Getaria

Getaria is a tiny fishing village on the rocky coastline between Bilbao and San Sebastian. It’s a great example of coastal Basque town. The old village sits above a small harbor where there is a small crescent beach. At the end of the harbor there is a forested island called El Raton (the Mouse).

To reach it, you have to exit the AP-8 toll road onto N-634

Rather than drive directly to San Sebastian, which would have been a little over an hour, we exited the AP-8 toll road onto N-634 to take a scenic diversion along the rocky coastline to the tiny fishing village of Getaria.

Rather than drive into the village, which sits high above the harbor, we drove down to the harbor to sniff the sea and look at the fishing boats. While there, we watched a rowing team practicing in the harbor. Rowing is very popular in Spain and even small villages often have their own teams.

It was a lovely diversion, but it did make me a bit homesick for the many fishing villages I loved in the East Coast on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.