Adventuriety
San Sebastian is very close to the border of France, about thirty minutes. We really wanted to spend a few days wandering around the Pyrenees Mountains and little villages in south western France, but we were so content in San Sebastian and the surrounding hikes that we only went to France one afternoon (but we made it count). Our sweet apartment manager, Ane (who had jokingly...
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Adventuriety
The Basque Country is a delicious smorgasbord of hiking adventure for all levels. Our third hike was short (only 3.5 hours!) and easy in comparison to the other adventures we experienced while based in San Sebastian. I think Scott picked this hike for it name, “XOXO(te).” Check out the trail map first. We found happily grazing ponies among the picnic tables at the parking lot...
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Adventuriety
The day after the marathon in San Sebastian left us carless and forced me to navigate my half planned hike from our apartment to Pasaia, we set off on Scott’s originally determined and mostly well researched hike in Parque National Pagoeta on routes 4001 and 4002. We drove to Aia, a small village situated on the slopes of Mount Pagoeta in the Basque province of...
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Adventuriety
We spent two weeks in beautiful San Sebastian, Spain, the perfect mix of mountains, city and sea. This is La Concha beach, minutes from our apartment and very cold, but Ashley couldn’t stay out of the water. She actually swam twice in the Bay of La Concha and the first time came out of the water before her allotted half hour was up (I was...
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Adventuriety
San Sebastian is known for Pinxtos. I learned this while researching towns that might be good for us to spend time in while we looked around Spain. People go to San Sebastian to surf and eat. There are a lot of other attractions of course, but at first glance you may think that the best thing in the area is a night spent eating pintxos....
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Adventuriety
We had one night to spend somewhere on our trek from Madrid to San Sebastian and so after our snow adventure we continued north until we began to get tired of being in the car. This is hot chocolate. It comes with a cup of steamed milk and we discovered it in a bar/restaurant on our way out of Toledo when the kids ordered Cola...
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Adventuriety
We spent the night in Segovia and drove back towards Madrid the next day to see El Clasico (more on that in the next blog). Since Segovia is only a short distance from Madrid, Scott had planned a route on the back roads that would allow for a long hike along the trails of Peñalara National Park. We left Segovia without breakfast (or coffee), stopping at a tiny logging...
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Adventuriety
We spent two restful weeks recovering from our frantic Italian pace and learning the rhythms of Toledo. The call of “Lotteria!” became part of the normal sounds of the day and the Italian (ironically) owner of the coffee shop around the corner tried to teach me a few Spanish words during my daily visits for his amazing coffee creations. There were many times that I wandered lost without a...
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Adventuriety
The kids are enrolled in an online school and part of the curriculum is P.E. which I am in charge of (along with History and English). We have been able to stay very active with a lot of hiking and walking and an occasional swim or bike ride but lately the kids have added their own twist to our walks, parkour. Parkour is a discipline developed in...
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Adventuriety
Toledo is an old and beautiful city. It is known as the “city of the three cultures” for it’s history of Muslim, Jewish and Christian peaceful cohabitation for centuries. There are churches, palaces, castles, fortresses, mosques and synagogues behind the medieval walls that surround the old town on the hill. Toledo, a World Heritage Site, is like an open-air museum, you don’t even need to venture inside the plethora of historically significant structures...
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