Basque-ing on the Beach

Maybe we've gotten a little too used to the flat, arid plains and hot, dry climate of Castilla La Mancha.  When we stepped off the plane in Bilbao last weekend, we were hit with a wall of humidity and surrounded by greenery and my first thought was, "wait, this is Spain too?" We've heard that most of the year it is pretty rainy in Basque Country, but the three days we were in San Sebastian and Bilbao we lucked out and got (mostly) sunshine and 80-degree weather perfect for touring around and beach hang-outs. 

We flew into Bilbao and then took a bus straight to San Sebastian, where we stayed the first two nights of our trip. We soon found out that the climate and scenery of the area were not the only surprises we were in for. First of all, the Basques are way ahead of other parts of Spain in terms of health foods and vegetarianism. There were a bunch of organic foods shops that even sold some tofu and fake meat products. This place even had a 24-hour tofu vending machine: 

Our first night in town we walked around the old center of the city to visit some of the pintxo (pronounced pincho) bars for dinner. San Sebastian and Bilbao are famous for the pintxos, which are small portions similar to tapas that are displayed on the counter. Unlike in our part of Spain, where a random tapa is given to you with every drink order, here you pay for pintxos and drinks separately. Typically you can just pick up whatever you want to try and let the bartender know how many you've had. I think in the old days they would just trust you to say how many you've eaten, but in some of the bars we went to the waiters would ask you to show them your plate each time you came back for more. Here's a photo of one of the first ones we visited, with lots of delicious things set out for us: 

This pintxo was one of my favorites - a little pastry cup filled with roasted veggies and a fried quail egg on top!

Between snacks, we went for a little walk down to the beach in San Sebastian. The beach is called Playa de la Concha and is well known in Spain and throughout Europe as one of the best beaches in Spain, and is super convenient since it is located in the city itself. It really is pretty amazing that the city streets and buildings are bustling right up to where the beach promenade starts.  Our first evening it was a little foggy, but you can still get the idea:  

 

We read ahead of time about a short hike up to the Christ statue on this hill, and feeling inspired on our first night (and because we knew the next day we'd likely be lazing on the beach all day), we decided to go for it! Here's the hill with the statue way at the top, partly hidden by the fog: 

From the top of the hill the views were incredible and by the time we got up there most of the fog had cleared. Here's the view looking back at Playa de la Concha: 

And this is what it looked like facing the Bay of Biscay (part of the Atlantic Ocean, between Spain and France, just in case for some of you "Bay of Biscay" doesn't ring a bell... I definitely had to look at a map):

Every once in awhile in Spain WP and I notice we're some of the only people out and about, usually toward the end of the daily three-hour siesta.  I think we're still slightly off schedule, even though we have gotten used to eating lunch at three, maybe we eat faster or something? At any rate, when that magic moment arises, it can be pretty cool. For example, we were two of only a handful of other people hiking around in this park overlooking the bay and the beach. So what did we do with the magic witching hour? Took really dorky self-timer photos of ourselves, obviously. Enjoy:

So at this point you're either embarrassed you know us or jealous of how many awesome photos we have. I hope it's the latter. 

Ok, but back to the awesome views. Here's the same beach where we started out: 

And here's the other beach in town that is a little more rugged and popular with surfers, Playa de Gros: 

On our way back home to turn in early we stopped by Playa de la Concha one more time and snapped this photo: 

On our second day in town we made no plans except to hang out on the beach. After a stop for some fresh fruit and beach snacks, we made our way to Playa de la Concha. The water was pretty cold, but each of us went in a couple times throughout the day to cool down. 

Here's the beach; the hill we climbed is the one on the right:

After a beach-side lunch, we decided to check out Playa de Gros, a quick 15-minute walk from the first beach. The first beach had a more a relaxed feel, with most people tanning or reading quietly, and Playa de Gros was more of an "active" beach - lots of surfers, swimmers, and big waves!

Of course, no visit to a Spanish city would be complete without stopping by to see the Cathedral. While we didn't go in, we did get to see it lit up at night! So pretty: 

After our two nights in San Sebastian, we took the hour and a half bus ride back to Bilbao, where we only had one night but managed to fit a lot in. First things first, we went to get a nice big lunch (in Spain this is traditionally the most important meal of the day) at the restaurant Etxanobe, which has some really interesting dishes. We try to eat new things when we're in bigger cities, since CR is not what you'd call a hot spot for culinary creations (except for our amigo at Miami Gastro!). 

Will was excited to try the anchovy "lasagna", which is actually a little stack of really tasty cured anchovies arranged like lasagna noodles in a salmorejo (sort of like a blended gazpacho cold soup) with cheese and olive oil: 

One of the reasons we picked this place for our big Spanish gourmet meal was because they had so many good vegetarian options for me to choose from, including this dish of baby lima beans with a mushroom broth and egg yolk: 

Will also got some pink and white scallops with a delicious miso sauce: 

And I got some home-made beet tortellinis in a saffron sauce. These were the best!

After lunch we made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The building is pretty famous, designed by the Canadian-American (according to Wikipedia) architect Frank Gehry. 

The exhibits were pretty interesting, especially David Hockney's landscape pieces, a lot of which were done on his iPad and then enlarged and printed on canvas. I especially liked his Yosemite and Grand Canyon paintings (someone online snuck a picture from the show). The outside of the Guggenheim is pretty cool too, and we got to see one of those giant spider sculptures by Louise Bourgeois; creepy!  I had previously seen one at the Des Moines Art Center when I was in Iowa for an OM competition (nerds know what I'm talking about...).

We were looking forward to seeing Jeff Koons' giant dog made of flowers, but unfortunately it was being restored while we were there. The picture on the left is what it normally looks like (taken from another blogger) and the right is what we saw: 

 

On our last morning in town, we took a walk into the old town of Bilbao. It was a beautiful morning, and we walked along the river past flower markets and lots of people out for a Sunday stroll.

WP had done some research and found out that there was an antiques market in one of the plazas, so we headed over to check it out. In addition to books, maps, and prints, there were also some baby animals for sale. On the left there is a baby duck (patito!), some rabbits, and little birds. The photo on the right is part of the market, crowded with shoppers: 

While we were hanging out in Bilbao, we received some very exciting news from home! My brother and sister-in-law's baby girl was born! She came six weeks early, but we were happy to hear that both Sara and baby Eleanor are healthy. She weighs 5lbs 13oz and is 18 inches; not bad for a preemie! Will and I are so excited to get to meet this little one in July when we're back in Gilroy!  

This Wednesday we'll be leaving Ciudad Real and heading to Madrid to meet our friend Benjamino and then go to Italy! Before leaving we have a lot of packing to do, since the past few days we have been saying our goodbyes to our other teacher buddies and hanging out with my friend Tanya who visited us from Cordoba this weekend. She gave us an excuse to visit all our favorite CR places one more time before we leave!