From Madrid we took a quick and very early morning flight to the north of Spain (many thanks to friends who suggested we not miss this part of the country!) I learned so much about the region, for example, did you know that the people of this region speak a completely different language and it’s not a dialect of Spanish. Basque is a unique language all its own thought to date back to the Roman period, possibly the first European language! In fact, Donostia is the Basque word for San Sebastián. Today this small and charming city is known for its food and as mentioned in our blog on Tapas & Pinxtos, gluten free was hard here, plant-based / vegan also challenging, but we had a great time and made the most of it.
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We stayed at Hotel Lasala Plaza which was beautiful and well located on the water and at the edge of the old town area. Three nights in San Sebastián didn't warrant an apartment and the concierge team at this hotel was super helpful in arranging our day trip to Bilbao, restaurant reservations and such.
As mentioned, it was a very early morning flight, in fact the night before we left it poured rain in Madrid. The rain was coming down so hard it woke us. It also prevented our airport transfer from getting into the middle of Madrid as it caused some flooding (minor compared to what hit Valencia). So we arrived to the hotel around 9am, was (unbelievably) able to check into our room and then we wandered the town after breakfast and made our way to La Perla thalassotherapy.
Wait...I almost forgot to mention breakfast which was amazing at Maiatza. In fact we ate there for breakfast twice and lunch once, 'nough said.
With towels from the hotel in hand we bought an entry ticket to enjoy their facilities. What is thalassotherapy you might be asking... their website speaks for itself: 5,500m2 of facilities with swimming pools, jacuzzis, jets, saunas, steam baths, water beds, relaxation areas, a complete fitness centre, with views and direct access to the beach. Just what the traveling body ordered!
The next morning we took an e-bike tour (rather than a walking tour this time). Allen from Go Local San Sebastián was fantastic. It was only two of us, again benefits of the shoulder season. On an e-bike we saw so much of the city, more than we would have on foot or by ourselves. We’d highly recommend this mode of transport as the city is well set up with bike lanes and is pretty flat. Where it’s not, the e-bike kicked in!
While in the area we took a day trip by bus to Bilbao. No tours for this one. We enjoyed wandering the streets, a cup of coffee, took the funicular up into the hills for some views and enjoyed lunch with a really large Sangria at Erriberako merkatua, a historic (and now upgraded) food hall. We finished the afternoon exploring the Guggenheim museum.
Food
San Sebastián Pinxtos & Wine tour through Mimo Bite was our first food tour on this trip. Mimo bite also does cooking classes which could be super fun. Bottom line, the tour was great. We met some other Bay Area natives who were long time neighbors and friends and all well-traveled! The tour was fun, informative and to be honest, almost necessary to be able to eat comfortably and gluten free. It was SO helpful to have someone local order exactly what I could eat and keep me safe.
And when in Rome, or in this case San Sebastián, you gotta do the Michelin star restaurant thing… we enjoyed our splurge and exploration of Basque culture through food at Arazak. I’ll leave it there as we wrote more on this in the other blog post and I think I spammed my Instagram with photos.
Finally on our last night after returning from Bilbao we ate at Bodega Donostiarra on the recommendation of a woman we met in Kotor, Montenegro - I love meeting people while traveling! We walked to the restaurant after returning by bus. We were hungry, it’d been a long day and I wasn’t sure what I was going to be able to eat. When I asked what items were gluten free, our waitress said, everything except the bread and pasta of course. Gotta love real fresh food! We had a delicious meal here for our last night.
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