Costa Brava is the coastline along the Mediterranean Sea in Spain. This is our last stop - hard to believe so we have splurged on a hotel on the coast in a room with a large terrace overlooking the sea. When Jeff had shared with our hosts in St Jean de Luz our plans for the rest of our trip, they had gotten quite excited about this stop. At one time, they owned a 2nd home here and knew our hotel and the area. Speaking French, the husband was all bubbly about the area and about the Cami de Ronda. I picked up some of what he said, and he is right this area is gorgeous and the hotel is special. Our drive here had been heavily 2 lane mountain roads, so we had stopped at a local restaurant when we saw one and had a traditional large multi course lunch which means we are in search of a small dinner. But only after we open a bottle of wine and enjoy our terrace some and explore the area a little bit too.
One of several fields of rock we had to step carefully through
[Sound of slipping on rocks]. “I’m ok” That’s a memorable part of our hikes high in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain. But, let me start at the beginning. It was a long drive from Pamplona with the last half of the drive consisting of mountain roads that were occasionally single lane. This mountain range consists of tall rocky vertical peaks. After driving past a ski resort, we started seeing lots of cattle and a few horses.
We are staying in Espot, Spain. One of two entrances to the only National Park in the North Western most part of the region of Catalonia. The park has mountain peaks over 9,000 feet and almost 200 lakes. Espot is a small, beautiful mountain town located in a valley with a nearby Ski resort. In the summer, its rather quiet. The area is experiencing a heat wave with highs in the mid 80s. You may think that’s nothing, but July is the only Month that doesn’t average some snowfall. Our hotel which is a wonderful small family run hotel doesn’t have air conditioning either. We are left with the choice of letting flies in (which are abundant) or having a warm room.
I should mention that we have determined the name of our next Spaniel, whenever that should occur. We met Choco, a very large brown and well-mannered dog who seems to belong to the restaurant we had dinner at. Once he sees you have finished dinner, he comes over with those large eyes to see what you have for him. If you ignore him, you will receive a paw or maybe he will rest his chin on your leg in the hope you will share what’s remaining on your plate.
The next day we are off for our first hike of the trip. An out and back trail called the Camino del Estany de Sant Maurici with the idea of doing something longer the next day if all goes well. It starts at the entrance to the park. It’s a beautiful assent. We work up a sweat as we make our way up to Sant Maurici.
Our reward at the top of the climb
For an evening activity, we sign up for “Astronomy and local liqueurs. We are sent coordinates to meet the guide at 10:30 p.m. The route takes us down a single lane road that climbs up the side of a mountain. I’m wondering what I have gotten us into when I see some cars parked in a field with some cattle. In the pasture with cows are a group of people seated in a semi-circle around a telescope. My concerns are relieved, and we enjoy a wonderful night sky that we never see any more due to city lights. Our guide uses a laser pointer to help us find various constellations and we are lucky to see the International Space Station pass overhead. The evening concludes with a local liquor called ratafia which is made from green walnuts. It was quite nice.
The next day we are going for a longer hike. A trail the son of the hotel proprietor recommended, though we opted for a slightly shorter version we found in the AllTrails App. Since only pre-approved vehicles are allowed in the park, we take a Taxi. This Taxi is a Range Rover 4x4 set up to carry 8 people. We climb in and it takes us to Lake Sant Maurici. We did not realize what we were committing to do. Our AllTrails app had it listed at Moderate with a distance of 6.2 miles with an average completion time of 4 hours. We required 6 hours to complete it. I should have paid more attention to the 1,800 foot elevation gain. While the elevation gain was a challenge, the intimidating part was the rocks we had to carefully step through. Why didn’t we turn around you ask, it started out quite pleasant.
Looking back at the lake in the prior photo
Approximately halfway there was a Refuge at 10,761 feet elevation. It had hot food, and places hikers could spend the night. The views were stupendous. We took a break and then started the second half of the loop.
That’s when we had to cross what looked like rockslides. There was beauty too, during this rugged stretch.
Can you find the trail from right to left?
Flowers along the trail
The next morning when we saw the proprietor's son and told him we had done 11km (6.91 miles) hike up there he was impressed. We were thrilled that we were not exhausted or sore. Maybe a little sore in a couple of muscles, but not bad which was good since it was time to hop in the car for another long drive. We were going back to the beach only the Mediterranean side this time.
We are here for a very short, but important time. We have come to the San Fermin Festival which includes the running of the bulls that Hemingway made famous AND we have tickets to a balcony to watch it. Pamplona is only a hour and a half away from St Jean de Luz but those bulls run in the early morning so commuting from St Jean de Luz was out of the question. Which also means we are still in Basque Country. On our drive we even see a couple of large signs/graffiti seeking independence for the region.
We arrive on a Saturday and the festival is in full swing. It is heavily a large outdoor music festival with an incredible amount of alcohol involved and oh there are bulls involved too. We find our hotel and the surrounding area is pretty quiet - I chose a hotel on the outskirts of the main town so it would be quiet, but close enough for us to walk to things. The few people wandering around all have the same basic outfit on white clothes or at least a white shirt, a red bandana around their neck and maybe a red sash around their waist. That is the official outfit of the festival and very heavily worn. We stand out in our clothing obviously we just arrived in town. We are given 2 scarfs each when we check into the hotel, unpack and then go off to explore some. Our goal is to find the meeting spot for the next morning since we have a 6:30am meet up time. We find the hotel which is right next door to a park where part of the festival is being held. We wander around for a little bit checking out all the booths - same as in the States, Tee shirts for the event, toys for kids, the usual stuff. There is a music stage off to one side and several vendors set up with large grills roasting a variety of meats and some veggies. We chose one close to the stage when a different entertainment group takes over. Without knowing it we have wandered into the Basque part of the festival. The food is Basque style with all the grilling, and we will see lots of regional dances and music sung for the next hour or so. We enjoyed our first evening and decide to call it a very early night by local standards since we have a very early morning wake up call waiting for us.
We leave the hotel the next morning at first light of day, but we are not alone on the streets. There are others dressed as us (all white with red scarf) some up early some just now going to bed. Many are heading the opposite way of us which makes me question if we are going right, yes we are. We get to the meeting spot which is a hotel front door and there are lots of people here and none of the signs seem right for us. I ask someone for help while Jeff listens to a man giving final advice to a large group of people he is leading to the starting point to run with the bulls. We heard stay within sight of the clock tower because there will be more runners than room so some may not be allowed to run and if you can't see the clock tower you can be cut from the run. Then they are off and another big group when I finally see ladies with the emblem from my tour company.
We get everyone together and we are off to find our balcony. Like many large sporting events, people whose homes are in a good location rent them out during the festival and leave town; we are headed for such a place. We find our house and go in and up to the second floor. It is a very nice living room with most of the furniture moved out and 2 balconies facing the Estafeta Street- main road for the running of the bulls. We are to be 9 people per balcony, only to discover ours is a little tighter because we have a TV camera set up in the corner. It is about 7am and the bulls do not start till 8am. There is juice, coffee and cookies to nibble on while we wait. We notice there are a lot of people milling about the street below us and our tour guide tells us that those people think they are running with the bulls but no they are not because the police will clear the street and then the street will be cleaned before the real runners. So, a few minutes later the pre spectacle to the one we came to see begins.
If you host an event that lasts 10 days or so every year for many years you tend to get the operational aspects of the event down pat. Pamplona is like that. When we were walking to our balcony building, we saw a staging area of ambulances/EMTs nearby and now we will see the local police in action. The police physically start to move the people - think lines of police forcing you to walk a certain way - in general a very civilized attempt by the police but they are not putting up with drunken fools either. They get one group out of the way and then they start moving up another group - there is a side street by us that they coerce them into and off of the course. After the street is cleared, then the cleaners come in manually sweeping and picking up every possible piece of trash and then a street cleaner machine. I figure it is for the bulls' benefit not the runners. I am surprised because I thought there were barricades that spectators could freely stand behind and find out later that is in a different small part of the course.
Left -Last nights revelers who think they are going to run Right - Police and then Street Cleaners have swept them away and not gently
There are a lot of us on balconies watching the action. Our balcony is on the longest straight away of the course. Oh, the course is about a half mile long. More policemen show up ???? Then just to our left they form a straight line across the road close to a red painted line on the ground. Then people start to show up - LOTS of people. Our guide tells us that these are official runners, but they have chosen not to do the full course. The line is where they will start from.
The runners are ready We are ready The crowd is ready
When the first rocket is launched signaling the start, these people take off as the police try to get out of the way. It makes me think of the start of a large road running race because the first ones are running but further back you walk for a while till you have the room to actually run. Also, many are taking up spots along the side of the road and are waiting for the action to catch up to them. Then we hear another rocket - the bulls are now on the run. Pretty quickly we see things happening below us. People are truly running then we see a couple of bulls in the middle of the road (think 1 lane) with people on their sides. The bulls are faster than most of the people. Then another group of bulls show up with lots of people around them too. Then we have the last straggler bulls followed by more people behind them. We then hear the 3rd rocket which means the bulls have made it to the stadium of the bull ring. People who have run with them go to the stadium too and are on the floor of the ring with them. Also in the ring are the professionals with their colored capes trying to corral the bulls into their pen. When that is accomplished, we hear the 4th and final rocket which means all the bulls are in the pen and it is over for the day. We all watch the last people on the street and other action and then go inside. Of course, on the TV the local channels are replaying the whole course and dissecting it (in Spanish). I realize one of the commentators ran at least part of the course because they are showing him on the course. They also cut over to a medical doctor because yes people were injured, and she is reporting that so far everyone who has been brought in was conscious and should be fine. The whole run took 2 minutes 53seconds which is longer than the 2 previous days. I also learn that it is unusual for the bulls to get separated into multiple packs and that usually they stay in one.
Make sure you have your sound on when you
Click on the Video below
Below are some screen captures from the Video
Note the people who are falling all over each other
The streets are slippery
First bull and there are at least two people falling
More and more bulls and people are falling like Dominoes
A pile of people on left
The Bulls were supposed to be in a pack instead of spread out like this
What another one!
After a few minutes, we head off to our hotel breakfast which will be followed by a walking tour of Pamplona. The idea of a tour of the city sounded good and was quite interesting but would prove a little challenging because as I said Pamplona knows how to run this festival. Yesterday was Saturday as in lots of people with lots of drinking, etc thus lots of trash. The town is madly cleaning the streets to get them in better shape for today's festivities. Notice I say better shape. This town suffers during this festival. Several times she starts one way and says no let's try this street instead. We stop in front of the town hall which is where the race and even the festival itself begins. Interestingly it is not in a central location. She then takes us to a nearby plaza where there is a bronze design in the ground, and she explains how there were 3 groups of people who inhabited Pamplona for a number of years, but they did not like each other so there lots of battles/fights until 1423 when the Privilege of the Union was formed and thus a neutral site for city hall was established. We then walked the course of the race with some sidetracks thanks to the cleaners. We saw the cathedral from the outside and we saw where the figurine of San Fermin is kept during the race and then we ended at the bull ring stadium. I should add that one of the 3 groups of people were pilgrims from the Camino del Santiago walk. They were largely French and decided to stay in Pamplona on their return route, so they were not liked by the natives who were descendants of the Basque tribes and native Spaniards. One of the early leaders of Pamplona suggested that the route for the Camino del Santiago should be clearly marked and made sure it included Pamplona.
After our tour, Jeff and I went to the cathedral first we toured and then we attended mass - it was a Sunday after all! As we are in the religious section, I should explain the meaning behind San Fermin Festival. San is Spanish for Saint. So Saint Fermin was a man from Pamplona who was an early Christian as in Roman times. He would become the first Bishop of the area and he would be beheaded by the Romans for his Christian beliefs. Thus the white clothing is for purity and the red scarf represents the beheading. Now I also heard something about the bull run portion started because a local butcher needed to move the bulls and butchers wear white.
Music and Fireworks
While the festival is internationally known for the bull run portion, it is also a large music festival, and it hosts a fireworks competition. The music festival includes multiple events each day. There were small parades with musicians wandering around the old town. Unfortunately, Jeff and I kept running into them as they were ending and getting a beer from a local bar. Also, there are 3 or 4 music venues set up. We went to the Basque one the first night, saw a children's area during the day on Sunday, I saw some pop music listed on one stage and then Sunday evening we visited a venue that was hosting traditional Spanish musicians (at least I think they were traditional). People my age and older were singing along with some of the songs and dancing to them. We had headed in that direction so we could end up near the citadel which is a park these days and during the festival the site of the nightly (yes nightly) fireworks display. I am not sure how it works, but somehow the nightly shows are competing for an award.
Turn your sound on and Click the video below
Hemingway
I have not mentioned him yet he is probably the reason why we went to Pamplona and San Fermin. While on our tour, we saw the hotel he stayed at - now an expensive 5 star hotel with balconies that face the bull run. We saw a bar/restaurant that he mentioned in his book and while I have pictures they are not exactly impressive. Our guide also showed us a place with a sign that said Hemingway was never at this building.
Carol and Jeff infinity We are in an art installation surrounded by mirrors with lights suspended
Okay so I told everyone we were doing a loop around the northern part of Spain for a month and here I am writing about a town in France. So, what's the story? Well, this town is maybe 6 miles from the border and was much cheaper than the Spanish town we meant to visit. Truthfully, I am quite glad we ended up here because it is a nice, quaint, small beach town. It does not look like Spain or probably much of France for that matter. We are in Basque country. The locals are quite proud of their Basque heritage. We saw it in our last stop in LaGuardia Spain which is also part of Basque. The Basque have their own language which is like no other. All of the signs are in French and then Basque and across the border it is Spanish and then Basque. There is a Basque flag and in Spain that province is a little more independent than all of the others except for Catalonia (Barcelona area). We have rented a 1-bedroom apartment about a half mile from the city center and a little further you find the waterfront area. We have an elementary school next door, and they are still in session at the 4th of July although this might be their last week before summer break. The food is quite good here as is the shopping which doesn't hurt that they are having sales. It is a great place just to wander. Much to our surprise when we finally stuck a toe in the beach water toe found that the water is warm. Oops we missed a good beach opportunity except that it tended to be a little windy and cool for us for the beach.
Our apartment for the week upstairs
Le Tour De France
When we were back in Rioja at a winery sharing a tasting with a family from Georgia, we discovered that the Tour De France was starting the next day in this general part of Europe. Our first concern was our ability to drive here since they close the roads - obviously we got here fine. Then I realized that the race was going through St Jean de Luz on our first full day in town. Luckily, we had no plans for the day since the main roads were closed and we got to watch a major sporting event. Literally the race was a half mile away from our apartment! It took a lot of googling to figure out where the course was locally and what time to expect things to happen. The family had taught us about the caravan that comes through first. It is a lot of sponsor vehicles many decorated with emblems of the sponsor or huge bicyclist on it. It was kind of like being at Mardi Gras where you are trying to get them to throw you something. Compared to Mardi Gras they are chintzy with the give aways, but then again, they are doing this for over 3 weeks and lots of miles. My whole haul was an inexpensive bicycle style hat and a bag of candy that says Tour De France on it. Unlike many events in the US, a lot of these people were aiming for young men rather than kids. I guess that is their target market.
Funny to us was that after the caravan, the races did not show up for another hour. Why have all of us on the course so far ahead of the race? Many people did leave. Obviously, some people were watching livestreaming of the race because they started showing up with their phones and telling us where they were. Any geographical description was pretty much lost on us. We faithfully held on to our spot on an island by a round about looking down the road to the bridge that they had to cross to enter town. We had seen lots of random vehicles some alone some in groups but suddenly we had a bunch and then we were all cheering because the lead vehicle was coming. We almost missed the leader he was so far in front of the pack. He was a good 100 meters in front of everyone else even vehicles were in between! The pack oh my what a site and a feel. The pack or Peloton had 3 or 4 bicyclists upfront and then an extremely tight pack of tons of riders. Since they were entering a roundabout where we were they were only 2 lanes for them which may have made it tighter. Much to our surprise there were so many of them going so fast that they had formed a strong wind - think being passed by a semi truck going fast on the highway and causing your car to move. That was our sensation as they passed. Then it was support vehicles with lights and sirens flashing behind them and it was all over. They call the Kentucky Derby the greatest 2 minutes of racing as a fan this was more like 30 seconds of racing. Time to walk back home with everyone else in town.
Click on the video below to watch our few seconds of the race.
Blue Circle is leader Red circle is Peloton aka Pack
Close ups as the video goes so fast
San Sebastián, Spain
We have plotted out when we are going to a couple of the places we want to see in the area and have decided to visit San Sebastian the town we had aimed to stay in the next day. We wake up to an overcast day with a slight chance of rain. Late morning, we finally make it out the door for the half hour drive to the town. It starts to rain lightly on us, and both hope it ends and are glad we brought our rain jackets. Get to the main town and park the car and are both muttering how we like St Jean de Luz better. This is a nice city while we are in a nice town. The architecture is more Spanish - no half-timbered buildings here and they are taller. We start to walk around the beach front (beach of La Concha) which is bigger, and the city grows on us. There are some neat modern sculptures by Eduardo Chillida on the promenade. We make it to the end (go through a tunnel watch some kayaking lessons and other school groups go by) of the promenade which has wrapped around the bay and there are 3 unique sculptures on rocks in the water. We inspect them and then decide to go back to a seaside restaurant and have a late lunch. While we are sitting there we notice a sign describing something (English even!!) so we wander over there and learn that the sculptures are called Peine Del Viento or Comb of the Wind. The plaque describes the artist's inspiration and what it took to install the pieces. While we ate we also admired an island in the bay- Santa Clara Island and debate what one thing is. I think the island looks like a great home for Batman. In reality it is now just a tourist spot with an abandoned lighthouse. We decide to leisurely walk back to our car along the promenade. It is now midafternoon to us Americans and it is sunny. The beach and the swimming areas are now packed with beach goers enjoying the water. We see families, open water swimmers, surfers on the small waves in one area and just plain people having fun. Decide it is a better place than first impression, but we still prefer St Jean de Luz!
We are ready for rain
Statue of Christ watching over us
Top and bottom right are Eduardo Chillida’s Comb of the Earth (Peine del Viento) Bottom Left is 1 of 2 sand art that was washed away at high tide
Wow, what a difference a sunny day makes
St Jean de Luz, France
Beauty scared by the vestiges of WWII
Plage d'Erromardie
As our hosts called it this is the wild beach in St Jean de Luz. We walked down there a couple of times. We passed an outdoor stadium and debated what it was for the first time. I thought bull fights since I saw pictures of bulls Jeff thought I was wrong. Then we passed several campgrounds and finally came to the water. There is a tiny bit of a beach, but the views are fantastic, and we get a drink and set at a counter overlooking the ocean for a while. We now have to walk back up the paved trail to town and our place. The mysterious stadium is now coming alive. Then we pass a family with two young girls holding hot pink stuffed bulls (yes you read that right) who are obviously heading for that stadium. I later saw an ad and realize that yes there are "bulls" in the stadium. I say bulls because they are actually heifers, and their horns have caps on them. In the pictures, it looks like some combination of a Nickelodeon game show with inflatable obstacles and a bull race/show.
Morning run
Guggenheim Museum Balboa, Spain
The Guggenheim Museum was on my list as soon as I knew about it. Partially I just wanted to see the building and yes, it is impressive in person. The surrounding area is nice too with the nearby bridge being worked into the museum's atmosphere and some very nice old buildings across the river. The museum is not that large which I appreciated and is all modern art. When we were there at least most of the halls had temporary exhibits. Our first picture on this blog is from one of those exhibits. The artist experiences sensory events kind of like an epilepsy seizure and has built this exhibit to allow others to experience those events in a positive way. It turned into our favorite exhibit of the day.
We explored the outside of the museum from pretty much every angle. The dog planter is on the street side and the opposite side is the river. The museum has a series of fountains in the front and back with large red dots in it - the dots are 3 dimensional and not just painted on the floor. While we were sitting outside having a snack I thought we heard the fountains come on. We would later realize that no what I heard was the misting system come on around the walkways.
Fog emerged from underneath the bridge each hour
Dog of live flowers is an iconic statute The spider is almost 9 meters tall, see the people in bottom right Iron work is by Eduardo Chillida whose work we saw on the coast of San Sebastián
Inside the museum Bottom art had lots of children running around inside enjoying the maze
San Juan de Gaztelugatxe set of Dragonstone in Game of Thrones
When the ticket takers are making sure everyone has water, you know it is going to be a long hot walk! It was. I think Jeff said it was 2 KM which is around a mile. Sounded nice enough when he brought the site up. What he did not realize was that it is a hard 2km walk. First it is down a steep hill, then you get a little flat before you start walking up that rock wall staircase. On top of that, we thought it was going to be rainy and chilly, so we were overdressed for the hike. In spite of all that, it was quite pretty up on top of the hill and a unique walk.
You can appreciate why they chose this gorgeous location
Click below (3:24) for scene filmed here
Jeff didn’t have a Dragon fly over him, but he wished one had Top of frame is a chapel where in the show a large castle stands
It is a long way down
Le Train de La Rhune
The last thing I had on my list was the train in La Rhune. It is a well-known tourist site and you are supposed to be able to see the Bay of Biscay from the top. So, the plan is to visit it on our way to Pamplona which is our next stop. It is only a half hour away from St Jean de Luz, but it is completely different. Yes, it is still Basque country. But we drive up a hill to a small town in the woods, hunt for a parking place and then luckily get on the next train. Oh, I should add it is a cog railway and we are on it for 35 minutes as it makes its way up an even higher mountain. We have started the ride in France but when we get to the top and end of the railway we are in Spain. We have a little over an hour up at the top before we are scheduled for the return trip down the hill. Unfortunately, as we were going up the hill, fog and clouds move in and we never get to see the Bay of Biscay, but the rest of the scenery was nice. We saw lots of horses and were able to look down on the towns below us in Spain.
Horses on the ascent and our train
"town" at the top of the railway
On the road to Pomplano
early on in our drive we encountered a new definition of narrow road. This gorgeous tree covered lane is our side of the road.
