March 31, Free Day

Free to do whatever we want, the first item on the agenda is to sleep in that hour we lost yesterday.  Breakfast is served until 11:30am, so no worry about missing a meal.  The weather continues to be glorious so we opt to tour on foot parts of San Sebastian not yet seen.  Our rooms face directly onto the Beach of La Concha, but the entrance to the hotel itself is oddly at the back, on a mostly shuttered little square.  It was nice enough this morning to gather in the shade before setting off.

Lasala Hotel

Like every town and city we've been to, it's all about walking.  I once commented to a guide about how much olive oil is consumed and how few overweight Spaniards there are.  She said simply "it's because we walk everywhere all the time". And by our witness, that is true.  Two factors promote this: streets in older communities are narrow with limited or no parking, and all visiting and socializing seems to be done outside one's home.  And unless you live on the ground floor (mostly reserved for commerce), there are lots of stairs to climb, all contributing to more fit people.

Cubic six foot square stones as breakwater

We ambled out from our hotel, around the point to the north, past the Atlantic, back into the shelter of the mouth of the Urumea River and across a bridge to the end of Zurriola beach. This beach is exposed directly to the ocean, we see a little bit of surfer action.  

Across the Urumea river

Zurriola beach

Beach cleaning device

We are stopped from continuing beyound the beach to what looked to be a very nice hike at one time, but now is covered by a landslide.  Oh well.  I spent a few minutes gazlng at a large object d'art, concluding it is an homage to airplane stair cases in airports without jetways.  Upon reading the nearby plaque, I learn it's named "The Dove".  OK.  I see it now.

The four mile walk makes up for a little bit of missing so much hiking on the first part of our rainy time in Andalusia, but lox and cream cheese every morning for breakfast keep the scales tipped toward appreciation of stretch pants.  

Mary and Peter veer off to explore the newer, upscale shopping side of San Sebastian, while Mark and I chose to explore the Basilica of Santa Maria. I never tire of visiting a church.  Whether standing in a humble chapel or a grand cathedral, I like to think the connecting thread between everyone in time who also stood where I am, is not religion per se, but hope.  It is also a challenge to capture in a photograph the feeling of being in some of these grand spaces. 

Suitably impressed with the nave of Santa Maria, we continued to a very small but impressive gallery of art ranging from medieval through to quite contemporary pieces.  Serious art aside, I found the best visual entertainment up flights of stairs in another small gallery.  The walls were lined with late 20th photographs of casual scenes around San Sebastian, but the real draw was a complex diorama of a Neapolitan nativity scene.  Why it's here and not in Naples, I don't know, but there are over 200 18th century figures, each about five inches high, and celebrating in a village format.  And all rather anachronistically leading up to a hill with the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and their full entourage.  The detail and activities of the figures are fascinating. 

Meeting back up at the hotel, Mark and Peter hiked up the hill to the statue of the Sacred Heart to see the view.  I went to the laundromat (for probably the last time).  We rounded out the day with a rare G&T on the rooftops terrace.  Plunge pool available but no one brave enough to sink into unhealed water.  Expect it's much better in August.

'Til later...

C