Camino Norte, days 2-3 in San Sebastian

From our place in Rentaria it was a 7 km walk through city streets to reach our place in San Sebastian. We had scheduled in a rest day there also, so we had 2 days to mess about in this resort town. We had decided early on to not hike through urban or industrial areas, not to hike in the dark, and not to hike in the rain. Sooo, we took a taxi 7 km to our apartment in the walking part of downtown. We were about 5 blocks from the old town of stone buildings and narrow streets, and we had plenty of options of places to eat. The pic below shows the part of town by the beach, and the main beach from the hill adjacent to the old city. This is obviously a big modern city, with a heavy influence of Spanish tourists.

We met up with a friend of mine from Boise Idaho, John Luque, who was visiting his beloved Basque country. Some years ago he had spent 3 months in a town nearby solely for the purpose of studying Basque, so he was a great interpretor around the old city, shown above. He also took the picture of me on the sidewalk by the beach, shown above. Below is the rocky island in the harbor of San Sebastian, as seen from the fort above town. San Sebastion was founded in the 12th C, and was burned down several times before they rebuilt in stone in 1489.

Shown below is the river that joins the sea in San Sebastion, and the beach on the other side of the river. No wonder its a tourist favorite! There is a good surf where the river meets the sea, and we saw kayaks and surfers there several times.

John and I visited the Catedral de Buen Pastor, a neo-gothic gem loacated a few blocks from the “no cars” part of the city.