Euskadi; Zumaia and Donostia

Sunday morning we met up with Cameron in Getaria and we hiked over to the neighboring town of Zumaia. The walk was gorgeous, there were a few steep parts due to the rolling terrain, but it was mostly a nice stroll. It rained on us lightly here and there, but not consistently, not even enough to get us very wet. The hillsides were so green, many of the slopes had gardens on them, many of which were still producing veggies. I was sooooooo jealous, I can't wait to start a garden again, I love growing vegetables. Once we arrived at Zumaia we stopped for a coffee and pintxos. We then headed over to the cliffs. The cliffs are famous for the flysch--the longest set of continuous rock strata in the world. They date from the mid-cretaceous period to the present, over 100 million years, it's an archeological playground. After playing on the cliffs for awhile we took a bus back to Getaria. We didn't do anything too exciting that evening, I was feeling pretty tired from our exciting day.

Vineyards outside of Getaria

Dan and Cameron on our hike

Looking down onto Zumaia

Birds of Zumaia

The cliffs at Zumaia

Cliffs at Zumaia

Dan and I on the cliffs in Zumaia

On Monday Dan and I took the bus to Donostia (San Sebastion). We walked around the town for a bit to get oriented, it was a pretty cold day, it felt colder in Donostia than it did in Getaria. We found the train station where we were to pick up Erin on Wednesday. We also found a car rental place and got info about renting a car which wass going to be much cheaper than we originally thought, yay!!! We then met with Cameron and he took us to several of the local book stores where they had minimal displays of the Center for Basque Studies books. We then met with Marijo, a wonderful Basque woman who is an associate professor for UNR and kind of works with Dan. She was very friendly and she knew the area where Dan's family's ranch is. She had visited Denio and was friends with the Dufferinas. She lived in Reno for a couple of years, but had to come back to Donostia due to the health of her mother-in-law. She has an adopted son from Morrocco who is her pride and joy.

The Basque Santa Clause

The cathedral in Donostia

We went out for pintxos with her and then to lunch. Lunch was a huge traditional Basque meal, this meal was the most similar to the meals you get at Basque restaurants in the States. It was my first full meal since being ill. It was delicious I had legume soup, hake in green sauce and for dessert, flan. I was sooooooo full by the end of the meal, I felt I could explode. Marijo told us that the owner of the restaurant went to the market each morning and bought the food for the day so everything is super fresh and local. After lunch we stopped at another bar for coffee and beer. Afterward Cameron and his girlfriend gave Dan and I a ride back to Getaria, which was very nice since on the bus ride over I felt car sick and wasn't looking forward to the ride back home--especially with my full belly. Our lunch was soooo big that we decided we didn't need dinner and went to bed soon after we got home--around 7:30pm.