30th June

Last day of June, last day of the financial yr, only 7 more days left in Europe.  We checked out eartly and caught a taxi to the station.  I’m feeling quite fragile after little sleep with fever and chills.  Had to find a blanket at 3am and then double it over at 4am even though the temp in the room reads 24 deg.  Not sure what is wrong but after a sleep on the train I do start to improve.  Can’t tell you a thing about the trip, I missed most of it.  We checked in to the Barcelo Costa Vasco Hotel then in the afternoon caught a bus to the city centre and orientated ourselves.  Once again there is an old centre (Parte Vieja) that was once surrounded by walls and then the newer part that has grown up around it.  We did a discovery walk through the old centre where we found narrow streets filled with bars and shops, the beautiful Constitution Square(with all its numbered balconies for the days when it doubled as a bullring) and a number of churches.  We left Sandy watching local kids playing 5-a-side soccer in the square and continued up Monte Urgull which gave us great viewpoints of the bay below.  On the way up is the 12^th century Mota Castle which once provided the town’s defence and at the very top is the imposing Sacred Heart Monument.  After the challenge of walking that hill we look for refreshment and discover San Sebastian is the home of Pintxo bars (I still don’t know how to pronounce that).  It’s developed as a Basque version of tapas where the bar is laden with quite complex finger food and you select what you want; stuffed smoked salmon rolls with roasted peppers, goats cheese with caramelised onion, etc. There are more than 20 different selections on offer at every bar.  Very yummy!  But we are looking for a real dinner after not really eating properly all day and we cannot find a restaurant in the whole place – just more and more pintxo bars.  Eventually we leave the old area and find what we are looking for, then catch the bus back to the hotel.