June 12

The day started out cold, windy and with light rain, but by afternoon the sun came out and we could take our jackets off.  We began by walking to the Old Town and visited the Church of Saint Mary of Assumption, an ornate church built in the second half of the 18th century.  The first on that site was built in the 12th century and the second in the middle of the 16th century, but both were destroyed by fire and military conflicts.  The church is situated under the castle of Urgull, the prime objective of those wishing to conquer the city.  From there we walked through the gate in the old city wall to the small marina at the bottom of Mount Urgull and visited the maritime museum which concentrated on Basque whaling from the 1500s, including excursions to Red Bay Labrador.  Following that we walked along the cliffs at the end of the bay and then returned to the marina for a seafood lunch.  After lunch we walked around the bay which took about 45 minutes.  The beach is quite wide with very soft brown sand and some very expensive houses are located above the road around the bay.  At the far end of the bay is Mount Igeldo and we took the funicular up to an amusement area and climbed further for spectacular views of the city and bay.  By the time we got back to the hotel late in the afternoon we were worn out from the walking we had done so we relaxed for a couple of hours.  When we headed out for dinner we didn't find any restaurants near the hotel that excited us so we went back to the old town to another pintxos bar that Pat & I had visited on our past visit and had some really good eats.  We got back to the hotel around 10:00pm, before dark  .