San Sebastian- Basque Country

My mom kindly offered to watch our kids so I could go with Brent to New York for an award Brent was to receive for a previous work project.  Of course we accepted her offer and planned a quick thank- you trip before we were to leave for New York. 

San Sebastian

San Sebastian had been well recommended to us ever since moving here and being one of the few areas left that we wanted to explore we made plans to take my mom there.

San Sebastian, also know as Donostia (Basque), is a northern coastal city located in the Basque Autonomous Community. The Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community was granted the status of a nationality within Spain.  It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 12 miles from the French border. 

 



This sign is written in the 3 spoken languages within the Basque region.  The sign reads, from left to right, in Spanish, Euskera (the Basque Language) and French.  The language of the Basques has no known linguistic affiliation and is often said to be the only remaining language of the European cavemen.   Many of the Basque people want nothing to do with Spain and therefore refuse to learn Spanish.  They are offended by tourists that come wearing Spanish apparel including Spanish futbol team attire. 

This is the view from the back deck of the Hostel/hotel outside of breakfast.  The view would have been enough to take our breath away had we not been holding it due to the constant awful smell outside.

First Stop- Aquarium of
San Sebastian

This is just outside the doors to the Aquarium. This San Sebastian Aquarium opened in 1928. 

I think he is imagining what it was like for Jonah inside the whale or perhaps Pinocchio and his dad.

 

 

Amazingly this cool fish is entirely made out of cans.

 

 

 This is just half of the starfish case.  They had a great presentation of all kinds of dead sea creatures...

 and all sorts of pieces of them.

It also, as expected, had many, many tanks of a large variety of fish.   If I didn't know better I'd think Kaiya was licking her chops here. 

 

We could see into this tank from all sorts of angles. This tank housed several stingrays and sharks among the plethora of fish. 




We're not sure how they keep the sharks from eating all the other fish. 

 Once outside the aquarium we strolled along this pier and then into the town shopping all along the way while searching for the right place to eat. 

 

This is the end of the pier just before we entered through the city walls. 






The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Chorus is a baroque Roman Catholic parish church.  It was completed in 1774.

 

We eventually found this family friendly pub on the right with the green sign.  We ordered using the French menu we were given and walking outside to translate it with the English menu on the window. 

  

Here it is again on the left just before we arrived.  We had an extremely awful experience with our orders and walked out only to have to find somewhere else to eat.  We wasted nearly an hour of our day and thus we never made it very far into this city.  Good customer service is not expected here as it is in the US. 

 

 

Catedral del Buen Pastor  



Dating back only to the late 19th century, this striking Buen Pastor Cathedral features Neo-Gothic style architecture.  This is said to be the most important of the city's many religious buildings, with its spire measuring some 246 feet in height.  We never actually make it to this church, but we saw it in the distance several times.



Getaria

 

This will forever be known to us as the "Lost Shoe Beach".  It was a great teeny tiny city beach until the waves came up and washed away a couple pairs of our shoes that had been sitting at the end of this ramp. 



We quickly recovered 3 of the 4 shoes with the help of the tide but to recover the 4th we had to send Morgan in fully clothed.  We weren't too upset about the forever lost socks (one less stinky pair to wash).  We simply bought more socks in the next village (Zarautz). 

Zarautz

 Can you guess who is the bravest?  or the most spontaneous of the four?  Morgan was already wet so he had nothing to lose. 



They could have done this all night but after about an hour we started to get too cold to sit and watch any longer.

 

Back in San Sebastian

 Brent and Morgan spent some alone time together while the rest of us were spending some quality time together doing a little more shopping. 








The last morning in San Sebastian we took a quick walk around the hotel and walked (onto) these old ruins.

 Hondarribia

 Here is the beautiful harbor of  Hondarribia. We walked along (or on) the city walls to enter the old city. 

Morgan found the perfect place to climb this rampart. 

 This is the Weapons Plaza with the old Castle of Charles V on the far left. 

This was inside the old castle, which now is the home of a "Parador" Hotel.  The construction of this castle dates to the 10th century.

 We decided to explore the old town by walking along the perimeter. 

This town was quite enchanting.  It is one of my all time (in Spain) favorite towns we have been to.

Sadly, there was not enough room for Kamree on this bench. 

This is a lookout at the far corner of the city walls. 



After Hondarribia, we drove along the coast to find a beach to play on.  Unfortunately two steps forward here is a cliff straight down onto the rocky coast. 

 

The hills in the background of this picture are in France.

 We decided to drive to France since it was so darn close. Vitoria-Gasteiz- also written on these signs is where we spent our last night's stay on this trip.

Saint Jean de Luz, France

We finally settled on this beach in a the resort town of Saint Jean de Luz.  The kids did the usual beach routine: played in the waves, then in the sand, played in the waves, then in the sand and so on. 

We quickly walked around this charming resort town.....

 bought some churros (the only thing which we could afford) and headed back to Spain. 

 

Goodbye San Sebastian

 

 

Vitoria-Gasteiz

This was the view from the window of our hotel.  We arrived just before bedtime and left for home first thing the next morning to catch our flight to New York.

Back Home and Back to Life in Spain

 

Home and back to reality! (this is the side of our house)

Organizing

As we were organizing and cleaning rooms after returning home from Utah, Kamree came up with this ingenious way of storing her bracelets....

.

 

 

 ...and this not so practical way of storing her necklaces. 

 

El Escorial

Just after getting back from Utah we met up with some friends and their American nanny (not pictured) who is a roommate of our niece Rachelle.  This is obviously a Spanish foosball table with Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid and ashtrays in it's corners.

 Analia

Kamree's friend Analia at her baptism.   

 Since Analia was baptized, she moved up to the Senior Primary class.  The two now don't get to see each other enough so here they are catching up.

 

 

 Brent's Birthday Lunch

 This was about 4 days after Brent's birthday, but unfortunately we forgot to go out on his birthday since we forgot about his birthday until he hinted 2 days later on Saturday night.    Our kids got their preferred pizza from next door this Spanish restaurant and then returned home to eat while we dined at the restaurant.    I ordered the baked chicken which came with gravy smothered french fries  and Brent ordered the fish tacos atop ratatouille.  These pictured were the 2nd dishes before the yummy dessert.  

 

 

Juan Carlos Park

 A few days before school started we met with friends at the Juan Carlos Park and discovered this huge net.  The kids climbed from one side to the other.  There were huge gaps in this,  and I'm not sure how they managed it with their short legs.

YW Indexing Activity

This was a YM YW activity we had the weekend before school started.  The kid on the right was baptized while we were in Utah.    The lady sitting down in the far left corner (in white) is Sylvia H. Allred a recent 1st counselor in the General Relief Society.  She and her husband were so much fun to talk to about a few of their many adventures.  The couple apparently tagged along with the trainer of our ward family history specialist.  We were so glad they did!

  

 Back to School

After spending over 600 euros ($800) for books,  $30-40 for school supplies, and $100 for grade co-ops(classroom supplies) we were ready for school. 

First Day of School (Colegio) Sept. 9th 2014

I forgot to take a picture before they left so I snapped this right after getting home.  Apparently the first day was not too bad, since they needed no smile bribes.    Kamree told me on the way home from school that 1st grade was going to be easy since all they do is watch movies and play games. 

After school Oreos and milk.  This is the first milk I have purchased from the refrigerated section of the store.  We are not milk drinkers so the taste of the box milk has never been an issue for us in cereal.  This soured before we could finish it; I think it's best we stick with the boxes. 

 Kaiya's First Day of High School (Instituto) Sept. 10th

 It was rumored that the high school wasn't going to start until after the city fiestas at the end of the month, but the day before the kids started school we found out that Kaiya was to start in 2 days.  What a let down, but she was a trooper (perhaps since it was only 2 hours for the first 4 days).

 

Mason's Baptism

Mason was baptized at our Bishop's home in his swimming pool!  The baptisms in the summer are at his home which is next door to the Madrid Spain mission president.    This  is only 10 minutes from our home which is much better than the 45 minutes to the baptisms at the stake center which is in Madrid next to the Temple.

 Fiestas San Agustin

The fiestas go for several weeks with 1-2 things a week until the final week when it is nearly non-stop partying.  The schools, stores and postal service are closed on Friday- Monday when the bulk of the fiestas are scheduled.

Morgan and his friend Luis racing to the top of the tallest inflatable slide I have ever seen.   Unfortunately, these inflatables were set up for only one day after school.

 The street market is full of food, game, clothing, accessories and toy booths.  These are set up for 4-5 days in a row but only in the evening around 7:30 until who knows how late. 

 Only after about the 50th time they asked they received.  

 

 

 

 We found these clothes hanging out on the side walk interesting.  We assume this must be the home of someone running a booth all night.

 This was the band at the Ayuntamiento (town hall) setting up to play after the midnight  fireworks.   They both kept me awake til around 2 am which I then slept soundly through the allnight partying until someone doorbell ditched us at 7am.   

 

Running of the Bulls

The bull runs are scheduled Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning in prep for the bullfighting those evenings. 

 As we waited for the bull run to begin others waited to take over our spots.   Morgan was watching like Mason is here but in his own section to the left.  This older gentleman stood behind Morgan for a minute and then slowly weaseled his way into taking over the entire spot forcing Morgan to move out of his way.  Of course an apology was neither given nor expected 

 

 



 

 

 

 After waiting 45 minutes after this was supposed to begin, the first bull was finally out of the gate.   It turned out to be the only bull that did anything besides book it into the stadium.  The three larger beasts are oxen and are just leads.  They are chassed back to the beginning after each bull enters the stadium and then return with the next bull. 

 

 

 

 

 The oxen were determined to not return to the beginning, so they continued turning around back to the stadium.   After the 5th try they finally brought in a new darker set of leads. 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids got really bored at the fence while waiting for each new bull so we decided to go into the stadium and watch the excitement from there.  This bull is being led by the new set of oxen that did their job much better.   Notice how much smaller the bull is than the oxen.  Kamree thought the bulls were babies. 

 

Spain

This is a picture of a crosswalk after exiting a round about with arrows pointing the opposite direction of traffic.  When we first moved here I was startled once while driving thinking I must have gone the wrong way but knew there was no other way.

 

 Kamree "How many more days until Rooster Day?"     What?    Kamree- "Rooster Day, when we eat chicken." You mean Thankgsiving Day when we eat turkey?     Kamree-"Yes."