The alarm goes off at eight. It’s already light outside, it looks like it’s going to be a sunny day. We take our time at the breakfast buffet and then try to make up our mind about what to do, there’s a lot of options, but also quite a few things we’ve seen already. In a different category: things that look familiar and that we might have visited already, we’re not really sure..
We decide to take advantage of the weather and leave for Pagoeta Natural Park. It’s not too far and looks very green, so should be ideal for a walk. The size of the parking lot tells us that’s it not a very popular place, also a point in its favour! We put on light hiking gear, pack our rain jackets and some water in Arne’s day pack and decide to wander around a little. The educational center seems to be closed, but the botanical park – with a focus on shrubs and trees – is freely accessible, though not clearly signposted. We do the small tour of the hill first, mostly by accident. We run out of botanical garden, encounter the beehives (but no bees, for some reason) and use the OSM Outdoor map in RideWithGPS to circle back. When we encounter the little metal name plaques again, we know we’re in the right area and from then on, we just navigate by thickness of plaques sticking out from the soil. It’s a bit a random method, but fun! We encounter loads of different kinds of oaks (quercus), maples (acer), magnolia’s and some nice examples of choisyas, among many other plants. The steep slopes of the hill and lack of clear paths make it more interesting, we’re neck deep in underbrush one moment and then suddenly glimpse the surrounding hills through a break in the cover.
We accidentally bump into the parking lot again and decide to start our actual hike: the GI-4164 runs around this same hill on a lower altitude, passing by some interesting historical landmarks on the way. The descent to Manterola farm follows a rivulet, on a rocky, steep path. We encounter a group of horse riders going the other way, but aside from that it’s pretty quiet. Except of course the continuous, loud bird song. Some are familiar, and we see a red robin now and then, but others are unknown to my ear. Unfortunately I have no cell phone reception here, so I can’t use the Merlin app to identify them by their song..
From Manterola we follow another river, but this time upstream. On it we find two smaller and one large water mill. You can visit them if you reserve in the education center, but that was closed so we just peer in through the windows. Aside from all the historical value we’re completely missing here, it just looks really picturesque. The mills are fed, not directly from the small brook, but from pools built a level above the mill. I assume this is so they could have a steady throughput of water. They do look very familiar, now that we’re here looking at them.. I’ll have to have a look at our pictures from 2013, when we were also in this area, maybe we did already do this exact walk! Doesn’t matter, the sun is shining, we’re in the woods, we’re having fun.
Back at the car around one thirty, we figure we need a plan for the rest of the afternoon. First step: find lunch. We’re not far from Getaria, a charming fishing town known for its excellent fish restaurants (we’ve definitely been there before), so that’s our first stop. We park by the port, try the asador (grill restaurant) we’ve been to in 2013, but fail to secure a table: they’re booked full. We find another asador nearby and have a long lunch: fish soup for starter for me, Arne has kokotxas. This is a traditional preparation, with its own wiki page, even. We share a turbot as a main course, with a side of baked potatoes, then torrijas (French toast) for Arne and curd with honey for me. Delicious, but a bit heavy.
Not feeling up to more walking, we decide to let the car do all the work and plan a route to two monasteries. First stop: the sanctuary of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, this was one of the founders of the jesuit order and he was born here. They built a baroque basilica and a complex of buildings around it, completely encapsulating his birth house. It can be visited, but we suddenly realise that it will get dark an hour earlier today than yesterday, so we hop back in the car instead and drive on. The roads here are excellent, with many highways providing shortcuts through/over/under the mountains, but there is not one straight, level stretch of road around. Fun for driving, but not very fast.
We arrive at our next stop just as the sun is setting: the sanctuary of Arantzazu. It’s here because a shepherd found an icon of Mary and child at this spot in the 15th C and it was considered a miracle. Part of the monumental buildings are quite old, part are from the 1950’s, so it’s an interesting mix. There’s a group of young Franciscan monks also visiting, but aside from them and the late pair of hikers coming down off the mountains, we see nobody, it’s a very fitting atmosphere.
We drive back to Donostía-San Sebastian in the dark, take up two pintxos from the bar and spend the rest of the evening reading and watching episodes of The Man in the High Castle.
Febe writes 