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San Sebastian, known as Donostia in Basque is the jewel in the crown on the Basque Country. They love their seafood there. As I do not eat seafood it was a culinary struggle for me, but the views were stunning. I have included images of two Cathedrals here as I am sure images of the bay are everywhere. But if you enjoy seafood then try the Pintxos, a Basque tapas.
For such a small city San Sebastian has the most Michelin stars per inhabitants or per its size. The reason for this is that when Spain became a tourist destination in the 1970s the French regularly travelled down to San Sebastian. And because the French enjoy food and were demanding customers, they made the Basques raise their culinary standards. So the French indirectly created a gastronomic and culinary hub.
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The Guggenheim. The museum that reinvented Bilbao and put it on the map. Prior to the Guggenheim's construction, the area around the Nervion River was an area that was not popular and was unsafe. Once it was finished, not only did the value of the property around the museum increase dramatically but it made Bilbao a world-class city. I can imagine that now many other cities would love to have a landmark such as the Guggenheim on their waterfront. It is now referred to as one of the 12 treasures of Spain.
More information on the link here:
From Bilbao we visited Vitoria (Spanish) / Gasteiz (Basque). The city is known as Vitoria-Gasteiz and is commonly referred to as such. It is the capital of the Basque region. It seems like a fairly balanced region with different cities having a different role within the country; and has parallels with the main three cities in Brazil in terms of their positioning; San Sebastian is the tourist capital, the Basque Rio; Bilbao is the largest city and commercial capital, as is Sao Paolo in Brazil; and Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital, as is Brasilia. Did they have a similar set up to allocate different roles to each city?
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