We spent a little over a week driving across northern Spain where we found excellent food, beautiful beaches, charming old city centers and a just a touch of high culture. Alex’s brother Chris joined us in San Sebastian where we took a funicular up a mountain, wandered the city center, and ate (and ate), fully exploring the pintxos (Basque tapas) dining culture and sampling a local t-bone steak at the amazing Bar Nestor.
Next we rented a bungalow in the coastal town of Mundaka and took a day trip into Bilbao for more pintxos and of course a visit to the Bilbao Guggenheim. It was a great museum and the first time either of us had been in a Frank Gehry building (quite an experience). On the down side, the whole second floor was closed installing a new show. On the up side, the show was Jeff Koons which we saw last August at the Whitney (where it launched) in New York. Funny coincidence.
Our next stop was tent camping on the beach just outside of Santander. From here we visited two prehistoric caves (thanks again to Alex’s parents for the great book on cave art). We were able to see examples of animal painting, abstract symbols and, the most ghostly and unnerving of all, hand prints from 40.000 years ago. You couldn’t help but imagine the person holding their hand up to the cave wall in the flickering fire light so long ago. If you haven’t seen pictures before, it is interesting to note that rather than the more obvious hand print (i.e. dip your hand in paint and slap it on the wall), a clean hand was placed on the rock onto which iron oxide (mixed in water) was blown, creating a hand silhouette.
Our last stop before heading on to Porto, Portugal, was Ribadeo in Galicia where we camped again, this time with much better weather (wow, what a difference that makes). The main highlight was the formations along the coastal cliffs, the “beach of the cathedrals” (a great idea from Maiken).
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View from the beach in San Sebastian
View of the bay
The cliffs here were an impressive geological phenomenon
Chris with San Sebastian in the background
Our first pintxos in San Sebastian
Pintxos paired with Basque cider. That’s how you do it
Never Stop craft beer bar (recommended by Bob). Irony was that they had mostly Danish and American beers
Beer tasting
Boarding the funicular to Monte Igueldo on day 2
The view from the top where we found a weird (slightly creepy) fun fair
Casa del Terror
Brothers posing
Brothers boating. Yes, bumper boats are awesome
Pit stop at the fun fair. Note the Basque font, this was used all over the place
Arial assalt by paragliders. Appartently a very popular activity in the area
Pintxos bar – dinner number 1 of the evening
Eggy pintxos
Picking our own steak at Bar Nestor – dinner number 2 of the evening
Our steak (cork used for perspective)
The menu consisted exclusively of tomatoes, peppers and t-bones. What else could you possibly need?
On our third day, we took a little boat over to Pasai Donibane
Cliffs looking east on our hike up the coast
Kristina boarding the boat back
View of the mouth of the bay
View from just outside of Mundaka
Funny little spot to take a break
Manning the grill in the rain
Why not? Chris’ first play in Scrabble
Pintxos bar in Bilbao (stop for lunch before the Guggenheim)
Kristina along the Nervión river
Approaching the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Kristina in front of the second floor windows
Alex with audio guide around his neck
Setting up Jeff Koons
Richard Serra
Trying to capture a sense of the building
Athletic Bilbao is playing Barcelona in the Copa del Ray Final. Team flags were everywhere. I mean, everywhere
Camping outside of Santander
Working hard at the grill drinking a San Miguel
The campsite was just accross from the Vergin del Mer chapel
Visiting the El Pendo cave. We go to El Castillo the next day
We arrived at the cave during Spanish lunch time. Needless to say, we had to wait for a while
El Sardinero beach in Santander
Hiking around the rocks at El Sardinero
Campsite outside of Ribadeo
Sunset from our campsite
Our visit to cathedral beach. Great fun at low tide
The cliffs went on for kilometers with amazing islands, arches and caves to explore
Wading around. You definiteley had to get wet even at low tide
Here you get a better view of what all the fuss is about
And here
Nice pics and fantastic looking food, beer and cider. That “funny little spot to take a break”, is it part of something like an art installation? or WW2 bunker? Certainly helpful in the rain or drizzle.
We actually aren’t sure. There were a few of them there in a row and it was sort of an out of the way place. Could definitely have been the remnants of something else, or maybe just an odd way to make a sheltered view of the ocean.
Haven’t seen Chris in a while – in the pictures he looks like a young Walter White from “Breaking Bad.” Love the “WHY” Scrabble play.
That beach is amazing! And the food looks yummy 🙂 I’ll put northern Spain on my list of future destinations.