246 DEAR DIARY, DAY TEN…

Dear Diary,

Today has been a good day. We moved the cars from on-street parking with the unfathomable instructions to an underground place where you pay on exit… we think. We went to a little cafe for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Despite pointing out our choices twice, we still got the wrong coffee and food. All part of the experience though, isn’t it?

We got ready and went to explore San Sebastián. People told us that it was nice, but that was a massive understatement. Beautiful architecture, proper cafe culture and reasonable prices for food and drink - the cheapest beer we have had on our trip, not that we were taking notes or anything.

We meandered our way through the city, heading towards the beach, stopping only a couple of times for essential refreshments. We eventually made it to the Playa de la Concha, the fabulous beach within the crescent-shaped bay, and took in the breathtaking views…with some more refreshments.

We did an online search and found the highest-rated steak restaurant in the city, and chanced our arm to get a booking. We were in luck, and a couple of hours later we were sat in the place looking at the eye-watering prices. Hey, it was our last full day in Spain; we had driven 1,900 miles in our little cars, so we treated ourselves. Lisa and Rachel weren’t into steak so chose a few side dishes instead.

Things kinda got lost in translation at this point as what was ordered wasn’t exactly what we expected. An example was the girls' Hake Pudding, which turned out to be a sort of fish mousse, drizzled with Thousand Island Dressing and topped off with tiny fish eggs. I thought it was really nice; Lisa not so much, to the point that I took a picture of her face, all twisted, while eating it.

Our steaks came, and they were, in a word, massive. Four T-Bones, 1.3KG each! Ridiculously big and cooked to perfection. It was like a ‘Man vs Food’ challenge, one we took on with gusto. Half an hour later the steak was gone, the padron peppers were gone, the ham croquettes were gone, the tomato salad was gone, the bread was gone, but the fish mousse remained!

We asked for the bill and tried to guess the total. For just the second time in 6 days we had spent over £500!

We walked back from the restaurant to our apartment in the light rain, watching the lightning flash across the sky, stunning. Lisa and I headed home, while the others stayed out for ‘just one more’.

Earlier in the day, Richie had got ChatGPT to create an image of him as an England bobblehead toy. This then led to more creative images being produced of the lads in outfits of varying quality and taste, from us riding lions in England shirts to full rainbow kilts to, most worryingly, us all wearing nothing but budgie smugglers and a smile - shocking stuff.

We made plans to recover the cars in the morning, mapped out our route to Bilbao and started to pack. Tomorrow’s drive is the shortest of the trip but one of the most significant as we finally say goodbye to Europe and head back to Blighty via the ferry.

Yours,

Rob