San Sebastian and Logrono

We left our donkey barn to drive through the Pyrenees, with an aggressive bus driver who sped through the turns while passing other drivers.  We arrived in the north Atlantic coastal city of San Sebastian,

with a gorgeous setting of sea and mountains.

The only thing we are missing is sun, we have had it relentlessly for the last two and a half weeks but it is now cloudy and raining.

I went up a funicular (tram) to the lighthouse for views over the city and harbour, climbed to a castle atop a hill for more views, and sampled the pinxtos (snacks like tapas, but tastier) that the city is famed for.
Marcos went surfing here but most of us just got as far as having our feet in the water because of the weather.
On to Logrono, inland and capital of the Basque people, with a separate language and culture. Set among mountains and vineyards, it is in the Rioja region famous for its wine. Here we had a wine tasting afternoon, inside a bar that is one of about 50 on a couple of cobbled streets. We were instructed to have only one pinxto with each glass of wine when we go to this area, then move on to the next bar. Along the cobblestones is a winding line called the elephant walk, so named because this is the kind of line you walk when leaving, and “trompa” is Spanish for both trunk (of an elephant) and drunk.
We were given pinxtos with the wine tasting, like pork skin and oxtail (which is really good!). After that, I meant to go back to the hotel for a siesta (practiced here and in many other smaller places – shops close from about 2 – 5 pm) and come back later for a pinxtos crawl, but a downpour kept us in the street. Wine was pouring freely (6 euros for a bottle of great wine in the bar) but along with a couple of the others I managed to keep going until having the ultimate pinxto, grilled shrimp with pineapple.

Back at the hotel we had to check on my roommate who had done the elephant walk much earlier, check for a group member missing in action, and get one of the last of us to her own room after she tried her key in almost every door on the floor, waking up one of our guys wearing a nasal strip. We might have made a lot of noise doing all this, with Marcos our tour leader laughing so hard he was on the floor.
One night here was all we could handle, so we are back to Madrid tomorrow.