August in Northern Spain - Week 3

For our last week in northern Spain, we decided to change venues, relocating eastward by about 250 miles, to San Sebastian.  At the end of our trip on our drive back to Tavira, we also made an overnight stop in ​Mérida.

San Sebastian

Sitting right on the coast, San Sebastian is in the Basque region of northern Spain, an autonomous community with strong cultural traditions, including their own distinct language that pre-dates the Romance languages.  The city of San Sebastian holds about 180,000 people, so this was a much more populated place than where we had been in Asturias.  

​San Sebastian is also well-known for its wonderful food culture which, of course, was one of our primary reasons for staying there.  Their tapas are legendary throughout Spain.  In the old town of San Sebastian, there is about a 25 square-block area that is nothing but restaurants, bars, and tapas joints.  

Museu Guggenheim Bilbao

About an hour west of San Sebastian is the town of Bilbao, so we just had to make a visit.  The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao houses a collection of modern and contemporary art, and the building was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.  

Dinner at Restaurante Arzak

For our 34th wedding anniversary, we had dinner at Restaurante Arzak, which has been awarded three Michelin stars.  The meal was fabulous, but made even more so by our meeting and speaking with Elena Arzak, the joint head chef of the restaurant.  We were a little shocked to see her taking food orders from customers and generally having casual conversations around the room.  We spoke to her about the pandemic, working to save the restaurant, and staying home with her two teenage kids.  We asked after her father and restaurant founder, Chef Juan Mari, who at 80 still comes to the restaurant regularly (and critiques her dishes!).  It was an amazing experience to meet the person who in 2012 was declared the Best Female Chef in the World (by Restaurant Magazine).

​Mérida

The capital of western Spain's Extremadura region, Mérida was founded by the Romans in the 1st century B.C.  There are still a variety of well-preserved Roman ruins throughout the city, many of which honor Caesar Augustus and his family members (who were depicted in the British mini-series, I, Claudius​ in 1976).

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We had a fantastic experience in Spain on this trip.  But after three weeks, we all (and particularly Ryder) were ready to head home to Tavira.  We hope to come back to northern Spain again next summer!