Rather
than drive back through France we opted to continue our travels into North
Spain and take the ferry back to England. In the past this had been a quick
trip but we decided to spend a little more time exploring the area. Out first
base was Haro in the middle of the Rioja wine region. The excellent site is a short
walk from the town where tapas and bars are in abundence.
After
some great tapas and a couple of bottles of wine, Graham suggested we stop at a
coffee bar for a couple of double espressos. After he had ordered we ended up with
2 double espressos, 3 Frangelica on ice and 4 Irish coffees. Lets put it down
to translation challenges as clearly none seem to be complaining (and this
included some amused bar staff).
A little to our North was the historic town of Vitoria where
Santa Maria cathedral dominates. It is was built in the first half of the 20
C as the original cathedral in the old town was too small. It is a huge
affair and unusually wide with a double line of columns on each side. Inside is
a model.
Although the double line of columns increases the impressive
volume it does reduce visibility of the stained glass windows.
The main square is also impressive helped by being built on
quite a slope.
Some of the original city walls
are visible and included a round ice-house built in 1860. The ice was brought
down from nearby mount Gorbea in carts, placed in layers (separated by straw) to
an overall depth of 8 metres (some 45,000 litres of ice).
Our second day was a visit to Pamplona famous for the
running of the bulls. This mosaic gives you an idea.
The bulls are held in this start pen and then released
through narrow streets amongst hundreds of (brave, foolhardy?) runners.
Watching from a balcony would be my recommendation.
Although we had been to the city
before we had no idea of the extent of the remaining citadel. Built between the
16th and 17th centuries and making great use of being
atop a large hill it would have been a substantial challenge to breach.
Nowadays it makes for an interesting walk and provides large impenetrable pens
for geese and
some of the largest deer I have ever seen.
As we were in the heart of Rioja, a wine tour was essential. We visited Valdelana. Its history goes back to 1615 and has been in the same family for 16 generations. The tour included cellars housing a history of the vineyard. This press with its wooden auger caught my eye.
Our second hub in Spain was Sopena a small village in the
mountains behind (WSW) of Santander. Our first venture out was almost
immediately interrupted by a herd of horses. This was a musical sight as most
had bells around their necks. Their rhythm was quite distinct from the less
used cow bells.
Our timing was excellent as the next day Sopena hosted a horse show. The horses are largely produced for their meat and before everyone cringes, equines do have a much more planet friendly digestive system and produce only a quarter of the methane of their ruminant counterparts (cows). (Of course kangaroos are best with methane production negligible by comparison.)
Nearby there are two
villages/towns purported to be the most attractive in Spain. The first was the
little village of Barcena Mayor. Here wooden balconies are a feature although I suspect their designers did not have this use in mind.
The second is Santillana del Mar where a busy town during lunch becomes devoid of people between 15:00 and 18:00 after which it all opens up again. This is a hang up from Franco aligning Spain’s time zone with Belgrade and the Nazi regime. It is somewhat in conflict with its line of Longitude which should put it in the same time zone as UK. The result – start the working day at 9:00, 2 hour siesta between 14:00 and 16:00, finish work at 20:00 so dinner at 20:30 and prime time TV at 22:30! This siesta shot is of three insomniacs.
Some time in Santander was a must
where cones of ice cream shaped as flowers were the main attraction. The satisfied look on the
faces says it all!
We also spent a day in Bilbao
where the first attraction was the Vizcaya transporter bridge. We had seen this
from afar during ferry trips and now had the chance to get up close.
Completed in 1893 it is the first
of its kind and addressed the problem of clearances required for tall ships and
the need to cross the 160 metre wide Nervion river. Alberto de Palacio was the designer
and promoter with substantial technical help from Ferdinand Arnodin a disciple of
Eiffel. We undertook a crossing and on the East bank found that we could get
tickets to explore up top.
What a view, and what wonderful
engineering. It is a suspension bridge supporting a large truss. (There are
signs up top asking visitors not to bounce around too much.) Until quite
recently there was an operator on top, but this is now undertaken
electronically by operators in the gondola.
We were nearing the end of October and unfortunately the
weather deteriorated during our visit to the old part of town. It did reduce
the crowds.
Although entry through the village
was unusually narrow the site next to a stream was pleasantly quiet and still with only birdsong and the distant ring of horse and cow bells a very pleasant background.
We will need to come back to this site and do some hill walking.
It has been sometime since we last visited Spain and we were surprised how much we preferred it to France. There were a number of reasons for this – fuel and toll costs, traffic volumes, ridiculously high concrete kerbs and lastly food. Although the markets in France had some wonderfully varied produce (these two shots from the village near our Montpelier site are good examples) the restaurants do not seem to produce the same variety.
In stark comparison are Spanish tapas
bars where variety is core to the experience.
Our ferry to Plymouth was brought
forward almost 24 hours to accommodate declining weather conditions which was
just as well as we encountered 4+metre swells. We then had a few very enjoyable days
in Poole with the Smith family, a couple of days packing and then headed home
for summer.
