San Sebastian 1

Michael and I made it to San Sebastian this morning after the most beautiful 1hr drive through the dramatic hillsides of northern Spain. And as we were told, this is likely is the most beautiful town in Spain! The town itself is situated in a picturesque cove. The locals swim in the ocean during the day and walk the promenade in the evening while eating ice cream cones.... It's like a movie set!

We started the day by attending a traditional Basque cooking class in a small neighboring hillside village, only accessible by boat. We started with freshly caught Hake weighing 8 kilos, dozens of fresh squid, fresh tuna and seasonal vegetables. We fully cleaned , deboned and cut up the seafood and prepared a 4 course Basque meal that we all shared together at the end.... It was absolutely incredible!!

Our hotel is atop a huge hill (or small mountain) that overlooks the Bay of Biscay. You can access the hotel by a tram that takes you through the the trees, and the view from the hotel is absolutely breathtaking!

We spent the evening in the old part of town going from restaurant to restaurant sampling different Pintxos. The format of any meal here is that the completely crowded restaurants set out platters of all their Pintxos at the bar, and you simply ask for a plate and serve yourselves. At the end, the bartender will ask you "How many?" in Spanish. You tell him simply the number of items you had and he gives you a price. The narrow stone streets are completely packed with people at night, and everyone is gathered around eating their Pintxos and sipping wine (apparently no one ever sits while they eat!). At one place, I was very curious about a platter of black crustacean-like creatures behind the bar and asked for one. They were apparently only served by the plate, so I ended up receiving about 3 dozen unidentifiable items that I was to eat that most closely resembled the hooves of small black sea cows ...if such a creature exists. It only cost me $50 and almost made Michael throw up just to watch me try to eat them. As it turns out, sea cows' hooves don't actually taste all that bad...