… in San Sebastian today. That’s about half an hour down the coast in Spain, and Yours Truly having made enquiries, off he went.

There’s a train that runs from Hendaye to San Sebastian and places beyond, and you have to look for it in a corner of the car park of the SNCF railway station.

Apparently it’s not welcome within the main station, even though it is the only rail passenger service that runs across the border. I’m not quite sure why, as there were endless streams of people dragging suitcases and the like across the car park from one to the other.

A nice modern train as you can see, clean, tidy and airy and for all of that distance it cost just €2:40, which has to be a bargain in anyone’s money.

Eat your heart out, British rail passengers. No wonder I didn’t take Caliburn with me. It would have cost more than that for the diesel. He can have a day off.

But, in the kind of thing that can only happen to me, we had the wettest day in Spain so far this year. This only ever happens when I want to go there. The last time I went to Spain – in 1998 I think – was the first time that they had had snow for over 50 years.

We had storms as well, if you peer through the raindrops on the lens of the camera.

Another wild windy day and I spent a good few minutes watching the waves dashing a few huge pieces of timber and tree trunks against the promenade. Anyone who wonders just how the sea can break up a huge ship would have had the enigma solved for them this afternoon in this comparatively sheltered bay, watching the waves play about with this wood.

But there are also loads of morons about in the world, and not a few of them here in this bay.

It’s all very well surfing in a storm, if that’s really what you want to do, but looking at how the waves were treating the wood that was being washed into the bay, anyone being hit by a lump of wood (of which there were plenty) or a tree trunk would know about it – and so would his friends.

But the carnaval was a wash-out as you might expect. There were loads of people all dressed up to entertain, and several floats disceetly parked up in side streets, but no-one on the streets to watch.

And that was hardly surprising. I wouldn’t put a dog outside in the weather that we were having. Never mind the plain and the down the drain, the rain in Spain fell mainly down the back of my neck.

So I caught an early train home, but not before I had had something to eat.

And that was pretty easy too in San Sebastian. That’s an extract from the menu from one mainstream restaurant just next to the cathedral, and the restaurant next door had vegan options too. Not only that, I found two others without even trying. Puts much of Europe and almost all of North America to shame.

And the hummus? Delicious!

But another thing too – I’m collecting pics of football grounds while I’m on my travels, and Real Sociedad play here in San Sebastian. Furthermore, the club’s ground is just outside one of the railway stations along the route.

This calls for a photo opportunity of course, and there’s a handy hill right by the ground from which a good viewpoint might be had.

But count the number of gates that you can see at the ground. It gives the lie to the club putting all their Basques in One Exit.

I’ll get my coat.