North Spain

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 16^th and 17^th 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.

As did these cork cutting tools. (There are no screw tops in this area!) 

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.