Here is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah between 750 and 739 BC.
‘ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, don’t be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will help you with the right hand of My righteousness.’
Then Paul spoke from prison in Ephesus about A.D. 62.
‘ For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight… in Him we have an inheritance… and may you have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep His love is.’ These quotes are from Ephesians 1:4,1:11,3:13. The whole three chapters are helpful to read.
San Sebastián is 46 miles/50.5 km by road from Biarritz. Biarritz is in France and San Sebastián is in Spain. The Bay of the city was calm with people swimming and enjoying the sands and what I wanted to pay attention to this time were the Tamarisk trees and the aquarium near the old part of town.
The Tamarisk trees were planted as part of the landscaping of the waterfront in 1885. That makes these trees at least 140 years old. The landscaping was designed by Pierre Ducasse, the municipal garden designer at the time.
The tree has a deep taproot and lateral roots that help it survive drought and flooding conditions. The day we visited they looked particularly good in the sunshine with the fine architecture in golden contrast with them and tall palms here and there.
Then for the aquarium which is well stocked with model fishing boats carefully made to scale showing the change over time with an explanation of how trading took place in this area. The tunnel with the sharks and other fish swimming over your head was impressive. The gentle Seahorses in their separate tank were a calming influence and in contrast in another the piranhas, the latter were far more sparkly than I expected. The museum section also had two whale skeletons, one in the large central area the other above the stairs going down. This one had a sad story. It was hit by a ship in 2000 and washed up. The cause of death was only noticed once the skeleton was examined.
The collections in the cabinets are well worth looking at I particularly liked a collection of unusual bone-like structures fish use to protect themselves so much like man-made swords.
I would recommend the aquarium especially for children and those of us interested in what lives around us in the seas.
Back in the streets and on the sands people were enjoying a calm beautiful day. That night was very different. The wind howled and came in surges just when you thought it had stopped, fortunately our caravan park up was well sheltered and so with other campers we were fine. It is with sadness we were made aware that the storm had taken the life of a lady in Portugal. I believe that those strong winds were part of a tornado.
Here are three photographs from our time in San Sebastian 2025
I then painted the sinking and floating daisies, a challenge, but I enjoy painting after a day in a town.
We travel on and so say take care,
Sandyroybessbugzy 🙂 ❤️ 🥰 🤗
