The Afternoon
The trail of our afternoon walk was not complex as can be seen from the map to the right. We strolled along the foreshore of San Sebastian, admiring the architecture over the road from the beach as well as the Bay de la Concha that circled protectively around San Sebastian. One building on the edge of the boardwalk, backing onto the beach, also attracted our attention, not just from its curious design. It was called the Perla Thalasso Sports Centre (image right below) and offered various treatments such as relaxation therapy and anti-stress programmes. It business activities seemed to have found the perfect location.
Further along we began to recognise that the city fathers had ensured a lot of work was done on the shoreline once the beach had come to an end and the sedimentary boulders took over. The geology of the area was clearly very interesting and the stone-work that kept the sea at bay complimented the promenade that no doubt was very busy at the end of the day as citizens and tourists alike came out to relax in the sunshine.
The most significant building along this coastline is to be found as the bay bends slowly around to make its way towards Mount Igeldo and its associated headland. It is the Miramar Palace that was commissioned by the Spanish Royal Family and completed in 1889, designed by an English architect, Seldon Wornum.
Apparently it was Queen Isabella of Spain who began the Royal Family’s attachment to San Sebastian in the mid 1900s when she came annually to the city for the ‘sea-baths’. Queen Maria Christina of Austria who we got to know a lot about earlier in the day when we were examining the Cathedral of San Sebastian also enjoyed holidaying here. After she was widowed, she came to San Sebastian in the summers to stay in Miramar Palace. We came upon her statue (at right) further along on our walk in the park near the tennis courts built below the headland. The palace today belongs to the City Council and there is no fence around the front lawns of this impressive building so we were able to have a good look at this eye-catching building.
We continued our walk around to the headland and decided to follow the pathway that led to the curious platforms that gave visitors a view of the El Peine del Viento (the ‘Wind Comb), three steel sculptures that the artist, Eduardo Chillida positioned where the city ended and the sea begins. The ‘wind combs’ themselves are anchored in concrete blocks weighing over 9 tonnes and they are continuously bombarded by the waves that the wind hurls at this headland. In the platform next to the sculptures, the artist created vents that channelled seawater into spouts that burst into the air over the viewing area. We were grateful we had brought wet weather jackets with us on this expedition!
At this point on the coastline, we gained great views of Santa Clara Island that from our hotel, seemed to sit right in the middle of the headlands that protected San Sebastian. In reality, there is a reasonably narrow channel between the island and the ‘Wind Comb’.
In the view of the headland in a photo earlier in this blog can be seen the trail of the Funicular that takes visitors up to the top of Mount Igeldo. We would finish our walk along La Concha Bay boarding the Funicular, gliding up the mountain and taking in the great views of the city available from up there. The cartoon image on the left below shows the potential attractions of the amusement park. However very few of these activities were open by the time we entered the park and so we had to be happy with the views over the city that we gained.
Of course, one of the best views from the top of Mt Igeldo was of Miramar Palace and the grounds that surrounded it.
After catching the funicular back down the mountain, our guide was able to find a bus that took us on a circuit of the surrounding suburb as well as take us back close to our hotel. We were relieved as legs were starting to complain about our day’s long walk. We were very happy with our time in San Sebastian; it was just a taste of the amazing places we visited over the rest of the week as we travelled along the northern Spanish coastline. Our destination for the morrow was the city of Bilbao, 101 Kms from San Sebastian where we would travel to by bus.
APPENDIX 1: SAND ART
Below is an image of an artistic sand creation we passed as we headed out on our walk beside the La Concha Beach.
FOGTRAVEL 