San Sebastián, Pays Basque & Rioja

San Sebastian

We arrived in San Sebastian early afternoon after a few hours drive from Bordeaux. San Sebastian really is special and pretty in it’s location on the bay with it’s moon shaped beachfront.

We checked in to an Airbnb appartment in the centro district, and headed out to have a look around. The sun was shining and the weather was good. In the old town of San Sebastian a real party was on the verge, hundreds and hundreds of people in the narrow streets with flags and beers and cheering. A big sailing competition had just finished, and all the different teams were celebrating, they partied hard!

We had a beer and sat down on the calmer beachfront before going out to find some dinner.

In this part of Spain, the Basque country, they eat a lot of pintxos, small snacks that are freshly made troughout the day and which are found on every café and bar. We sat down on a restaurant Bar Bergara and had multiple different pintxos, a lot of fish, cuddlefish and other stuff. The restaurant was mentioned in the Michelin guide, and was alright, but nothing special.

On our way back we came by a gin bar, La Gintonería Donostiarra. We had a very nice, very large gin cocktail made by an extremely dedicated cocktail mixer who stared like i’ve never seen it before on the cocktails – maybe that was the trick?

On the next day we started out with a bit of exercise in the morning, running up hill, and along the beach before heading out to breakfast at Old Town Coffee. We walked around town and old town, which was much more calm after the big party the day before. We had Pintxos a few places at bars as well as a local basque wine Txakoli, a fresh white wine, sometimes a little sparkling, which is served by pouring it from a height 45 cm or so.

After a short stop at a local bar where we had coffee and local wine, we had a longing for ramen, maybe mostly me, so we found a great place called Buga Ramen. It was like being back in Japan, with manga, neon lights and robots serving ramen.

Gaztelugatxe and Guggenheim

We left San Sebastian with a heavy heart, a nice city definitely worth visiting. Heading west along the coast from San Sebastion we drove to Guernica, a small town that was completely destroyed by the Nazi’s bombardement of the city in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. This tragedy is depicted by Pablo Picasso on his more than 7 meter wide Guernica painting which can be seen in the town.

Moving along the coast through small villages like Bermeo, we reached Gaztelugatxe, a small peninsula with a church on top. This place became very popular due to its presence in Game of Thrones, maybe you recognize it?

To reach the church San Juan a long steep descend and then a long steep ascent is required, but the view is worth it!
.. and there is no easy way back, so down and up.

Seeing the Basque place with the weird name, is definitely worth it, but remember to book your ticket before going, it is free and can be booked here, otherwise you might end up waiting.

The weather was not making us wanna stay more in the north of Spain, we did however have one last camping stop outside Bilbao at Camping Arrien Gorliz, a nice little spot in the sun. We met a dutch couple staying in a tent next to us doing more or less the exact same route as us for 2 months. We also found a bottle of wine in our car for the meal we cooked on our trangia, not the usual outdoor wine!
On our last day in the Basque country, we went to see the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, pretty much a must see if you are around Bilbao. It really is worth, even if you don’t go inside to see the modern art exhibition, like us, the area around the museum is full of installations worth seeing as well as the building itself.

Wine tasting in Rioja Alta

Leaving the basque country in the north of Spain, we continued over the mountains to the open landscape of the Rioja wine region. We drove through small towns among the wines, and found a little piece of paradise in the very small town of San Asensio and the B&B Mar de Viñas hotel rural. The hotel was run by a young couple and had the most homely vibe, and a breathtaking view from the balcony. We spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view, we also had a walk around town and had a glass of wine on a small bar Bar Jesus before eating a homecooked meal offered by the hotel.

After having breakfast at the hotel the next morning, we went out to taste some of the wonderful Rioja wine. Like other wine regions, Rioja also has its own wine route. First stop was Bodegas Lecea in San Asensio, five generations of wine history. In this area, most of the house has caves under the houses made as a ‘fridge’ but also for producing and storing wine. Bodegas LECEA has multiple caves in the vicinity of their house, and has production and storage underground. They are also using traditional methods, like manually stomping grapes by foot, for some of their signature wines.

We also saw this old goat skin, which was used as a wine container not so long ago. This might sound macabre but was very normal back before glass bottle. Our guide demonstrated how to carry the skin by grabbing the legs and carry it on the back.

After a tour and a tasting we visited Muga, one of the big producers in the area, located in Haro the main town of Rioja Alta, where a lot of the big houses have their tasting rooms. Muga’s tasting room was a nice visit, but some of the others didn’t seem so interested in providing services to their guests so we left Haro after having a small lunch, Pintxos, and moved on.

Last stop before Portugal

We originally wanted to stop over in Ribera del Duero, another wine region, but since we already booked a place en Geres national park in Portugal, time was catching up with us so we skipped it this time.

Driving through the Spanish landscape we saw a lot of farmlands and quiet towns and as evening was approaching we stopped over in Pueblo de Sanabria, a small town with a big castle on the hills and also a stop on the Camino de Santiago.

The town actually had a lot to offer, and nice restaurants too, and we had a nice steak and deer at La Posada de la Puebla de Sanabria and a bottle of Ribera del duero, now that we missed the stop, before going to bed.