bill in the basque country 2010: vitoria & san sebastián...
And it goes on! Sorry for the delay. This post covers our trip to Vitoria as well as our stay in San Sebastián.
Vitoria.
Vitoria, called Gasteiz in Basque, is the capital of the Basque province Álava and of the Basque autonomous community (since 1980). It's the second largest Basque city after Bilbao. In 1813, the city was the scene of the Battle of Vitoria during the Peninsular War, in which the French were beaten by General Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and the French control of Spain was ended. As a major fan of the book and TV series Sharpe, it was out of the question for me to ignore Vitoria. ;)
We arrived in Vitoria at around 11am on September 7th and parked our car near the Artium. Unfortunately, our map was very misleading and there were no useful signs, so it took us ages to find the tourist information near the parliament house (which looked very unimpressive so I didn't take a photo of it). If there had been better signs, we would have walked through the old town and the little narrow streets of the pedestrian precinct and gotten a much better first impression of Vitoria. It also took us so much time that there was no use in heading directly to the museums as they were closed from about 1pm to 4pm. So we had lunch and then walked to the Museo de la Armería. Unfortunately it had started raining by then, but thankfully it wasn't raining not long enough to spoil our visit. ;)
The Plaza Mayor.
Vitoria's city hall.
One of the many beautiful buildings near the Museo de la Armería.
The new cathedral of Vitoria.
A bird in the Parque de la Florida.
The fountain with the kid and the big fish can be found in quite a lot of Spanish cities.
Poor soldier, deprived of his sword.
A memorial to famous jazz and blues singers in the Parque de la Florida.
The bench is covered entirely with the names of famous (and also somewhat less famous) musicians.
The park benches are pretty awesome. Each one of them has a different leaf on it!
The Plaza de la Virgen Blanca with the memorial of the Battle of Vitoria.
Isn't it beautiful?
Bow before Wellington!
Vitoria has a football club, too, and some of you might even recognise it from when Liverpool played against them in the UEFA Cup final of 2001. ;)
The Museo de Bellas Artes. We didn't go in, but I loved the building.
The Museo de Armería, which is really awesome.
The ground floor is entirely dedicated to knights and their arms.
That huge sword was pretty impressive.
Helmet for Chinese soldiers. (Not really. XD)
Mini-cannon! I would have LOVED to take this one home. XD
Pretty cool sword that looks as if skeleton fingers are wrapped around the handle.
Alien helmet. XD
We've all seen this...
THIS, however... XDDD My first thought was "Oh, how cute." XD
Good to see that even the guys back then were occasionally fashion-impaired. I mean, helmet with animal-print? o__O
There were loads of fantastic dioramas about the Battle of Vitoria, like this one, where the Spanish imperialists welcome their ally Napoleon.
This one is impossible to photograph. It shows the battlefield and the different troops and regiments. I could have spent hours looking at this.
Awesome little figures!
Look, it's Sharpe! XD
More troops!
This is a portrait of some Spanish general but it looks a lot more like one of Major Ducos from the Sharpe series. ;)
The troops invade Vitoria. This is the Plaza de la Virgen, where today stands the memorial.
Vitoria is also famous for the work of Heraclio Fournier, one of the most prestigious producers of playing cards in the world. The Museo de Naipes presents over 6,000 different playing cards from all over the world, including Asian cards in weird shapes or playing cards with Kamasutra motives. XD You can also see videos about the life of Fournier and the story of his firm, as well as the many different ways of printing cards.
San Sebastián.
San Sebastián, or Donostia/Donosti in Basque (also meaning "Saint Sebastian"), is the capital of the province Guipúzcoa (Gipuzkoa) and 20 km west of the French border. Queen Maria Christina of Austria declared the city as her permanent summer residence and thus brought fame to the city. Today, San Sebastián is also called "the Spanish Nice", a reference to the Côte d'Azur city and famous holiday resort for rich people. The city was almost entirely burned down in 1813 by allied forces of Spain during the Peninsular War but rebuilt in the old style.
We arrived at our hotel, a very nice place near the foot of Monte Igeldo, on the 8th of September, unpacked, and then took the bus to the city centre to see some sights. With the San Sebastián card, you get a discount for the Bus Turistikoa, so we decided to get a first glimpse of the city by using this bus, and it took us to a lot of places, especially outside of the city centre, that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, considering that we just had three days in San Sebastián. As you will see when you look at the pictures, the city is absolutely beautiful. It's located in the north of the Bay of La Concha, which is called like that because it's shaped like a shell.
Unfortunately, such beautiful cities always have a downside: annoying tourists. I don't mean tourists in general, obviously, because I was one of them! XD But especially at night, when the streets of the old town, where all the bars are located, were flooded with people and you almost couldn't move inside the bars, there were tourists and tourists and tourists and... some more tourists. I'm not one to complain about tourists, of course, being one myself, but when you're standing in a bar with about 15 other people (which is pretty much the capacity of the bar), and five of the people are Americans, and all you can hear is those Americans and their "have you tried this? have you seen this? oh, we saw this gorgeous place yesterday, you MUST see it! ah, you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO try this!", and you can't even hear yourself speak anymore, it does get very annoying. Funnily enough, the only place where we didn't hear a word in a foreign language (other than Spanish or Basque, of course), was the beach. ;)
Panorama of San Sebastián, taken on Mount Igueldo. I still can't believe there are places as gorgeous as this in my part of the world.
Monte Urgull in the middle, with the statue of the Sagrado Corazón on top of it, and the island of Santa Clara on the right. You can take a boat to the island, but we didn't have enough time.
Basque coastlines in the west.
The city hall, which was erected in 1887 to serve as a casino.
The Plaza Guipúzcoa with its weather station.
The Plaza Okendo.
The Teatro Victoria Eugenia.
Monument of a little drummer boy (XD) in the old town.
I have no clue what this is, so if anyone knows, please tell me.
Our beach, the Ondarreta. :D We couldn't spend a lot of time there, but we definitely enjoyed it. The sand is soft and really awesome, but unfortunately there are a lot of sharp stones when you step into the water, so you have to be quick. Swimming in the Atlantic is worth the stones, though. :D
One of the many bridges in San Sebastián.
The narrow streets of the old town.
The Iglesia de Santa Maria del Coro in the old town.
The Plaza de la Constitución.
Its balconies are numbered because they used to be rented out in the days when the square served as a bullring.
The city's coat of arms.
The Plaza de Bilbao...
... or Plaza Bilbo. XD
In the background, you can see the new cathedral.
This is it.
Another awesome bridge.
La Concha Bay.
This is Monte Igueldo. There's a rack railway that takes you right to the top of the mountain, where you can either visit the panoramic platform or a fairground.
We visited the panoramic platform, of course. :)
San Sebastián has a lot to offer at night.
For instance, the awesome pintxos. :D
This is one of the many great bars that we went to.
They have a great selection of pintxos and also most intriguing tables. :D
This is Borda Berri, which we considered the most awesome bar in San Sebastián and maybe even the entire world.
They don't really have a lot of space, but the service and the drinks and especially the food are fantastic.
They don't serve pintxos but instead little raciones that look like menu courses at a five star restaurant and quite possibly taste just as good. We had five of the dishes on this menu and loved each one of them.
We also had mosto, which is grape must that has not yet developed any alcohol, served with ice cubes, slices of orange, and an olive stuffed with anchovy paste. Sounds strange but tasted utterly delicious and was also very cheap.
One of the many great dishes, a tomato stuffed with tuna cream and covered with green pesto, a tomato vinaigrette, and sesame seeds.
Meat croquette with two sauces. Delicious!!!
And this is the famous txakoli, or "chacolí", a slightly sparkling, very dry white wine with high acidity and low alcohol content, produced in the Basque Country. I loved it so much that I ordered it every single day. :)
As the night buses had ridiculous schedules, we often walked back to the hotel, right along the bay.
Once we came across this lost pair of shoes. ;)
One of these buildings is the famous Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra where a room costs a fortune.
Of course, I also have some curiosities for you. :D
Bilingual ATM. ;)
Learn German for the German national team? LMAO!
*snicker snicker*
Look, it's Athletic and Real Sociedad! XD
And finally, to complete all the Lord of the Rings references, have one that is deliberate! XD
On September 11th our holiday ended and we had to say goodbye to the beautiful Basque Country. :/ It would be an understatement to say that I didn't want to go. I really, really, REALLY didn't want to go, and I kept saying that to my buddy as we drove from San Sebastián to Bilbao airport. He wouldn't have had any scruples to leave me there, but of course I had to go back to work, so in the end I had no choice but to board the plane. *sniff* I never thought I could feel homesick about a place that, technically, isn't even my home, but ever since I got back to Germany, I keep wishing I was in the Basque Country again. I miss everything about it, the countryside, the people, the food... If I didn't have any responsibilities in Germany, like my job, I would emigrate to Bilbao in an instant. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was the best holiday I've had in my entire life, and I really can't wait to go back in December.
My next two posts will be about the training centre of Athletic Bilbao in Lezama, so stay tuned!
Vitoria.
Vitoria, called Gasteiz in Basque, is the capital of the Basque province Álava and of the Basque autonomous community (since 1980). It's the second largest Basque city after Bilbao. In 1813, the city was the scene of the Battle of Vitoria during the Peninsular War, in which the French were beaten by General Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and the French control of Spain was ended. As a major fan of the book and TV series Sharpe, it was out of the question for me to ignore Vitoria. ;)
We arrived in Vitoria at around 11am on September 7th and parked our car near the Artium. Unfortunately, our map was very misleading and there were no useful signs, so it took us ages to find the tourist information near the parliament house (which looked very unimpressive so I didn't take a photo of it). If there had been better signs, we would have walked through the old town and the little narrow streets of the pedestrian precinct and gotten a much better first impression of Vitoria. It also took us so much time that there was no use in heading directly to the museums as they were closed from about 1pm to 4pm. So we had lunch and then walked to the Museo de la Armería. Unfortunately it had started raining by then, but thankfully it wasn't raining not long enough to spoil our visit. ;)
The Plaza Mayor.
Vitoria's city hall.
One of the many beautiful buildings near the Museo de la Armería.
The new cathedral of Vitoria.
A bird in the Parque de la Florida.
The fountain with the kid and the big fish can be found in quite a lot of Spanish cities.
Poor soldier, deprived of his sword.
A memorial to famous jazz and blues singers in the Parque de la Florida.
The bench is covered entirely with the names of famous (and also somewhat less famous) musicians.
The park benches are pretty awesome. Each one of them has a different leaf on it!
The Plaza de la Virgen Blanca with the memorial of the Battle of Vitoria.
Isn't it beautiful?
Bow before Wellington!
Vitoria has a football club, too, and some of you might even recognise it from when Liverpool played against them in the UEFA Cup final of 2001. ;)
The Museo de Bellas Artes. We didn't go in, but I loved the building.
The Museo de Armería, which is really awesome.
The ground floor is entirely dedicated to knights and their arms.
That huge sword was pretty impressive.
Helmet for Chinese soldiers. (Not really. XD)
Mini-cannon! I would have LOVED to take this one home. XD
Pretty cool sword that looks as if skeleton fingers are wrapped around the handle.
Alien helmet. XD
We've all seen this...
THIS, however... XDDD My first thought was "Oh, how cute." XD
Good to see that even the guys back then were occasionally fashion-impaired. I mean, helmet with animal-print? o__O
There were loads of fantastic dioramas about the Battle of Vitoria, like this one, where the Spanish imperialists welcome their ally Napoleon.
This one is impossible to photograph. It shows the battlefield and the different troops and regiments. I could have spent hours looking at this.
Awesome little figures!
Look, it's Sharpe! XD
More troops!
This is a portrait of some Spanish general but it looks a lot more like one of Major Ducos from the Sharpe series. ;)
The troops invade Vitoria. This is the Plaza de la Virgen, where today stands the memorial.
Vitoria is also famous for the work of Heraclio Fournier, one of the most prestigious producers of playing cards in the world. The Museo de Naipes presents over 6,000 different playing cards from all over the world, including Asian cards in weird shapes or playing cards with Kamasutra motives. XD You can also see videos about the life of Fournier and the story of his firm, as well as the many different ways of printing cards.
San Sebastián.
San Sebastián, or Donostia/Donosti in Basque (also meaning "Saint Sebastian"), is the capital of the province Guipúzcoa (Gipuzkoa) and 20 km west of the French border. Queen Maria Christina of Austria declared the city as her permanent summer residence and thus brought fame to the city. Today, San Sebastián is also called "the Spanish Nice", a reference to the Côte d'Azur city and famous holiday resort for rich people. The city was almost entirely burned down in 1813 by allied forces of Spain during the Peninsular War but rebuilt in the old style.
We arrived at our hotel, a very nice place near the foot of Monte Igeldo, on the 8th of September, unpacked, and then took the bus to the city centre to see some sights. With the San Sebastián card, you get a discount for the Bus Turistikoa, so we decided to get a first glimpse of the city by using this bus, and it took us to a lot of places, especially outside of the city centre, that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, considering that we just had three days in San Sebastián. As you will see when you look at the pictures, the city is absolutely beautiful. It's located in the north of the Bay of La Concha, which is called like that because it's shaped like a shell.
Unfortunately, such beautiful cities always have a downside: annoying tourists. I don't mean tourists in general, obviously, because I was one of them! XD But especially at night, when the streets of the old town, where all the bars are located, were flooded with people and you almost couldn't move inside the bars, there were tourists and tourists and tourists and... some more tourists. I'm not one to complain about tourists, of course, being one myself, but when you're standing in a bar with about 15 other people (which is pretty much the capacity of the bar), and five of the people are Americans, and all you can hear is those Americans and their "have you tried this? have you seen this? oh, we saw this gorgeous place yesterday, you MUST see it! ah, you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO try this!", and you can't even hear yourself speak anymore, it does get very annoying. Funnily enough, the only place where we didn't hear a word in a foreign language (other than Spanish or Basque, of course), was the beach. ;)
Panorama of San Sebastián, taken on Mount Igueldo. I still can't believe there are places as gorgeous as this in my part of the world.
Monte Urgull in the middle, with the statue of the Sagrado Corazón on top of it, and the island of Santa Clara on the right. You can take a boat to the island, but we didn't have enough time.
Basque coastlines in the west.
The city hall, which was erected in 1887 to serve as a casino.
The Plaza Guipúzcoa with its weather station.
The Plaza Okendo.
The Teatro Victoria Eugenia.
Monument of a little drummer boy (XD) in the old town.
I have no clue what this is, so if anyone knows, please tell me.
Our beach, the Ondarreta. :D We couldn't spend a lot of time there, but we definitely enjoyed it. The sand is soft and really awesome, but unfortunately there are a lot of sharp stones when you step into the water, so you have to be quick. Swimming in the Atlantic is worth the stones, though. :D
One of the many bridges in San Sebastián.
The narrow streets of the old town.
The Iglesia de Santa Maria del Coro in the old town.
The Plaza de la Constitución.
Its balconies are numbered because they used to be rented out in the days when the square served as a bullring.
The city's coat of arms.
The Plaza de Bilbao...
... or Plaza Bilbo. XD
In the background, you can see the new cathedral.
This is it.
Another awesome bridge.
La Concha Bay.
This is Monte Igueldo. There's a rack railway that takes you right to the top of the mountain, where you can either visit the panoramic platform or a fairground.
We visited the panoramic platform, of course. :)
San Sebastián has a lot to offer at night.
For instance, the awesome pintxos. :D
This is one of the many great bars that we went to.
They have a great selection of pintxos and also most intriguing tables. :D
This is Borda Berri, which we considered the most awesome bar in San Sebastián and maybe even the entire world.
They don't really have a lot of space, but the service and the drinks and especially the food are fantastic.
They don't serve pintxos but instead little raciones that look like menu courses at a five star restaurant and quite possibly taste just as good. We had five of the dishes on this menu and loved each one of them.
We also had mosto, which is grape must that has not yet developed any alcohol, served with ice cubes, slices of orange, and an olive stuffed with anchovy paste. Sounds strange but tasted utterly delicious and was also very cheap.
One of the many great dishes, a tomato stuffed with tuna cream and covered with green pesto, a tomato vinaigrette, and sesame seeds.
Meat croquette with two sauces. Delicious!!!
And this is the famous txakoli, or "chacolí", a slightly sparkling, very dry white wine with high acidity and low alcohol content, produced in the Basque Country. I loved it so much that I ordered it every single day. :)
As the night buses had ridiculous schedules, we often walked back to the hotel, right along the bay.
Once we came across this lost pair of shoes. ;)
One of these buildings is the famous Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra where a room costs a fortune.
Of course, I also have some curiosities for you. :D
Bilingual ATM. ;)
Learn German for the German national team? LMAO!
*snicker snicker*
Look, it's Athletic and Real Sociedad! XD
And finally, to complete all the Lord of the Rings references, have one that is deliberate! XD
On September 11th our holiday ended and we had to say goodbye to the beautiful Basque Country. :/ It would be an understatement to say that I didn't want to go. I really, really, REALLY didn't want to go, and I kept saying that to my buddy as we drove from San Sebastián to Bilbao airport. He wouldn't have had any scruples to leave me there, but of course I had to go back to work, so in the end I had no choice but to board the plane. *sniff* I never thought I could feel homesick about a place that, technically, isn't even my home, but ever since I got back to Germany, I keep wishing I was in the Basque Country again. I miss everything about it, the countryside, the people, the food... If I didn't have any responsibilities in Germany, like my job, I would emigrate to Bilbao in an instant. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was the best holiday I've had in my entire life, and I really can't wait to go back in December.
My next two posts will be about the training centre of Athletic Bilbao in Lezama, so stay tuned!