San Sebastian Saturday

It started with a wedding in the Parte Vieja (in the old town)

Weddings are hard to resist, aren't they?  The guys pretend to admire the car.  We ladies want to see the dress(es). But mostly......

  We just seem happy to share in the hopefulness of the day and someone else's good fortune.

San Sebastian is a beautiful city.  Unspoiled, shall I say.

Where many generations of families still live close all together.

And enjoy each other.

In fact, there were two weddings.  This group was waiting for the wedding party to emerge

from an other church.  But the Paradis family did not wait with them.  Because.....

it was getting close to pintxo time.

It's possible to get a good deal of window shopping in while you're scoping out the best

prospective pintxo options.

And bringing yourself up to date with the events that celebrate San Sebastian's

designation as a "Cultural Capital of Europe 2016" (shared with Warsaw).

With pintxos come long lines, and crowds (and for bread too - some in San Sebastian actually eat at home!)

It's a hectic way to live - queuing up and crowding into small spaces

or hustling and serving mobs.....especially when your specialty (battered fried shrimp)

makes people so happy.

Everyone seemed to be in the bars.  And not on their bikes.

The beach was quiet because rain was in the forecast.  San Sebastian can be a fairly rainy place.

When the deluge came, the Paradis family raced into Zara (just like last year in Barcelona when the torrents came funny, that!  "The rain in Spain......." is not just a song, we're learning but - a real thing!) 

It was either Zara, or pintxos.

And post-rain, we wanted to see more of San Sebastian before we succumbed to pintxo charms.

So it was back to window shopping.  Though

many shops close for lunch and for the siesta that follows...it seemed.

Making a hole-in-the-wall automated pharmacy a handy convenience.

Eventually, the famille Paradis began to feel that famished and fragmented sensation that only

 PINTXOS COULD FIX!  But I'll have to give you those details later.

Yeah.  Prolonging the suspense.  I promise.  The pintxos will be worth the wait.