Sunday-Tuesday, August 29-31, 2021

Vitoria-Gasteiz

Bike Route: Estella to Vitoria-Gasteiz, 47 miles, 2700 feet of climb

Our route Sunday took us on a segment of the Vias Verdes, a network of hiking and biking trails stitched together from old railroad lines, farm tracks, country roads, utility access roads, and other mostly gravel trails. This was our transition day from the end of touring the classic Basque region to the start of touring the wine-growing Ebro River Valley.

Most of the route was hard-packed gravel on fairly flat railroad beds, but we jumped off onto the highway a couple of times to avoid long detours up, over, and around hills and tunnels and other obstacles. One longish stretch on a gravel-mining road was particularly hot, dusty, and steep. Overall, though, it was a great day of riding.

We have parked ourselves in Vitoria-Gasteiz for two days of much-needed rest. We chose to be in a larger city to recharge our phone plans, replace earbuds Ken left in one of our accommodations, do laundry, and plan the next phase of our trip. We ended up in an ultramodern hotel apartment, up on the seventh floor, with an elevator and keypad entry. It has excellent WiFi, it is spotless, and everything we need is within walking distance. So it has been perfect.

The trip planning took us several hours a day over three days (one in Estella, two in Vitoria). For our first six weeks in Spain, we put together three separate tours offered by Tripsite. We liked the areas, the towns, and the daily distances. We tried to buy maps from Tripsite, but it sells only full-package tours, so we just started with the brief itineraries, including names of towns and daily mileages, on its website. We have adjusted those to fit our own needs, and filled in details of accommodations and routes from other sources.

Here's our trip-planning process: In separate tabs on my laptop, I open the maps and itineraries from Tripsite, our itinerary, the Ride with GPS Route Planner, Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and Hotels.com. We start by trying to find a good place to stay in or near each town in the Tripsite tours. Then we map a route to it. It usually takes about an hour to get both of those to match up. We plan out about a week before we make any reservations, because sometimes we can't find a place to stay in a location the night we want to be there, or we find a different town or rural guest house  that sounds better to us, or an area requires a 2 or 3 night stay, or there just isn't any place available for 50 miles around (that has happened once or twice; we are traveling in peak tourist season here).

It is such a good feeling when everything finally locks into place.

We took breaks every few hours to explore Vitoria, which is a big city but very walkable and very nice. We found wonderful places to eat, interesting architecture, and huge green parks.

The weather has been perfect the past few days: sunny, seventies, clear, a fresh breeze. The forecast for the next three days is rain (90 percent chance each day), seventies, windy. Wouldn't it have been nice if we could have flipped that and had the rain while we were camped in a nice apartment? Oh, well. That is part of the fun of traveling on our own on bikes.

Such different scenery here. We are just south of the mountain range that follows the northern coast--only about 50 miles from where we have been biking the past three weeks. We started out following the Atlantic coast west to east from Oviedo to the Pyrenees; we are now heading east to west from the Pyrenees back to Santander.

Most of the Vias Verdes segment we rode Sunday was hard-packed gravel. Dusty but quite ridable.

Ken sent this photo to our knitter friend Tim Schmidt--and within an hour got back a shot of a very similar tree in a park in New York where Tim lives. It's a small world--really.

The bread basket of Spain: miles and miles of wheat and other grains, sunflowers, artichokes, peppers, and other produce.

The Vias Verdes took us through several very small villages, all completely different and quiet on this sunny Sunday.

Part of the route was on a service road for a large sewage pipe.

Along the way, we found a dozen or more old train stations. Some, like this one, have been beautifully restored or preserved.

This defunct station is now surrounded by a park. We couldn't see any sign of a village close by. We wondered why such a large station was needed to serve the rural population.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has a thriving Old Town.

The churches in the Old Town are small, and there are quite a few of them.

Quiet parks line many streets.

The Plaza Virgen Blanca was pretty quiet Monday evening. Most restaurants and taverns are closed on Mondays.

The Palace of Villa-Suso and its adjacent plaza are a focal point for Basque cultural events and movements.

Several buildings near the palace are painted with colorful murals that illustrate aspects of Basque culture.

We found people-movers like this in several cities. They are designed to make the steep streets accessible. We don't see them in Minnesota for obvious reasons (snow, ice).

Friday-Saturday, August 27-28, 2021

Estella

Bike Route: Pamplona to Estella, 30 miles, 2700 feet of climb

We named Pamplona the City of Grumpy Old Men. I'm sure it was partly because we were tired from the hard ride the day before, but we didn't find Pamplona charming or friendly. We left our apartment before 9:00, planning to ride around Old Town on our way out of the city. The streets were already ridiculously congested and everyone seemed to be in a hurry and not in a good mood. After the fourth old man grumbled at us for trying to stop and take pictures, we gave up and made our way to the bikeway into the countryside.

Once on the bikeway, we met only nice and friendly people and our mood lifted. Even though this day was relatively short and we had only half the amount of climbing, I found it difficult. We were really happy to get to Estella, a small and simple town with fewer people and a much slower pace.

Estella was founded in 1090 and is a major waypoint on the Camino de Santiago. In the Middle Ages, it was actually three separate villages, each with its own fortified church and government. Having a large population of skilled local craftspeople, it drew the attention of Franco kings and attracted enough wealth to become a center of Romanesque architecture.

Our apartment was in a 500-year-old stone-and-timber building on the quiet side of the river, right on the camino. It was so nice and comfortable that we could have stayed a week. But we had only two nights--one day of rest. And we took advantage of it.

Our hosts, Dina and Raoul, were incredible. Raoul was an architect for about 15 years, but after the economic collapse in 2008, he was not able to get large, interesting projects. About six or seven years ago, he joined with other local businessmen and founded a company to export local products (canned pimentos, anchovies, white asparagus). They have exclusive contracts with large importers in China, Russia, and Thailand. The company, and Raoul, are featured in a coffee table book about the area.

Before we arrived, Dina sent a message asking us to please use the "sleepers" in the apartment, because of Covid. We were a little puzzled, but we agreed to use the sleeper sofas instead of the bed. After we got into the apartment, we found that the bed was all made up with fresh sheets, and the sofas were not sleepers. We scratched our heads, and finally decided to just sleep in the bed and take whatever negative review we might get on Airbnb for disobeying the rules. As we headed out to get groceries, we saw "slippers" on a shelf by the door. Sometimes things get a little mixed up when Google translates.

Anyway, we completely enjoyed our down day in Estella. We bought ground sirloin, peppers, mushrooms, tortilla patata, milk, juice, mineral water, and all kinds of other stuff, and cooked most of our meals. We did laundry. We roughed out our route for the next week and made reservations for several more nights. We walked to each of the three churches and went through one that was open. We mingled with the pilgrims on the streets in our neighborhood. We slept and read and relaxed.

I got one quick photo in Pamplona before a grumpy old man scolded me for blocking part of the sidewalk.

Pamplona in our rearview mirror.

We are out of the mountains now. Fields of sunflowers stretch for miles, drying in the late August breeze.

This looks really dumb, but if you followed our 2019 blog, you may have seen a matching photo of our grandson, Josh, riding a little bike like this in a park in Germany. Ken couldn't help posing for this photo to send on to J2.

Estella is quiet and simple compared with the touristy, bigger coastal cities we have been in.

The old bridge as seen from the new bridge.

We enjoyed the simplicity of the Romanesque architecture. This was one of the fancier variations in Estella.

Oh, yes. This is olive country.

If you look closely, you will see laundry hanging in the window on the first floor. That's our apartment. Though it looks very plain from the river side, the apartment is beautiful inside, with original 17th-century beam ceilings and fireplace, and large windows.

Ken read about a coffee caramel candy that was created by an artisan in Estella in 1886 and is still made and sold in the region. It is called Dos Cafeteras, and he actually found it in this candy shop!

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Pamplona

Bike Route: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, to Pamplona, Spain, 47 miles, 5500 feet of climb

This was our toughest day of biking so far: the longest mileage, most climbing, and hottest (almost 90 when we got to Pamplona). We tried to get an early start, but our host, Melanie, served us a wonderful breakfast and told us so many interesting stories of her life, the farm and her husband's family, and the Basque people that we just couldn't get out the door.

Leaving Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, we crossed over the river at a point where white rapids danced and sparkled in the sun, and then started our long climb to the top of the first pass--about 16 miles uphill. The climb was gradual (2-8 percent) but relentless. We were on a small highway with few cars, following the river upstream through forests. I got off and walked for 5 minutes a couple of times just to get a break. Not far into the climb, we went through the Spain border control point. The police had a barricade across the road and were stopping every car, but they waved us through. Whew. We made it through our French adventure without going to jail.

The first pass was about 3500 feet. The second and third passes were a little lower, about 3000 feet and 2600 feet. At one of them, we found a snack truck with cold water and shade, and took a short break.

By the time we rolled into Pamplona, I was a bit wobbly. We found our apartment with no problem. It was on the corner of a noisy plaza full of bars and restaurants. By the time we carried our bags and bikes up to our accommodations on the fifth floor, we were both ready to crash. We managed to shower and stumble out to a grocery store a few blocks away, and make it back to the apartment for a simple dinner. We even found the energy to do a load of laundry. Fortunately, the apartment was at the rear of the building, and it was perfectly quiet. Our bed felt really good.

The scenery was amazing, but we didn't take any pictures. It's hard to stop when you are chugging uphill, and even harder when flying downhill!

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France

Bike Route: Saint Jean-de-Luz to Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, 27 miles, 3700 feet of climb

We hated to leave Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Our host, Yolande, was incredibly nice, and we enjoyed a long breakfast chatting with her through Google Translate. When we finally took off, we had a great ride to our second French village, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port--until we got close to our destination.

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was jam-packed with tourists, crazy traffic, and narrow streets. It is a lovely old fortified town, but just overrun. The GPS coordinates sent by our host took us to a central location near a hotel and a warren of small back streets. We spent a while looking for a house that matched the picture and description of our guest house, with no luck. We messaged and called our host with no response. Finally, after an hour, we got a message back from Melanie saying she would meet us on the edge of town at a car wash, and we could follow her to the farmhouse.

This brought back memories of a mad chase through the outskirts of a small town in Italy to a breathtaking guest house, at dusk, following our Italian-speaking host, who was driving a red Maserati way faster than we could pedal. Melanie drove a little slower than the Italian host, and she is from California and speaks English, but the result was just as wonderful. 

We stayed at a 300-year-old home owned by Melanie's husband, a Basque chef who has suffered several strokes and is now in a nursing home. The house has been lived in by his family since it was built. Melanie rents out four rooms on the second floor, all clean but old and decorated with the kind of mix of styles and time periods you would find in an old family home.

It was after 7:00 and we had no interest in going back 2 miles to the busy town center for dinner. Melanie was going to the grocery store and offered to take Ken with her. He returned with bread, cheese, meat, salad, and cold drinks, and we sat on the terrace overlooking the corn fields while we ate. It was perfect.

Looking out our bedroom window at the village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 2 miles away.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Saint Jean de Luz

Bike Route: San Sebastian to Hondarribia to Saint-Jean-de-Luz (France), 25 miles, 1300 feet of climb

Today is absolutely beautiful--perfect weather. We had a short day on the bikes, most of it on very busy highways. We did have a good shoulder, and we were able to hop on bike paths part of the time, but we got tired of the truck traffic, especially in the first 5 or 6 miles.

We had lunch in Hondarribia, a little fishing village just on the Spain side of the border with France. After lunch, we crossed the border into France. On the bridge at the border, the French police had a checkpoint set up and were stopping all cars and checking documents. We still have not received our QR code from the French government, and we were not sure if we could legally cross the border. But the police ignored us as we crossed on our bikes, and so far we have not been arrested.

Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a sparkling medium-sized town with a beautiful beach and harbor. We dropped our bikes and bags off at our room at 3:00, changed, and headed for the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a restaurant serving heaps of grilled seafood with rice at outdoor tables, so we stopped and indulged. After an hour on the beach, swimming (Ken) and wading (me), we bought crepes spread with chocolate, and jelly candies, and made our way back to our room and showers.

Our host, Yolanda, is very, very thoughtful and lovely. She has four grown sons and one grown daughter, plus eight grandchildren. We struggled with switching to our limited French, but managed with Google Translate to have a bit of a conversation. Everyone is so patient with us. We wish we were better at languages.

Monday, August 23, 2021

San Sebastian

Bike Route: Lekeitio to San Sebastian, 48 miles, 2800 feet of climb

It rained all morning, but our ride was still excellent. We were on a small scenic highway through parkland along the coast for the first 20 miles. We did a lot of climbing, but the grades were all reasonable and we didn't have to walk even once. Ken did an outstanding job of weaving us through the suburbs of San Sebastian, jumping from bike trail to highway over and over again.

Our room in San Sebastian was in Old Town, on a noisy street full of restaurants. Fortunately, it was cool enough to close the shutters and windows, and then it was quiet enough to sleep.

We found the best tapas of the trip at a little tavern across the street from our room. After our dinner of little plates, we wandered Old Town and the harbor area. We went to bed fairly early. The rain and longer miles tired us out a bit.

Saturday-Sunday, August 21-22, 2021

Lekeitio

Bike Route August 21: Bilbao to Lekeitio, 34 miles. 2800 feet of climb

We had quite a few highway miles Saturday, with heavy weekend traffic in the afternoon. The climbs were easier because they were on paved roads at smaller grades (average 5-7 percent), but it was not relaxing on the busier stretches. Still, the scenery was gorgeous and so was the weather.

We stopped for a second breakfast in Guernica, in a little cafe near a park on the Camino de Santiago. We also visited the Tree of Guernica and the Assembly House, before moving on up and down and around a mountain to Lekeitio.

We are here for two nights, renting a room in an apartment with our host, Juan, his partner, Edgar, and Edgar's cousin Claudia. Lekeitio is a little town with three beaches, and it is crammed with visitors from Bilbao over the weekend. We managed to get reservations at a restaurant on the harbor for dinner at 7:30 Saturday night, and had a pleasant evening stroll around the port.

Sunday we slept in late, then spent several hours planning our route and accommodations for the next few weeks. We are cycling in a circle back to Santander, and want to go from Santander to Girona (about 525 miles) on September 13. One option is by train (one train from Santander to Madrid's Campoamor station, transfer to Madrid's Atocha station, and a second train to Girona). The only other option is to rent a car and drive. The two options cost about the same. We chose the train, even though the transfer in Madrid will be tough with the bikes; we hired a van to transfer us between stations, and hope that we can get it all accomplished in the hour and 27 minutes allowed between trains.

After lunch we walked around the town again, ate tapas for a late lunch / early dinner, and went to bed early.

This sculpture of a Camino de Santiago pilgrim sat at the entrance to the park near our lunch stop in Guernica.

Since the 14th century, representatives of the Basque territories have met at the Tree of Guernica and nearby Assembly House. The original oak tree lived for 450 years. This replacement was planted in the 1742 and died in 1892. The fifth and newest tree was planted in 2015.

We stopped several times to enjoy the scenery on our journey to Lekeitio.

The beaches in Lekeitio were crowded until it started to grow dark around 8:30.

The plaza quieted down a little around 7:00, when the restaurants began to switch over from pintxos to dinner mode. 

Kids around ages 10 to 14 were jumping off the end of the peer. Some jumped from the lower level, but most braved the upper level--about a 25 foot drop.

Friday, August 20, 2021

Bilbao, Day 2 of 2

Walking Route: from apartment to Guggenheim and back with stop for lunch, about 4 miles

Ima fed us a breakfast of fresh-squeezed zumo de naranja (orange juice), cafe con leche (coffee with milk), tostada (toast), and gelatina (jelly). We chatted about children, grandchildren, her cat, our dog, and Bilbao. Fun.

Then Ken and I put on our walking sandals and headed out into the sunshine to the Guggenheim. What a beautiful day to see that silver structure shine. We enjoyed the exhibits but especially the building itself, and the walkway along the estuary to get there and back.

Now an afternoon/evening of rest and trip planning. We still have not received QR codes documenting permission from the French government to stay in France August 24 and 25. I emailed the hosts for both nights, and they said it will not be a problem for us to stay with them, so we are going to go ahead with our plans to continue up the coast to Saint Jean de Luz next Tuesday. We may not be able to get into any French restaurants without the QR code, but we think we can buy food in a grocery store. And we hope we don't get arrested. :)

All the photos below are from the Guggenheim, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. Ima told us that before the museum opened, Bilbao was a dingy industrial town. After the museum opened, architects designed other beautiful contemporary buildings, and the government built the promenades, cleaned up the city, renovated the parks, and focused on tourism. The city is now a popular destination for people on holiday. We saw mostly Spanish tourists in our day wandering around the city.