San Sebastian / Donostia

We’re staying at Hendaye, which feels rather home like. It’s got a lovely beach and late Edwardian promenade, and the thing that makes it feel homelike is the wind; there are lots of people on the beach trying to get out of the wind, or trying to get out of wet swim suits, while wrapped in flapping towels. They need, but don’t have, windbreaks. I know the idea of going on a beach when a windbreak is needed is something that amuses some people, but we native north easterners know their value.

The view from our hotel balcony

It’s also where Franco met Hitler in 1940, and where Wellington’s troops crossed the Bidassoa into France.

Soult was busily building redoubts and fortifications, but he believed the Bidassoa couldn’t be crossed, and the weakest point of his line was near the sea. Wellington was keen to keep in close touch with the navy and his supplies, and had discovered from local shrimpers that the river could be forded in the estuary at low tide. On October 7^th 1813, local guides led the troops across, armpit deep in the Bidassoa. At the same time, the Light division took La Rhune, in a brilliant attack.

We can see La Rhune. There’s a rack and pinion railway up it. It’s amazing to me that the men got up it and were in a condition to fight when they reached the top. There’s been so many times in these expeditions when we have scarcely been able to believe the soldiers’ fitness and stamina. I suppose only those who could keep up survived.

Today we went to San Sebastian. The trip started poorly – most of San Sebastian is an unlovely modern city, and we were a bit sulky and regretting making the effort.

However when we got parked near the main beach, it turned into a grand day out. We spent ages going round the rocky promontory, Monte Urgell, and the fortifications on top of it, Castillo de la Mota. Franco put a huge statue of Christ on the top. The old citadel has been made into a museum of the history of San Sebastian, with a lot of emphasis on the tourism, so there were some brilliant old films of the twenties and thirties. There’s a royal villa, where the royal family used to holiday. It looks lovely, but I doubt whether Juan Carlos has holidayed there – San Sebastian (or Donostia)  is apparently a hotbed of Basque nationalism. A lot of signs are only in Basque.

Anyway, Wellington needed to take San Sebastian. He couldn’t just blockade it, because it kept being resupplied by sea. Wellington got very ratty with the Royal Navy, but I suppose it was too hard to catch every little cutter when the fogs came down.

The town walls were much weaker than those of the citadel, so the British attacked the town. The first assault, on July 25^th, failed, and Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher, Wellington’s brilliant chief engineer, responsible for the Lines of Torres Vedras, was killed.

Citadel at the very top of the picture, taken from the riverside
walk. Why the town was assaulted, not the citadel.

By 31^st August, the guns had battered a breach in the east wall, and the troops waded the river at low tide. By this time the artillery was so reliable and accurate that they fired over the heads of their own troops, which was unheard of, and managed to ignite the French magazine. Then having got into the town, the British and Portuguese went on the rampage. It was only stopped by the fact that the entire town was on fire.

The gate of the citadel, from where the French commander finally
surrendered, 9 days after the city had fallen.

We noticed that it is still a very sore topic in Donostia. There’s a street called 31^st August, where there are memorial ceremonies every year. Some of the signs in the museum, and the Spanish government of the day, implied that the fire was deliberately started. Wellington always denied this, and it does not seem a necessary explanation, in a town which had been heavily shelled and a powder magazine exploded.

A note on food – you may have noticed a lot less about where and what we ate than you usually have to plough through. This is because the food has been largely disappointing. There are some very posh looking “new Basque cuisine” restaurants, if one is prepared to fork out £70 a head. But everywhere else has been OK, and that’s the best I can say.