San Sebastián, 20.May.2024, Monday

Carol and Matthew got in last night and we met up in the old town and started walking. This is a wonderful town for walking!

We started with the huge statue on the mountain (we’d call it a hill in CO) on the right side of the bay with the giant statue of Jesus of the Sacred Heart. Evidently if his hand is up in this form that’s what it means.

We walked up and around the castle and then back down, getting to spend a little more time in the old town. Gorgeous.

We walked by the bay and realized that the writing you see here was redone every day. I asked someone about it and they said that part of the beach is recreated every day, sometimes protest words, sometimes art, sometimes mandalas. In this case, it was protest and memories for both the Basque cause and for Ukraine.

Then, Matthew, Rick and I had a new experience – we went to the Talasoterapia Circuit. The what? The hotel had told us about it and that they were reserving our spots and I asked if we could bring a guest. Yep. So we walked in thinking everything was paid for and Matthew ended up paying for everything. And cheerfully!

We knew to bring bathing suits and I knew to bring a swim cap, turns out men need them too, so they got little blue beanies. We were just bewildered with the rapid flow of Spanish/Basque, but took our cards and walked through the turnstiles to get in. Then single sex? No? Change? Weird little spaces with doors on both sides – only on the way back out did I see the hooks down low to secure the doors while changing. I walked out the other side and only saw men. Oy. Went back and forth a few times trying to figure out. During one of my back and forth times, Rick went out and only saw women – but he asked is this only women here? No – and we all then found our way to the most amazing place.

Giant pools with massage jets. There was a circuit working all the way up and down the back and legs and it really did massage! The water was just the right temperature so we were completely comfortable moving around the pool with water at neck height about, so could walk or swim, at the end was a resistance stream for exercise. And that was just the first pool. There was another pool with different amounts of jets and a circuit that included underwater bikes, tread mills and arm machines. There was a hallway with shooting jets of all different termeratures of water coming at you from all directions. A hot tub that wasn’t too hot looking over the bay, an ice plunge, a steam sauna, a machines that poured iced that people rubbed all over themselves – not me at all – and the option to run out and jump in the ocean (freezing) and then back to the jacuzzi. And a final large pool with a waterfall you swam under to get to the “relaxing” pool with violet light and heads resting back on the rim when the rest of you floated. All of it was saltwater. We had a 2 hour slot and we used it! Matthew did everything, I did everything that didn’t involve cold.

No – no pictures for obvious reasons. But a very cool place. Matthew wondered why we’d never seen such a thing anywhere else. It was fantastic.

We came back and found that Susan and Bob had arrived and all of us ended up eating at Nobu. We gave up on the menu and just had whatever they suggested. It was a great meal, interesting flavors – but we’re going to go back to Narru for our last night.