San Sebastian

Well, this is the last post about our trip to Southern France. You are all probably tired of looking at these pictures, but since this is my journal, I wanted to include lots of pictures.
Dh's cousin Jean Claude and Jacqueline came over one evening for dinner. They had a blast together. Jean Claude was there with Dh when he had some of his childhood adventures. In fact, they were in on lots of those adventures together.
One day Dh(about 15 years old) was riding his bicycle carrying a huge pitch fork over his shoulder. As he drove past some trees, one of the branches grabbed the pitch fork and as if in a sling shot, the fork flew forward catching Dh in the arm and come out the other side of his arm near his elbow. JC said he heard the very loud screaming coming from Dh. His Dad, Jean Baptiste, who had a peg leg, came running to him as fast as he could. Both boys could not believe how fast he could run. He grabbed the handle of the pitch fork and yanked it out of Dh's arm. He still has the scars to show from this adventure.
Another time when he was about 6 or 7 he really wanted to fly. So, he gathered some goose wings and tied them to his arms. Then he climbed into the barn and tried to fly out of the window, because now that he had wings, surely he would be able to fly. Luckily for him, just below that window was a huge dung pile.
Then there was the time they were about 12 and 9 years old and Dh took the car for a spin around the farm. He drove a bit too close to the house and scratched both the house and the car, but they had sooooooo much fun.

One day we drove to San Sebastian, Spain.

The day was overcast and drizzly, but we still had a great time. The area is very beautiful.
The boardwalk was almost empty.

The bridges too.

We drove all the way to the top of the little mt. top left. There on the very top is a large building and a carnival area. It was closed because the season is over, but there were a couple of open gift shops.

The view from the top is gorgeous. You can see the bay and the harbor from one side and the ocean from the other.

It you ever want to use the bathrooms, be ready with your own TP and also have about 50cents for the use of the toilets. Some places will give you a few sheets of TP, but then you have to pay more. At least they now have bathrooms in lots of places. When we were in France 30 years ago, there were almost no public bathrooms.

Thinking of this made me remember that years ago we were visiting little Uncle Julien and Aunt Jeanne, with whom Dh lived for about 2 years. They had a farm and no bathroom. Well Lana and Alec needed to go, so they went out together to protect each other from the animals. While one was busy, the other one would keep the animals away. This one particular time they came in from doing their business and L said, "Oh Mom, it was soooo embarassing. I was going to the bathroom and this big cow came over and watched me."

Another time we were driving through the streets of Bordeaux and A was sick. He really had to go. There was no place to go and we were not near any trees or bushes or anything. Well, when you have diarrhea, you just can't wait, so I asked Dh to pull over and the poor little guy was sick right there on the streets of Bordeaux. That was embarassing, but luckily noone was around.

One last potty story. Even today we see many French men using the side of the road to relieve themselves. Why just across the street from our apartment there is that large field I showed before. There has been many a guy that has done his business there. No embarassment at all.

Well, enough of that.

Back to beautiful San Sebastian. We had a great hike up the hill to the amusement area and we really enjoyed walking around the large building, which was closed. I was asked by 3 separate groups of people to take their picture. I guess they thought I was a good photographer. Hope their pictures turned out.

After that we went and walked around the harbor. We watched some fishing boats coming in with their catch of the day.

We went to old San Sebastian. This is a really old area with shops and restaurants. Everything here was outrageously expensive.

The border was really easy to drive through. They did not stop or check anyone.