Day 5 - San Sebastian to Pormenande with Isabel and Alex

Beautiful Hydrangeas at the campsite near San Sebastian

Eucalyptus forest on the way to the beach

walking Yoshi with Isabel and Alex

heading down to the beach at high tide in Pormenande

Pormenande Beach (one of them)

the water was pretty cold, but extremely clear and clean

Alex doing some experimental bouldering

It’s been an extremely busy time since we last checked in on Wednesday the 9th near San Sebastien… here is a little video of our tapas experience there at a place called Borda Berri…

I was almost overwhelmed by the noise… I cannot understand how Yoshi handled it, but he did, and Maggie managed as well. It was worth it for the food, my goodness it was amazing, kebab of pork, pig’s ear, a fish dish (not sure what but who cares it was great), a risotto to die for; so delicious. The servers behind the bar have Wagnerian voices and I’m still a little deaf from the shouting.

From there we headed to Pormenande to Isabel’s parents’ house. Isabel and Alex are our colleagues from St. John’s; they currently are running the boarding house; Alex has filled in teaching math and science, and Isabel has classes in music and art. She was an intern with me for the first semester during the 2023-2024 school year, and ended up staying on, which is great for our school community. She brought Alex along for his internship this past year and he’s also joining the St. John’s family for the coming school year. They just became engaged so this was a chance to see them and celebrate that together.

We had a nice lunch together at Isabel’s parents’ beautiful house in Pormanende, met some of Alex’s friends who were also visiting, and then did the walks and swimming pictured above. In the evening we explored the town, and then went to a prize-winning restaurant that served the Northern Spanish version of a veal cordon bleu that was as long as my arm. Really delicious.

It’s really nice to have some time with them outside of a school setting, in their “home town”. And after four nights of camping, it was also great to sleep in an actual bed again!  But we had a solid appointment in Pontével so had to keep moving…

 … next episode: the Edgehill Road Mafia in Porto