They like their saints here in Spain. This town is named for San Sebastian who was a captain in Roman Emperor Diocletian’s Praetorian Guard. When Sebastian converted to Christianity, Diocletian (the last Pagan emperor) repaid this betrayal by making him a martyr.  It’s easy to recognize Sebastian in art, as he is always shown as tied to a tree and shot with arrows.

We stumbled upon this 17th century church, and I quizzed my kids on who the guy was with the arrows. Not being so up on their iconography (although they learned a ton at Madrid’s Prado), they guessed wrong. I then launched into a mini-history of Saint Sebastian and only when Jon stopped me did I realize the town was named eponymously.

We mistakenly came to San Sebastian thinking it was a beach town. While there is a beach, the two-mile expanse of Concha Blanco, it is more of a shopping, promenading, eating town than a beach town. More of a small city really. But fun nonetheless. Only problem is the apartment in which we stayed didn’t have wifi, which is why my posts are running a couple of days late; I have to sit in the main square to receive the public wifi system. On top of that, my brand new Macbook Pro just took a hit to its battery life, and instead of the five hours I was getting a couple of weeks ago, I’m only getting two.

San Sebastian, also called Donostia in Euskara (Basque), is known primarily as a food town, and so far we’re doing well. Ate last night in a Basque bistro called La Cueva. Mostly seafood. Lots of garlic. All good.

Continued…