The BEACH at San Sebastian.... beyond words!

Well, after a long drive from Burgos to Bilbao, it was only about an hour from Bilbao to San Sebastian, which is literally about 25 miles from the French border.  THIS IS AMAZING.  I won´t hesitate to say that I´m now officially having the time of my life on this trip.

A little bar in Errenteria at 1AM.

Last night, we pulled into a small town near San Sebastian called Errenteria.  The hotel is a good 20 minutes from San Sebastian proper, and after we ate dinner several of the younger contingent made an effort to take taxis out to downtown...  I was feeling like going out, but not that far, so some of us checked with our tour guide Gary.  Apparently the small city centre of Errenteria was only about a kilometer away, so a group of 8 of us decided to do that.  THAT was an adventure... We had to walk in the dark and go through a traffic tunnel to get there, and several of the people in our group were pretty freaked out, but I kept remembering that Europe simply isn´t as dangerous as the U.S.  Honestly, I don´t know if it was because I was trying to convince myself or what, but I didn´t have any fears and several of them lauded me later that night and today for being brave...  To me, I think I was just being honest about Europe.  We had a great time, and the little adventure getting there was the best part.

Another view of thhe port....

Te next morning we rode into San Sebastian and met up with our guide Eduardo.  This guy was a class act...  He introduced himself jokingly as "Bond, James Bond," and he might as well have been telling the truth.  He was a good guy, smart, cultured, and  he constantly cracked jokes.  I later asked him if he did this more often than just the summers, and indeed he leads tours for Europeans to the U.S., the west coast in particular...  He clearly loves Americans, and we let him know how much we love San Sebastian.

There´s no way to adequately describe this town.  If I were to go nowhere else in Europe, I think I could go on living knowing that I´d seen the best the continent has to offer.  Eduarado told us that this city is popular destination for actors after the Cannes Film Fest in France, and I can understand why...  It´s a beautiful place, full of people from all over the world.  We walked the old city, and had the times of out lives climbing to the top of the hill the housed the giant statue of Christ, then taking a shortcut down and walking along the port.  Afterwards, a few of us took a boat out to the the Isla Santa Clara to enjoy the sea breeze and the hiking on the island.  It was amazing, as I hope you can tell from the pictures.

En la playa de la concha. The water was cold!

I also went on the beach, and since this was the northern coast of Spain, it was not exactly warm, but it wasn´t too cold either.  We made the most of it, and had a great time chilling out along the sand.  I can´t describe the beauty of this city enough, especailly because I´m in an Internet cafe and it´s around 1AM on the main drag and I´ve had a few beers.  This place more than any other I´ve visited mixes the charm of a small city and the allure of a big city.  It´s amazing, and I hope anyone reading this will take a minute to explore it on the web, and perhaps set plans to visit here some summer.  You won´t be disappointed.  As our guide Educardo said, they even have one Pizza Hut in the middle of town!!!  :-)

Hiking the little island

Looking toward la Isla Santa Clara. We went there!

On the boat to Isla Santa Clara w/ friends!

Our guide Eduardo... excellent guy!

The view in San Sebastian......que heromsa!