As everyone loaded on to the bus from the Parador/former monastery in Villefranche, we left at the same time and headed north for the final leg of our journey, the Basque country and San Sebastian, which the locals call Donostia. We started, as we always do with any kind of travel, looking at the road map. It showed that, to stick with the main highways, we had to back-track quite a way to the south to hit the main highway (A-66) that would take us to the northern coast of Spain from Villafranca de Bierzo. Though it looked like a pretty minor road, the route from Ponferrada, just east of Bierzo, north through Villablino, then jogging east toward the main highway north of Leon through a speck on the map called Cabrillanes (Ca bree yan ez), seemed the most direct.

We made the cut east in Villablino, and, as travel progressed, there was some discussion as to whether we had missed the proper turn and were even on a smaller road than was depicted in the map. For the next couple of hours we were on what was a narrow two lane road that didn’t exactly look like Spain’s version of ‘Caltrans’ had been there any time in the last couple of decades or so. The roads were cut along the edges of some fairly good sized mountains for the most part (maybe 300-800’ above the floor of this elevated valley). The countryside itself was stunning. Lush green fields running up the sides of the hills, a number of them separated by old stone walls, it looked more like pictures we had seen of Ireland than anything we were expecting in Spain. There would be the occasional speck of a town perched on an inset on the hill than another 30-40 minutes of mountain roads. In some places half of the outer lane of the road had fallen away, and it didn’t look like a recent development. All the while (probably 2.5 hours we’d guess) we were wondering if we would ever find the main highway, A-66, let alone San Sebastian or the Atlantic Ocean. Finally we did hit the throughway, eventually making a 10 minute stop at an ‘auto grill’(decent roadside cafes they have in Spain similar to those in Italy) for a quick bite (tortilla, of course). The trek to San Sebastian took about seven hours overall and we saw a part of the world we doubted we would have ever seen had we not taken the ‘shortcut.’

Playa de la Concha from the promenade.

Bayfront

It would be impossible to describe all of the cultural nuances of this part of Spain. There are entire books written about the history of the Basque people and, of course, there are great numbers of them who want to establish their own country which is why most folks have heard about them now. There have been some rather violent incidents attributed to Basque separatists. We read two books devoted to Basque history and culture and have a cursory understanding of this fiercely independent people. They still have their own language that isn’t like any other language on earth and road signs there are still in both Spanish and Euskali (what they call the Basque language). The Euskal words aren’t remotely similar to Spanish and there are two obvious and significant differences. First, the Basque alphabet has a ‘k’, Spanish doesn’t. Second, and the one that really throws most people when they look at it, is the combination tx, which is pronounced like a ‘ch’. The most prevalent example is the wine Txokolina, the Hondurribi based, frizzante white wine that is served everywhere there as the classic aperitif with tapas, called pintxos (pin chos) in that part of the world.

The streets of San Sebastion.

Fishing Boats in the Bay

We arrived at the hotel, the Maria Christina mid-afternoon. We had not able to book ourselves at the Maria Christina as this was a holiday weekend in Europe and it was full. Fortunately, we ran into a long time friend from a Spanish winery in the US prior to leaving who grew up in San Sebastian. He made the arrangements at he hotel for us, insisting that was where we had to stay. The Maria Christina is a lovely spot sitting right where the river flows into the Atlantic and the rooms look out on the smaller of the two bays around which San Sebastian is built.

View from the Maria Christina.

We walked about five blocks to the ‘old town’ for a late afternoon snack to tide us over until our dinner reservations that evening at Arzak, a Michelin Three Star of great repute in this part of Spain. We had been tipped off on by someone in the wine business (he worked at the Spanish Table, a Spanish food/goods store in northern California, as well as with a wine importer) who we met who had lived in San Sebastian and worked at Arzak. He had also given us an extensive list of the pintxos bars in the area so we were definitely dialed in and regretted only that we did not have enough time in San Sebastian to explore them all. A few bites, a couple of glasses of Txokolina, a short walk to absorb the very cool surroundings and back to the hotel (it was late afternoon by that time though it looked like about 2 in the afternoon outside) to shower and dress for dinner.

Having been to Michelin rated restaurants a few times, we were surprised by the casual elegance of Arzak. It wasn’t stuffy at all, the staff was in what we presume was more traditional local dress rather than the stiff suit and tie formality of the many French spots we had dined. One thing we can say for Arzak, and for Spanish wine lists overall, is that we found the prices comfortable and sensible. Here is a reknowned restaurant that has a 1968 Lopez de Heredia Rioja Bosconia on the list for something like 70 euro (about $100) and Torre Muga 1994 for like $130). We opened with an Emilio Rojo, an delicious, extremely limited white blend from Ribeiro that they were selling for not much more that we do here (about $50-this is a ‘three star’ mind you-a wine like this at Mina, though it is probably not high profile enough to be on their list, would probably be $200, can’t even guess what the older wines would have cost in a New York restaurant…you’d probably need TARP money to buy them).

What’s fun about ordering something like the Emilio Rojo in a restaurant, beside the fact that we could find something this interesting on a wine list (Toto, we’re not in the O.C. any more), is that it lets the sommelier know that you’re probably not the typical ugly American…that you are likely some sort of wine geek to order this obsure bottling. We did the tasting menu and had a spirited discussion with the chef/owner Senor Juan Mari Arzak about the future of Rioja (he is an impassioned fan of the new wave, I have a soft spot for old school Rioja though I certainly appreciate well done modern renditions of the genre as well). There were lots of small plates, all excellent, but only a couple that hit that rare ‘burned into memory’ status. Kathy was quite taken with the ‘bronzed’ onion that came on my meat plate, both visually and flavor-wise. My favorite course was the foie gras baked onto little rafts of thinly sliced apple, simply elegant, rich, yet light on its feet. Arguable the dish of the night sort of defies description. There was a creamy chocolate something (a puidding? A mousse?) molded into a ball shape and served over a strawberry sauce with a basil ice cream alongside. The combination sounded odd but was mind bending. Arzac is definitely a place to go if you are looking for fine dining as it stood up to its reputation but was also fun (some elite restaurants can seem more like church than dinner). Talk about your full days, this definitely was one of them.

A tapas bar

Pintxos

The next day was our only full day in San Sebastian and it was spent relaxing and taking in the old town part of the city at a leisurely pace. We had coffee and croissants at a streetside restaurant, found a market that had the famous Basque cherries ( it is a short season right at this time of year), walked along both bays, and had pintxos at a number of spots in between. We also ran into what appeared to be some sort of ‘street fair’ for this holiday weekend. There were food and wine booths set up by each of the provinces and a stage where cultural exhibits such as music and dances were performed. There were a number of Basques roaming the streets in capes and their formal black berets. We sampled a Spanish churro (much lighter and not the greasy/doughy consistency of the amusment park versions we see here) and saw one performance on the stage of what looked to be Irish dancing done to bagpipes (there is a strong evidential pool apparently suggesting the Celts may have originated in Galicia). You can learn stuff just walking around sometimes.

There were probably 40 pintxos bar in what was about a 10-12 block section of old town San Sebastian. The two we would mention are (there are a number that came highly recommended but they were all open at different hours) Zeruko and Gandarias. Zeruko was definitely one of the lighter handed ones, very creative stuff with a number of cured fish preparations. The foie gras atop a layer of creamy cheese was perhaps less heart healthy than some of the others but the generous cut of foie and the modest price (3 euro) made it a bit too tempting. It was difficult to really get the full shot of one of the food presentations at these pintxos bars (we gave it a shot anyway) but it was a compelling and inviting display that, because of the various health codes in California anyway, could never be replicated here. Looking at all of the prepared items and simply pointing to what looked good to you and getting immediate gratification was a delicious divergence from the normal eatery scenario. Fun stuff, too bad you have to go all the way to Spain to have this kind of experience.

Foie gras and the ever-present glass of Txakoli

More pintxos.

Later in the day, when we were hungry, we had planned to do a more serious ‘bar hopping’ for dinner. Unfortunately, our body clocks were not in sync with the locals and a number of the food bars on our hit list were closed, set to reopen in a couple of hours. So we decided to go back to have dinner at a bar that we had visited earlier, Gandarias, which was also on that list and had one of the hipper wine lists for this area. They were also famous for serving Joselito brand jamon, arguably the Romanee Conti of pork products. We knew of this ham’s reputation and had even had it on a couple of occasions. We had seen one in a market stall in Madrid available for sale (they are so in demand that they are allocated to buyers) at 74 euro per kilo…$47 per pound, bone and all). Here they had probably two dozen hang from racks behind the bar and over a strairwell. We had plates of Joselito, artichokes, a cheese selection and an old Contino Rioja, and that served as a perfectly fine dinner.

San Sebastian is one of those special splaces. As I have said to folks individually, it is one of the coolest places we have ever visited. It’s a little bit like Santa Fe, New Mexico in the sense that it has a certain aura, a certain charisma that you can’t necessarily verbalize, but you can definitely feel. We have traveled to Europe a reasonable bit and have seen some places. This is one of those places we want to come back to. Tomorrow we start heading home.