A kareoke kind of holiday

It started in Paris.  They played 'Stand by me' on the cruise and we just had to sing along.  There were further signs on the trip to Spain.  A foot tap here, a line sung there.  Then in San Sebastian it became a Thing.  The taxi driver clearly decided we were that kind of girls and turned up Born to be Wild when it came on.  Dutifully we sang along.  Later that evening, after we had done a little jail-breaking, we joined the crowd surrounding a busker (crowd surfing included) singing 'Imagine' and similar songs from that era.

But I promised my sister descriptions of food.  I didn't tell her there was wine as well. San Sebastian is known for its Pinxtos.  A little pub crawl was called for, starting with a wine and this fabulous smoked salmon and cheese on bread.  At the next stop, we tried (and failed) with the famous flat cider.  The food was more of a success: battered fish, prawn, and some other stuff that I have no idea what it was (British woman: what is that?  Me: I have no idea. Brit: that's very ambitious of you), but it was very nice.  Janice suggested dessert to finish.  I was dubious that we would find anything, but there's a whole store dedicated to dessert pinxtos.  The lemon meringue tart I shared with Mum was surely made by angels it was so good.

I seem to be telling this story backwards but I'm just going to go with it.  Our evening had started with a walk up the hill to see the sunset.  We got a little list and missed the sunset, but saw some lovely old ruins and a large statue of Jesus looking across the town (it's way cooler if you pronounce it 'Heysuse').  The police drove by and told us the park was closing.  We must have been too slow navigating by torchlight as the gate was closed when we reached the bottom.  Faced with having to climb back up the mountain to find another exit, I jumped up on the wall and over the fence.  I think it was easier for me than for the slightly shorter mum and Janice.

I think I should have been born Spanish.  The cafe con leche  (like a flat white) and croissant for breakfast this morning was perfecto.  After this interlude in our morning constitutional along the beach, past old buildings,  and along the river we arrived at a cathedral  (there are of them in Europe).  I timed my peek inside perfectly to see the sun shining through the stained glass windows onto the stone and the organ.  Very pretty.

After picking up our rental car, I drove us to Haro.  Candice, Mum's GPS, really let us down here.  She took us onto what looked like a footpath, but Janice got out and navigated me round dome tricky turns.  Until we reached a spot where I was a number of turns into a 378 turn corner.  When the locals walked by shaking there heads and saying 'no way' it was time to admit defeat and reverse back the way we came.  Which was not easy.  I was quite keen for a large whiskey when we made it back to a real road but settled for parking the car and walking to our accommodation  (aided by a very friendly local).

Our reason for visiting Haro was the Bodegas  (wine makers).  But I'm sleepy again so I'll leave that, and our visit to a convent, for tomorrow’s post.