This is a delayed daily diary of my life in España. Read at your own risk...rants and opinions do occur but so do beautiful photos and links of information!
Saturday
España: Days 61-65 (Zaragoza, Pamplona & San Sebastián)
Day 61:
This week we take our northern Spain road trip to meet up with Scott's friend in San Sebastián! We are keeping it low key today (Monday) and tomorrow because we leave on Wednesday. Today we ate a yummy paella lunch at Cavia Restaurante and I enjoyed some beach time after 😆
Playa de El Campello
Paella arroz con pollo y pimientos y verduras at Cavia
Day 62:
Today, Tuesday 5 September, I officially begin my Spanish lessons and I am so nervous! I have a good friend who ever since we were kids (you know who you are 😘) laughs anytime she is uncomfortable/shy/embarrassed.... well, that is me trying to learn Spanish. I have a very hard time and when I do not know something or struggle with pronunciations, I giggle uncomfortably. An hour after I got home from my lesson, Scott got back from school and we all went to eat at La Tasca Marinera. The bottle of cava was much needed for me! Learning a new language is not easy!
Ensalada Mixta at La Tasca Marinera
Another cork for my European cork collection
Lubina (seabass) at Tasca Marinera
Dinner tonight was on me and I created a nice veggie pasta dish with olive oil....
Veggie Bowtie pasta with olive oil, zucchini, peppers and garlic
Day 63:
We are so excited for our road trip that starts today! I prepared our paella leftovers and espressos before we hit the road.
It was pretty smooth sailing during our drive to Zaragoza, a city along the way to San Sebastián. We are staying 1 night in Zaragoza at the NH Collection Gran Hotel de Zaragoza and we will also be stopping/staying here again for 1 night on our trip back. They are dog friendly here and charge somewhere between 10€ to 40€ for their pet fee (most dog friendly places charge a fee).
Standard Room at NH Collection Gran Hotel Zaragoza
View from our Standard Room at NH Collection Gran Hotel de Zaragoza
Once we got settled, we decided to explore the city! First we walked through a beautiful park and even though the sun has already set, many people are out and about. There were many dogs at Plaza los Sitios so it was a pleasant atmosphere under the glowing moon.
Plaza los Sitios
Next we stumbled along a huge plaza with amazing looking buildings. There are museums, a church, city hall and art throughout the Plaza del Pilar.
San Valero by Pablo Serrano - his face represents a soul in tension and his hand is said to be in a blessing pose.
Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar
Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar
Museo del Foro de Caesaraugusta en Plaza la Seo
Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar
My very own miniature horse....
We found a great place for dinner from my research on TripAdvisor. La Buganvilla has a nice outdoor seating area and of course every table was taken but we were able to wait for about 10 minutes for a table to be ready. The food here is great...we had a vegetable appetizer that was so good we wanted more. The dipping sauce was something like a red pepper sauce. My fish was delicious and Scott's steak was ginormous! Too much for one person but he enjoyed as much as he could. One thing I really liked was that they brought over an additional sizzling plate for Scott to place the meat on if he wanted to cook it a little more. So many times at steakhouses or grilles I have seen people send their steak back, and back, and then upset that it was cooked too much...well wouldn't this be the answer to all those unsatisfied people?! Whatever...Scott said the steak was excellente so there was no issue here.
Veggie tempura at La Buganvilla
Viña Zaco 2014 Tempernillo de Rioja
Scott and his big steak at La Buganvilla
Patatas and more veggies at La Buganvilla
Seabass at La Buganvilla
Back at the hotel....
Coco at the dog friendly NH Collection Gran Hotel de Zaragoza
Buenos noches
Day 64:
Today we drive to San Sebastián and Scott suggested we stop for lunch in Pamplona because it is pretty much on the way! I said, Andiamo! During the hour and a half drive (mas o menos), I did some research on where to eat and what I found is a gem...Casa Jesus Mari is known for their Bocadillos (Spanish sandwich). The process here is to go in and order and when it is ready, a red light will come on outside (if you are seated outside). Since we always have Coco with us, Scott went in and placed our order. When our food was ready, there were 3 bocadillos....I asked Scott how that happened? I guess when he initially ordered, he said 2 and then listed the 2. The guy must have thought he wanted 2 of one and 1 of the other. Make sense? Oh well, we took the extra with us and Scott enjoyed it later that night. Too bad it was his bocadillo that got doubled and not mine....I am repulsed by mayonnaise so I would not go near it.
Casa Jesus Mari en Pamplona
Me, happy as can be at Casa Jesus Mari
Vino tinto at Casa Jesus Mari
Patatas at Casa Jesus Mari
Bocadillos x3 at Casa Jesus Mari
I have to agree with the reviews, best bocadillos!
About 15 years ago Scott and his late friend, Randy, came to Pamplona and ran with the bulls. The running of the bulls (San Fermín) happens once a year every July. This was Scott's first time back since that amazing experience so we walked around some of the exterior and Scott got to see the ring from a different perspective. Today nothing is happening at the bullring Plaza de Toros de Pamplona but it was nice to take it all in. He has told me many stories about his time with Randy in Spain so my heart is filled with joy to see the place where one of his greatest memories occured.
Plaza de Toros de Pamplona
San Sebastián is only about 1 hour 30 minutes away and it started raining during our drive. We rented an AirBnB from a woman named Laura and I highly recommend her place for so many reasons. If you are interested, just reach out to me. She will probably give a better rate directly! The only downfall was the parking. Once we finally found the apartment, we followed Laura (on her bicycle in the rain) to where the parking space is. Then we had to walk back (15 minutes or so) in the rain. Unexpected for sure but I guess not even the weather people can predict the weather! Once we got there I was in a funk because of all the rain and the visibility was not great but the moment you walk through the door, you look out to the sea. We relaxed for a bit until it stopped raining and made our way out to old town of San Sebastián. We took the long way around and it was beautiful.....
View from the entry way at our AirBnb rental from Laura!
Room with a view in San Sebastián
Rain brings out interesting creatures
I do not know what this is but is it not cool looking?!
I asked Scott if we could take a photo overlooking the Bay of Biscayne...
...then I said ok, be serious! He took it very literally.
Boys will be boys...a group of teen (or preteen) Spaniards thought it would be a good idea to jump off the port after it rained
From here we walked around looking for shops that would be open. Scott's friend is already here but waiting for other people to arrive and we were trying to find cover from the rain so Coco, Scott and I sat at a covered outdoor bar until the rain stopped. Scott had no appetite but I always do so this can sometimes lead to us being annoyed with each other. After I was being stubborn, saying I did not need to eat, Scott took my hand and lead me to the nearest pintxos bar. Sometimes I need that. We ended up at Bar Martinez and I went in and bravely ordered some pintxos (Basque country tapas). It was pretty good and they were very friendly & helpful.
Pimientos at Bar Martinez
Tortilla Espanola Bocadillo at Bar Martinez
Day 65:
It was raining again this morning so we did not quite make it out until right around lunch time. We have been wanting to meet up with Erik and his husband and take them to lunch at a pintxos place Scott and I went to about 6 years ago, Casa Gandarias, and it turns out that they are with there with friends right now! So we headed out to meet them and immediately when we got there we were welcomed by this great group of people. It was also my first time meeting Scott's friend from college, Erik. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very particular about first impressions and feeling the vibe. I must say that every single person in the group (and there were 7 total not including us) was cool. I really vibed with everyone and that is not always the case. Scott ordered us some pimientos and a few other yummy pintxos along with some drinks. Casa Gandarias is where I first had something called Pimientos de Padron. Padron peppers are a certain type of pepper and not always in season but you can usually find different variations of this plate. Basically this dish consists of small green peppers, cooked in some olive oil and sprinkled with a proper amount of sea salt.
Pimientos (peppers) at Casa Gandarias
Tortillas and Bacalao (cod) pintxos at Casa Gandarias
I just enjoy seeing this man happy 🤗
Darrin, Erik, Scott and me enjoying pintxos in San Sebastián
What happened next was something that I will never forget...we were invited back to their place to hang out for a bit and while we all drank a bit, we had the most perfect view of yet another religious celebration. Parades would happen like every half hour or so, so when Erik would yell, "everyone to the balconies!" We would all jump up and pick one of the 4 balconies they had. We had such a great time talking and hanging out with everyone. Coco even enjoyed herself and that is saying a lot! Good people 😉
Darrin, Erik and Coco....
Relaxed as can be!
Like mother, like daughter. Coco gets her water served in an espresso cup!
Basque festival - Euskal Chaya Zarautz
Basque dancers and characters parade through the streets of San Sebastián's old town.
What a fun time! We all planned to go back out for food and drinks but first we had to go feed the Coco. We met back up with everyone else at the church stairs and thats when more drinking happened! We hung out on the steps with glasses of alcohol, a vape pen, a few pintxos and lots of good company! There are sign everywhere around here saying it is against the law to pee in public...well I can understand why. Part of the Basque culture is exactly this, drinking and hanging out on the steps of churches or enjoying pintxos at any of the many pintxos bars around. Even the policia that walk around dont care. I guess as long as you are not peeing in public, it is all fine. After a while, we found a pintxos bar to fulfill our hunger.
Actually translates to "close the tap"but really....no peeing in the streets!
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