Two Wheels move the Soul: The Basque Region

St Jean de Luz from our bedroom window

The Basque region is an area located in the “Crux of the Elbow” formed by the Iberian peninsula jutting west from France. It is an area that encompasses both territory that is part of France and Spain and has had a ‘separatist’ movement for many years. It also has it’s own language and has had terrorist activists trying to create a separate state. With the Euro zone in crisis this seems to have subsided. It also sits along the Atlantic coastline and straddles the Pyrenees mountain range.

Our leaving the Perigord/Dordogne region of France was ‘through the backdoor’ with some very small roads and towns explored as we left. I’m pretty sure based on the lack of vehicles we saw that not many people use this set of roads to head to the Basque area.

Our weather has vastly improved and quickly we were peeling off wind liners, and any extra clothing, now experiencing the 30+C temperatures that we enjoyed almost all of last trip. Again, the Tourmaster Air jackets and pants have fantastic flexibility to meet all your riding needs.

After trip research and a breakfast discussion with a French Canadian who travels to France frequently our end destination for the day was to be St Jean De Luz, a smaller seaside town within 12 kms. of the Spain border. The last 25 kms was fatiguing given the stop and go, very hot conditions with lots of beach traffic. This area is very popular, especially with British tourists.

The town of St Jean De Luz has a large fishing fleet that dominates the inner harbor but also quite a large sandy beach that Sandra and I walked on. Though some people were in the water we considered it a bit cool for swimming, I guess having been spoiled by our summer in Greece and Turkey last year. And oh yes, Louis the 14th was married here in St Jean the Baptist church, a wooden interior that is exceptional.

We tried an ETAP hotel, a budget version of IBIS hotels, since they were on the same property. We explained to the manager we hadn’t tried an ETAP before and wanted to see a room first and we then decided it would still meet our needs and given ocean hotel locations are pricey it would be more reasonable. A very friendly guy, he gave us a top floor room facing the harbour and this is our view from our window. Not bad eh?

The next morning their buffet breakfast also was ‘just right’ for quality and price and we left ready to face a day of travelling the Basque region coastline.

San Sebastian, Spain

Concha Beach

Beautiful Bridge work

Our next stop was San Sebastian with its scallop shell shaped beach harbour, towering statue of Christ overlooking the city and a 5-6 km. long promenade along a sandy beach front we were very impressed by how pretty a setting it was. As well, it really had a lot of hustle and bustle, so much so it took me a couple of circles through the immediate area before I could find a parking spot for the bike. Have a car, forget it!

We walked the promenade and watched performers and tourists dancing to music. Yep, we are in Spain, welcome to the all day all night partying! San Sebastian is only 23 kms away from St Jean de Luz and we had wanted to stay here, however everything was booked quite a while in advance.

Bilbao

Guggenheim and Puppy

Next on to Bilbao, home of a Guggenheim museum of modern art. Interestingly, Bilbao is not situated on the coast but about 3kms inland on a large river. I gather the coastline in this area was not hospitable to development back at the time Bilbao began.

Bilbao central plaza

Bilbao River and old market (left)

stunning bridges

It has committed to a modern architecture theme over the past several decades with commissioning architect Frank O. Gehry, a Canadian, to design the museum that it had offered to build for the Guggenheim trust. This structure is clad in Titanium, and while it looks small based on its riverfront location it stands about 15 stories tall, but doesn’t look it. It is very unconventional, and Sandra definitely wanted to see the building though neither of us are lovers of modern art.

Also there is an old quarter that houses a mercato and we believed it was to be like Barcelona’s. It was closed during the afternoon, as usual as the Spaniards build up steam for the evening partying, but was open later. It is in fact very small in comparison to Barcelona.

Our overnight here was limited to 1 night and we were able to stay right in the middle of town at an IBIS that had been a 4 star Novotel. Wow what a room that looked over the whole plaza it was on. The only thing is it was a Friday night and Bilbao parties all night. While our room was quiet you could watch the action going on down below. Fortunately where and how I secured the bike, as always with cover on, nothing was touched.

Photo of Past Runs

Pamplona

Saturday was again another gorgeous day and we were now headed for Pamplona, the town best known for the “Running of the Bulls” and for being a stop on the Camino de Santiago mission trail. This part took us from the coastline high up into a plateau area similar to Calgary and close to the Pyrenees. Pamplona is still part of the Basque region. Known as “Iruna” in Basque dialect.

We arrived close to noon, just in time for another party, surprise!! We don’t know what it was but there were lots of festivities going on. We located the street famous for the bull running, went to the El Toro Bull Ring, and watched the festivities for a couple of hours before deciding to head on to shave some riding time off a heavier day ride the next day to Andorra.

We’re glad we did, since we arrived in Huesca and found another 3 star hotel for a very reasonable price. We are getting lucky!!