Photos And Postcards: Visiting Hondarribia In The Basque Country

The name of the towns and villages in the Basque Country sure is a tongue twister! Luckily, they more than makeup for it in their sheer charm and beauty when you do visit so it’s definitely worth learning the name (and even a few Basque Country phrases to get you started).

Hondarribia is one said towns. After finishing breakfast at this brilliant little guesthouse, we piled ourselves into a taxi and headed for Hondarribia – which was, thankfully, mere minutes away.

Random fact: Although Hondarribia is in Gipuzkoa in the Spanish Basque Country, it’s right on the border with the French Basque country so you can quite literally see France from your doorstep!

As this is a photo diary, I will stop with the jibber-jabber now and start with the photos (I may have interjected from time to time though – I talk way too much and just can’t help myself).

We started off at the Parador de Hondarribia – which is a hotel in an old historic fortress in the town. It still holds onto a lot of its history and is definitely worth popping into…

There’s that the view of France I mentioned earlier…

The cobbled streets across the town only do more to add to Hondarribia’s idyllic Basque charm… You could almost picture what it was like decades (even centuries) ago.

The church here is rather impressive (inside and outside) and has one of the longest church names I’ve ever heard – Iglesia parroquial de Santa Maria de la Asuncion y del Manzano. Talk about a mouthful! 🙂

That below, by the way, is made of reach shell. The hand-piece-thing holding it is about the same size as a regular hand so can get a sense of how big that shell is! There are two of these (one for both sides of the church)…