The Holls Come to Visit

My sister Karyn, her husband Jim, and our nephews Jeremy and Ethan visited us for a few days in San Sebastian after we returned from Paris (and before we headed off to Barcelona and Madrid -- what a crazy month June has been). Their visit was part of a three-week visit to Europe that brought them to Amsterdam, a couple of smaller Dutch and Belgian cities, Bourdeaux and Paris, as well as San Sebastian.

Of course, the main things we do with friends and family who visit us is show off the beauty of the city and eat. Thus, the day they arrived, we took a walk around the city, including along the Paseo Nuevo:

We did a pintxos crawl in the Parte Vieja, with stops at some of our favorite bars including Mendauer, Gandarias and La Cuchara de San Telmo. For dessert, we went to La Vina for their famous cheesecake and a bit of Pedro Ximenez sherry. The food/wine was a great success:

The next day, we met in the morning and spent a few hours on La Concha beach along with every other person in San Sebastian. It was hot (in the 90's) and we all spent time cooling off in the bay before deciding to head back for showers and a lunch of jamon, cheese and fruit at our place. Again, the food was a great success, with Karyn deciding that although she does not like ham, she does like jamon.

After lunch we played cards, with Ethan destroying us all at Chinchon before Karyn and I ourlasted the field at poker. While we were playing, Shana noticed that the temperature had risen to 107 degrees, with a "feels like" of 112 (!). This was the hottest temperature we could remember in our five years in San Sebastian and, it turns out, it was actually the highest recorded temperature in the city ever!!! Amazingly, with our persianas down and some fans on, our apartment remained relatively comfortable. Then, as happens in San Sebastian, we had a galerna, which dropped the temperature into the 70's by the time we went to dinner.

On the Holl family's final day in San Sebastian, we planned a fish/steak lunch at an asador in Orio where we had eaten in February during our brief "spa-cation". In order to build up an appetite, Shana, Karyn, Jeremy, Ethan and myself set our for Zarautz and hiked the four or so miles back to Orio. Jim decided to go for a run, which means he covered much more ground than we did. The beach in Zarautz was very busy, but also absolutely beautiful:

Arriving in Orio, after a hike through the hills, including some Txaikoli vineyards, we met Jim at the train station. Lunch was fantastic as we introduced the Holl family to many Basque favorites, which everyone seemed to enjoy very much. Afterwards, of course, there was no room for dinner, although Jeremy and Ethan did grab some ice-cream bars from our freezer. Ah, the teenage appetite.

In any event, it was great to see everyone and introduce them to our favorite city. But, after saying goodbye at the Topo station, we had to prepare for our next trip as we were on an early-morning train the next day to Barcelona. More on that to come soon.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana