Donostia San Sebastian Promenade ❤️ 🐚 😎 🏖️ ❤️

WOW – what an lovely unexpected surprise this place has turned out to be !!!

We have been steadily heading north for a week, have been inland and generally it’s been cooler (obvs) than in Nerja so I just wasn’t expecting today…

We got up, showered, had brekky & bibbed off on the bikes and after about 5 minutes we were at the beach – La Concha Beach !!! (which means “shell” after the shape of the beach)… As we’d gone straight to the aire yesterday, I’d completely forgotten that we were even ON the coast 🏖️ !!! And I just wasn’t expecting it to be SO warm 😎 and busy and touristy (but not awful – just right) and well just… brilliant !!! – and (shhh) it has (maybe) made me start to appreciate that I live on the coast and I can see the sea 🌊 every day too…

Anyway (and I have had a glass and a half of Penescal – FAB vino rosado “fruity & sparkling” wine – remember ? See a previous post !!!) enough of all that – let’s get on with it…

Piccies – first one is of Santa Clara Island – which is literally a stone’s throw (500 metres) away from the beach and between June & September there is a boat service taking you there & back to the beach bar and to sunbathe. Two bits of trivia – there is a lighthouse which dates back to 1864 (although not visible in my photie below 😐 ) plus the island became a place of quarantine for the sick when the plague devastated the Iberian Peninsula in the late 16th century…

Piccie No 2 (which looks very similar to Piccie No 1) is actually of Mount Urgull and is topped by The Sagrado Corazón (“Sacred Heart”) statue, measuring over 12 metres in height which has blessed the city since 1950 (and there is a closer shot of the statue in Piccie No 3)…

We continued along the beachside cycle path and came across 2 clock towers – the first one telling the time and the second a barometer – which is really a weather forecaster; if the needle is to the left, it means low pressure, suggesting “storm coming”, if the needle is to the right, it means “calm weather” – and as you can see – it’s DEFS pointing to the right !!!

A bit further along the front – drawn in the sand – was the most AMAZING drawing – check out the piccie below – I’ve never seen anything like it !!! And when we came past on the way back (some hours later) it had been washed away… Apparently the guy does a new drawing every day and peeps throw money down onto the beach for him…

THEN we came across a little puppet show – with a difference – it was The Beatles !!! Dave remembers the guy from when he was there before (and HE was still there – some hours later – on our return too…). So he has tunes by The Beatles playing and he makes John, Paul, George & Ringo dance to them !!! REALLY entertaining !!!

There was a MASSIVE bear (who you could have your photo taken with), an APE, a lady doing hair braids, a carousel… It was FAB and I really enjoyed just wandering through it all…

SANTA CLARA ISLAND
MOUNT URGULL
CLOSE-UP” OF THE SACRED HEART STATUE
US ON LA CONCHA BEACH (“Beach of The Shell”)
THE 2 CLOCK TOWERS ON SAN SEBASTIAN PROMENADE
CLOSE-UP OF THE BAROMETER
THE AMAZING SAND DRAWING !!!
MY DAVE !!!
THE BEATLES !!!