Sunday, August 8
It was just a short ride to San Sebastian, another place where one can easily spend a week before seeing everything. This town is known for jazz music and its film festival and had loads of history. It was an interesting ride – I thought like two or three times that I had already reached the center, so impressed I was with the various buildings, then it turned out I was still not in the nicest part of the town, I was getting more and more e impressed. First I saw the belle epoque Victoria Eugenia Theatre, then the modern “cubes” of Palacio de Congresos y Auditorio Kursaal, where the film festival is hosted.
The city resides in a bay, with a small island in the mouth of this bay.
I rode on the beachfront, till the very end of the promenade, then visited the wonderful old town, with baroque churches, palaces, vivid pedestrian zones. I met a nice couple, Gaelle and Monish, and we struck up a conversation. I enjoyed the main square, surrounded by buildings with small apartments with numbers, it turned out these were loggias where in earlier times bull fights were viewed from.
It was a warm day and remember the little island I saw when riding into town? It is called Isla Santa Clara and decided to visit it, swimming out there. After some hassle, I managed to find a place that would look after my bike and all my stuff (passport, money, etc). A cop told me to be very careful to swim out there, as it would take an hour due to the strong currents. Not sure what he was smoking, I was there in like 15 minutes, no sign of any currents. Walked around a bit, Sunday strollers looked at me being in just my trunks, but they did not care much. It was a great welcome to cool down.
As you might have seen, I was trying to keep expenses in control, so when leaving town, I found a kebab place with Pakistani owners. They were happy to hear me speak Urdu and found some extra pakoras, which were not even on the menu.
A very impressive town, I also enjoyed the Latin American musician, playing on like five instruments simultaneously.
Well, I did end up leaving a couple of hours after I had arrived. Westwards, the road went a bit inland, crossing the Oria river, I could have mistaken it for some place in Austria, had I not known the seaside was just a few kilometers away.
But then I was in Spain and graciously, the road was once again right on the coast. The town of Zarautz, with the longest beaches in Basque Country. Gastronomy is a very important part of this city, a number of restaurants can be found here offering traditional as well as modern fine cuisine. Karlos Arguiñano is a famous Spanish good, whose hotel and restaurant can be found right in front of the beach. He also created a prestigious cooking school called Aiala. No, I did not dine there, neither did I stay there, but I did visit a remarkable church, Santa Maria La Real Parrokia, from the 15th century, built in the Spanish Gothic style. It hosted a with a stained glass window.
The next nice place was Getaria, lying on a peninsula - the contour of this town built on a small hill with a bell tower was pretty in the setting sun.
Yes, it was already past seven pm, I spent a lot of time exploring San Sebastian, together with the swim to the island – maybe I was done with the major push within the Pyrenees. Just before entering town I rode past some wonderful seaside mansions. Reaching town, I learned that a famous person from there was Juan Sebastián Elcano, a seaman who was captain in the one ship in Magellan's fleet, which completed the circumnavigation of the earth. In the middle of the old town, midst narrow streets, the beautiful Gothic church of San Salvador rises proudly, built in the 14th century. This church was also a fortification to defend it from attacks from the seaside, there used to a drawbridge and there still is a tunnel within the building, serving as the main gateway into old town.
I sat down in one of the many bars to have a snack and a beer, once I was done with my bottle, the waiter showed up with one more. “I did not order that”, I said, he smiled and pointed out to a table with two couples and said it was from them. One of the man is a road cyclists, doing similar tours as I was on, the beer was his treat, gracias!...or should I say eskerrik asko! – which is the word for thank you in Basque.
Not far from town I found the signs for a camping place, started following it. Alas, it was not on the beach, but a few kilometers inland, a bit hard to find. Here I had a freak accident. As I was looking for the place, I arrived at a sort of a parking lot for lorries and buses. Somewhere hidden was the road to campground, winding backwards and uphill. I rode already past the road when I noticed it from the corner of my eye and turned sharp right. As the road started inclining, my speed dropped, and was still in this sharp turn, soon, the bike still in a high gear. This all would not have been a problem if I were wearing regular shoes, but I had cleats on, clipped into the pedal. So for a second or so, I was at a standstill, not being able to shift down, not being able to free my feet. Having realized this, the only question to decide was which way to fall, I decided to the right. I hurt my knee, but I was laughing more at my stupidity than feeling the pain.
Anyhow, the campground was pleasant, I had a big section to myself, with a bench and a table. I washed off the small wound and went to sleep, not being all too impressed by the short distance that I had covered that day.
Here you can see the trip in Google Maps, it was 45 kilometers, with 348 meters of climbing and 325 meters of descending.