Today is a special day: 1) it’s our goddaughter’s 16th birthday 2) Paul and Miss M are guest bloggers today since I’m under the weather. So here we go!

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Miss M: This morning daddy and D woke up early and left the apartment to go to a supermarket while mommy and I were fast asleep. After the slow morning we went to the beach. It was such a beautiful day out, it was hot but not that hot and the water was so nice! There was a platform that was approximately 300 ft away from the shore. The platform had a high dividing board and a fun water slide. Plus the actual platform had an open square in the middle so it was like a perimeter.  Daddy, D and I all went there two times and that includes swimming back so in all we basically swam 1200+ ft each.  Damian and I were in the water most of the time and daddy and mommy rested and tanned on the sand. D and I both got a lot of exercise today which makes up for all the food we have been trying. 🙂 

After 5-6 hours on the beach we were tired and cold so we headed back to the apartment. Mommy, D and I stayed at the apartment for the next 2 hours and rested up as Daddy went and explored around San Sebastián. And now over to Daddy!!!

Paul: Around 5:30pm, I headed out and decided to walk around the perimeter of Parte Vieja (the old part of town) and then up Urgull hill, which basically sits at the center and northern point of a peninsula that forms the heart of San Sebastián.  I apologize in advance as all my picture-taking was done on our new camera. As I walked along the ocean, I got another appreciation of the strong surf, crashing into the rocks and walls below. I likely walked around 3/4 of the peninsula before heading up the hill to the Castillo De La Mota, and the statue of Jesus that looks down upon this enchanting city. The walk up the hill was steep, but relatively short.  It’s about 123 meters (about 400 ft) and the views are beautiful.   It’s slightly shorter than the views from Monte Igueldo that we experienced yesterday, but a completey different perspective.  Additionally, the Castillo is an old fort and very cool. There are old cannons, prison cells, narrow arched walkways, and a chapel to boot. Also, before making the climb to the Sacred Heart statue of Jesus, there is an exhibition of San Sebastian’s history; how it was founded, developed, and pieces elaborating about it’s beautiful culture.
After heading down the hill, I walked the Parte Vieja, picking up some local wine called Txakoli (a white wine, that is cheap, sparkling and goes great with all the pintxos) and a sweet wine named after the grape Pedro Ximénez. By now it was about 7:30 and the old tiny streets of Parte Vieja were just starting to come alive for pintxos. After going back to the apartment, we all headed right back to this hive of activity and culinary fun and returned to La Viña and Gandarias, which have been the 2 best pintxo bars we’ve experienced. To tell you how the night ended, I’ll throw it back to Mari……..

Miss M: After Dad got home we, just like he said went to our two favorite pintxos bars and had some very yummy things. We went back to La Viña because it was sooooooo good. At La Viña we had more Guindillas peppers, chorizo, ham croquettes and we tried these new meatballs that D had 4 plates of! We then went to the next bar, Gandarias where we had more things like that and tried some other interesting things. After that Mommy went home to go to bed and Daddy, D and I went to go and get some ice cream! It was so good, we all loved the flavors we picked out. Daddy got almond and caramel, D got vanilla and cookies and I got mint and chocolate chip!! After we finished our ice cream we called it a night and walked home.