Welcome To San Sebastian:
We arrived at 5:00 pm in weather looking a bit like a hurricane. I’ve never thought the Atlantic Ocean rated up there with the Pacific and the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, let’s finish up with Barcelona, where it was a beautiful sunny day when we departed this morning.
The family stayed in our apartment on Sunday, with one exception. Well, actually, Marlene went out for coffee. I subwayed it to Camp Nou, the football stadium where we would see a La Liga match on FC Barcelona’s pitch, around noon, needing to get our tickets printed after leaving them back in France. Mission accomplished. I did take a photo about a five minute walk from the stadium, where I was about to go underground to get on the subway. You can see the tram going by (yes, a tram and a subway going parallel). The buildings are part of the University of Barcelona. A very big campus.
I wanted to take a train ride out to the countryside, hoping to get above ground and see Barcelona neighborhoods. Well, I took a subway to a station shared with a railroad. All very interesting. Somehow, I ended up on the wrong train which quickly took me to the old Barcelona train station. My only option then was to walk back to the apartment to get ready for the football game. The walk took me to Ciutadella Park, the major park in Barcelona, which you can see in various photos. I also threw in a photo of a building of apartments across the street from the park and happened upon a man getting some water (there must be an easier way).
My walk also took me by the Cathedral, which I did not get into the previous day. Again, I was there when it wasn’t open, so none of us ever got inside.
We made an event of going to the FC Barcelona match. We left the apartment at 6:30, arriving at the stadium shortly after 7:00. We wandered around with many earlier arriving fans, including a walk through the three-story team merchandise store. We then had dinner on a deck attached to a restaurant (a glorified concession stand) in the big plaza area outside the stadium. There was actually a hot dog purchased. It was pretty good and begs the question, how come folks (the French) two hours away can’t produce a decent hot dog. I guess they might not want to. We reached our seats at8:30. Interesting that there were few concession stands inside the stadium, yet a few more than the football stadium in Marseille. Like the Marseille stadium, Camp Nou is concrete. I mean lots of concrete. And, like the Marseille stadium it has zillions of steps and not a ramp in sight. Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium were built one-hundred years ago with nothing but ramps, which is the standard approach in North America. I’m only one person, but ramps seem so much more effective than steps. We did see some fans drinking sodas and eating a few hot dogs, but no beer in the stands, though there was some sold in the stadium. The Spanish seem to barely eat at a sports event, compared to the French who seem to not eat at all. It doesn’t seem possible that these teams fail to get tons of concession revenue, which is key to American sports teams. Keaka noticed that the Spanish football fans were calm and peaceful, especially given their rabid support for their team. Even with video screens and tv monitors here and there, not one single re-play was shown (and the match was on television). Again, a different culture. Also, the subway was crowded, especially after the game, and the Spanish are much more polite and calm compared to the French. Six months ago I would have totally bet the opposite.
So, we made the journey from Barcelona to San Sebastian today. We got off to a bad start when we found our car, which had been parked in a public underground parking lot, broken in to. The car was ransacked, but nothing was stolen, because there was nothing to steal. The small window on the driver’s door was shattered, which required some fancy work with plastic bags and packing tape. Great fun. The six-day parking garage tab was 383 euros, which is about $500. Thrilling. So, I put the good old credit card into the parking pay machine, only to find out the machine would only take 100 euros, reducing the amount owed to 282 euros. After a few efforts the machine would not accept any further payment. I was somewhat frustrated at this point and the parking receipt I needed to exit was inside the pay machine. So, I decided to go and try to lift the exit gate. I figured that would be a failed effort. Fortunately, I was able to lift the gate into an up position (probably in front of a few security cameras) and quickly speed up the ramp and out of the parking lot. Keaka, who was alone with me, immediately stated, “I think that’s a federal crime”.
I found today’s journey to be fascinating, but it’s probably only interesting to those interested in topography and where cities are located and why they are there. If I get the energy I may devote a little effort to explain the journey, but not now. I had no idea what I would see traveling parallel to the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Let’s just say we are now in a very fancy hotel in San Sebastian and the weather is too bad (heavy rain and heavy winds) to go out. Our hotel is on a river about 1/2 mile in from the ocean and the river has been threatening to flood at high tide with such high winds and waves on the river that there were surfers on the river. Apparently, a few blocks away there are waves of 25 feet and up. We were told there’s been a “red alert” all day on the northern coast of Spain, which apparently is serious. All I can tell you is that the wind is howling and the rain is hammering at the hotel windows.
Tomorrow is another day.
The Wilsons
