.

We've had a great time with the food here. In the evenings the bars are crowded with people eating and drinking - best food we've ever had in Spain!

We've also done some walking in town and along gorgeous beach shoreline, took funicular up Mt Igeldo for a wonderful view over town and the Pyrenees that lie just beyond the coast. But the obvious highlights are as described above.