Two Spanish gems

Very different but equally mesmerising:  San Sebastian and Vilamos.

We had the pleasure to spend two days in San Sebastian.  What our overpriced accommodation didn't deliver, the town certainly made up for.

As we often do in places where food features strongly, we signed up to a walking food tour the night we arrived.  It wasn't the best we've experienced, but we did meet some nice people from Scotland and the UK and tried out a few pintxos bars and learnt the local way of doing things around here.

The food was incredible, and lived up to its' reputation. It goes very well with txakoli which is a lightly sparkling white wine. They pour it from a height to stimulate the bubbles :)

We've learnt that the best way is to try one pintxos and one drink at each bar and spend the night bar hoping.  We tried that out the following night and learnt that to survive this, you must only order small beer (called zurito) so the Aussie pint really has no place in San Sebastian.  It is an expensive social activity, so (unless you are cashed up) I don't know how people do it every week, but hell it was fun.

To raise our appetite, we walked the whole length of the bay (it took close to 2 hours at a slow walking pace) with the final destination the Funicular (little train that takes you to the top Monte Igueldo for some spectacular views).  There is actually an old theme park called the Parque de Atracciones.  It is no longer in use, so it's like it is frozen in time from the 80's.

The second gem we stumbled across on our travel from San Sebastian back towards Barcelona.  We were looking for an overnight stop over at about half way and found cheap accommodation in a town called Vilamos in the heart of the Pyrenees.  It is a small village of 171 people.  

View from the top of a lookout onto Vilamos - we stayed in one of those houses :)

Views of the Pyrenees were breathtaking.  There is a little square overlooking the mountains with park benches -  a perfect spot for some time out and reading books.

The highlight came as the sun set over the village. 

It turns out we were lucky to have travelled here that particular Saturday, because the only restaurant (which opened in 1832!) had a live Cuban band entertaining the locals.  We were the only tourists in town so it's fair to say, we stood out.  Nobody spoke any English either.  We feel that we got a true local experience that night.

As if the day couldn't get better we had a fantastic dinner at the restaurant.  Baked brie, tomato and mozzarella salad, followed by confit duck, with plentiful wine, cake and coffee for just over 50 euros.  We spent more in road tolls than on this dinner!...

This morning, we awoke to this sunrise from our window:

One more adventure ahead before heading home.  See you soon Copenhagen!