Following our weekend in Bilbao, we took the bus to San Sebastian, an incredible seaside city and the foodie capital of Europe. Between the incredible picturesque setting, the friendliness of the local residents and the wonderful food, we fell in love with San Sebastian and it may perhaps be our favourite stop so far on the trip.
Nestled into the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean, the city is home to some beautiful urban beaches as well as great surf spots.
The harbor of San Sebastian is also home to a great series of sculptures by local Basque sculpture Edouardo Chllida, called "Comb of the Wind" (above and at top of blog post). These weathered steel sculptures are built into the rocks at the end of the harbour and are truly captivating when the waves crash into them, adding a variety of experiences to the art. We ended up taking a lot of photos of these sculptures, which are available here.
Building upon the great pintxos of Bilbao, San Sebastian is truly a food mecca and every little bar / restaurant takes their food extremely seriously . The photo above depicts two of our favourites that (skewered grilled shrimp and a fried crepe containing asparagus, mushrooms and langoustines) that cost about 3 Euro each and would have been at home as starters on any Michelin-starred restaurant. After spending several days of eating pintxos like these (including foie gras in every form known to man), we were sad to leave and can only hope that the tapas/pintxo culture makes its way to North America beyond the "small plates" craze. The big difference between what exists in Spain vs North America is the casualness of these bars - locals just drop in for a glass of wine (usually priced at 2 Euro or less) and a couple of pintxos, before continuing on to the next bar. There is often no menu and certainly no formality. There are also often few/no chairs in the bar and young and old intermingle with no pretension. Definitely a great way to dine.
With this post, I believe that we are finally caught up through Spain. (although we still may have 1-2 belated Barcelona posts over the next week). We have been in Dublin for the past week (including St. Paddy's and will be posting some photos soon!.
Cheers
Nestled into the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean, the city is home to some beautiful urban beaches as well as great surf spots.
The harbor of San Sebastian is also home to a great series of sculptures by local Basque sculpture Edouardo Chllida, called "Comb of the Wind" (above and at top of blog post). These weathered steel sculptures are built into the rocks at the end of the harbour and are truly captivating when the waves crash into them, adding a variety of experiences to the art. We ended up taking a lot of photos of these sculptures, which are available here.
Building upon the great pintxos of Bilbao, San Sebastian is truly a food mecca and every little bar / restaurant takes their food extremely seriously . The photo above depicts two of our favourites that (skewered grilled shrimp and a fried crepe containing asparagus, mushrooms and langoustines) that cost about 3 Euro each and would have been at home as starters on any Michelin-starred restaurant. After spending several days of eating pintxos like these (including foie gras in every form known to man), we were sad to leave and can only hope that the tapas/pintxo culture makes its way to North America beyond the "small plates" craze. The big difference between what exists in Spain vs North America is the casualness of these bars - locals just drop in for a glass of wine (usually priced at 2 Euro or less) and a couple of pintxos, before continuing on to the next bar. There is often no menu and certainly no formality. There are also often few/no chairs in the bar and young and old intermingle with no pretension. Definitely a great way to dine.
With this post, I believe that we are finally caught up through Spain. (although we still may have 1-2 belated Barcelona posts over the next week). We have been in Dublin for the past week (including St. Paddy's and will be posting some photos soon!.
Cheers
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