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Thu Jul 26 2007: Basque Parks & San Sebastián |
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I got up late today. No matter what time zone I'm in, 4AM local seems to be the default bedtime for me. Was tossing and turning all night, and so I ended up waking up at 11AM! Burned a lot of daylight. Neda woke up an hour before me and had to sit in the washroom to read her Harry Potter so not to wake me up with the light! It's not too bad, we only have a short ride today, about 150 km loop of some twisty roads through some National Parks in the Basque (North-East) region of Spain.
Leaving the Leyre hotel in Pamplona
Had to scramble to get out of the hotel room by noon. Between the impatient maid knocking on the door while I was brushing my teeth and the impatient clerk downstairs calling us on the phone to remind us to vacate, we were pretty rushed! When we got outside, the weather was disgustingly hot and humid, the air temperature was 34C! I felt sorry for Neda in her full leathers!
The GPS signal was intermittent in the city due to the narrowness of the streets and the height of the buildings so it took us a while to get out. This GPS has been causing me some headaches as the contacts on power cable on the bike have worn out from frequent plugging in and out. Every morning, I have to jiggle it for the contacts to seat properly, I'm afraid that one of these mornings, it's just not going to work and then we're really screwed. We rely on that thing absolutely, because in these European cities the streets just aren't very well marked...
Lunch at Puenta le Reina
More about the GPS, when I was planning this route last night, it routed around this small town on the highway called Puente le Reina, but I fixed it to go through instead. We ended up stopping there for lunch and it was very nice! A lot of folks were dressed up in that characteristic white and red outfits, we thought they were part of a club or something, but the waiter who served us lunch told us that that is the outfit they wear to celebrate Spanish vacations/holidays. The backs of the scarves have the hometown where they are from!
Climbing up the Urbasa-Andia mountain
Tunnel through the mountain
After lunch we hit the Parque Natural de Urbasa-Andia, about 100 kms west of Pamplona. The central feature here is a large mountain with a winding road that snakes up and down it. We're here more for the road than the mountain. One side of the mountain is a long ascent with 60 km/h curves, as we reach the top, there is a monument with a viewpoint and then the other side of the mountain is a quick descent with 20 km/h hairpin turns. This would be a fun road to do backwards as well, as I find hairpins easier going uphill.
At the top of the mountain, it's all downhill from here
Top of Urbasa-Andia. See that town to the top-left of Neda's head. We're going to be there in 10 minutes...
Downhill switchback on the north side of the mountain.
Almost immediately after Urbasa-Andia is the Parque Natural de Aralar, which is composed entirely of a dense forest and a very twisty 30 km/h road that just does not let up, curve after curve. It ends at the town of Beasain, where we turn back north east to the coast, to San Sebastián, our destination for the next couple of days!
The town that we saw from the top of the mountain
Urbasa-Andia: we just came down from it!
Parque Natural de Aralar: My hands are not shaky, that's motion-blur, baby!
30 km/h constant radius turns in Aralar
San Sebastián is a typical coastal resort town, long beach with a tourist section around the piers. We check into a cool air-conditioned hotel room where Neda finally gets to finish her Harry Potter book! Then out for dinner and by this time it's around 8:30PM. We're true Europeans now! The conceierge points us towards the tourist section/docks and we catch a very nice Mercedes E-Class cab there! We never did find the restaurant the clerk recommended but one place caught our fancy (it was the restaurant with the most people there, so it must have been good). The seafood was amazing! So fresh!
Docks of San Sebastián
Amazing seafood restaurant where we ate
Sardines: Now you see them, now you don't!
One thing Neda and I agreed on is that this trip will be remembered for the excellent food that we've experienced. Once we got out of the UK, that is! :) The Europeans really live for their food and each place we've stopped at had their own unique local flavour. What a contrast to our trip across North America, where every place was the same amalgam of Applebys/Kelseys/Caseys/Whatever-seys every single town or city you went to. In so many ways, Europe is such a richer place than North America!
River Urumea. The small, bright blue light in the distance is our hotel
The Rio Urumea snakes through San Sebastián from the Atlantic Ocean and we walk along a pathway that lines both sides of the river. Neda stops at a flea market. The sound of live music drifts from an open-air concert nearby and we sit down and listen to a jazz band play out the last few songs of their set. After the concert, we follow the river again all the way back to the hotel. It's 1AM by the time we get back.
Shopping at the flea market
We're at a critical point in the trip, where we have to plan our next few days. I can't believe we're a week into our trip and there's still so much ground to cover! I had originally planned to cover the northern coast of Spain and then into Portugal and then back to the Andalucian region of Spain, but this country is so large and I really don't want to spend over a week here. In the interests of time, we'll probably have to slab it across the entire face of Spain straight to the southern coast, it's over 1000 kms, which we'll try to do in a single day. We're going to need our day of rest tomorrow!
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