Second week in San Sebastian
Monday was a bit of a fancy and refined day here. Diana started with her usual walk/run along the beach. We went grocery shopping in the afternoon and stopped in for a mid-afternoon drink at La Cervezeria around the corner. I got a kick out of the young girl next to us taking videos of herself eating pintxos – typical of the generation.
I found a martini bar and we gave it a try. It’s inside a very fancy hotel and did indeed make a very good martini. Bette Davis made one of her final appearances at this hotel to accept an award.
We walked from the martini bar over to dinner at Bernardo Extea. I found this place through searches for good seafood restaurants. This place was described as the best seafood in a quiet and unpretentious setting – perfect. It turned out to be just so. Our waiter’s recommendations were very good. Diana had shrimp carpaccio for an appetizer, and I had a half portion of foie gras – still a lot.
Diana had tri-colour scallops for her main and I enjoyed a wonderful grilled monkfish (another waiter recommendation):
There was an ecossaise (Scottish) coffee on the menu and so I had to give it a try – very similar to a cafe liegeois with whisky added.
Here’s Diana as we were leaving with the restaurant sign:
And here she is walking home through the lovely tunnel close to our apartment (usually has a musician during the day). We couldn’t find the taxi rank by the restaurant and so walked home.
On Tuesday, we made a day trip to Bilbao with the primary intent of visiting the Guggenheim art museum.
On our walk from the bus station to the Guggenheim, we passed the Maurice Ravel school. I looked up the Ravel/Bilbao connection:
I had no idea about that connection. We visited the town his Mum was from last week on our drive back from Biarritz.
I wondered about the connection between the Manhattan and Bilbao Guggenheim museums and looked that up too:
“The Bilbao effect” – how interesting.
I will say that on our 1.5 mile walk from the bus station to the museum, it was very clear that we were in a big city versus the enclave of San Sebastian – people speak much louder, car horns honk and so on. We have been so spoiled by the peacefulness of our location.
We were just talking about the museum, and Diana says it is definitely the best one that she’s been to “inside and out.” The Frank Gehry architecture is truly amazing. Here are some pictures, including the flower ensconced “Puppy.”
The exhibits inside were equally impressive and unique. The first one that we visited was called “The Matter of Time” by Richard Serra. All the guides said that if we only saw one thing, this should be it.
The exhibit was huge and you certainly did lose perspective when walking through the curved steel structures.
Here’s a view from above to give some scale:
I really enjoyed the visiting exhibit from Ruth Asawa who creates sculptures from wire.
You can look at the sculptures for a while and still struggle to see how she put them together. This exhibit made me think of Finn’s fiancée, Holly, who also creates 3D scultpures.
“And the City Stood in its Brightness” by Mark Leckey was a multi-media exhibit with the city, music, and light all playing together.
I didn’t capture the name of the artist who created the light box mirror art. It was amazing inside.
Here’s one last picture from the museum – me posing with “maman”:
After browsing the museum, we had lunch (the ensalada mixta is a new favourite) and then walked to the funicular to get a view from above the city. The red Bilbao sign at the start of this message was at the top. Diana got this picture of the Guggenheim from above.
The bus (with zero legroom) dropped us back in San Sebastian just before 7pm. It was good to relax and stretch out.
I made another attempt to taste the Turkish eggs at Cafe Somos on Wednesday morning. The last time I tried the small place was packed with no available tables. The weather was not as great on Wednesday – overcast and a bit cooler, so I was able to get an outside table with no problem.
Such a delicious breakfast.
On the walk back to the apartment, I snapped this picture of Diana’s favourite bakery – the baguette available around 4pm and just warm from the oven is the best that I’ve had.
We braved the elements for a late lunch at La Perla, the fancy beachfront restaurant (the only one built on the beach.) Here’s the Nook of the North just before we entered:
The view of the bay from the table was very nice.
I took advantage of all the mirrors to capture a silly selfie:
Lunch was yet another gastronomic delight. We started with truffled egg and mushrooms – amazing. Do you know how they make a truffled egg? I just learned on this trip – they sit truffles on top of the eggs for several days and the flavour of the truffle seeps into the eggs.
That was followed by octopus on a smoky paprika sauce – also amazingly good.
A pretty restaurant on the beach could easily serve mediocre food at a high price. La Perla does neither – creative, beautifully cooked, and reasonably priced.
Back at the apartment, we watched an episode of “Parts Unknown” where Anthony Bourdain explains why San Sebastian is the best place to eat in Europe. It was fun to see him rambling through the places that we have enjoyed.
This protest passed by the street in front of our apartment before we headed out to lunch. We guess it was a Palestinian protest from the flags:
We did the usual walk down to Old Town in the afternoon on Thursday – Bar Sport had just reopened and we had a couple of specific pintxos there that we were looking forward to trying. One was recommended by Chandler who just opened a new Basque restaurant in New Orleans. He visited San Sebastian for “research” prior to opening and loved the foie gras at Bar Sport. This is the most popular pintxo bar and was still busy when we showed up deep into siesta time. We started with the cream of sea urchin – something completely new and delicious.
That was followed by the much-vaunted foie gras a la plancha. Equally delicious and worth braving the bustle of the establishment.
I popped into a barber shop for a beard trim and ended up getting an overall trim. The barber was originally from Nicaragua, spent ages 15-19 in Minnesota and ended up in San Sebastian. Really interesting guy who was quite the perfectionist with my beard.
We had a couple of more pintxos and then a coffee at one of the lovely Parisian style outdoor cafes on the square. Then I helped Diana find the shop with the top she wanted to buy, picked up a slice of Basque cheesecake to try before we left, and some wonderful art.
David Bowie was on the beach today:
Diana suggested a final stop at La Perla on the walk back and we captured some last beach pictures.
And we weren’t quite finished yet. “I just want one more of those tuna tartare pintxos from the Cervezeria across from the apartment.” Diana’s favourite food groups:
Doesn’t look like tuna? I know – they had a steak tartare special that couldn’t be resisted. Quickly followed by the tuna:
Friday was a full and relatively smooth travel day. Taxi from apartment to bus station (10 minutes), bus to Bilbao airport (1 hour 15 minutes), flight to Amsterdam (2 hours), layover and hike to next gate in Amsterdam (2 hours), flight to Glasgow (1 hour), bumble around trying to get eSIM to work (30 minutes), taxi to Mum’s home (40 minutes). Time to relax – ahhh.
My brother-in-law, David, turned 60 years old on Saturday and Mum organized a lovely lunch at the Blair to celebrate. This is a delicious restaurant out in the country on the way to Kilwinning. It was noted that the twisty country road to get there was “not appropriate for speeding.”
We found a 3D creative picture for David in San Sebastian. That’s the local beach in the background and then beachgoers and finally Sean Connery and his Aston Martin with surfboard in the foreground.
Back at the house, David showed that he still has sufficient oomph to blow out the candle:
My grandnephew, Hamish, was having a great time with the attention from everybody:
He’s such a happy and easy wee boy.
Sunday was a quiet and relaxing day with pretty miserable weather, interspersed with brief periods of sunshine. A cold wind and rain kept us inside most of the day, with Diana starting a jigsaw puzzle.
Missing New Orleans, and particularly the omnipresent live music, I reread “Groove Interrupted – Loss, Renewal, and the Music of New Orleans” by Keith Spera. He covers music for the local newspaper and I really love his writing. Here’s an online summary before I dive into some of the quotes from the chapters about how local musicians were impacted by Hurricane Katrina:“The recent history of New Orleans is fraught with tragedy and triumph. Both are reflected in the city’s vibrant, idiosyncratic music community. In Keith Spera’s intimately reported Groove Interrupted, Aaron Neville returns to New Orleans for the first time after Hurricane Katrina to bury his wife. Fats Domino improbably rambles around Manhattan to promote a post-Katrina tribute CD. Alex Chilton lives anonymously in a battered cottage in the Treme neighborhood. Platinum-selling rapper Mystikal rekindles his career after six years in prison. Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard struggles to translate Katrina into music. The spotlight also shines on Allen Toussaint, Pete Fountain, Gatemouth Brown, the Rebirth Brass Band, Phil Anselmo, Juvenile, Jeremy Davenport and the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. With heartache, hope, humor and resolve, each of these contemporary narratives stands on its own. Together, they convey that the funky, syncopated spirit of New Orleans music is unbreakable, in spite of Katrina’s interruption.”
A description at the start of the book:
“Often described as the northernmost point of the Caribbean, New Orleans is unique among North American cities. A commingling of French, Spanish and various African cultures—coupled with a port town’s naturally decadent inclinations—cultivated a healthy appetite for food and music. The vibrant, idiosyncratic music community is essential to its hometown’s
identity, and to the larger world of popular music.”
I agree with Dave Matthews on the “most musical city”:
“The Dave Matthews Band recorded its Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King CD in New Orleans in 2009. Matthews, a frequent visitor, subsequently declared New Orleans “the most musical city that I’ve ever been to. Somehow it’s in the roots and in the ground in New Orleans. It’s in the blood. It’s in the celebration, and the suffering.” The recent history of New Orleans, of course, contains plenty of both.”
Some passages about the immediate aftermath of Katrina:
“Roaming Uptown the day after the storm, I was heartened to discover Tipitina’s, the city’s flagship music club, largely undisturbed on a swath of high, dry ground along the Mississippi River. From the street, the nearby home of legendary keyboardist Art Neville—founder of seminal funk band the Meters, a Neville Brother, and one of New Orleans’ most beloved musicians—also appeared undamaged.”
“The earliest post-storm gigs, such as blues/ funk/ soul guitarist Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s at the Maple Leaf, were powered by generators and cut short by curfews.”
“Katrina blew Soul Rebels Brass Band snare drummer Lumar LeBlanc and trumpeter Marcus Hubbard to Houston. They found housing, enrolled their kids in school and decided to stay. But six-plus years after Katrina, they still drive 350 miles each way between Houston and New Orleans for the Rebels’ weekly Thursday night gig at Le Bon Temps Roule, a roadhouse-like bar on Magazine Street. Maintaining that connection is essential, whatever the toll on their vehicles’ odometers. “We still consider New Orleans our home,” LeBlanc said. “I’m New Orleans till the day I die.””
A passage about Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown featuring two fo my favourite musicians, Marcia Ball and Joe Krown:
“The next night, he accompanied Krown to the fabled New Orleans nightclub Tipitina’s to see Austin rhythm-and-blues pianist Marcia Ball, an old friend. Ball embraced Brown for a long good-bye hug. “Gate’s going out the way he wants—in the clubs,” Krown said. “It’s not even about playing. He just wants to be out there, around music he likes, as much as he possibly can. And he’s doing exactly that.””
Some words about the 2006 Jazzfest, the first after Katrina:
“On the festival’s first Sunday, my wife and I stood in the field facing the main Acura Stage alongside a half-dozen writers and journalists. Like me, they had witnessed countless concerts, and were not easily moved. By the conclusion of Springsteen’s tour de force with his Seeger Sessions Band, all of us—myself, my wife, the other writers—were weeping. It felt wonderful.”
“For two glorious hours, Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions ensemble—six horns, a banjo, accordion, pedal steel guitar, fiddles, piano—invigorated vintage folk and protest songs. Few others in popular music could craft a show that spoke so eloquently to the city’s struggles, both welcome distraction and poignant reminder.
Eyes closed, Springsteen rededicated “My City of Ruins,” originally written as a eulogy for Asbury Park, New Jersey, to New Orleans. To a hushed, riveted audience, he described scenes of desolation that sounded all too familiar: “The rain is falling down … the boarded-up windows, the hustlers and the thieves … now tell me how do I begin again?” And then the refrain: “Come on, rise up! Rise up!”
Thousands of weary New Orleanians let the lyrics wash over them like a baptism. The personal pronoun of the title gave them voice: My city of ruins. Those in need of someone to express the anger, frustration, grief and resolve expended over the previous eight months had found their man. Fists were raised and tears were shed as Springsteen delivered a Jazz Fest moment for the ages.
But he thought two lesser-known verses might be appropriate. With that, he unspooled “When the Saints Go Marching In” not as a boisterous, high-kicking second-line parade, but as an acoustic prayer delivered in a desperate hour. Face clenched, he sought the promised land: “Now some say this world of trouble is the only world we’ll ever see/ But I’m waiting for that moment when the new world is revealed.” No other artist could have spoken to, and for, the city of New Orleans more purposefully, passionately and effectively than Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band. Years later, people still talk about it. “They should talk about that forever,” Davis said. “I thought it was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen thousands of shows. Reverend Springsteen held church, and ministered to a flock.” Dave Malone, the guitarist and vocalist for veteran New Orleans roots rock/ funk/ R& B jam band the Radiators, had never experienced Springsteen live before Jazz Fest. “The cynical part of me thought it would be hokey—some Pete Seeger stuff can be dated. But that guy has some kind of magnetism I can’t explain. His delivery and band were incredible. It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was sitting there crying like a third-grader.”
I have a lot of other highlighted sections about other musicians and their travails during and after Katrina, but I’m going to keep them to myself so as not to dilute the Springsteen commentary.
I don’t remember what got me on a Ry Cooder kick this week but I’m glad it happened. I love this concert for New Orleans:
There are a lot of other great Cooder videos out on YouTube that I had not seen until this week.