5-11-10 San Sebastian

This am we took a guided walking tour of the area around the hotel.  The best part of the tour was that the guide pointed out some of the best tapas bars.  There are at least 40 tapas bars within a short walk from the hotel.   Today, lunch and dinner are on our own, so Marge and I and Teri decided to have tapas for both lunch and dinner to have a day where we aren’t always full. 

          For lunch we went to a tapas (called pintxos here in the Basque region) bar and shared a glass of sangria and 5 tapas.  Teri joined us for our tasty lunch. 

We were having a gellato, and saw this model and camera crew walk past.  When we caught up to them, the model was waiting for the cameras, and Marge took a photo.

Marge's photo of a model waiting for a photo shoot in San Sebastian

           

After lunch we walked along the sea wall at the end of the peninsula that the hotel is on, enjoying the perfect weather.   Except for one very short bit of rain while we were in La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, we have had great weather – sunny and mid 60s to mid 70s. 

          After the tour, Marge and I went to an office for Orange mobile phone co to add more days of usage for my phone, long enough to last until we are out of Spain.  Before I came, I had read mixed reviews of buying a sim card over here to get internet access on mobile phones, but it has worked out better than I expected.  I paid 10 euros for the sim card and a week’s worth of usage, and today only paid 5 euros for another week.  This has allowed me to send and receive email, check stocks, look at Google maps to see where we are or to see what restaurants are nearby, check the weather forecast.  It also enabled me to call the hotel for a ride when I was finished with my bike ride a couple of days ago.   Hotel Maria Christina wanted 5 euros for an hour of wifi usage in the hotel – I instead just turned on my phone’s wifi hotspot feature, which allowed me to use my net book to email my journal and read the SF Chronicle and Wall Street Journal. 

          On the way back to the hotel, we walked by San Sebastian’s surfing beach, which I understand to be a favorite among surfers. 

          Tapas: Tapas are usually served room temperature on a slice of baguette which serves as an edible plate.  The fun part is all the different toppings, which may include Iberian ham, sardines, crumbled hard boiled egg w may, prawns, pimentos, bacon, artichoke hearts, cheese, and anything else that is tasty.  There are also hot tapas which are cooked or heated when you select them.  They all have a toothpick in them to use to put the item in your mouth. You pay by the piece, sometimes when you select all of your choices, and sometimes when you finish, at which time you show them how many toothpicks you have on your plate.  

         Tapas bars are similar to sushi boat places in many respects.  You pick out what looks good to you, the portions are about the same and so are the prices.  I think a good tapas bar probably has a greater variety of dishes than your average sushi boat place.  Our tour guide says that he looks for a tapas bar that has a lot of people in it.   We passed a number of bars that had a lot of good looking tapas on the counter, but didn’t have many customers, so we just walked on by.

          For dinner Teri, Marge and I had tapas at another nearby tapas bar.  Teri returned to the hotel after the 1^st one, and we stopped at another for a few more for a total of 7 tapas.   All of the tapas were different and good.  It was nice to finish dinner by 8:30 pm and be full be not stuffed.  If we had gone to a restaurant, we wouldn’t have gotten in before 8:30 pm, and locals don’t normally eat until 10 or 11 pm.

Tapas dinner

Marge's photo of tapas