For our last dinner we did a search on TripAdvisor to look for somewhere recommended and not too expensive.

We found on the list at #24 of 655 places place called La Cuchara de San Telmo 

It was a tiny little place with only standing room either at the bar or a little counter on the other side of the room although there was a few tables outside. 

Standing room only

Suckling Pig	Pulpo or Octopus
Foie Gras with an apple sauce	Beef Cheek

The food was all yummy - well recommended - All up with a couple of wines it was 21 euro.

This is a view from down at the waterfront on the edge of the old town.

This is from the same location as the first image but about 90 degrees to the right.

This was from my walk to the top of the hill (Pam went shopping - not keen on steps)

This is taken from Castillo de La Mota - sansebastianturismo.com

This is taken a bit further around over looking the little island of Santa Clara

The view from the main entrance to the Parador Olite and the view looking back at the main entrance.

The view from our room in the Parador Olite. We had nice room overlooking a vineyard and part of the castle.

I had put a post on TripAadvisor about what we should pay for Pintxos wile in San Sebastian and got a few replies along with recommendations on where we should eat.

So we went on the hunt for the places and found that 2 of them were closed - one until tomorrow but the other for 3 nights by which time we will have moved on and that one looked good and cheapish for the quality of the food.

Pam had done her own research and we ended up at  place call Sirmiri - http://sirimirigastroleku.com/

This was a small little place that was quite busy and had some Pintxos on the bar along with a menu of things we could buy. We decided to not grab anything from the bar but order from the menu - good choice in the end.

I guess they want you to enjoy the place and not waste your time on the phone   

We ordered 2 dishes and a couple of drinks. The first dish above was scallop and pork neck and was lovely.

The second dish was Octopus with a green sauce and was also delicious and very tender. The octopus was very easy to eat and not rubbery as is often the case.

The last dish was a lamb dish which we ordered later as the previous two were so great. The lamb was so tender and lovely it made us want to reproduce this dish at home. It was also very cute delivered in a little fry-pan.

All up 3 dishes + 2 drinks was about 20 euro.

We would recommend this restaurant to anyone, top notch.

We had to leave Olite today after only 2 nights to go to San Sebastion. We had booked tickets from Oilite to Castejón which meant we were going backwards as we could not catch a train directly from Olite to San Sebastion.

The train arrived at 8:22 exactly as time, this was a regional train in tourist class which meant no seat allocation. The train was not too busy so no problem there.

We had to go back the way we had come a few days earlier and get out at Castejón - this was a rather quiet place that we had to spend 90 odd minutes waiting for our next train.

There was only 5 people there - Pam & I, a security guard, the guy selling the tickets, and another guy who seemed to just get some newspapers from one train and deliver them to the next train.

We tried to ask which platform our train would leave from but they did not speak English but we thought they said platform #1 which turned out to be correct.

So this train left Castejón at 10:30 and by 11:00 we just went past Olite on the way to San Sebastion 3 hours are arriving at the Olite station.

There was lots of tunnels and little towns nestled in the valley floors along the way.

We got out in San Sebastion and caught a taxi to our Hotel which was only about 5-8 minutes from the station for just under 6 euro.

We left Barcelona quite early with plenty of time to get to the train station - Barcelona Sants

It cost about 11 Euro for the taxi and the station was clean and tidy. It is the first train station that scans your luggage as you enter. You do not get scanned just the luggage.

We then waited for the gate to open (like an airport) so we had a coffee - it was horrible.

About 20 minutes prior to departure (like an airport) we were allowed to board (like an airport) the train.

We found our coach quite easily and took up our seats ready for the 3 hour journey to Tafalla.

Time passed quite quickly as parts of the trip were very fast and some not so fast.

We arrived in Tafalla about 12:50pm right on time - it was pretty quiet with no Taxis outside the train station. We knew where the taxi rank was so we headed off in the direction to find it.

No taxis there - but there was a man selling magazines & papers right next door so we asked him about the taxis. He came and showed us the telephone numbers for the taxis and he went back to his little shop.

So we were about the dial on of the taxis and he came back and said that there are no taxis and we should catch the bus which was in an hour.

I knew about the bus and tried to book it on a web site called Bus Bud but I could not book it. We asked the man about buying a ticket on the bus and he said yes so that was good. We had almost an hour to wait so we went and got a beer. There was a few tables filled with families having lunch so I went into the bar and asked for 2 beers - the man was not very friendly. His pouring of beers was rather piss pour as well with one beer filled up and the other about 75% and a lot of froth.

So we sat and had the beer and Pam bought two Pintxos for us to nibble. I said get the Squid or the Octopus, she came back with an anchovy and a potato croquet.

Since the place did not seems very good we decided to go and sit as the bus stop across the road. While sitting there i thought this is the wrong side of the road as the traffic was going into town and not out of town. Pam went and dbl checked with the friendly man from the paper shop and we crossed the road to the correct side. We were there only a few minutes when a bus showed up and I went inside and asked if it went to Olite and he said yes. So the 12:58 bus tuned up at about 12:40pm. Lucky we were waiting as the next was not until after 5pm and no taxis.

The journey from Tafalla to Olite is only  5km, it took about 7 minutes. We got off when others did as Olite was the first stop. We first thought maybe we go the wrong stop as it was 500 meters from the hotel. But no this was the correct stop - a long way from the old town with your bags.

I paid 1.53 euro for this bottle of wine - about $2.33 NZD

No vintage statement, 12.5% alc/vol - quite light, slightly raspberry-ish, but not too bad for the price. Not on my list to drink more than once.

We arrived this morning with plenty of time for our visit to the Sagrada Familia - we took a taxi for 6.70 euro from the plaza near our hotel to right outside. We would not have wanted to walk this distance at all.

We took lots of photos and walk around the perimeter of the Church. We then decided that we would queue in line even though we were about 20 minutes early. There way only about 10 people in front of us.

We got to the lady at the gate who checked our tickets which i freshly printed yesterday since Pam seemed to have misplayed the ones I printed originally.

The lady said something and we thought she meant that we were too early to be admitted yet, but this was not the case at all.

Our tickets were for yesterday - we totally stuffed it up 100% - no entry

For some reason while in Mallorca we thought that our entrance was on Saturday not Friday which the tickets were for. We asked if we could buy new tickets and the lady said there were no tickets available for today at all.

Pam asked for a manager or person in charge and after a couple of minutes on the CB radio the lady said someone was coming.

A few minutes later a lady showed up who basically said the same thing - no tickets today or tomorrow - sorry no entry.

We said we had come from New Zealand and just got the dates wrong - we were on time but for the wrong day and she got on her CB radio for a few minutes and talked to someone else and in the end they let us in. We were so thankful.

We were allowed in - oh what a stuff up on our behalf - worst stuff up for a long long time

The exterior of the church was amazing but the light shining through the stained glass windows inside was amazing

This is not my photo but it looks really cool.

This is a diagram of the tower that I walked around - it started on the right with the elevator to about 50 meters and then across between 2 towers and then down 400 steps to the bottom. Interesting but probably not required as the inside/outside is the best.

This is the view from inside one of the towers towards the top of the tower.

The spiral staircase on the way down from the towers.

The view over Barcelona from one of the viewing areas in the Nativity tower.

We had a great time visiting this and it will be interesting to see if they complete it in time for 2026 which is the expected completion date.

We went out looking for a restaurant last night that we looked up online but right before it as in on the other side of the street was all you could eat Pintxos with Palella & a desert for 15 euro each.

Once inside we checked out the offering and ended up with just the all you could eat Pintxos for 12 euro. There was no way I could eat a palella and desert as well.

Pam really enjoyed them but I thought they were a bit of a lower quality than we had the night before. Maybe it was the drunken pommy slobs who were too loud for their own good and distracted everyone else from having a nice meal.

Pam decided on a rather large Sangria @ 7 EURO 

What you did not see is that we mainly ate the toppings and left the bread behind.