Blood and guts

 Up early for the drive to San Sebastian as we heard the parks fill quickly. It was an easy drive through tunnels and over viaducts: the old road looked far more winding.

There's a cliff over the park-up that shows some interesting geology.

A few million years just there.

On our bikes again, though Jude's less than keen. There's a nice bikepath from here to the old city, so an easy ride.

First stop was the beach, then via funicular to one of the three points overlooking the bay de Conchas.

The old city in the distance, with Santa Clara midway. It all looked a little like a mini Rio de Janeiro (not that I've been there).

Trains started arriving in the 1850s and so did the tourists. (The Queen setting up court here helped.) A fun park was built in the early 19thC at the top of the hill and the funicular got the tourists there. 

Fun, eh!

We had a drink and there were 6 antipodeans sitting in a row, 4 Kiwis and 2 Aussies. Small world, or big travellers.

Then it was down and around the bay to the old city.

Of course there has to be some more history told. San Sebastian was invested by Wellington at the end of 1813 and was heavily bombarded before an amphibious assault broke the defences and the town was captured.

Note the destroyed wall at right (east)

After the French surrendered the Allies looted, raped and pillaged, then burnt the city down, despite the inhabitants being allies. Poor form, what?

The Spanish Emperor was going to give up on the city altogether but the citizens decided otherwise and rebuilt it.

It suffered a couple more sieges but in 1863 it was allowed to destroy its walls which had stifled growth for a century. They've not looked back.

Any civilised city has a model shop, though this one seemed to have uncivilized hours. In fairness it was a Sunday.

Three coloured seas

Originally the town was bounded by walls but after they were pulled down you can still determine the area by the red tiled roofs. The river can be made out on the left. at the time of the siege this was a shallow bay but area has been reclaimed.

(It's only a model...)

Two casinos were built to entertain the courtiers and tourists but they were both shut down in the 1920s by a conservative government that didn't tolerate gambling

So why the title? We had pintxos again and mine turned out to be black pudding sausage, including tripe. Hmmm.