Day 5 (del Norte): San Sebastian 3

A day with potential down time. Glad they serve breakfast until 11am at our little impeccable family-run hotel.. There are a few things planned for today though, including a movie at the festival in the evening. It is almost a shame that we don't leave the hotel until 2pm on a beautiful sunny day.

San Sebastian: (very) leisurely breakfast with a view at the hotel

San Sebastian: this small family-owned hotel is simple yet charming. A signed photo of the famed soprano Renee Fleming, a family friend, hangs in the lobby.

San Sebastian: the hotel is right on the Camino, so we will be following the arrows starting from here tomorrow.

A short walk up to the top of Monte Igueldo yields a commanding view. It's also where we take the funicular down to the bottom of the hill. From there, the plan was to walk toward a major symbol of the city and something we are particularly interested in - Peine del Viento (Wind Comb), a metal sculpture by Eduardo Chillida. (Our interest in Chillida's art was piqued last year by the B&B owner in St. Jean Pied de Port where we started the Camino Frances. He knows the artist's family and has his house decorated with his works.) But alas, we find out the access to a viewing point is closed because of a landslide.

San Sebastian: a panorama from Monte Igueldo

However, there is an alternative way to see the Chillida - a harbor boat cruise. I figure we could also fit in a bit of the hop-on-hop-off city tour bus ride before the boat tour, but it turns out to be a miscalculation and we end up wasting 12 euros per person. Just helping the local economy, of course. The wife votes to eat at this point. This city is perfect for someone like her who typically eats small frequent meals. At 4pm, many restaurants are still buzzing. After poking into a couple of popular pintxo bars which seemed too crowded, we settle into Fuego Negro, which has not only a great name but also an English menu which makes the ordering pretty painless.

San Sebastian: pintxos at Fuego Negro. Not a bad 4pm snack. Continuous availability of food throughout the afternoon in this city is good news for both diabetics and gluttons!

At the ferry ticket office we are told that the boat approaches Chillida's sculpture only during a high tide. It is iffy for the 5:30 boat, which we decide to take anyway since a later boat will make us miss the movie we already have the tickets for. We stroll around the harbor until the boat leaves.

San Sebastian: La Concha Beach seen from the Aquarium

San Sebastian: we are making sure to check out at least this open-air sculpture by Oteiza (titled "Empty Construction") which guards this side of the crescent bay in case the boat doesn't take us to the "Wind Comb" by Chillida which sits on the other side.

San Sebastian: now on board, we see the same Oteiza from the sea 

San Sebastian: will we or won't we be able to see the Chillida? It looks promising - we catch a glimpse of the farthest element on the rocks.

San Sebastian: and it gets better! We get close enough to the other two elements of Wind Comb. But photographing is a challenge in a rocking boat under an unfavorable light condition.

San Sebastian: crashing waves don't quite make it up to the sculpture but still enhance the scene with Wind Comb.

San Sebastian: backing up, we now have an angle to include all three elements of Wind Comb, but we are already getting pretty far away.

As we get off the boat, I realize that the movie starts at 6:15pm and not 6:30pm like I originally thought, which means that we are going to be 10 minutes late. Well, I reason that if I had not made that mistake, we probably would not have taken the boat given the uncertainty about the tide and therefore certainly would not have seen the Chillida. The movie we picked, as I mentioned previously, is Campo a Traves, a documentary about the restaurant Mugaritz, but other than that, we don't really know what it's like. Once we get inside the hall, luckily the movie has not started and to my pleasant surprise, the people behind the movie are on the stage including the director and the chef!

We are mesmerized by the movie, but it is not for everybody (like the restaurant itself and someone makes a statement to that effect in the movie). It consists nearly entirely of narratives from the various members of the staff there. The tone is very serious and the claims ambitious, and some might react that it is repetitive, abstract and self-absorbed. We are lucky to have eaten at the restaurant just two days ago and therefore able to have some background from a client point of view. 
We definitely recognize a few people in the documentary as well as some of the dishes (although we did not get to experience the famous edible fork as shown in the film). A lot of stats are provided and one thing that lingers in my mind is that 80 plates are used to serve a diner on average. In the end, I do appreciate the fact that they draw parallels between what they try to achieve in cooking and life in general. They continuously talk about successes and failures, and Chef "Andoni" at one point refers to himself as being relentless and ruthless (probably mostly to himself)...

San Sebastian Film Festival: Campo a Traves, a documentary about the restaurant Mugaritz at the elegant Victoria Eugenia Theatre.

San Sebastian Film Festival: we are late but able to catch the presentation by the production team.

San Sebastian Film Festival: Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz is on stage (second from right).

San Sebastian Film Festival: as the movie that we have chosen to see is over, the festival seems to be in full swing.

San Sebastian Film Festival: people are lining up again for some celebrities or something, I suppose. But our festival ends here, at least until next time...