Old Friends, Good Times

Earlier in July we had visitors. Jill returned, this time with her husband Peter. It was a pleasure doing our favorite San Sebastian activities with some of our favorite people. This time we did it with a few new twists.

While we’ve hiked between Zarautz and Getaria admiring the vineyards many times, we’ve never stopped at one of the wineries along the way. Hard to believe, right?

For the first time we stopped at a txaikoli bodega to do a tour and tasting. During our visit at Ameztoi, we learned a few nuggets about the history and development of the DOC (denomination of controlled origin) for local txaikoli, which was created mostly for market expansion purposes, and about the growth of export markets for this little-known wine. The grapes will be harvested next month and were already looking promising on the vines.

Having just explained to Jill and Peter about Getaria’s famous son, Juan Sebastian Elkano, we were amused to see that the winery had painted one of its ceramic tanks to display his voyage around the globe. The tasting on the terrace was a lovely break before a fabulous fish lunch, which of course included more txaikoli.

We spent part of a day at the beach paddle boarding and relaxing. Later that afternoon we walked out to the Peine del Viento before dinner.

We’ve taken many visitors to see the flysch in Zumaia, but this time we did it on a sailboat! What a treat! While the explanations of the flysch were less detailed than the bigger group tour, the experience was fabulous.

Peter and Jeff hung out on the front of the boat talking politics, while Jill and I sat with our feet in the water calculating that we’ve known each other 39 years come September!

After spending 2 hours on the water, we had a terrific lunch at a bar that was named to Spain’s top 10 list. And then we went out to the shoreline to show Peter the flysch up close.

It was such a fabulous visit – we tired ourselves and our guests out! And now I know someone with a boat, which could come in handy for future adventures.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff