It was mostly wet, grey and miserable weather while we were in Hondarribia, except for one glorious day. It was a shame for Rebecca as she had left hot and sunny Amsterdam to spend time with us on the boat. But we managed to look around the town of Hondarribia in between rain showers …
Steep cobbled streets …
Rebecca by a nice old stone wall …
Colourful balconies …
A grand ancient doorway …
The Church through the rain!
Interesting detailed tile patterns – not all these buildings are old, but the town has succeeded in making the new developments fit in.
We cycled round to the old fishing port – that is, I cycled and Becca jogged – as we only have one folding bike on board. We passed what would be a beautiful beach on a nice day, but there was only one hardy swimmer today and one dog-walker!
The view from the old fishing harbour wall.
A sardine boat and a row of dinghies in the foreground adding a bit of colour to the grey day.
Despite the weather we explored the surrounding countryside in a hire car.
Unsurprisingly, everywhere is incredibly green with the amount of rain that falls here!
We saw some nice views despite the murky weather.
And even walked a few kilometres of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela – in the rain!
The one glorious day we had was luckily the one we chose to visit San Sebastián in the hire car.
First we took the traditional – and rather rickety-looking – funicular railway up its steep track through the trees to the top of Monte Igueldo.
From here you can see the whole Bay of La Concha.
Fabulous views over the city.
The Bay of La Concha is flanked by two hills, Monte Igueldo and Monte Urgull, with the small island of Santa Maria in between.
Lovely views over the ocean too – the cliffs are so green!
Charles and Rebecca at the top of Monte Igueldo.
This is the ‘castle’ at the summit which turned out to be an adventure playground and hotel!
Back at ground level, the gorgeous beach of Playa de la Concha with the City Hall and the other hill, Monte Urgull, in the background.
Charles and Di in the sunshine for a change!
We walked along the wide promenade, lovely feathery trees with pink blossom, not sure what they are …
This is the City Hall, which was formerly a casino, built in 1887.
The harbour jam-packed with boats in very neat lines!
Into the narrow streets of the old town – Parte Vieja – in search of some lunch.
But first we spotted the Church of Saint Mary, a famous landmark.
This is the elaborately carved Rococo entrance porch.
Inside is light and lofty, with a lovely ceiling and dome. The architecture is – unusually – all of one era because the construction of the Church was completed within the short space of 31 years between 1743 and 1774.
There are three altars – this is the Saint Pius V altar, one of the ‘twin altars’ which are either side of the high altar.
This is a contemporary artwork in the 18th century Church – ‘In Praise of Light’ by Eduardo Chillida, sculpted in 1975. It uses contrasting textures of polished and coarse alabaster and prisms of light.
We enjoyed our first taste of pintxos (the local tapas) with beer or Txakolina (the local white wine) at several of the small cafés and restaurants along the interesting old streets of San Sebastian. The idea is that you just have a couple of small things at each place – like a sort of pub crawl, but with food.
We then moved to La Viña, the restaurant famous for ‘the best cheescake in the world’ – we just had to try it, of course! And it was delicious!
This is the 16th century Iglesia de San Vicente, the oldest church in San Sebastián.
This is Constitución Square with its elegant Neo-Classical colonnades on all four sides and four entrance gateways. The buildings which composed it originally included the City Hall. Later the City Council retained ownership of the balconies, renting them out to the public as ‘boxes’ during bullfighting festivals when the square was used as a bullring. You can still see the numbering above the windows on the balconies.
Time now to go up the other hill, Monte Urgull, on the other side of the harbour.
No funicular to take us up this time – but good exercise to walk off the pintxos and cheesecake!
Ancient steep path and steps up to the top through the ruined fortress of Santa Cruz de la Mota.
At the summit is a towering statue of Christ – the Sagrado Corazón.
Good panoramic views over San Sebastián.
Back in Hondarribia, it was time for Becca to leave. Because the French railways were on strike (again!) we kept the hire car and drove her to Bordeaux airport. This gave us the opportunity to visit Arcachon which we had missed by boat.
Nice view over the wide bay at Archachon.
The huge and crowded marina – we were not that sorry that we’d been unable to get into here by sea.
So many boats – it’s like a nautical multi-storey car-park!
Lovely, sandy beaches though.
And a delicious lunch and refreshing beer at the Café de la Plage overlooking the seafront.
But the really interesting thing in Arcachon is the Dune du Pilat, the tallest sand dune in Europe – and it is pretty impressive!
We took off our shoes and enjoyed walking in the beautiful soft sand. The path starts off through the trees – nice and cool!
They erect a fibreglass staircase in the summer to help tourists walk up …
… but it was fun just ‘yomping’ back down through the deep sand!
It is a massive dune, with several separate peaks.
And literally dozens of kite surfers – they look like flocks of seagulls! Actually it looked a bit scary to me and like they might crash into each other!
Great views from the top.
It was a beautiful sunny day (unusually!) to see the dune and I’m so pleased we were able to come by car, even if not by boat.
Back on board and time for us to move on – next stop Zumaia and Guernica.
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