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Popular Things To Do | Miscellaneous Things To Do Tips | All Tips (138)  | |  |  | What To Do In Donostia On A Short Daytrip | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
Donostia-San Sebastián is worth more than a daytrip, but if your schedule is tight, it is feasible to see the city without spending a couple of nights here. A day in San Sebastián should start with a good breakfast at Chez Croissant, an inexpensive café and one of very few places that open early in the morning. After breakfast, a walk on the pristine beach is a good idea before it is swamped with tan bodies. A 7km of maritime promenade is the best way to see all three Donostia beaches, but if you only want to sample a shorter version, I recommend starting the walk at Paseo del Peine del Viento at the beginning of Ondaretta beach. From this point, you walk through Parque del Miramar with a stop at the Palace, then down to Paseo de La Concha. Half way through La Concha beach, at Plaza Aita Vinuesa, leave the beach behind and take Calle San Martin to Plaza del Buen Pastor. On this plaza stands Catedrale de Buen Pastor, the XIX century Neo-Gothic church with hundreds of beautiful stained glass windows, half of which stunningly glow against the sunlight at any given time of the day. Upon exiting from the church, make a turn onto Calle Alfonso VIII and pass through Plaza de Bilbao to cross the beautiful Puente Maria Cristina. When you are on the other side of Rio Urumea, turn left onto Paseo de Francia to look at the canopy inside the RENFE’s Estacion del Norte. The author of that canopy was the same engineer who created the marvel called Eiffel Tower. Paseo de Francia is a beautiful walk with many stately mansions to gawk and admire, but at the end of it, you will have to make the decision to turn right and explore Gross or cross Puente Santa Catalina to go back to Centro and La Parte Vieja. This is not a difficult choice, Gross is much more local oriented, but Parte Vieja is much prettier and the pintxos are better. If you choose Parte Vieja, the striking XVIII century Baroque Santa Maria del Coro is the absolute must see, and Plaza de La Constitucion is a great photo-op. Leave a Comment
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| | | | The Garden With A View | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Located across Playa de La Concha, Parque de Alderdi-Eder is a sculpted garden that cannot adhere to the planned mold. Whoever the architect was, he must plan for this garden to be very clean, very precise, and very straightforward, because that’s how it looks in real life. The flowery bushes are barely above ground to keep maintenance to the minimum. The flowers are of nondescript varieties and only come in red colour to keep imagination to the minimum. The fences around each patch of green are very low to make them easy to replace when needed. The pathways are very wide and very clean. The benches are very white and very clean. The lampposts are very white and very simple. Almost everything about this park is fool proof, fail-safe, and boring. Situated in a prime location where heavy foot traffic occurs daily, this park would be the biggest mistake in San Sebastian if it were not for the tamarind trees. Tamarind tree is not a neat tree, it does not have real foliage and it does not have shape. What it has is a messy top that brings up the image of a bad hair day, except tamarind tree has a bad hair day every day. It looks messy when the air is still, the sky is blue, and there is no humidity for which to blame. That is its character and it cannot be changed even when it is a part of a very clean, very precise, very straightforward, and very boring garden. The architect must have forgotten about the tamarind tree characteristic when he drew the plan for Parque de Alderdi-Eder. I appreciate his oversight. Leave a Comment
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Another beautiful bridge is María Cristina, which has prettified towers at each end (the bridge, not María Cristina!!!) Otro hermoso puente es el puente María Cristina, que tiene unas torres de piedra a cada extremo (del puente, no de María Cristina!!!) Leave a Comment
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on June 8, 2007
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